Archai: The Origins of Western Thought is published by Archai: The Origins of Western Thought UNESCO Chair. It is published in Brazil (University of Brasília/Annablume) and in Portugal (Coimbra University Press, IUC) in print and with free online access to the electronic version. All manuscripts will undergo blind-review by peers. It is indexed by Web of Science (Clarivate), Scopus (Elsevier), SciELO, L'Année Philologique, Philosophers Index, Phil Papers , European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences (ERIH Plus), DOAJ, Phil Brasil, Latindex, Cengage Learning, Google Schoolar, BASE, Diadorim, PKP Index and in the Portal de Periódicos - CAPES, Brazil. Archai is classified as A1, the best grade of its field (Philosophy) in the latest Qualis CAPES evaluation. Follow the Archai journal on Facebook.
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Priests of the Gods: Divination and Leadership in Xenophon
This paper’s goal is to defend the thesis put forward by Michael Flower (2016) that piety is a sine qua non of effective leadership of Xenophon and also justify the fact that the model of leader in Xenophon is "first" (and foremost) a follower of the gods. We will present examples of the use of divination in two main texts. First of all, we will present the advice offered by Xenophon in one of his didactic treatises, the Hipparchicus or Cavalry Commander. This short text was written based on his personal experience as a mercenary soldier and commander and in it he offers his advice on how to become a good commander. In the second place I shall present the practical applications of the counsels of the Hipparchicus in Anabasis, a work in which Xenophon relates the events of his expedition in 401 B.C., when he accompanied Cyrus the Younger to fight for the throne of Persia against his brother Artaxerxes and, after the death of Cyrus, led the soldiers back to Asia Minor. Anabasis exhibits one of the most complete descriptions of divination from a first-hand account. Here the main forms of Greek divination are presented: consultation of the oracle at Delphi, extispicine (reading of entrails), omens (interpretation of bird flights), and the appearance of omens of luck or signs.
Copyright (c) 2025 Florencia Castro Possi http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
First philosophy in Books E and Λ of Aristotle’s Metaphysics
In this paper, I analyze three conditionals present in Books E and Λ of Aristotle’s Metaphysics. The conditionals in Book E correspond to passages 1026a10-13 and 1026a29-32, while the conditional in Λ corresponds to passage 1069a36-b2. I consider that the way we interpret the implications of these conditionals may generate a tension regarding the nature of first philosophy and its subject. To dissipate this possible tension, I suggest that, for Aristotle, the scope of first philosophy would not be restricted to separate and immovable things, and I propose, from this perspective, two ways in which sensible substances can be considered.
Copyright (c) 2025 Renan Eduardo Stoll http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
M.Sc., Ph.D. The Argument from Illusion in Gorgias’ treatise On What Is Not
The Argument from Illusion in Gorgias’ treatise On What Is Not Abstract: The argument from illusion which is also known as the argument from perceptual relativity or from conflicting appearances and sense-impressions, has occurred in many thinkers from antiquity to the present. The conclusions drawn from that argument are different from philosopher to philosopher. In Plato's Republic, the case of the crooked object when in water and similar cases show that there is a weakness in our nature within us revealed by the fact that our sight is liable to illusion and confusion. Aristotle's Protagoreans concluded that one's beliefs about whatever appears, let us say, cold or not cold is true and proceeded to a denial of the principle of contradiction. In Sextus Empiricus, it justifies a scepticism about belief and knowledge in general. In Descartes, it justifies a scepticism about the senses. In Ayer, the argument from illusion proves the existence of sense-data. My intention herewith is to show how Gorgias uses the argument from illusion treating it as related to the problems of the philosophy of perception. No attention has been paid to this issue in the literature.
