Maurizio Bettini

A che servono i greci e i romani

Homo sum. Essere «umani» nel mondo antico

Was meinen wir eigentlich, wenn wir von unseren »Wurzeln« sprechen? In unsicheren Zeiten beschwören wir (statt der Zukunft) gern Geschichte und Tradition, unser kulturelles Erbe, die gemeinsame Identität. Doch Bilder und Metaphern sind keineswegs unschuldig. Mit dem der »Wurzeln« – so Bettini – drücken wir aus, dass unsere Welt so bleiben soll, wie sie ist. Wir wehren uns gegen Wandel und grenzen uns von anderen ab, deren eigenen kulturellen Wurzeln wir keineswegs dieselbe Wertschätzung entgegenbringen. Die Metapher suggeriert etwas Naturgegebenes, im wahrsten Sinne »Fundamentales«, eine quasi automatische Zugehörigkeit. Dabei wissen wir eigentlich, dass auch unsere Kultur wie alle anderen durch Aneignung, Wandel und Vermischung mit fremden Einflüssen entstanden ist; dass die vielzitierte kollektive Erinnerung oft nicht mehr ist als persönliche Nostalgie. Mit funkelnder Ironie umkreist Bettini die vielen Spielarten unserer neuen identitären Obsession: von wiederentdeckten, wenn nicht gar erfundenen Traditionen bis zur Inflation von Gedenktagen, vom Kult der Authentizität und Ursprünglichkeit bis zur Idealisierung von Großmutters Küche.

Die trügerischen Mythen der Identität

Wurzeln

William Michael Short

The culmination of a project aimed at showcasing, in a systematic way, the potential of applying anthropological perspectives to classical studies, this volume highlights the fundamental contribution this approach has to make to our understanding of ancient Roman culture. Through the close study of themes such as myth, polytheism, sacrifice, magic, space, kinship, the gift, friendship, economics, animals, plants, riddles, metaphors, and images in Roman society (often in comparison with Greece) - where the texts of ancient culture are allowed to speak in their own terms and where the experience of the natives (rather than the horizon of the observer) is privileged - a rich panorama emerges of the worldview, beliefs, and deep structures that shaped and guided this culture.

Anthropological Approaches to Ancient Culture

The World through Roman Eyes

If you told a woman her sex had a shared, long-lived history with weasels, she might deck you. But those familiar with mythology know better: that the connection between women and weasels is an ancient and favorable one, based in the Greek myth of a midwife who tricked the gods to ease Heracles’s birth—and was turned into a weasel by Hera as punishment. Following this story as it is retold over centuries in literature and art, Women and Weasels takes us on a journey through mythology and ancient belief, revising our understanding of myth, heroism, and the status of women and animals in Western culture. Maurizio Bettini recounts and analyzes a variety of key literary and visual moments that highlight the weasel’s many attributes. We learn of its legendary sexual and childbearing habits and symbolic association with witchcraft and midwifery, its role as a domestic pet favored by women, and its ability to slip in and out of tight spaces. The weasel, Bettini reveals, is present at many unexpected moments in human history, assisting women in labor and thwarting enemies who might plot their ruin. With a parade of symbolic associations between weasels and women—witches, prostitutes, midwives, sisters-in-law, brides, mothers, and heroes—Bettini brings to life one of the most venerable and enduring myths of Western culture.

Mythologies of Birth in Ancient Greece and Rome

Women and Weasels

Though in many respects similar to us moderns, the Greeks and Romans often conceived things differently than we do. The cultural inheritance we have received from them can therefore open our eyes to many "manners of life" we might otherwise overlook. The ancients told fascinating-but different-stories; they elaborated profound-but different-symbols. Above all, they confronted many of the problems we still face today-memory and forgetfulness; identity and its strategies; absolutist moralism and behavioral relativity-only in profoundly different ways, since their own cultural forms and resources were different. In The Ears of Hermes: Communication, Images, and Identity in the Classical World, renowned scholar and author Maurizio Bettini explores these different cultural experiences, choosing paths through this territory that are diverse and sometimes unexpected: a little-known variant of a myth or legend, such as that of Brutus pretending, like Hamlet, to be a Fool; a proverb, like lupus in fabula (the wolf in the tale), that expresses the sense of foreboding aroused by the sudden arrival of someone who was just the subject of conversation; or great works, like Plautus' Amphitruo and Vergil's Aeneid, where we encounter the mysteries of the Doppelgänger and of "doubles" fabricated to ease the pain of nostalgia. Or the etymology of a word-its own "story"-leads us down some unforeseen avenue of discovery. While scholarly in presentation, this book, in an elegant English translation by William Michael Short, will appeal not only to classicists but also students, as well as to anthropologists and historians of art and literature beyond classics.

