Allegory (Literature)

Dans les études comparées « droit et littérature » ou « économie et littérature », on cherche souvent en priorité ce que la littérature peut nous apprendre sur le droit ou l’économie. C’est prendre un risque : celui d’oublier la
dimension littéraire des textes étudiés. À plus forte raison, c’est prendre le risque de passer à côté d’un fait précieux, à savoir que la littérature est autre chose qu’un instrument talentueux assigné à la valorisation des thèmes qu’on lui livre : la littérature est plus que cela ! Elle sait elle-même user des autres – en l’occurrence, user du droit et de l’économie comme d’instruments, les mettre à son service. Il n’est pas rare que, ne cherchant pas à représenter ces deux univers, elle les détourne de leurs fins, les vide de leurs fonctions manifestes, mais en conserve mécanismes, raisonnements et vocabulaire : la littérature tire du droit et de l’économie des éléments de poétique qu’elle s’agrège et qui la renforcent, sans qu’elle se soucie de nous apprendre nécessairement quelque chose sur ces deux disciplines, objet de son pillage.
PLAN de l'article :
    Balzac/Piketty : la ruse de la Littérature
    L’inversion (des valeurs) de M. de Norpois : Qu’est ce que la littérature ?
        La carrière littéraire : à quel taux placer sa vie ?
        M. de Norpois ? Un bon inverti en vaut deux
        Tante Léonie ? Une valeur à investir
        L’« action nominative de la Compagnie des Eaux » : Contre Sainte‑Beuve appliqué
    Détournement du droit et de l’économie par la Littérature
    La Peau de chagrin : la vie est consomptible par le premier usage
        La lettre de change : qu’est-ce que la vie ?
        Le droit fantastique
        La Peau comme instrument du droit : une condamnation du littéralisme
        Confusion entre vie, argent et temps : d’une usure à l’autre
    « La fille de cuisine était une personne morale » : le droit, auxiliaire de la littérature

This essay was written in response to a prompt question posed by the editors of an anniversary edition of the Sixteenth Century Journal: "How have present political issues affected the way you do research?" In arguing that what once afforded study of the "Northern Renaissance" its pride of place in art historical scholarship was the central role played by acts of iconoclasm surrounding the Protestant Reformation and the ensuing responses in the formulations of new kinds of works of art, this essay then claims that the urgency of the present moment is to call attention to other instances of trauma, where violences may not have produced as much speech. A drawing by Christoph Jamnitzer and prints by Albrecht Dürer are here used to locate representations of the scream--and representations of the suppression of the scream--to advocate for a history of art that gives voice to those victims of brutality whom scholars have preferred, in the past, to suppress below the register of audibility.

In Spanish early modernity, a theatre genre deeply embedded in Catholic material religion and cult of images rose to popularity and saw an aesthetic proliferation, while iconoclast tendencies in the northwest dominated a fundamental change in media and representation culture. During Corpus Christi celebrations, the so-called auto sacramentales-a form of liturgical drama descending from medieval mummery and morality plays-addressed the staging of the Eucharistic miracle. This essay explores how ritual and theatre, as forms of cultural performance, share a common nucleus that also applies to walking ceremonies with images. Likewise, sacramental drama in its liminality can only be explained with reference to its pragmatic religious context in Eucharistic ritual and processions. A juxtaposition of the poetics of transubstantiation in allegorical performance and the mediation of Eucharistic and image presence in Corpus processions aims to differentiate the varieties of presence in sacramental theatre.

There are many indefinite analogies between George Orwell’s 1945 book ‘Animal Farm’ and the 1917 Bolshevik revolution which become apparent during the novel. Both scenarios (fictional and historical) display a Marxist-inspired utopia destroyed by an alteration in their leaders who were affected by the power of a socialist totalitarian dictatorship. All animal characters in Animal Farm represent their real-life counterparts who partook in the events surrounding the 1917 revolutions and the growth of the Soviet Union. These events concerning the rise of Josef Stalin and the exploitation of Communism are parallel to how Napoleon altered Animalism to fit his needs and exiled Snowball in search of absolute power over the Animals of the farm. The major connection that can be made between these two events is the rise of one party (one species) state, being made possible for both only through fear, oppression, propaganda, and violence.

In art history, allegory is a controversial and problematic topic. Allegory, or
personification, visually embodies abstract concepts and ideas. Namely, the sphere of the literal and the symbolic are juxtaposed in this single theme; this caused definitional, methodological, and interpretational problems and contradictions. Because of its wide use in Western art, these problems need some analysis and clarification in order to be as fruitful as possible for art historical studies.

From its invention by the ancient Greeks and Romans, through the Middle Ages, and then the Renaissance, ending up in current times, allegory has taken various characteristics, becoming multifaceted and ambivalent. Its nature can be synthesised as follows: either readily understood and clear – conveying explicit moral or didactic messages – or obscure and ambiguous – hiding complex and/or more allusive meanings. As the product of classical antiquity, allegory was originally conceived as a figure of speech to sway the viewer. Its moral and straightforward side was adopted by the Church and by state institutions to display moral, religious, or civic notions to the public. During the Renaissance, particularly at the end of the 15h century and first half of the 16th century, it started to become more problematic, sophisticated, less clear and explicit. Methodological and interpretational issues emerge distinctly from certain examples of Venetian art.

Some case studies have been interpreted as allegories because of their ambiguity and vagueness, although it is likely that they are not. Allegory’s ambivalence, whether clear or obscure, begun to be irrespective of its context and/or presumable function. This is due to the fact that allegory’s nature is mainly dependent on the individual artist’s style and technique. It is highly probable that most of the issues of allegory emerge from the advent of the Venetian school. This imbued allegory with fine colour techniques, lyricism, and allusiveness, rendering it more ambiguous and evocative.

