Cuadernos de Filología Clásica. Estudios griegos e indoeuropeos
Cuadernos de Filología Clásica (Estudios griegos e indoeuropeos) (ISSN 1131-9070, ISSN-e 1988-2637) is an annual journal that has been running since 1991, being part along with the Latin section of the former journal entitled Cuadernos de Filología Clásica. Re-founded by lecturers José S. Lasso de la Vega and Luis Gil Fernández, it welcomes Spanish and foreign scientific contributions and focusses on fields included within the concepts of Greek Philology and Indo-European Linguistics.
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The concept of ‘void’ as a constituent element of matter in Epicurus’ Epistle to Herodotus
This paper analyzes the Epicurean justification of the concept of ‘void’ (κενόν) in the compendium known as Epistle to Herodotus, preserved in the tenth book of Lives, Opinions and Sentences of the Most Illustrious Philosophers, by Diogenes Laertius (§ 35-86). For this purpose, we resort to a reading based on the correlation existing between the justification of the existence of ‘void’ (κενόν) and the Epicurean gnoseology (κανών) formulated in the same letter –in § 40 and § 38 respectively– taking into account the latest edition of Tiziano Dorandi, which attempts to differentiate between the version of Diogenes Laertius and Epicurusʼs ipsa verba. The proposed reading stresses the critical distancing of the Samian philosopher from the Aristotelian term ‘place’ (τόπος). It provides arguments for the interpretation of the Epicurean ‘void’ as a ‘constituent element’ of visible matter (σώματα), an idea similar though not identical to the notion of ‘complementarity’ defended by David Konstan.
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Pseudo-Galen, Praesagitio omnino vera expertaque: first critical edition
We deal with a late composition on prognosis. The texts are taken nearly verbatim from compilers of Hippocrates and Galen. There are three copies of the treatise, in the manuscripts Parisinus gr. 2269, Mutinensis gr. α. U. 9. 04 (61 Puntoni), and Palatinus gr. 143, all of them dating from the XVth century. There are no medieval translations. The first edition is by René Chartier (1639), who read the Parisinus. Giorgio Valla translated the text of the Mutinensis (1498). This is the first critical edition of the treatise. Transmission features, language study, loci similes, a stemma codicum and a translation into Spanish are added.
Copyright (c) 2021 Cuadernos de Filología Clásica. Estudios griegos e indoeuropeos
The complex World of Magical Rhetoric: a Glance beyond Coercion
In the Greco–Roman religion, gods could listen or not a prayer, attend or not the ritual, but usually there were not problems if the ritual was made correctly, without impurity that could invalidate it and the worshiper invoked gods appropriately. However, in a magical praxis in which the magical practitioner acted for selfish aims outside from normalized religious boundaries, the collaboration of the gods was not guaranteed. Thus, how do magicians got the divine cooperation? My aim in this paper will be to illustrate the rich variety of rhetorical resources and persuasive strategies used in the dialogue with gods by magical practitioners in order to obtain the divine help.
A Professional Swindler: The Sykophant in Greek Comedy
Nel presente lavoro è illustrata la maschera ‘comica’ del sicofante, quale emerge da riferimenti, allusioni e metafore ricorrenti in Aristofane e negli altri commediografi del V e IV sec.: la commedia greca sottopone la figura storica, giuridica e sociale del sicofante a una rivisitazione caricaturale, e, per evidenti fini comici, ne altera e esaspera i tratti negativi: ingerenza negli affari privati dei cittadini, arrogante vis accusatoria, venalità, aggressività verbale, disinvolta arte della simulazione e della dissimulazione; un ritratto forse troppo ingeneroso per essere vero, ma senza dubbio efficace per consentire agli spettatori ateniesi di riflettere (e probabilmente anche di sorridere, sia pure nel breve tempo della rappresentazione teatrale) in merito ai paradossi e alle distorsioni del loro sistema giudiziario.