Copyright (c) 2025 Michael Bakaoukas http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Phren Hiere: A New Theology for a New Society in Empedocles's Verses
The aim of this paper is to analyze Empedocles’s main doctrines in the light of his historical and cultural context. To be precise, I will attempt to show how the Agrigentum and Sicily of his time “ ravaged by inter-Greek wars, infighting between the various social classes, and even indigenous Sicilians’revolts against Greek settlers “ bore witness, in his eyes, to the ever-increasing power of Strife, which was influencing the cosmos not solely on a physical level but also on a moral one. Empedocles hoped in the exit from the present cosmic cycle through the attainment of a higher condition, capable of transforming the daimones into holy minds’, i.e. into entities completely imbued with Love and, for this reason, unassaible by Strife in this cosmic phase, well before the return of the sphere. In this way, Empedocles tried to found a new theology, with Love as the main deity, and a new ethical code, in opposition to traditional poems and values, which were the expression, as everything else in the world save for his On nature and Purifications, of Strife.
Copyright (c) 2025 Federico Casella http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Polybius, the Pontic Sea and socioenvironmental disaster’s semantics
The ancient Pontic Sea, known nowadays as the Black Sea, is one of the most important in history. During the Hellenistic period, the argument that it would become a shallow swamp, due to its alluviation and people's ignorance of this process, became well known. In proposing a dialogue between Ancient History and Environmental History, we depart from the recent concept of socioenvironmental disaster in order to bring it closer to the typology of disaster in Polybius’Histories (c. 200 - c. 117 B.C.E.), and of his investigation of the Pontic Sea. Our aim is to understand the semantics of this experience and to reflect on the historicity of human awareness of its dependence on the environment. Accordingly, we focus our analysis on the language in which this experience is conceptualized insofar as human actions and the fate of the sea are temporally articulated by the author. Finally, we conclude that there are expressive similarities between the contemporary and ancient semantics of disaster, given that Polybius advocated a consistent human ethic of investigating so as to people better adapt themselves to the environment. We also hope this to be a suggestion to strengthen ties between Ancient History and Environmental History.
Copyright (c) 2025 Dyel da Silva http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Homology, Collective and Cultural Memory: Augustus’Portraiture and Augustan Poetry
This paper aims to establish a homology between two forms of art: the portraits of Octavian Augustus and Augustan poetry, particularly the works of Horace, Ovid, Propertius, and Virgil. The theoretical frameworks of Nora (1989), Assmann (1995 and 2011), Halbwachs (1968), and Galinsky (2014-2016) are mobilized to support the argument that both artistic expressions can be interpreted as vehicles of collective memory and cultural memory, serving the perpetuation of power and art.
Copyright (c) 2025 Paulo Martins http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Plotinus, Proclus and the Arabic Neoplatonism
In this text, I present a historiographical debate about the Arabic Neoplatonism from some assumptions since the 19th century. From the editions of the works and the posterior studies, the distinction between the Plotinian corpus in Arabic, the Plotiana arabica, and the Proclean corpus, the Procliana arabica, was consolidated, given the way in which the relationship between the texts originally written in Arabic and their Greek sources was understood. However, in view of recent studies, different assumptions and methodologies have been adopted. Given the complexity of the discussion, in this text I will restrict myself to the analysis of two works originally written in Arabic, namely The Theology of Aristotle and the Discourse on the Pure Good, known as Liber de causis. Starting from the critique of two traditionally accepted historiographical assumptions, the aim of the following analysis is to discuss how new approaches allow us a more unified understanding of the nature of the Arabic Neoplatonic corpus. A consequence of the distinction between the Plotinus arabus and the Proclus arabus is to lock the texts into philosophical models that are different from those found in the works themselves.