The late Antique mosaic of Orpheus decorated a small room, approximately 18 m2 in area, connected with two even smaller ones, in 4 m2 and the other 2 m2 in area, belonging most likely to a small funerary chapel (or tomb) discovered in the ancient necropolis by the Damascene Gate in Jerusalem; it was discovered in 1901 by H. Vincent.
The author proposes a new interpretation of the iconographic program of the Orpheus myth used by wealthy Christians in a sepulchral context (see Olszewski M.T. «Orphée endeuillé de la mosaïque funéraire de Jérusalem», in Rey Mimoso-Ruiz, B. ed., Actes du colloque «Orphée entre Soleil et ombre», à l’Institut Catholique de Toulouse du 16 au 17 novembre 2007, Inter Lignes, numéros spécial – mars 2008, pp. 205-214, 226). He also proposes a new interpretation of the role Orpheus played in Roman funerary art, concentrating on the importance of the play on words and the visual and textual punning that was popular in ancient art and especially in funerary art. He rejects the popular interpretation of Orpheus as Christ in the Roman catacombs and proposes to interpret the image as that of Orpheus, bard of the departed souls, without any ahistorical connection with Christ. The program of the mosaic from Jerusalem is thus explained as a play on the words Orpheus-orphanos and Chiron (Chi-Rho) and Pan [Παν(τοκράτωρ)].The frequently used Christian funerary formula of resting in peace, Christ or the Lord corresponds
perfectly with the mood created around the mythical bard.
Orpheus’ universal role as singer and musician moving even the most stony of hearts, extolling the beloved departed, is absolutely justified in the context of a 6th-century Christian tomb. Orpheus is a popular and neutral figure, meaning that in effect it does not constitute a threat to Christian theology and can be tolerated by the educated Christians of Jerusalem.

More than 20 years after presenting his first interpretation of the mosaic from the House of Aion in a paper entitled “Uwagi na temat mozaiki z Domu Aiona w Nea Paphos (Cypr)” (Meander 9/10, 1987, p. 421-438, in Polish, and translated to English: « The Immortality of the Human Soul and the Dionysiac Mysteries in the 4th Century Allegory [in Connection with the Interpretation of the Mosaic from the “House of Aion” at Paphos in Cyprus]»), where he proposed reading the five mythological panels (1. Leda and Zeus; 2. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 3. The Dionysian thiasos; 4. Apollo and Marsyas; 5. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia) as an allegory of the destiny of the human soul and body, starting with conception and ending with the liberation of the soul and its apotheosis, the author now enhances his initial interpretation with numerous reflections concerning the historical context of this work of art, created in the years 320-360.
If, according to the author, the mosaic is a “Hymn” in honour of the pagan gods, Man (his soul) and his place in the (pagan) universe, then at the same time it polemicises with the Christian faith and its God, Jesus Christ.
The author puts forward numerous new solutions relating to the mosaic’s iconography and iconology. Analysis of the mosaic also leads him to propose a solution to the as-yet unanswered question regarding the absence of images of the crucified Christ in Christian art of the 3rd and 4th centuries, up until 420/430, when the first images of Christ on the cross appear.
CONTENTS:
Introduction
1. Research to-date (recap)
2. Description of mosaic (recap)
2.1. Composition of five mythological scenes
2.2. Brief iconographic description of mythological panels
2.3. Outline of individual iconographic elements and their respective roles
2.4. The pagan gods’ air of majesty and dignity as an expression of piety
3. A few words about the pagan reaction
4. An apology of pious human life according to pagan principles and a polemic on the Christian model of Man and his theological idol, Jesus Christ
4.1. Divine intervention in the act of human conception (allusion to/polemic on the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary)
4.2. The Epiphany of Dionysus (an allusion to the Epiphany of Christ – Theou Pais)
4.3. The procession and dissemination of Dionysian order (allusion to/polemic on Christ’s entry into Jerusalem)
4.4. The error of Marsyas (polemic on/allusion to the error of Jesus the Messiah): arrest, sentencing for arrogance and lack of piety (asebeia) and condemnation to a martyr’s death
4.5. The anabasis (or anagoge psyches) of a ‘beautiful soul’ (allusion to/polemic on the Ascension of Christ)
5. A few words on the mosaic programme prior to final conclusions
Final conclusions

'Thomas in context' is my latest series, that I have started after finishing my interactive translation, which revealed so many details that have been thoroughly neglected by all previous translations.
Basically I will be republishing a good part of my work on Thomas so far, with many more characteristics: this series will see to light the 16 Thomas parables and the metamorphosis model, and it will focus entirely on Thomas - not the canonicals.
I will carefully evaluate every single word in Thomas, possible alternative translations or choices of word, and dive deep into the text. As usual, the text of Thomas will be the most important context - yet I'll peek around a bit here and there, comment (rather scarcely) on what other authors have to say, and frequently analyse and quantify Tanakh material