Communication, Images, and Identity in the Classical World

The Ears of Hermes

Il senso di umanità dei Greci e dei Romani era migliore del nostro? Quale posto occuperebbe nel mondo antico la Dichiarazione universale del 1948? Intanto nel canale di Sicilia non si soccorrono i naufraghi. Nel medesimo luogo ove Enea, diretto in Italia, fu soccorso da Didone.

Homo sum

Giulio Guidorizzi

Todo sucede en un camino. En un camino un niño fue abandonado para morir. en un camino un joven mató a un hombre mayor que él. en un camino el homicida fue retado por un monstruo con cuerpo de león y cabeza de mujer a que resolviese un enigma: el hombre ganó y se convirtió en rey. Por un camino, o mejor, por muchos caminos, el mismo hombre arrastró sus pies de viejo ciego apoyado en un bastón, con la única compañía de su hija. El camino, que tantas veces reaparece en el mito de Edipo, no es sólo una metáfora de la vida, sino también el símbolo del tiempo que avanza y de la identidad que se transforma. No existe, pues, un solo Edipo, sino que existen muchos. Múltiples y singulares son las identidades que el mito ha asumido a lo largo de los siglos: de la máscara arcaica y tribal a la desdichada y sufriente de Sófocles y Séneca. del Edipo medieval a la tragedia moderna de los dramas de Tesauro y Voltaire. de los enigmas y de los oráculos a los sueños y a los lapsus. Pero es en el siglo XX cuando toma cuerpo el «nuevo» Edipo: un héroe que ya no lucha contra el destino sino contra una parte desconocida e irresistible de sí mismo. se transforma en un personaje difícil y atormentado, un hombre moderno con una oscura personalidad. Freud, al fundar el psicoanálisis, escoge justamente al Edipo del drama griego como símbolo de otro tipo de drama, convirtiéndolo en el mito fundador de una visión distinta del hombre y de su famoso «complejo»: desde entonces la culpa es necesidad y el Hado se transforma en el Inconsciente. Aunando relato (Maurizio Bettini), ensayo (Guido Guidorizzi) e iconografía, estamos, sin duda, ante un fantástico y original estudio de historia cultural.

El mito de Edipo

Luigi Spina

immagini e racconti dalla Grecia a oggi

Il mito delle sirene

Prés. de l'éd.: La nostra vita è immersa nei suoni. Clacson di automobili, squilli di cellulari, urli o mormorii televisivi, un'infinità di rumori e voci umane della cui esistenza non ci accorgiamo neppure piú se non quando, bruscamente, cessano. La nostra vita si svolge all'interno di una vera e propria fonosfera. E nel mondo antico? Qual era la fonosfera degli antichi? Vengono subito in mente quelle sonorità che il mondo antico possedeva e che noi, invece, abbiamo perduto, come il colpo di martello dei fabbri, lo strepito delle macine dei mugnai, il cigolio dei carri, il suono della frusta per "far di conto". Ancor piú presenti, però, erano le voci degli animali, ossia latrati, ragli, nitriti, belati, grugniti, cinguettii, ma anche il caccabare delle pernici, il iubilare dei nibbi, il gannire delle volpi, il drindrare delle donnole. Queste voci risultavano piú udibili non solo perché la fonosfera dei nostri antenati era meno fragorosa della nostra, ma soprattutto perché le si voleva ascoltare. Gli antichi le consideravano infatti messaggi di buono o cattivo augurio, che predicevano il futuro o annunciavano le stagioni; mentre i canti degli uccelli, in particolare, erano capaci di resuscitare nella mente tracce di antichi miti e di fornire a musicisti e poeti uno straordinario serbatoio di "memorie sonore". Per riascoltare oggi queste voci scomparse e le infinite storie che ancora raccontano, l'unica via da seguire passa attraverso la testimonianza scritta: bisogna stanarle là dove si nascondono. Questo libro è dunque un viaggio in un mondo di voci ormai mute per sempre. Voci di animali ma anche voci di uomini, voci che non possiamo piú udire perché il tempo le ha ormai inghiottite; ma la cui registrazione scritta, rintracciata in testi remoti e spesso poco noti, conserva immagini e memorie di grande fascino. Il risultato è uno schizzo di antropologia sonora, una musica piena di ritmo in cui, ancora per una volta, risuonano canti di uccelli, grida di animali e lontane parole di uomini.