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The Euripides’ Medea and the expulsion of miasma: a ritual dramatized topic
In its final verses, the tragedy Medea of Euripides contains an allusion to the ritual of the expulsion of miasma (E. Med. 1378-1383). The reference evokes the annual rites of purification that were held in the city of Corinth in memory of the murder of the Medea’s children. If the whole play is analysed, it will be possible to clarify the way in which very similar allusions are frequently dramatized throughout the tragedy. The repetition of the same topics foresees the final scene of the play, in which the main character must be thrown out due to the bloodshed of her own children
Note on P. Vindob. gr. 29788, fr. 3 Livrea = APHex I 45, 3 Perale
This note focuses on a textual problem in P. Vindob. gr. 29788, fr. 3 Livrea = APHex I 45, 3 Perale, attributed to Pamprepius of Panopolis, and proposes a reading of v. 79 which seems in line with the style of the other verses, marked by antithesis and parallelism. The impressive stylistic elaboration of the poem is thus confirmed.
Regarding the dative plural θυσίαισι in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (h.Cer.368)
This study provides a detailed analysis of the form θυσίαισι in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (h.Cer. 368), highlighting its unusual ending -αισι for the dative plural, which is not attested in Homeric poetry. Although it has been considered an atticism, this interpretation conf licts with the fact that archaic Attic uses -ᾱσι or -ησι. Other proposals include emending the form to θυσίῃσι or θυέεσσι, but such emendation does not seem necessary. Rather, the form can be understood as a poetic variant inf luenced by the archaic lyric tradition, where the -αισι ending is frequent. The artificiality of epic language and the linguistic innovations in the hymn, as well as the use of the term θυσίη instead of the epic θυός, suggest a stylistic update related to the religious context of the composition.
Demosthenes versus Aeschines: an opposition also in some linguistic frequencies. Panorama in other genres and authors
The comparison between the Greek orators Demosthenes and Aeschines is also studied by recounting some linguistic features that have gone largely unnoticed until now, and is projected to what happens in other authors and genres of Greek literature.
Translation into Spanish of the Hippocratic Oaths in prose
This paper presents a new translation into Spanish of the Hippocratic Oath in its pagan version, taking into account the latest edition by Jacques Jouanna (2018) and all the codicological advances and discoveries to date. Furthermore, the Spanish translation of the text known as the Christian Hippocratic Oath is presented. As an appendix I present images and transcriptions of Greek manuscripts that are not available in any other publication or format, precisely to fill this gap in modern research. The objective of the translations, carried out - to the extent of possible - leaving aside the interpretation based on textual tradition, is to present the Spanish-language readers with a new version of the most famous text of the corpus hippocraticum in its two most historically popular versions, so that they can understand, interpret and contextualize it according to the needs of their own area of study.
Vocative use in Classical Greek narrative monologues: the case of Euripides and Plato
This work aims to analyse interaction management, and more specifically, vocative use within narrative monologues in Classical Greek. To do so, a corpus encompassing a number of Platonic myths and messenger speeches from Euripides’ plays has been examined through the lens of narratology and Conversation Analysis. The results obtained prove that there is indeed a pattern in vocative use: they pop up in the more marginal parts of the narrative (abstract, coda, evaluation), when the speaker “returns home” to the starting point of the interaction, and also when introducing direct speech. The distribution of vocatives differs according to each author and the degree of overtness shown by the narrator.
Noematic plenitude and epistemic completeness in Parmenides
Based on a particular interpretation of τὸ γὰρ πλέον ἐστὶ νόημα (DK 28 B 16.4), I argue that Parmenides saw the way ὡς ἔστιν and the mortal δόξαι (as presented in his poem) as satisfactory theories on their own level because both accounts were supposed to cover τὸ πᾶν in its entirety. Parmenides realized that every cognitive act has noematic content and believed that adequate explanations cannot imply something for which there is no noematic content. Since he did not pretend to explain just one particular object, but the whole of reality, he made sure that both his true and his verisimilar explanation exhausted the totality of the real in their own way: while the former explanation omitted, the latter took into account all distinct things known to human beings. This article demonstrates that, despite their disparate epistemic statuses, Parmenides’ two doctrines satisfy the principle of “noematic plenitude”, according to which adequate explanations cannot involve gaps in noematic content. For I side with those who find similarities between Parmenides and Kant, and think that “noematic plenitude” can be understood as both a regulative principle with respect to mortal δόξαι and a constitutive principle with respect to the way ὡς ἔστιν.