Part III: The Parable of the Mustard Seed in Context: work that earth

Халтрин-Халтурина Е.В. «Королева фей» Спенсера как «пространная аллегория»: от эмблем и кончетто – к символу // Studia Litterarum: науч. журн. 2016. Т. 1, № 3-4. М.: ИМЛИ РАН, 2016. С. 92–111. (1 п.л.). ISSN 2500-4247. DOI: 10.22455/2500-4247-2016-1-3-4-92-111.
Аннотация: Цель статьи — проанализировать аллегорическую манеру письма Спенсера на материале известного образца аллегорической литературы — поэмы «Королева фей». Понятия «аллегория» и «символ» здесь употребляются в современном значении, с опорой на терминологический аппарат, разработанный философами и историками литературы. В частности, использованы предложенные А.Ф. Лосевым и С.С. Аверинцевым описания символа и соседних с ним структурно-семантических категорий (аллегория, олицетворение абстрактного понятия, художественный образ, метафора, миф). Наиболее резко эти понятия размежевались в романтическую эпоху. Для Спенсера границы между «аллегорией» и «символом» были весьма размыты: их единила «иносказательность». Анализ примеров из «Королевы фей» свидетельствует о том, что, назвав свою поэму «пространной» аллегорией, Спенсер вышел за рамки узко-аллегорического. Аллегория Спенсера многообразна. Временами она строга и походит на трехчастные эмблемы; временами она близка развернутой метафоре («кончетто»), а иногда приближена к мифу и символу.
Abstract: The article aims to direct attention of the Russian readers to the richness of Spenser’s allegorical palette in his poem “The Faerie Queene.” The words “allegory” and “symbol” are employed here in their modern sense, with reference to the definitions discussed by scholars of literature and philosophy. In particular, the article draws on A. F. Losev’s and S. S. Averintsev’s studies of symbol and the neighboring semantic-and-structural categories (allegory, personification, artistic image, metaphor, and myth). Some of these terms were divorced from one another during the Romantic period. For Spenser, the borderline between allegory and symbol seems to be quite fuzzy: both of them convey hidden meaning. The discussion of passages from “The Faerie Queene” speaks for Spenser’s departure from the pure allegory. His “continued allegory” embraces emblems, extended metaphors (conceits), mythical and symbolic figures.
Ключевые слова: аллегория, персонификация, эмблемы, развернутая метафора, миф, символ, Красный рыцарь, Уна, Сатирон, Архимаг.
Keywords: allegory, personification, emblems, conceit, myth, symbol, Redcross knight, Una, Satyrane, Archimago.

This volume is a study of spatial structures in Bernard of Clairvaux’s Parables. It lays out a spiritual topography which is linked to the rumination of the Bible. The topography ranges across such locations as Paradise, Babylon, the bridegroom's chamber, and the Celestial Jerusalem, and man navigates it in the character of peregrinus and viator.
The first part of the study addresses the spiritual topography and the hermeneutics of its mapping. The second and larger part examines each of Bernard's eight parables and the ways in which he reformulates issues central to monastic tradition – militia Christi, for example, God's image and likeness in man, contemptus mundi, the quest for beatitude – as voyages within spiritual landscapes.

The aim of this paper is to bring out the allegorical theme surrounding the politics of censorship in Haroun and the Sea of Stories. It is Salman Rushdie’s fifth novel following the publication of The Satanic Verses. On the surface, Haroun and the Sea of Stories seems to be a children’s novel but it has an underlying cautionary tale for the adult readers, as well. It is a highly allegorical novel that reflects on Rushdie’s personal experiences with censorship which can be understood in the context of the international furor following the publication of The Satanic Verses. The controversial depiction of Islam in the novel led to the issuing of a ‘fatwa’ against Rushdie by the Ayotallah of Iran. This caused him to adopt a life of seclusion and hiding and it is during this time that he published Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Questo saggio prende in esame il film di Pier Paolo Pasolini Uccellacci e uccellini, girato nel 1965 e uscito nel 1966, dopo il Vangelo secondo Matteo (1964) e prima di Teorema (1968). Lo scopo è quello di analizzare le scene che commentano il viaggio sullo schermo di Totò Innocenti e suo figlio Ninetto, nell’incontro con varie tipologie di comunità mentre si dirigono verso una non bene identificata meta. Questa lontana destinazione si chiarirà essere la dimora cittadina di un ricco ingegnere, a cui Totò dovrebbe restituire dei soldi, forse presi in prestito a usura.
I due personaggi principali, interpretati da Totò e Ninetto Davoli, nel loro cammino costellato di battute, proverbi, e considerazioni tra il serio e il faceto, passano località di campagna e periferia dove la condizione della gente che incontrano è di totale emarginazione e irrilevanza civile. In Uccellacci e uccellini, in scene che ne ritraggono usi, costumi e mentalità, queste collettività rurali e di periferia agiscono secondo istinti di adattamento alla povertà della loro classe sociale – istinti che, nella rappresentazione pasoliniana di Uccellacci e uccellini, vengono descritti come tragicomici.
L’altro scopo di questo saggio è, pertanto, esaminare come con questo film Pasolini si inserisse, con un disegno allegorico, nel vivo nel dibattito sull'impatto del capitalismo sulle condizioni di vita del proletariato e sottoproletariato urbano e rurale, sulle strategie ed alleanze politiche idonee ad arginare l’arretratezza del popolo, che divideva gli intellettuali di sinistra in quegli anni. Queste collettività contadine e suburbane, mostrate in condizioni di grave indigenza e sottosviluppo, non sembrano avere consapevolezza di vivere ai margini di un mondo che procede all’insegna del profitto e del consumo. Totò e Ninetto vivono anch’essi un’esistenza sociale ed economica di relativa marginalità, la quale tuttavia non toglie al padre una certa dignità e al figlio la sua allegria di ragazzo di borgata, ottimista rispetto al sogno di essere assunto alla Fiat. Ai tanti interrogativi del figlio sul senso della vita e della morte e sulla destinazione di quel viaggio a piedi, il padre ribatte con sicurezza del suo scopo e, a volte, con impazienza. Allo stesso tempo, la sua attitudine tradisce le sue perplessità dinanzi alle molte difficoltà di un percorso accidentato sotto il cielo aperto, affrontato in assoluta solitudine e con il solo ausilio di un ombrello.

