Magic in Apuleius’ ›Apologia‹
Magic in Apuleius’ ›Apologia‹

Author: Leonardo Costantini

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2019-01-14

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 3110617528

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Despite the growing interest in Apuleius’ Apologia or Pro se de magia, a speech he delivered in AD 158/159 to defend himself against the charge of being a magus, the only comprehensive study on this speech and magic to date is that by Adam Abt (1908). The aim of this volume is to shed new light on the extent to which Apuleius’ speech reveals his own knowledge of magic, and on the implications of the dangerous allegations brought against Apuleius. By analysing the Apologia sequentially, the author does not only reassess Abt’s analysis but proposes a new reconstruction of the prosecution’s case, arguing that it is heavily distorted by Apuleius. Since ancient magic is the main topic of this speech, an extensive discussion of the topic is provided, offering a new semantic taxonomy of magus and its cognates. Finally, this volume also explores Apuleius’ forensic techniques and the Platonic ideology underpinning his speech. It is proposed that a Platonising reasoning – distinguishing between higher and lower concepts – lies at the core of Apuleius’ rhetorical strategy, and that Apuleius aims to charm the judge, the audience and, ultimately, his readers with the irresistible power of his arguments.

Abandoned to Lust
Abandoned to Lust

Author: Jennifer Wright Knust

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 0231136625

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Early Christians used charges of adultery, incest, and lascivious behavior to demonize their opponents, police insiders, resist pagan rulers, and define what it meant to be a Christian. Christians frequently claimed that they, and they alone were sexually virtuous, comparing themselves to those marked as outsiders, especially non-believers and "heretics," who were said to be controlled by lust and unable to rein in their carnal desires. True or not, these charges allowed Christians to present themselves as different from and morally superior to those around them. Through careful, innovative readings, Jennifer Knust explores the writings of Paul, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons, and other early Christian authors who argued that Christ alone made self-mastery possible. Rejection of Christ led to both immoral sexual behavior and, ultimately, alienation and punishment from God. Knust considers how Christian writers participated in a long tradition of rhetorical invective, a rhetoric that was often employed to defend status and difference. Christians borrowed, deployed, and reconfigured classical rhetorical techniques, turning them against their rulers to undercut their moral and political authority. Knust also examines the use of accusations of licentiousness in conflicts between rival groups of Christians. Portraying rival sects as depraved allowed accusers to claim their own group as representative of "true Christianity." Knust's book also reveals the ways in which sexual slurs and their use in early Christian writings reflected cultural and gendered assumptions about what constituted purity, morality, and truth. In doing so, Abandoned to Lust highlights the complex interrelationships between sex, gender, and sexuality within the classical, biblical, and early-Christian traditions.

Florida
Florida

Author: Apuleius

Publisher: Brill

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13:

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In recent years there has been growing interest in Apuleius' works. Notably his famous novel Metamorphoses and his speeches are increasingly appreciated as the special products of a Second Sophist writing in Latin. In the Florida, a collection of 23 excerpts of speeches, we have a unique example of Roman demonstrative rhetoric. In the text we see Apuleius performing before great audiences, and even in the theatre of Carthage. He delivers speeches on topics as diverse as the eye of the eagle, the inventions of Hippias, or the distinctive features of the parrot. The speaker's wide literary talents, his education and health, and his excellent relations with Carthage and the audience at large, are all put on display with manifest pride. This makes the Florida an indispensable text for anyone interested in second century Latin literature, Second Sophistic, culture and education in Roman Africa, or the author Apuleius. A modern commentary on this brilliant collection has been a desideratum in Apuleian scholarship for a long time. Vincent Hunink has now edited the Florida with an extensive English commentary, in which the literary and rhetorical features of the text are highlighted. Particular attention is paid to the strategies of the speaker and to his exquisite, extravagant style, full of rare or newly coined words and richly adorned with effects of sound and rhythm. Each of the 23 fragments is given a separate introduction, followed by a detailed commentary. The new edition enables readers to gain a better understanding of Apuleius as the great sophist and showman that he was. The volume contains an introduction, a Latin text (based on Helm's Teubner text, but with numerous returns to the text of the manuscripts), a commentary (150 pages), bibliography and indices.