Holstenius, Vossius and Arrian’s Tactica. Some new remarks on a programmatic and problematic passage
A key transitional passage between the two sections of Arrian’s Tactica (chapter 32, 3) is problematic due to textual and interpretative issues, particularly concerning a corrupted segment and the meaning of the phrase “ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ τοῦ βασιλέως”, which has mostly been translated as “for the emperor”. Two emendations have been proposed to restore the corrupted text, also in order to identify the book and the person which Arrian is seemingly referring to. Although in Roos’s reference critical edition (Roos & Wirth 2002) these emendations are attributed to 19th-century scholars, they are actually found in the marginal notes and text of some manuscripts of the Tactica attributable to Isaac Vossius (Parisinus gr. 2539) and Lukas Holstenius (Barb. gr. 200 and Barb. gr. 245). The analysis of the corrupted passage from Tact. 32, 3 as it appears in these manuscripts – which is carried out in this article for the first time – opens up a new interpretative scenario and allows us to trace Vossius’ and Holstenius’ scholarly activity, sheding new light on the complex relationships between them and the codices of Arrian’s Tactica.
The translation of Sophocles’ Antigone by Graciliano Afonso: a possible indirect source
We aim to show in this work that the translation of Sophocles’ Antigona (it appears written as Antígone), carried out in the second half of the 19th century by the Canarian humanist Graciliano Afonso Naranjo, was not done directly from Greek, as is the case with some of his other versions, especially of Latin classics. Instead, he relied on translations made in other languages, particularly French and English, which were languages that this author was familiar with. In this regard, the extensive research we have conducted has allowed us to discover many parallels between Afonso’s Sophoclean translation and the translation of this work made by the English cleric Thomas Francklin (1721-1784).
The oracular hexameter in the epigraphic sources attributed to Claros
The article analyses the behaviour of the hexameter in epigraphic oracles attributed to the sanctuary of Claros in Asia Minor, dating from the 2nd-3rd centuries A. D. Despite the fragmentary character of the texts, the data extracted are put in relation with the Delphic corpus, the Sibylline Oracles and the oracles transmitted in the Theosophy of Tübingen. We analyse the number of schemata, their concentration, the combination of dactyls and spondees and the frecquency of spondee use. A comparison of these oracles with other poetic texts reveals poetic tendencies in the composition of the oracular texts. It also offers further insight on the evolution of the hexameter technique in Greek literature.
The myth of Tantalus in the Maltese Anonymous (12th century)
This paper presents a critical and annotated translation of selected verses from a supplicatory poem composed by an anonymous author exiled in the Maltese archipelago during the first half of the twelfth century. Particular attention is devoted to identifying and analysing the literary traditions and the potential sources that may have informed the author’s reworking of the myth of Tantalus. The study further examines how this myth is recontextualised within the poet’s personal narrative of exile.
The Echo of Homer in Spanish American Enlightenment
The present study examines how Enlightenment writers in Spanish America drew on the figure and works of Homer, incorporating them into debates on culture, Indigenous heritage, and the historical events of the New World. In an era marked by renewed interest in the classical tradition, the Greek aoidos gained prominence not only in the literary sphere, but also in scientific and political discourse. Regarded as a symbol of civilization, a literary model, and a reference of heroism, Homer was invoked both by defenders of the colonial order and by advocates of independence. His work became a tool of scholarly dispute, capable of articulating opposing visions of the American reality.
