Ancient Emotions

Ricerche su assetti, arredi, percezione nella basilica dell'agorà di Iasos

by Diego Peirano

in: «Bollettino dell’associazione Iasos di Caria», n. 17 (2011), pp. 10-16. ISSN: 1972-8832

Amboni iasii: una rilettura con due inediti

by Diego Peirano

Co-authored with Elisa Garberoglio, in: Atti dell'Accademia delle Scienze di Ferrara, Iasos, vol. 88, a.a. 2010-2011, p. 339-358.

Bruit et émotion dans la littérature akkadienne (enquête lexicale)

by Anne-Caroline Rendu Loisel

Thèse de doctorat en Langues et Civilisations de la Mésopotamie ancienne, sous la direction du Professeur Antoine Cavigneaux. Thèse soutenue le 12 Mars 2011
Jury : Antoine Cavigneaux (Université de Genève, Directeur de thèse)
Philippe Borgeaud (Université de Genève, Président de Jury)
Maria-Grazia Masetti-Rouault (EPHE-Paris)
Brigitte Lion (Université de Tours)
Benjamin R. Foster (Université de Yale)

À la suite d’un mémoire de DEA consacré à la perception et aux cinq sens dans la littérature suméro-akkadienne, il... more À la suite d’un mémoire de DEA consacré à la perception et aux cinq sens dans la littérature suméro-akkadienne, il s’agissait d’étudier du point de vue du lexique et des images littéraires, les rapports entre le bruit et les émotions en Mésopotamie ancienne. L’étude du bruit s’intègre dans une anthropologie du paysage sonore qui témoigne d’une réflexion de l’homme sur son propre environnement et la manière dont il se l’est approprié par la voix. L’étude du vocabulaire révèle les différents mécanismes de la langue akkadienne pour décrire les phénomènes sonores (réduplication, redoublement, onomatopées…). Les traités de divination décrivent toute une mosaïque sonore du quotidien en suggérant la charge affective des sons. L’imaginaire sonore de la douleur est construit autour de l’amertume des larmes, mais aussi du mugissement, du braiement, ou du grondement. Le cri de fureur, quant à lui, est un mal dont il faut se prémunir. Le monstrueux et le sauvage, associés à l’inarticulé qui les caractérise, en sont une source inépuisable d’images. Le bruit et les modulations de la voix de l’officiant se font aussi arme efficace dans le cadre de certains rituels. Les perspectives de recherches à l’issue de ce doctorat sont nombreuses (poésie, expériences sensorielles, silence…) et laissent entrevoir l’immense travail qui reste à accomplir pour approfondir notre connaissance de la culture et des hommes du Proche-Orient ancien.

Relire les émotions de Dionysos à l’époque impériale: de Plutarque aux chrétiens

by Francesco Massa

in «Mythos. Rivista di Storia delle Religioni» 4 n.s. (2010), pp. 83-98.

Dionysus was a god with various emotions: his pitiless rage against his enemies was often accompanied by an apparent... more Dionysus was a god with various emotions: his pitiless rage against his enemies was often accompanied by an apparent calm and an imperturbable smile. This set of behaviour and emotions, which characterizes the god's literary representations, has become, time by time, a subject matter both of literature and philosophy during the Roman Empire as well as of Christian apologetics in the first centuries. The interpretation of Dionysus' character and nature also led to explicate the value of his emotional states in different ways. From this, numerous reading typologies derive: from the – originally Platonic – attempt to contain the god's excesses, to the Christian intent to use these aspects for polemical scopes.

Just Wars, Angry Wars, Democratic Wars: the Athenian Model.

by Giulia Sissa

This paper is an expanded version of my my contribution to an International Conference, held in Paris, 15 - 16 - 17 November 2007,
at the Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art:

Les femmes, le feminin et le politique apres Nicole Loraux

The event was co-sponsored by: Equipe Pheacie, Centre Louis Gernet, UMR Genre, Travail, Mobilites; Reseau Interdisciplinaire et Interuniversitaire National sur le Genre.
The proceedings are now published in the "Discussion Series" of the Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University.

Founded on the principle of freedom of all, a democratic city cannot, purely and simply,sport imperial expansion,... more Founded on the principle of freedom of all, a democratic city cannot, purely and simply,sport imperial expansion, aimed at the domination of others. In words (at least) a democratic
war has to be waged to protect freedom, or to make liberty equally shared. Athens therefore invented that self-applauding, and now trite, argument that, when fought on behalf of democracy, a war is always just. Or, in the language of the Greeks, it is beautiful, noble, worthy of praise. Firstly, it will always be intended for self-protection (and, later, security) even when it consists of the most aggressive intervention in, or against, other cities. Secondly, it will always be conducted for the sake of somebody else: allies, and preferably weaker or offended parties. Democratic wars preserve, by definition, the principles of democracy. Thirdly, in the oratory of a prominent speech-writer, who composes his arguments after 403, every democratic war reenacts – in the virtually infinite extension of liberty of all – a foundational struggle, the one which is praiseworthy above all, the democratic revolution. Lysias’ montage of Athenian history from the stand point, and on behalf, of democracy restored, will be our focus. But not simply as a narrative.
Because democracy operates through speech-acts, and because felicitous speech-acts are made up of moving arguments, the life of democracy requires an orchestration of the
passions. In Lysias’ language on war, we can see a particularly powerful emotional component. If a righteous war is defensive, it has to be vindictive. The narrative and explanation of conflicts fit the pattern of the most political of human emotions: anger, as the honorable wish to punish an undeserved offense. To present a war – and, what is less obvious, a civil war – as just means to claim that it is, indeed, an act of retaliation, justified by an assault, that was unjustified in the first place; the emotional effect of this claim is to feel anger, and to arouse it in the audience. The rhetoric of the just war is a rhetoric of anger. Democratic wars are angry wars.
Now, anger is the quintessentially aristocratic, Homeric and tragic passion, felt by gods,heroes and kings. Anger, Aristotle claims, is the response to an unmerited slight, by all those who merit recognition, even deference, thus cannot endure disrespect. The anger of the People, which Lysias’ oratory stokes with great verve, is part of a peculiar feature of Atheniandemocracy: the appropriation of the values and the discourse of the archaic, pan-Hellenic, nobility. Beyond the obvious paradigm of the resistance to the Persian invasion, another foundational war can be seen at the horizon of fourth century political culture: the Trojan War, that long story of a mênis, the “numinous” wrath of a slighted warrior, but also the tale of a vindictive and righteous expedition.

From Homininity to Humanity: Compassion from the Earliest Archaics to Modern Humans

by Andy Needham

Spikins, P., Rutherford, H. and Needham, A. (2010) 'From Homininity to Humanity: Compassion from the Earliest Archaics to Modern Humans' in Time and Mind, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 303-325.

We are increasingly aware of the role of emotions and emotional construction in social relationships. However, despite... more We are increasingly aware of the role of emotions and emotional construction in social relationships. However, despite their significance, there are few constructs or theoretical approaches to the evolution of emotions that can be related to the prehistoric archaeological record. Whilst we frequently discuss how archaic humans might have thought, how they felt might seem to be beyond the realm of academic inquiry. In this paper we aim to open up the debate into the construction of emotion in early prehistory by proposing key stages in the emotional motivation to help others; the feeling of compassion, in human evolution. We review existing literature on compassion and highlight what appear to be particularly significant thresholds in the development of compassion for human social relationships and the evolution of the human mind.