antropologia sonora del mondo antico

Voci

I classici nell'età dell'indiscrezione

Carlo Brillante

Hija del padre de todos los dioses y criatura de extraordinaria belleza, Helena es uno de los personajes más conocidos de la literatura clásica, inspirador de numerosos relatos y leyendas. La Ilíada y la Odisea, naturalmente, pero también dos célebres episodios de la Eneida, las tragedias de Esquilo y Eurípides, un drama satírico de Sófocles y dos palinodias de Estesícoro. Su belleza fue cantada por Safo y por Alceo, recordada por Heródoto en su Historia y por Hesíodo en el Catálogo de las mujeres. Su leyenda goza de una notable fortuna en el Oriente bizantino y, como modelo de mujer seductora, atraviesa el Medievo para renacer en tiempos más recientes en el Fausto de Goethe y en las óperas y las músicas de Gluck, Berlioz y Saint-Saëns. A comienzos del siglo XX, una Helena «callada y serena como la luna, sobre el fuego y la sangre» aparece retratada en los Poemi conviviali de Giovanni Pascoli, mientras su imagen, influida por el psicoanálisis, es celebrada en la obra de Hofmannsthal a la que puso música Strauss. El rostro de Helena y el relato de su historia cambian a lo largo del tiempo y se desmenuzan de versión en versión: ¿es Helena la infiel causante de la guerra de Troya, o es la mujer de Esparta ligada a las fiestas de la primavera y a la esposa de mayo? ¿Es una diosa o un daimon? ¿Es una meretriz o una mujer seductora? ¿Es una o son dos? Todos conocen el mito de la bella Helena, o, al menos, creen que lo conocen. No obstante, con el mito siempre merece la pena volver a empezar. Así, de la mano del relato, el ensayo y la iconografía, el lector se adentrará en uno de los mitos más antiguos e importantes de la cultura europea.

El mito de Helena

Cristiana Franco

Il mito di Circe

Fille de Zeus, créature d'une beauté extraordinaire, Hélène, pour qui se battirent Grecs et Troyens, est l'un des personnages les plus captivants de la mythologie antique. L'Iliade, l'Odyssée, bien sûr, mais aussi les tragiques grecs et l'Enéide de Virgile l'ont célébrée. Sa beauté, chantée par Sappho et Alcée, mentionnée par Hérodote, Hésiode, Stésichore et tant d'autres, a aussi connu la fortune dans l'Orient byzantin avant de venir jusqu'à nous. Ce modèle de la femme séductrice a traversé l'époque médiévale pour revivre à l'âge moderne dans l'opéra, la poésie, le cinéma. Au fil du temps l'art s'écarte peu à peu de l'image idéale du mythe pour évoquer le corps d'Hélène, sa féminité troublante et sa force de séduction. Chaque époque, chaque version lui donne un nouveau visage ou une histoire inédite. Et le mystère demeure. Femme infidèle ? Victime d'un rapt ? Héroïne spartiate des fêtes du printemps ? Déesse ou démon ? Y avait-il une ou deux Hélène ?

Le mythe d'Hélène

Le mythe évoqué est celui de Circé, la magicienne qui transforma en cochons les compagnons d'Ulysse qui abordèrent sur son île. La figure de la magicienne-femme, à la fois éprise et maîtresse de l'homme réduit au statut d'animal, trouve aussi ses semblables dans des folklores d'autres cultures. Surtout, elle s'est perpétuée sous diverses formes à travers les siècles, passant curieusement de l'image de sorcière maléfique à celle de "femme libre".

Le mythe de Circé

How did Roman family relationships differ from our own? What metaphors did the Romans use to express abstractions such as time? What can we learn from the cultural symbols of their religion and literature? In Anthropology and Roman Culture, Maurizio Bettini employs the methods of structural anthropology to examine a series of social, ethical, and religious issues characteristic of Roman culture in the classical period. Bettini begins by examining the system of kinship within the extended Roman family. He shows how the "stern" Roman father and "indulgent" Roman mother had their exact counterparts elsewhere in the family: the harsh "father's brother" (patruus) and the tolerant "mother's brother" (avunculus). He discusses the complex Roman spatial conception of time (in which the future, for instance, could be said to lie "behind" as well as "ahead" of us), applying his findings in an analysis of Roman literature and culture. And he examines the cultural symbolism of the bee, the butterfly, and the bat, all of which served to represent the survival of the human soul after death. Recent classical scholarship has seen the successful application of an anthropological approach to Greek studies. Maurizio Bettini has shown the ways in which this practice can benefit Roman studies as well. Drawing on a wide range of literary and documentary sources, Anthropology and Roman Culture is now available for the first time in English translation.

Kinship, Time, Images of the Soul

Anthropology and Roman Culture

A large collection of stories where one of a pair of separated lovers retains a portrait or some other image of the absent beloved, all discussed with vivid intelligence and zestful appreciation for their emotional punch and tonal variety.

Maurizio Bettini

Books

Your next favorite book is out there