This paper provides a new etymology for Greek οὐδών ‘a kind of felt-shoe’. It argues that the Proto-Indo-European verb *h1au̯dh(h1)- ‘to put on footwear’ provides a formally and semantically fitting origin, if it was a loanword from Luwian, thereby confirming the antique opinion that this word in Cilician.
Euripides, Antigone fr. 163 K: exegesis and hypothesis of contextualization
The paper takes into examination the character of Antigone in Euripides’ Antigone by comparing it to the character of Sophocles’ homonymous tragedy and of Euripides’ Phoenissae. In particular, it is offered an exegetical note, with hypothesis of contextualization, of fr. 163 K., which has often been neglected in the studies about Euripides’ Antigone due to its not very clear interpretation and the difficulties to frame it in the uncertain plot of the play.
Echoic interrogatives in Aristophanes from a syntactic perspective
Echo questions or echoics are utterances that represent a prior linguistic or contextual stimulus in the discourse (broadly understood). Their study as a category has been dealt with in different languages, but not generally in Ancient Greek. In this language, echoics present as a fundamental characteristic the alternation between the interrogative paradigms of τίς and ὅστις. In this paper we characterise the echo questions in the corpus of Aristophanes' comedies, classifying them based on their syntactic structure and relating their interpretation to the general postulates of echoic interrogatives in other languages. Several previously undescribed sequences are thus catalogued here. Finally, it is argued that the occurrence of ὅστις in Greek echoics corresponds to a syntactic mark related to the interpretative meaning of these sequences, which finds correlates in other languages such as Spanish.
The theme of the Pearl: the Acts of Thomas and the Hymns on the Pearl by Ephrem the Syrian Abstract: In the Acts of Thomas, composed around the 3rd century AD, the Hymn of
In the Acts of Thomas, composed around the 3rd century AD, the Hymn of the Pearl is included, which can be traced back to a Gnostic view of the world. It tells of a salvific myth in which the protagonist, a young prince, starting from the East, manages to retrieve a pearl guarded by a serpent in Egypt. This allows the protagonist to return home and assume a role in his father's kingdom. In Christian symbolism, the Pearl has become emblematic of Christ, his virgin birth, and the kingdom of Heaven. This theme leaves traces in the Syriac area in the Christianity of the 4th century AD in the five Hymns on the Pearl composed by Ephrem the Syrian, who, with images of strong suggestion, where the natural world and the spiritual world are closely linked, makes the Pearl the perfect symbol of the beauty of faith.
Seeing is believing: the use of ekphrasis in John Chrysostom’s Against games and theatres
This paper aims to show that in his homily Against Games and Theatre, the use of narrative resources provided by ecphrasis allowed John Chrysostom to develop his criticism against those churchgoers who stopped attending mass to frequent theatrical performances so often that Chrysostom thought it was his duty to chastise them publicly. To carry out a rhetoricalliterary analysis, first an overview of the criticism against theatrical shows in the imperial and late-antique period will be provided. After that, an ekphrasis from Chrysostom’s homily Against Games and Theatre will be explored. In this description, Chrysostom denounced the dangers that attending theatrical shows entailed for the soul of a Christian by means of the narratological resources provided by ekphrasis (ἐνάργεια and σαφήνεια) and by the frame offered by a τειχοσκοπία meant to underline the temptations that could tantalize a Christian soul
Literary Criticism and Bragging through a Lexeme in Aristophanes
The term κόμπος and its cognates have multiple uses in literary texts, which are often confusing. Through the study of the precise semantic values and functions of such terminology, this paper analyses its presence in Aristophanes’ comedies (Ar. Ach. 589, 1182; Eq. 696; V. 1248; Au. 1126; Ra. 839, 940, 961).
This article revisits the theme of the exile of Diogenes the Cynic, which occurred due to an alleged crime of ‘currency counterfeiting’ (παραχαράττειν τὸ νόμισμα), which took him from Sinope, his hometown, to Athens, and whose main versions have been preserved in the opening of Diogenes Laertius᾽ Book VI (D. L. VI 20-21), the book dedicated to cynicism. Connecting this to other relevant themes of the cynical tradition, specially the ‘use of representations᾽ (χρπῆσις φαντασιῶν), it is argued that exile is the alma mater of Diogenian thought, emerging as a founding myth of cynicism.