Copyright (c) 2025 Meline Costa Sousa http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Oracles of Hystaspes and Revelation: parallels and possibilities
The article analyzes the parallels between the supposed fragments of the Oracles of Hystaspes in the seventh book of Lactantius' Divine Institutes and the Apocalypse of John, specifically in chapters 11:3-12, on the "two witnesses" and 13:11-16, on the action of the Beast. The article presents the scholarship on the issue and the possibilities of appropriation of Zoroastrian themes by John of Patmos in his apocalypse, especially in the combat myth.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rodrigo Nunes do Nascimento http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Soul as Explanatory Cause of Life in Aristotle: Scientific Knowledge simpliciter (á¼Ï€Î»á¿¶Ï‚) through Coextensive Universal Demonstrations and Context Restriction as a Solution to a Core-Dependent Homonymy from DA II.1-4
The main purpose of this paper is to show, based on Aristotle’s theory of scientific demonstration, how soul plays the role of explanatory cause of life in De Anima (DA) II.1-4. Firstly, I evaluate how, in APo I.2 and II.16, Aristotle requires that universal demonstrations must satisfy a coextensional criterion between a given explanandum (A-term) and its most appropriate explanans (B-term), and that this criterion does not entail a causal symmetry between both those terms. I argue, following Angioni (2014a) and Zuppolini (2018), that, whenever one is before apparent multiple causes’scenario cases, in which there seems to be more than one possible cause to the same explanandum, one shall still find a unified and fully appropriate explanation of that explanandum. In the second part of this paper, I examine an example from DA II.1-4 in light of APo II.16-17. I argue that soul might be pointed out as the explanatory principle (B) that explains why life (A) belongs to a living body (C). In addition to that, I argue that, although there is a core-dependent homonymy taking place between plants (γ1), animals (γ2) and the nutritive capacity (α1), the nutritive soul (β1) plays the role of an incidental factor (συμβεβηκός) in the context of a scientific demonstration that has by explananda whatsoever attributes (αn) that belong to animals (γ2) qua living beings endowed with a perceptive soul (β1) that explains why attributes (αn) belong to them.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ahmad Suhail Farhat http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Giving birth to ideas: Platonic epistemology as sexual metaphor
This paper intends to interpret the meaning of the sexual metaphor implicit to the midwife analogy expressed in the Theatetus. The "socratic method" is ilustrated as na intelectual practice comparable to birthgiving, but, inasmuch as the "birthgiving of ideas" is only one step of a proccess whose structure was extracted from the successive stages of human reproduction, the whole analogy deserves special attention. Exceptions aside, the costumary approach to this topic is to assume a provisory unterstanding “ that is, the analogy aims at portraying the socratic method as a way of helping the interlocutor throughout the birthgiving of ideas “ and, afterwards, the commentaries present voluminous logical analises of Socrates’arguments. This way, stands out of view that the midwife analogy is na elaborate sexual allegory comprised by elements distributed among several dialogues. That being said, after a literature review, the paper argues that the διαλέγεσθαι repeats, at the symbolic level, the stages of which the sexual practice is comprised of: 1. seduction (e.g. Tht. 145e8-146a8); 2. insemination (see e.g. Tht. 149d5-e5 and Phdr. 277a1: ÏƒÏ€Î­ÏÎ¼Î±); 3. gestation (i.e., the attemps at answering the questions posed by Socrates); 4.1 abortion (Smp. 203b9: á¼€Ï€Î¿ÏÎ¯Î±Î½; 203e4: á¼€Ï€Î¿ÏÎµá¿–) ou 4.2 birthgiving; finally, when a genuine intelectual offspring is brought to light, 5. rearing
Copyright (c) 2025 Renilson Bail http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
"Science is nothing but perception" (Tht. 151e2-3). On the role of perception in the process of knowledge
In the first part of the Theaetetus, Plato engages with the Protagorean position by interpreting the maxim "man is the measure" from a sensory perspective. The aim of the dialogue is to explore and define what constitutes knowledge, which is initially equated with perception. This contribution provides an analytical examination of the discussion among Socrates, Theodorus and Theaetetus (two mathematicians who represent Protagoras’idea). Plato reinterprets the sophist’s thought and presents several specific criticisms, aiming to demonstrate the impossibility and danger of considering each individual’s perception as a valid basis for knowledge. At the same time, however, the philosopher acknowledges the sophist’s contribution, using it to better define the role of perception in knowledge. When considered alongside the assertions in the Seventh Letter, this discussion proves useful for clarifying a central aspect of Plato’s complex epistemological perspective.