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More than 20 years after presenting his first interpretation of the mosaic from the House of Aion in a paper entitled “Uwagi na temat mozaiki z Domu Aiona w Nea Paphos (Cypr)” (Meander 9/10, 1987, p. 421-438, in Polish, and translated to English: « The Immortality of the Human Soul and the Dionysiac Mysteries in the 4th Century Allegory [in Connection with the Interpretation of the Mosaic from the “House of Aion” at Paphos in Cyprus]»), where he proposed reading the five mythological panels (1. Leda and Zeus; 2. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 3. The Dionysian thiasos; 4. Apollo and Marsyas; 5. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia) as an allegory of the destiny of the human soul and body, starting with conception and ending with the liberation of the soul and its apotheosis, the author now enhances his initial interpretation with numerous reflections concerning the historical context of this work of art, created in the years 320-360.
If, according to the author, the mosaic is a “Hymn” in honour of the pagan gods, Man (his soul) and his place in the (pagan) universe, then at the same time it polemicises with the Christian faith and its God, Jesus Christ.
The author puts forward numerous new solutions relating to the mosaic’s iconography and iconology. Analysis of the mosaic also leads him to propose a solution to the as-yet unanswered question regarding the absence of images of the crucified Christ in Christian art of the 3rd and 4th centuries, up until 420/430, when the first images of Christ on the cross appear.
CONTENTS:
Introduction
1. Research to-date (recap)
2. Description of mosaic (recap)
2.1. Composition of five mythological scenes
2.2. Brief iconographic description of mythological panels
2.3. Outline of individual iconographic elements and their respective roles
2.4. The pagan gods’ air of majesty and dignity as an expression of piety
3. A few words about the pagan reaction
4. An apology of pious human life according to pagan principles and a polemic on the Christian model of Man and his theological idol, Jesus Christ
4.1. Divine intervention in the act of human conception (allusion to/polemic on the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary)
4.2. The Epiphany of Dionysus (an allusion to the Epiphany of Christ – Theou Pais)
4.3. The procession and dissemination of Dionysian order (allusion to/polemic on Christ’s entry into Jerusalem)
4.4. The error of Marsyas (polemic on/allusion to the error of Jesus the Messiah): arrest, sentencing for arrogance and lack of piety (asebeia) and condemnation to a martyr’s death
4.5. The anabasis (or anagoge psyches) of a ‘beautiful soul’ (allusion to/polemic on the Ascension of Christ)
5. A few words on the mosaic programme prior to final conclusions
Final conclusions
Key words: mythological mosaic, House of Aion, Nea Paphos, Late Antiquity, Roman art, allegorical narrative, allusive language of mythological pictures, wordplay (Marsyas-Messias), Jesus Christ, anti-Christian polemic, Dionysos, Cassiopeia, Apollon, Nereides, Abstract Personifications, Greek Mythology, ΚΥΠΡΟΣ

The aricle is devoted to one of the most enigmatic details of Pushkin’s Grobovshchik namely, «a plump Amour with an inverted torch». The author investigates its variable semantic structures and a range of its narrative potentials determined by such contexts as a) classical allegorical tradition, b) patterns of the anecdote genre, c) elegiac language, and d) some elements of funeral practice.

Abstract − Around 1486 Cecilia Gallerani was introduced to the court of Ludovico il Moro, becoming soon her favourite mistress. In 1491 she gave him the son Cesare, immediately legitimized as a Sforza. Her portrait painted by Leonardo da Vinci, celebrated in a sonnet by the courtisan Bernardo Bellincioni (c. 1490), is nowadays identified with the Lady with an ermine in the Czartoriskji Museum at Krakow. It may be interpreted also as a sort of political allegory due to the presence of the heraldic animal, alluding to Ludovico’s investiture (in the late 1486) to
the chivalric decoration entitled to San Michele and called Armellino, instituted by the King of Naples.
Key words: allegory, ermine, Moor, Sforza, Aragon

Riassunto − Cecilia Gallerani fu introdotta intorno al 1486 alla corte di Ludovico il Moro, divenendone ben presto la favorita e dando alla luce nel 1491 Cesare, prontamente legittimato. Il ritratto che di lei dipinse Leonardo da Vinci, celebrato in un sonetto encomiastico del poeta cortigiano Bernardo Bellincioni risalente al 1490 circa, si identifica unanimemente nella stupenda Dama con l’ermellino oggi nel museo Czartoriskji di Cracovia. Esso è anche interpretabile come allegoria politica sforzesca per la presenza dell’animale araldico, allusivo al conferimento dell’ordine cavalleresco di San Michele o dell’Armellino, ottenuto dal re di Napoli alla fine del 1486.
Parole chiave: allegoria, ermellino, Moro, Sforza, Aragona

Le indagini di Segre, Blasucci e Ossola hanno mostrato la pervasività dell’influsso della Commedia sul testo del Furioso, in particolare a livello linguistico, stilistico e metrico. Successivamente, vari studiosi (tra gli altri, Zatti, Jossa, Stierle e Geyer) hanno messo a raffronto le due opere sulla base di elementi tematici fondamentali (ingegno, follia, viaggio ultraterreno ecc.) e di “ideologie” spesso contrapposte, evidenziando in molti casi il carattere parodico delle riprese ariostesche di Dante. Oggi possiamo chiederci se per l’autore del Furioso la Commedia abbia rappresentato un modello anche sul piano delle strutture narrative e del sistema dei rapporti tra il testo e la realtà extra-testuale. A fronte del ricco materiale messo a disposizione dalla tradizione critica e tramite l’analisi mirata di esempi testuali, il presente contributo indaga le modalità attraverso le quali Ariosto si appropria di alcune strategie narrative del poema dantesco, rielaborandole in modo originale e pervenendo così a importanti innovazioni all’interno del genere epico-cavalleresco.

