LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY IN THE GREEK WORLD

This lecture course is part of the MA Degree Programme in Antiquities (Philology curriculum). It allows students to further their knowledge and understanding of the historical evolution of Ancient Greek through a specialist lecture course. The course aims to train specialists able to analyse and discuss with competence the diachronic evolution of the language within its socio-historical and cultural context, also in the light of the latest linguistic methodologies.

By attending this course students will be able to:
- FURTHER their ability to recognize and discuss the main linguistic elements characterizing the historical evolution of Greek, from the Hellenistic period to the 2nd century CE;
- FURTHER their ability to critically analyze the details of the main phono-morphological, syntactic and lexical features of Greek, especially as concerns the koine and Atticising Greek;
- FAMILIARITY with the literary language of Imperial rhetoric;
- LEARN how to connect Greek linguistic phenomena to wider historical, cultural, and identity trends;
- ACQUIRE the ability to critically read, interpret and discuss the modern linguistic theories concerning the relationship between language and society;
- ACQUIRE first-hand experience in reading, understanding, commenting, and editing literary and non-literary texts of the Hellenistic and imperial periods.

- Adequate knowledge of Ancient Greek.
- Adequate knowledge of English (the course will be taught in English).
- Some familiarity with the main linguistic concepts (phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon, semantics).

This year's course focuses on the figure of Aelius Aristides, a rhetor and prose-writer of the imperial age, perhaps the leading exponent of the Second Sophistic movement. The focus of the course will be Aristides' work that has exerted the greatest influence on posterity and modern criticism: the Sacred Tales. Through this work, the figure of Aristides and his place in the cultural climate of the time will be investigated in light of the various modern approaches to the question of his illness, his relationship with Asclepius, and his description of it in the 'intimate diary' of the Sacred Tales. We will explore Aristides' relationship with contemporary medicine, his use of vocabulary, his conception of illness and of the rhetor's 'divine mission,' and the glimpses that this important work opens up on contemporary intellectual controversies. Aristides' work will also allow us to focus on the role of rhetors and their approach to literary language and the broader question of Greek identity in this period, to reflect on the multiple connections between language use (and a certain variety within it) and phenomena of broad cultural scope, such as the representation of power, the role of the intellectual, the self-definition of cultural elites, and the imitation (mimesis) and canonization of texts and figures from the past. In discussing Aristides' stylistic choices, we will ask how the language of the texts reflects the self-representation of an intellectual class living in a moment of crisis and redefinition of Greek identity in the context of the Roman empire. To this end, in addition to the literary texts we will also focus on some epigraphic texts that testify both to the spread of the 'sophistic' movement throughout the Greek-speaking world and to how these figures participated in the life of sanctuaries such as the Asclepieion of Pergamum. These inscriptions are a valuable direct source on the self-representation (by means of topoi, language, and iconographic choices) of the intellectuals of the time.
The figure of Aristides will also be analyzed in light of Philostratus' portrayal of him (Lives of the Sophists 2.9).

A) Greek texts (for alternative translations, into English, please contact the lecturer):

- Philostratus, Lives of the sophists, LOEB Classical Library. The parts to study and translate are:
Book 1: Introduction.
Book 2: lives 1, 3, 9).
The critical edition is C. L. Kayser, Flavii Philostrati opera. Vol. II. Lipsia, Teubner, 1871 (see Moodle).

- Aelius Aristides, Sacred Tales. Translation in Charles A. Behr. P. Aelius Aristides: Orations 17.-53. Leiden: Brill, 1981.
- further short passages from literary works and epigraphic texts will be provided through handouts on Moodle and will be translated and commented in class.

B) Reading list
- S. Kaczko, La koiné, in A. C. Cassio, a c. di, Storia delle lingue letterarie greche, Firenze: Le Monnier, 2016, pp. 385-423.
- S. Swain, Hellenism and Empire: Language, Classicism, and Power in the Greek World, AD 50-250. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1996. (especially the chapter on Aristides).
- Parts (TBA) from J. Downie, At the limits of art: A literary study of Aelius Aristides' Hieroi Logoi. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
- Parts (TBA) from A. Petsalis-Diomidis, Truly beyond wonders: Aelius Aristides and the cult of Asklepios. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
- Parts (TBA) from I. Israelowich, Society, medicine and religion in the Sacred Tales of Aelius Aristides. Leiden ; Boston: 2012.
- Parts (TBA) from W.V. Harris, B. Holmes (eds.), Aelius Aristides between Greece, Rome, and the Gods. Boston: Brill, 2008.

Oral examination. Questions will concern both the general part and the Greek texts (to be read, translated and commented upon).

Lectures with further textual material provided by the lecturer and uploaded on Moodle. Powerpoint presentations.

Italian

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