Copyright (c) 2025 Francesca Eustacchi http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
On the Egyptian textual evidence of the myth of Thoth in Plato's Phaedrus
In Phaedrus, the myth of Thoth explicitly alludes to Egypt and it is possible to find parallels with texts written in Egyptian, showing that Plato had some knowledge of Egyptian philosophy. This article will highlight some of the parallels and comment on this bibliography, since they are articles and chapters written in different languages and that do not converse with each other. It will comment on the Book of Thoth and discuss the thematic similarities with the tale Setne I, in relation to the dual role of writing as Ï†Î¬ÏÎ¼Î±ÎºÎ¿Î½. It will then examine the relationship between Egyptian texts and Phaedrus. In doing so, it will be possible not only to show the state of the art of this discussion, but also to explore in greater depth the issues surrounding these two divergent conceptions of the role of writing and the transmission of knowledge.
Copyright (c) 2025 Carlos Carvalhar http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Antisthenes’horse and Plato’s horseness: a metaphysical dispute between two Socratics
The paper analyzes some of the main testimonia concerning the relationship between Antisthenes of Athens and Plato. The testimonies on personal issues report hard tempers of both thinkers, a problematic relationship, and a (probably fictitious) moment of rupture between them. The testimonies on their philosophical controversy mainly report a deep quarrel concerning Platonic metaphysics. According to the sources, Antisthenes would have written an entire dialogue against the founder of the Academia, the Sathon, in which he ferociously criticized Plato by saying that the Ideas have no objective but only mental reality. After the explanation of the aspects of this criticism, the paper will assess whether it is possible to find in the Platonic corpus an answer to the other Socratic.
Copyright (c) 2025 Andre Luiz Braga da Silva http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Restoration and disintegration: the legacy of medical tradition in Plato's Philebus
This study aims to examine the position of medicine within the context of Plato's dialogue Philebus, focusing, on one hand, on the critique the philosopher makes of medicine as a practice and craft governed by specific norms and procedures, and, on the other, on the skillful way in which he draws upon certain medical theories, adapting them to serve his own purposes. The first part of the analysis seeks to understand the reasons behind Plato’s critique of medicine in the Philebus, especially in passage 56b1, where he includes it among the activities that involve "much imprecision and little certainty." This critique, as will be demonstrated, is closely related to the method of medicine. In this sense, it is important to highlight that, in criticizing medicine, Plato does not seek to establish a rivalry between philosophy and the medical practice, but rather to question medicine’s claim to sometimes present itself as the best and only modus vivendi. The second part of the study focuses on analyzing the influence of medicine on Plato’s theory of pleasure, particularly regarding the concept of pleasure as a process of fulfillment. To this end, Hippocratic texts such as On Diseases IV, On the Nature of Man, and On Ancient Medicine are consulted. Finally, through a comparison of recurring key terms, similarities and differences between the medical conception and Plato’s conception of pleasure are highlighted.
Copyright (c) 2025 Beatriz Saar http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Diogenes Laertius and women philosophers
This contribution aims to show that the work Lives of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius is fundamental not only to the study of ancient philosophers, but also to the rediscovery and study of ancient women philosophers. The contribution aims to show that Diogenes' remarks on the few women considered draw portraits of exceptional philosophers worthy of inclusion in the traditional philosophical canon.
Copyright (c) 2025 Maddalena Bonelli http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In Greco-Roman antiquity, particularly within the scope of philosophical thought, dreams constitute the interface between mythical-religious thought and rational psyche, sometimes indicating their conflict, and other times serving as a point of intersection without any dichotomy. Within these two conceptions lies another possible dichotomy; if divine beings can be benevolent, even allowing for the application of therapies; if related to the vicissitudes of the psyche, they tend to be unhealthy, both in terms of disrupting the inner life and, as an indication of this, the abandonment of reason or its fragility in the face of the blind impulses of the passions. Seneca, as will be shown here, is the spokesperson for this latter perspective.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ronaldo Amaral http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Aristotle on μετὰ λο?γου capacities and voluntary animal locomotion part two: freedom, scientific knowledge and voluntary locomotion
According to the dominant interpretation of the distinction between capacities that are "without-λόγος" (ἄλογοι) and capacities that are "with-λόγος" (μετὰ λόγου, Met., IX 2,1046a34-b2), the latter would be unique to human beings. We can find four arguments in defense of that thesis in the secondary bibliography. In a previous paper I dealt with two of these arguments, which I called the psychic arguments. This article deals with the other two and presents a positive argument for the alternative reading that tries to make it seem plausible - although not unassailable - in light of its own merits. According to this alternative reading, it is with the framework provided by Aristotle to explain the functioning of bidirectional capacities that we must explain the functioning of the capacity responsible for producing voluntary locomotion in all animals.