This is a more elaboret and developped version of the first paper published in Polish : M.T. Olszewski, Uwagi na temat mosaiki z Domu Aiona w Nea Paphos (Cypr), Menander XLII, 9-10, 1987, pp. 421-438 (translated to English : The Immortality of the Human Soul and the Dionysiac Mysteries in the 4th Century Allegory (In Connection with the Interpretation of the Mosaic from “House of Aion” at Paphos in Cyprus), see on academia.edu

The author proposes a new interpretation of the iconographical and iconological programme of five panels mosaic from the House of Aion at Nea Pahos in Cyprus. He proposes reading the five mythological panels (1. Leda and Zeus; 2. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; ; 3. Apollo and Marsyas; 4. The Dionysian thiasos; 5. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia) as an allegory of the destiny of the human soul and body, starting with conception (Leda and a Swan)  and ending with the liberation of the soul and its apotheosis (the apotheosis of Cassiopeia).
The author rejects the interpretation of W.A. Daszewski, (Dionysos der Erlöser, Mainz am Rheim 1985) proposed in 1985 and his order of interpetation the five mythological pictures (1. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 2. Leda and Zeus; 3. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia; 4. Apollo and Marsyas 5. The Dionysian thiasos). Daszewski would like see in Dionysos - a newly born supreme god, the universal savior.
see also a new article: M.T.Olszewski, The iconographic programme of the Cyprus mosaic from the House of Aion reinterpreted as an anti-Christian polemic, in: Et in Arcadia Ego. Studia memoriae professoris Thomae Mikocki dicata, Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw 2013, pp. 207-239, Pls 74-86.

Christopher Buck, “Sapiential Theosis: A New Reading of Ephrem the Syrian’s Hymns on Paradise.” Journal of the Assyrian Academic Society 9.2 (1995): 80–125. 

ABSTRACT

A fresh reading of the Hymns on Paradise (HdP) discloses how Ephrem the Syrian reworked soteriological presuppositions and thought-forms current in fourth-century Syria to effect a transformation of the doctrine of theōsis (deification), freeing it from its substantive categories, to lay emphasis on divinization at the sapiential level. See, for instance, HdP XII.15, where Ephrem states that “the human person can become / the likeness of God, / endowed with immortal life [i.e. theōsis] / and wisdom [i.e. sapience] that does not err” (HdP XII.15, HyP 166). While the form of the doctrine with its anthropological considerations was kept intact, the manner of Ephrem’s affirmation of theōsis was tantamount to its sophistication, in what amounted to a reformulation of the doctrine itself. In Ephrem’s eschatological scheme—which exalts form over substance—body, soul and spirit are rarefied beyond physicality, while corporeality is maintained. Even the argument for the body’s afterlife existence—the instrumentality of the senses being required for the soul’s ability to perceive—is effectively undermined by the obviation or precluding of the senses in the soul’s immediate cognition of the delights of Paradise. This innovation lent Ephrem’s doctrine of theōsis a greater potential for realization, in which eschatological Paradise came to enjoy a more edifying immediacy among the faithful.

The Resurrection, therefore, in Ephrem’s conception of it, is not simply an “arising” in the sense of revivification. It is an “arising” in the sense of a spiritual ascent, in which the whole tripartite being of man is “raised” to new life and to new heights. In what manner may we conceive of this? In this present life, in what really amounts to a realized eschatology for Ephrem, “the mind ... is spiritual” and it is the mind in mystic transport, and, at the eschaton, something like the mind into which the resurrection body is transformed, that can attain the environs of Paradise and, by the blessing of its Creator, enter into its Garden. There is in fact the suggestion that the metaphors Ephrem employs for his portrayal of Paradise may be decoded. From HdP VI.6 and elsewhere, we may thus infer: Symbols of Paradise (Symbol = Referent): Bud = Heart; Produce = Rational Speech; Fruit = Words (Deeds, VI.11); Plants = Truth; Sweet Scents = Love; Blossoms = Chastity (VI.12); Beauty = Mind (VI.13); Flowers = Virtuous Life (VI.13); Garden = Free Will (VI.13); Earth = Human Thought (VI.13); Trees = “Victors” (VI.14); Treasure Store = Hidden Mysteries (VI.25).

Paradise and paradigm:

Images and ideas are the twin hemispheres of the religious mind. The bicameral interaction of the imaginal and the abstract focus the believer on the archetypes of belief. To give a more complete description of any religious worldview, concepts should be complemented by conceits. In Ephrem, the Church is imagistically conceived of as Paradise. Since it is an extended metaphor, its imagery is extensible. Individually and collectively, paradise imagery can represent different facets of church life and experience. The phrase from the Lord’s Prayer—“on earth, as it is in Heaven”—perfectly expresses both imagistically and ideologically the Ephrem’s artifice at work in the HdP.

Ephrem’s Paradise is at once ecclesiastical and eschatological. Its imagery expresses a paradigm of purity. This is a purity that “cures.” It cleanses the soul of the “disease” of mortality. It restores primordial immortality. Life in Paradise, in both worlds, is for the pure. The pure in heart are Christians who are sexually pure and morally stainless. On this point, perhaps Ephrem and Bardaiṣan might agree. In a quote from Theodore bar Koni, Bardaiṣan, in one of his lost songs, taught: “And lo, the natures, all of them—with created things they hastened, to purify themselves and remove what was mingled with the nature of evil” (Segal 1970, 38). Although Ephrem rejects Bardaiṣan’s creation myth, the pursuit of ethical purity in both systems is, in nonascetic terms, comparable. In fine, Syriac Christianity’s response to Late Antiquity is the quest for purity, in which chrism, baptism, and the Eucharist become the ointment, fountain, and elixir of immortality, while the imagery of Paradise ennobles the sanctified soul.