Plutarch and the qualities of the women of Phocis through verbal lexemes in Γυναικῶν ἀρεταί
Plutarch, in Virtues of Women, writes that virtue is the same for both men and women, but what distinguishes them is their subjective peculiarity of to that virtue. This study proposes to extract and clarify what the virtues of the women of Phocis could be through the semantic analysis of the verbal lexemes, with which the author carries out the narration of their feats. Likewise, the analysis aims to discover the interior disposition of the women, and thus try to glimpse other women that is not Athenian or Spartan, as these last are the most well-known thanks to the authors, Plutarch among them.
Textos herméticos. Introducción, traducción y notas de Jorge Cano Cuenca, Madrid, Alianza, 2024. 394 pags. ISBN 9788411487740
James Patrick Mallory, The Indo-Europeans Rediscovered. How a Scientific Revolution is Rewriting their Story, Londres, Thames and Hudson, 2025. 448 págs. ISBN: 9780500028636
Wantonness and Moral Corruption: μάχλος and δίυγρος from Suetonius to Eustathius
This article aims to reconstruct the history of the gloss μάχλος· ὁ δίυγρος, attested in Suetonius and borrowed by Eustathius, who also mentions an ἄμπελος ῥεομένη that Aeschylus called μάχλος. After re-examining the dogma, proposed by the Philaeterus (an Atticist lexicon falsely attributed to Herodian) and accepted by several modern dictionaries, that μάχλος was referred to women—a dogma contradicted both by literary attestations and by non-Atticist lexica— I discuss the origin of μάχλος and its relationship to μάχομαι (it has already been noticed that both imply aggressivity, if not even hybris). With the help of Theophrastus, I identify the ἄμπελος ῥεομένη with the grapes that fall from the tree without ripening, as well as with the vine whose overdeveloped foliage has prevented their ripening. This process was often described with the verb διυγραίνω, which explains Suetonius’ word choice: with δίυγρος ὑπὸ καταφερείας he intends to refer to a man who is dissipated by wantonness.
¿La utopía que no es? Macondo, Comala, Santa Mónica de los Venados y la tradición de la utopía griega antigua
This work seeks to establish the relationship between the tradition of Greek utopian thought, as it is reflected in works of ancient Greek literature, and in three novels of 20th century Hispanic American literature, paradigms of so-called Magical Realism, such as One Hundred Years of Solitude, Pedro Páramo and The Lost Steps, in order to determine whether it is possible to consider these novels as properly utopian works.
Transnational Lyrical Networks: Sappho, Mercedes Matamoros and Michael Field
This article addresses the poetic reception of Sappho at the turn of the twentieth century as a transnational phenomenon, proposing a comparative reading of two collections: Michael Field’s Long Ago (1889) and Mercedes Matamoros’ El último amor de Safo (1902). The aim of this comparison is threefold: to depart from traditional criticism focused on national canons and direct intertextual linkages, to adopt a perspective more open to possible unsuspected transnational poetic networks and, more particularly, to reveal both the thematic correlations –around eroticism, ophidian symbolism, subversion of gender roles, homoerotic desire, and impulses of revenge– and the structural, material, and aesthetic differences between the two works. Ultimately, the present article seeks to diversify the study of Sappho's reception in such a way as to foster encounters between lyrical voices from distant latitudes and different cultures, yet united by the global reach of Sappho's legacy during the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century.
Antonio Stramaglia (ed.), À l’aube du roman. La fiction narrative au siècle d’Auguste, avec la collaboration de Pascale Derron, Entretiens sur l’Antiquité classique LXX, Vandœuvres, Fondation Hardt, 2025, 365 págs. ISBN 978-2-600-00770-2