Copyright (c) 2025 Daniel Nascimento http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The tyrant that lives within us in light of Republic VIII and IX
Hereby we intend to examine the way by which tyranny and the tyrant are presented in Republic, a Platonic dialogue around which we will circumscribe the present study. Our interest emerges from the resurgence, in the 21st century, of democratically elected regimes that, however, flirt with authoritarianism. Socrates’thesis, presented in Republic VIII (562b-563e), according to which tyranny arises from within democracy, highlights the contradictions inherent in this government regime since its beginnings, helping us to rethink it today. For the purposes of this study we follow the emergence of the issue of tyranny from the first book of the dialogue, until we reach the proper examination of this regime in books VIII and IX, up to which we are faced with the surprising argument that inside each one of us inhabits a sleeping tyrant (Rep.IX, 576b4-6). The city-soul analogy proposed in Republic II, as well as the composite soul thesis in Republic IV work as guiding conceptions of our investigation.
Copyright (c) 2025 Hedgar Lopes, Maria Aparecida Paiva Montenegro http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Relativism and Theaetetus 171a-b: Post-truth and Populist Demagogy
This paper offers a reading of Theaetetus 171a-b in the context of Plato’s critique of Protagorean relativism. It analyses the structure and philosophical significance of the so-called "self-refutation" (peritropê) argument, following the interpretations of Burnyeat and Erginel. It aims to show that Plato’s argument is not a mere logical paradox but a dialectical refutation revealing the impossibility for the relativist to defend their own position rationally: by acknowledging the truth of the belief that relativism is false, the relativist undermines the validity of their own doctrine. This dialectical impossibility exposes a constitutive weakness of relativism, which cannot be formulated, communicated, or sustained without presupposing a shared space of discourse and common criteria of truth. The final section draws a parallel between this Platonic analysis and contemporary phenomena of post-truth and populist demagogy, both grounded in the dissolution of the common world and the replacement of facts by convictions. Plato thus appears not as the defender of archaic dogmatism but as the thinker of the very conditions of rational disagreement and a shared world.
Copyright (c) 2025 Luca Pitteloud http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Da eudaimonia individual ao florescimento social. Perspectivas sobre a felicidade na obra de Martha Nussbaum
Martha Nussbaum is one of the main references for the contemporary debate on human happiness and well-being. Her main contributions are, on the one hand, her study and analysis of ancient philosophy as a therapy of the soul, and, on the other hand, the capabilities approach, which she developed with Amartya Sen, as an ideal for the organization of society, in order to provide human beings with full development and flourishing. Although closely related in their practical and transformative purpose, these two visions of human happiness and the means to achieve it diverge radically and can even be considered contradictory. If for the Hellenistic schools eudaimonia is an individual task, alien to and independent of any social or collective flourishing, for the capabilities approach, social or collective flourishing is the true condition of possibility for any individual flourishing. In this essay we will discuss both approaches and try to show how they are not only reconcilable but even closely related in Nussbaum's thought, constituting two different but complementary approaches to the problem of human flourishing and the philosophical pursuit of happiness.
Copyright (c) 2025 Marco Ferreira, Marta Faustino http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The art more geometrico: Emotions, measure, and mixed art forms in Plato
The aim of this paper is to present some aspects of the correlation between tragedy and comedy from some passages of Platonic dialogues, in order to show that this connection goes back to three reasons: the cultural background from which the dialogues are inspired, where similar contaminations between tragedy and comedy are attested; the mixture of pleasure and pain, typical above all of mixed pleasures and disordered souls; the awareness of the above-mentioned mixtures, proper only to souls subject to the domain of reason. Moreover, there are some hints at the possibility of a philosophical drama, where problems of popular art are absent, thanks to the knowledge of reality.