The present paper examines the two different accounts of the same Egyptian symbols that appear in Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride (11.355B, 34.364C) and Iamblichus’s De mysteriis (7.2). While both these authors interpret the lotus flower and the sun boat allegorically, this article shows that their distinct interpretations reflect not only divergent perspectives on the role of (Greek) philosophy and (Egyptian) religious practice in one’s pursuit of the divine, but also contrasting conceptions of the symbol.

The mosaic from Sheikh Zuweid on the western coast of North Sinai, discovered in 1913, as well as the mosaic brought to light in 1919 at Vinon near Aix-en-Provence in southern France had to wait until the end of the 20th century for scholarly studies to focus again on their iconography, but also their iconological program. It is the reading of this program that one can truly call sensational. The mosaic from Sinai consists of three panels: Hippolytus and Phaedra, a Dionysian cortege and an inscription surrounded with motifs referring to the fauna and flora of a Nilotic landscape as well as to iconography of the seasons of Spring and Fall. The mosaic from Vinon also consists of three pictures: Dionysus offering Ikarios the grapevine, the Three Graces and a panel depicting a voracious goat defiling the gift of Dionysus. Inscriptions accompany both the mosaics, in Latin at Sheikh Zued and in Greek at Vinon.
Numerous apotropaic symbols and inscriptions are known, but never before has a mythological picture been interpreted as apotropaic. The latest research has shown that the owners of the respective estates had chosen mythological themes in order to protect them and their property from the Evil Eye and Hatred. Dionysian motifs are associated with the putative function of the rooms, where banquets with music and dancing must have been held, and wine must have flowed in abundance. The allusion to the abundance of the Nile was meant to ensure the prosperity and wealth of the house, in similarity to the Dionysian motifs as a matter of fact. Dionysus, Heracles and Venus were patrons of the houses. The interpretation of the two mosaics takes advantage of studies in the field of the history of mentality of the communities standing on the threshold of post-classical times. At the same time, it constitutes a huge step forward in the understanding of this category of finds. The two mosaics confirm what Artemidoros of Daldis (2nd century AD) had to say about the status of pictures: that they could be synonymous in meaning (see: M.T. Olszewski, Le statut de l'image selon Artémidore et l'art romain, in: Morlier, H. ed., IXe Colloque international pour l'étude de la mosaïque antique et médiévale, Roma 5.11.2001-10.11.2001, Collection de l'Ecole Française de Rome 352/2, Rome 2005, pp. 859-880).
See also: M.T. Olszewski, La mosaïque de style naïf de Cheikh Zouède au Sinaï, Archeologia (Warsaw) 53, 2002, pp. 45–61, pls III+VI; M.T. Olszewski, Mauvais œil et protection contre l'envie dans la mosaïque de Cheikh Zouède au Sinaï (IV-Ve siècle), in: Paunier, D., Schmidt, Ch (ed. by), la Mosaïque gréco-romaine VIII. Actes du  VIIIe Colloque international de la mosaïque antique et médiévale, Lausanne 1997 (2001), pp. 276-301.

La célèbre mosaïque de Cheikh Zouède, situé au nord-ouest du Sinaï, ainsi que celle de Vinon dans la Gaule Narbonaise ont été découvertes dans les années dix du XXe siècle. Depuis leurs mises à jour jusqu’à la fin du siècle dernier, elles devaient attendre deux réexamens scientifiques qui ont apportés une analyse iconographique plus complète ainsi que deux nouvelles lectures iconologiques que l’on peut sans doute considerer comme sensationelles !
La mosaïque de Cheikh Zouède est composée de trois tableaux superposés. Deux panneaux représentent des scenes mythologiques: procession dionysiaque et Hippolyte et Phèdre. La troisième image comporte une inscription de bienvenue bordée au-dessus et au-dessous d’animaux et de plantes; une allusion aux scènes nilotiques et à la symbolique printanière et automnale.
La mosaïque de Vinon est également composée de trois tableaux qui sont cependant juxtaposés. Ils représentent, au centre, les trois Grâces et deux scènes à caractère dionysiaques. Celle de gauche représente le don de la vigne (grappes de raisins) par Dionysos à Icarios et celle de droite, le sacrilège de la vigne par un bouc. Les deux mosaïques sont accompagnées par des inscriptions en grec et latin. Elles sont datées à la première moitié du Ve siècle.
On connais plusieurs inscriptions, images et symboles de caractère apothropaïque. C’est pourtant la première fois que des images mythologiques ont dévoilées aux chercheurs leurs sens prophylactique et apotropaïque. Les propriétaires de ces deux résidences ornées de belles mosaïques ont choisis ces thèmes mythologiques pour protéger et écarter le Mauvais Œil et l’Envie. Les sujets dionysiaques dans les salles à manger évoquent probablement des fêtes joyeuses arrosées de vin où la danse et la musique constituaient des éléments essentiels. Par contre, l’abondance nilotique évoquait sans doute le bonheur et l’opulence des dons de la Nature sur les tables de la maison; cette signification concernait certainement aussi les scènes dionysiaques. Les maisons ont été protégées par Dionysos, Héraclès et Vénus.
Pour interpréter ces deux œuvres, les auteurs ont utilisé des recherches sur “l’histoire de la mentalité” des sociétés administrées par les Romains. La lecture de ces deux mosaïques confirme ce que l’on vient de découvrir en étudiant le célèbre texte d’Artémidore de Daldis (IIe siècle) sur les images synonimiques (cf. M.T. Olszewski, Le statut de l'image selon Artémidore et l'art romain, in: Morlier, H. ed., IXe Colloque international pour l'étude de la mosaïque antique et médiévale, Roma 5.11.2001-10.11.2001, Collection de l'Ecole Française de Rome 352/2, Rome 2005, pp. 859-880).
Voir M.T. Olszewski, La mosaïque de style naïf de Cheikh Zouède au Sinaï, Archeologia (Warsaw) 53, 2002, pp. 45–61, pls III+VI; M.T. Olszewski, Mauvais œil et protection contre l'envie dans la mosaïque de Cheikh Zouède au Sinaï (IV-Ve siècle), in: Paunier, D., Schmidt, Ch (ed. by), la Mosaïque gréco-romaine VIII. Actes du  VIIIe Colloque international de la mosaïque antique et médiévale, Lausanne 1997 (2001), pp. 276-301.

El present volum inclou les obres conservades de l’escriptor Francesc Alegre, a excepció de la seva traducció "Transformacions del poeta Ovidi" i del comentari a aquesta traducció, anomenat "Al·legories". L'objectiu d’aquest treball és oferir una visió completa de la tasca literària de Francesc Alegre, és a dir, una panoràmica d’autor. El treball que presentem mostra un escriptor molt ben relacionat, tant entre el patriciat barceloní del segle XV com a cort, amb aficions literàries particulars i exigents, admirador de les novetats literàries —especialment les relacionades amb Itàlia, on va viure uns anys— i de la literatura com s’entengué a les corts Trastàmara de la segona meitat del segle XV. D’aquí que les fonts més recurrents de Francesc Alegre siguin Boccaccio, Petrarca i Ovidi. El nostre autor escriu un tipus de literatura que es relaciona directament amb la producció d’escriptors que tracta, com són Pere Torroella o Romeu Llull.

This is an English Language version of an article which is published in French here: https://lamop.univ-paris1.fr/fileadmin/lamop/publications/Cahiers_Histoire_Textuelle/CEHTL_6__2013_/Davis.pdf
I recommend that the work is cited in its published French version

Abstract: Le village de Shahba, devenu la colonie romaine de Philippopolis, est situé à quatre-vingt dix kilomètres au sud de Damas et à vingt kilomètres au nord de Suweida’ en Syrie du Sud. Sa notoriété et son développement sont dus à l’empereur Philippe l’Arabe qui a transformé la petite bourgade où sa famille s’était installée, en une petite, mais riche cité de 244 à 249 lors de son règne.
La mosaïque polychrome qu’on pourrait appeller mosaïque de la « Fête Nocturne Pannychis » - à cause de sa représentation personnifiée - a été quelque peu oubliée par la littérature scientifique. On trouve cependant quelques brèves descriptions dans les travaux de J. Balty, de J.-Ch. Balty, de H. Hatoum, de L. Abad Casal, de H. Sichterman et d’A. Kossatz-Deismann. À ma connaissance, elle n’a été publiée que par petits fragments. Seul J.-Ch. Balty, dans un article du LIMC consacré à la personnification abstraite d’Euphrasia, propose une rapide interprétation de la mosaïque en expliquant le sens des mots « pannychis » et « euphrasia ».
La mosaïque de Pannychis n’est plus malheureusement en place, on peut néanmoins supposer, vu le thème représenté, qu’elle devait probablement orner une salle à manger (triclinium ou œcus).
Cette mosaïque rectangulaire, abritée au musee de Shahba, est composée d’une large bordure géométrique, de six petits panneaux représentant des personnifications inscrites sur les cotés courts du tapis, et d’un grand tableau central avec une effigie des trois Grâces (Charites) mis en valeur dans une belle bordure géométrique de ruban torsadé. Les tableaux angulaires représentent les Quatre Saisons. En commençant par l’angle gauche dans la rangée inférieure et en suivant le mouvement contraire à celui des aiguilles d’une montre, les Saisons sont placées en ordre suivant : Theros (l’Été), Methoporon (l’Automne), Heimon[e] (l’Hiver) et Ear (le Printemps). Entre l’Été et l’Automne, l’artiste a placé le buste de la personnification féminine de Pannychis – de la Fête Nocturne. Entre les personnifications du Printemps et de l’Hiver, le portrait en trois quart de la personnification féminine d’Euphrasia – (la Gaîté, la Joie dans un festin, la Réjouissance) a été placée.
Quel sens se cache derrière toutes ces images et à quelle idée elles font allusions ? Si le tableau central est le plus grand, il n’est que complémentaire par rapport aux panneaux latéraux. La clé du programme de la mosaïque est la personnification de Pannychis – de la Fête Nocturne. La personnification de la Gaîté – Euphrasia fait son pendant.
Que sait-on de ces faites nocturnes que les citoyens romains hellénisés en Orient célébraient en se réunissant en grand nombre ? Une source inestimable dans la recherche sur l’histoire des mentalités grecques sous la domination romaine est l’auteur grec d’Éphèse connu sous le nom d’Artémidore de Daldis, spécialiste de l’oniromancie. Il est célèbre grâce à son manuel d’interprétation des rêves (Onirocriticon) rédigé probablement à Éphèse à la fin du IIe siècle. Artémidore parle des Fêtes nocturnes vues dans les rêves. La fête nocturne est célébrée très joyeusement par ses participants. C’est une fête bruyante avec danse et musique. C’est l’occasion pour tout le monde de se rassembler et de faire de nouvelles connaissances. De plus, cette fête permet aux jeunes de dépasser certaines interdictions et d’exprimer leurs sentiments. Les nouveaux couples formés durant cette fête nocturne peuvent confirmer leur engagement par un mariage. Artémidore effectue des rapprochement entre la Fête nocturne et la réunion de personnes, le mariage, la gaîté, la bonne humeur, l’abondance et l’acquisition des biens (pour les pauvres). Le Pannychis et l’Euphrasia sont présents ensemble dans le texte d’Artémidore comme sur la mosaïque de Philippopolis. Sa description met l’accent sur des éléments caractérisant la Fête Nocturne : la joie, la bonne humeur et l’abondance (de la table et des boissons) que les fêtes offrent aux participants. La signification des Charites est complémentaire de celle qui est évoquée par les personnifications de Pannychis et d’Euphrasia. Le tableau de la mosaïque de Philippopolis fait sans doute allusion aux fêtes nocturnes que le propriétaire envisageait d’organiser, et sans aucun doute organisait dans sa demeure.
La mosaïque de la Fête Nocturne de Philippopolis qui ornait probablement un triclinium rappelle ce qu’on rencontre dans d’autres salles à manger chez les riches propriétaires. La théorie du caractère allusif à la vie de l’aristocratie de l’époque romaine (et de ses nouveaux riches) dans la décoration interne des maisons et des villa a de plus en plus de partisans parmi les chercheurs. La mosaïque de Philippopolis ressemble à la décoration des salles à manger qui évoquent la fête, les festins, la boisson, la bonne nourriture, la musique et la danse, tout les ingrédients d’un banquet réussi.