Copyright (c) 2025 Claudia Maggi http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Ai Khanoum Papyrus, Xenocrates’and Aristotle’s Fragment: Some Textual and Exegetical Suggestions
In this article, I intend to reconstruct the current state of research concerning the Ai Khanoum papyrus, found in Afghanistan in 1977, which contains a fragment of a dialogue on a Platonic subject dating from the second half of the 3rd century BCE. By reviewing existing studies, I present new arguments in support of certain exegetical proposals. In particular, I adopt the theory that the doctrine discussed in this brief text can be traced back to Xenocrates, the scolarch of the Academy after Plato and Speusippus. Additionally, I support the position of those scholars who attribute the fragment to the lost Aristotelian work De philosophia, likely brought to Ai Khanoum in the 3rd century BCE by the Peripatetic Clearchus of Soli. This analysis also incorporates a newly proposed reconstruction of the Greek text, which is more closely aligned with the ink traces visible in photographs of the now-lost original, as well as a subsequent new Italian translation that accounts for the peculiarities and roughness of the Greek text.
Copyright (c) 2025 Davide Pasanisi http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Pherecydes of Syros: the one who didn't say everything in a mythical way
Aristotle tells us in Metaphysics that Pherecydes did not speak everything in mythological language (1091b8), because, in his dialogue with the mythical tradition, he provides us with a cosmology that is not only marked by action gods. In his narrative about the origin of the cosmos, Pherecydes presents original divine powers generating from elements such as water, air and fire. One of these divine powers, Zás, working with love, and not as a warrior, embroidering a cloak and transforming himself into Eros to be able to acquire the generating power of everything that is. Therefore, Pherecydes reformulates both the narratives regarding divine events and those about the emergence of the cosmos, not depending exclusively on action gods. In this work I intend to explain how Ferécides’thinking is inserted in the process of development of thought in the face of astonishment of what is.
Copyright (c) 2025 Cristiane Almeida de Azevedo http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The fable genre in Greco-Roman culture has popular and oral roots, establishing curious dialogues with poetic and philosophical traditions throughout its history. Our article addresses two fables that share certain elements of a story of human creation: the first, written in Greek and attributed to Aesop, is entitled "Two Bags" [Î á¿†ÏÎ±Î¹ Î´ÏÎ¿]; the other, composed in Latin by Phaedrus, is entitled "On the Vices of Human Beings" [De Vitiis Hominum]. We advance on philological bases to contextualize in historical terms each of these texts, in order to understand the interplay of meaning established by them, especially with the Cynic tradition (in the first case) and with the Roman political context (in the second). To this end, we undertake a careful reading of intertextual and reception issues.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rafael Guimarães Tavares da Silva, Sara Anjos http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Aristotle on μετὰ λο?γου capacities and voluntary animal locomotion. Part one: the psychic arguments
According to the dominant interpretation of the distinction between capacities that are "without-λόγος" (ἄλογοι) and capacities that are "with-λόγος" (μετὰ λόγου, Met., IX 2,1046a34-b2), the latter would be unique to human beings. We can find four arguments in defense of that thesis in the secondary bibliography. This article begins to mount a defense of an alternative reading of Aristotle’s theory that deals with two of these arguments. It will be succeeded by a second article that will deal with the other two arguments and present a positive argument for the alternative reading that tries to make it seem plausible - although not unassailable - in light of its own merits. According to this alternative reading, it is with the framework provided by Aristotle to explain the functioning of bidirectional capacities that we must explain the functioning of the capacity responsible for producing voluntary locomotion in all animals.
The argumentative progression of the three definitions of figure in the Meno
The article examines the three definitions of figure in Plato’s Meno, relating them to the analytical method of geometry. The first defines in perceptual terms (colors of surfaces), useful for initial identification but insufficient for rational explanations. The second abstracts figure as the limit of solids, offering clarity but violating the simplicity criterion by explaining something simple through something complex. The third, implicit definition, describes by the lines that delimit it, surpassing the previous ones by using a simple element with explanatory power. The ordering of the definitions reflects the analytical method of geometry and the Socratic method of generalizations.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rafael de Souza http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The enemies of the People in Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War: Euripides’Orestes and the rifts among the aristocrats
This article integrates theoretical concepts not typically associated with ancient history, including generation, elite theory, and the horizon of expectation (Erwartungshorizont). It examines how political tensions in ancient Athens are culturally expressed in theatre, focusing on Euripides’Orestes. Through the lens of historical consciousness and memory, the study explores how historical meaning is attributed and how existential temporality influences the interpretation of the past and present. The paper addresses whether rhetorical positions defending antidemocratic policies can be discerned in theatrical performances, identifying threats to democratic governance and the political arenas where crucial decisions are made. By analyzing Euripides’Orestes (lines 682-775), the article aims to uncover the city’s response to political crises during the Peloponnesian War.
Copyright (c) 2025 Guilherme Moerbeck http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The plague of Christianity: religious dispute and pandemic in a fragment of Against the Christians, by Porphyry of Tyre
This work discusses the religious clash between Christians and Pagans in the 3rd century CE based on a fragment of Against the Christians, by Porphyry of Tyre, cited by Eusebius of Caesarea. The focus is on blaming Christians for the Crisis of the third century, specifically in relation to the Plague of Cyprian, a pandemic that devastated several regions of the Empire and strengthened hostility against adherents of the Christian faith. The notion of ideology is used as a category of analysis, considering the inseparable nexus between material and spiritual aspects of social life.
Copyright (c) 2025 Sérgio Luiz Gusmão Gimenes Romero http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Errata: The art more geometrico: Emotions, measure, and mixed art forms in Plato
Palimpsest Sin. ar. NF 66: Presentation and Translation
This work has two objectives: to present a recent source on Orphism and to translate the Greek text into Portuguese. The Palimpsest Sin. ar. NF 66 shows two mythical narratives involving the young god Dionysus, the attempt to remove him from Zeus' throne, and a rare dialogue between Aphrodite and Persephone. The condition of the original document and clues in its content suggest ancient origins and relevance to the field of Orphic studies.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rafael César Pitt http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Lessons of love in Achilles Tatius: commentary, translation and notes by Leucippe and Clitophon I.7-15
We presente the trnaslation of a specific passage from the novel Leucippe and Clitophon, by Achilles Tatius: the scene in which the main character goes to meet his cousin Clinias and receives from him valuable teachings on seduction. This passage draws our attention because it dialogues with Roman erotic elegy, especially Ovid's Ars Amatoria, and because of its concise, unitary structure, which resonates like a short story within the novel. We have sought to recreate in our translation aesthetic and literary elements that resonate with these elements, especially the dynamism of the narrative, without losing the lyrical - or elegiac - nuances of the text.
Copyright (c) 2025 Emerson Cerdas http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Review of CONTE, Bruno Loureiro. A doxa no poema de Parmênides. Uma investigação a partir dos testemunhos antigos. São Paulo: Loyola, 2023, 274pp., ISBN 9786555042597
Copyright (c) 2025 Giovanni Casertano http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Review of Aldo Dinucci. Manual de Estoicismo: a visão estoica do mundo. Campinas: Editora Auster, 2023, 144pp., ISBN 9786587408651
Copyright (c) 2025 Joelson Nascimento http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Review of Hladký, Vojtěch. Rejoicing Sphairos, Wandering Daimon, and Other Living Beings. Studies on Empedocles’Philosophy of Life (and Death). Baden-Baden: Karl-Alber Verlag, 2025, 245pp., ISBN 9783495992920
Review of Sattler, Barbara M. (2020). The Concept of Motion in Ancient Greek Thought: Foundations in Logic, Method, and Mathematics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978‘1108745215
Copyright (c) 2025 Filip Karfík, Barbara M. Sattler http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0