More than ten years on from the 2008 financial crisis, two trends of global statism remain dominant: Beijing-led “exceptional neoliberalism” and the emerging “illiberal democracy” topped by Trumponomics, with racist populism looming at the back of both. Even though these persistent programs are remnants of the ideological, national, and economic wars of the previous century, the boundary separating them is permeable. Jiang Rong 姜 戎’s prizewinning novel, Wolf Totem 《狼图腾》, helps us see this porosity. Wolf Totem is the first “Chinese Cultural Revolution” (fictional) memoir written explicitly for Chinese nationals and yet goes on to engage the sensibility of readers from a Western historical and ideological context. This essay critically identifies certain acts of reading Wolf Totem and looks at the way these selected readings, all allegorical in their approach, step across the literary subject to build symbolic extensions that stretch thin the wolves for various purposes. Collectively, such acts of reading expose both an important quality of our historical moment and the ideological function of literary intellectuals within it. They show that our era is one of skepticism about the status quo, one in which certain antidemocratic drives commiserate over historical conflicts and strategize for an extended, ongoing, and relentless process of global dominance. The popular reception of Wolf Totem crystallizes the thrust and conduct of these seeming competing drives. In the final analysis, this essay follows through the symptoms of these drives to reveal a kind of energetics or “primitivist social ethos” alive in the unified way humanity makes extinct any life forms unsubscribed to global statisms in their Beijing or “illiberal democratic” forms.

The allegorical interpretation, invented by Greek philosophers, was not in use among Judean sages, when Song of Songs (SoS) was composed. The metaphors used in SoS are not masked and they were still understandable in the time of the book's redaction. It is shown that the text is coded by the use of literary artistry as a dowry from the “house of the mother”, a place for equal love and procreation. The assumption of an allegory is not at all mandatory.

In the early 1140s, the Bavarian princess Bertha von Sulzbach arrived in Constantinople to marry the Byzantine emperor Manuel Komnenos. Wanting to learn more about her new homeland, the future empress Eirene commissioned the grammarian Ioannes Tzetzes to compose a version of the Iliad as an introduction to Greek literature and culture. He drafted a lengthy dodecasyllable poem in twenty-four books, reflecting the divisions of the Iliad, that combined summaries of the events of the siege of Troy with allegorical interpretations. To make the Iliad relevant to his Christian audience, Tzetzes reinterpreted the pagan gods from various allegorical perspectives. As historical allegory (or euhemerism), the gods are simply ancient kings erroneously deified by the pagan poet; as astrological allegory, they become planets whose position and movement affect human life; as moral allegory Athena represents wisdom, Aphrodite desire.

As a didactic explanation of pagan ancient Greek culture to Orthodox Christians, the work is deeply rooted in the mid-twelfth-century circumstances of the cosmopolitan Comnenian court. As a critical reworking of the Iliad, it must also be seen as part of the millennia-long and increasingly global tradition of Homeric adaptation.

In this talk I will focus on the vegetal allegories that frame the pilgrim’s journey through the three realms of the otherworld. Besides the well-known dark wood where Dante gets lost at the beginning of the poem, pivotal bits of his experience take place in other two different botanic settings that display a strong allegorical meaning. The first one is the Earthly Paradise, where he meets Beatrice and assists to a complex allegorical scene that confirms his prophetic mission. The last one is the celestial rose, composed by the blessed souls, that the pilgrim reaches at the end of his journey through the Heavens.
Although the dark wood has been object of several studies, the three vegetal allegories have never been connected in a detailed enquiry. Therefore, by means of comparing them, my goal is to better characterise the role of allegory in the Commedia. In particular, I demonstrate that Dante’s use of allegories is highly innovative, for it implies on the one hand a very detailed literal ground, that is fundamental in creating a vivid and realistic setting, and on the other hand a symbolic meaning, that draws strength from the poem’s whole structure. Through these allegories and their functional connections, Dante builds a narrative space that is physical and symbolic at the same time: within this space, the pilgrim proceeds not only in his concrete journey, but also in a spiritual path that drives him from pure matter (the dark wood), through the perfect realisation of form and matter (the Garden of Eden), to pure form (the celestial rose).