By Torches, Bones, and Temples

Material Metonyms in Personal Oaths in Latin Literature

Författare

  • Olivia Peukert Stock Lunds universitet

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54797/tfl.v53i2-3.16657

Nyckelord:

eder, ed, latinsk litteratur, Antikens Rom, romersk litteratur, materialitet, agency, swearing, edsformel, materiellt språk, fysiskt språk, objektifierande formuleringar, latin, poesi

Abstract

By Torches, Bones, and Temples: Material Metonyms in Personal Oaths in Latin Literature

Oath-taking during Roman Antiquity constitutes a telling example of how words and matter interplay and relate to one another. Ancient Latin literature provides a myriad of representations of oaths sworn, both fictive and supposedly historical, where matter somehow figure in the procedure. In this study, a selection of personal oaths from Roman literature are explored in terms of materiality and agency. All chosen oath examples are portrayed as sworn by something material employed as conceptual metonyms using the stylistic literary features concretum pro abstracto (“the concrete for the abstract”) and pars pro toto (“the part for the whole”). The present article aims to demonstrate that Roman authors’ choice of swearing/having their characters swear by matter has the ability to steer the audience’s interpretation of the oath portrayed, and produce agency within that context, thus increasing the power and efficacy of the oath.

Nedladdningar

Nedladdningsdata är inte tillgängliga än.

Författarbiografi

Olivia Peukert Stock, Lunds universitet

Doktorand i latin vid Lunds universitet och arbetar för närvarande med en avhandling som behandlar olika aspekter av materialitet i antika romerska eder och edsritualer.

Referenser

N.B. Original ancient literary and epigraphic sources are not included in the bibliography, but referenced to in the notes in accordance with the Abbreviation List found in Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th ed. https://oxfordre.com/classics/page/ocdabbreviations/abbreviations.

Agamben, Giorgio. The Sacrament of Language: An Archaeology of the Oath. Translated by Adam Kotsko. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011.

Blidstein, Moshe. “Invoking Humans in Roman-Era Oaths: Emotional Relations and Divine Ambiguity.” Numen 68, no. 4 (2021): 382–410. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341629. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341629

Blidstein, Moshe. “Loosing Vows and Oaths in the Roman Empire and Beyond: Authority and Interpretation.” Archiv für Religionsgeschichte 18 (2018): 275–304. https://doi.org/10.1515/arege-2018-0016. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/arege-2018-0016

Blidstein, Moshe. “Oaths as a Medium for Inter-Communal Contact in the Roman Empire.” Historia 72, no. 1 (2023): 86–108. https://doi.org/10.25162/historia-2023-0004. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25162/historia-2023-0004

Bruun, Christer & Edmondson, Jonathan. “The Epigrapher at Work.” In The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, edited by Christer Bruun & Jonathan Edmondson, 3–20. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195336467.013.001

Chioffi, Laura. “Death and Burial.” In The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, edited by Christer Bruun & Jonathan Edmondson, 627–648. New York/ Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195336467.013.029

Collard, Cristopher & Cropp, Martin. Fragments. Oedipus–Chrysippus. Other Fragments. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009.

Corbeill, Anthony. Nature Embodied. Gesture in Ancient Rome. Princeton/Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2005. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691187808

Frankfurter, David. “Magic and the Forces of Materiality.” In Guide to the Study of Ancient Magic, edited by David Frankfurter, 659–677. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004390751_025

Giannakis, George. “The ‘Fate-as-Spinner’ motif: A Study on the Poetic and Metaphorical Language of Ancient Greek and Indo-European (Part I).” Indogermanische Forschungen 103 (1998): 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110243444.1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110243444.1

Graham, Emma-Jayne. Reassembling Religion in Roman Italy. London/New York: Routledge, 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315270562

Hersch, Karen. The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511762086. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511762086

Hickson, Frances. Roman Prayer Language: Livy and the Aneid of Vergil. Stuttgart: B.G. Teubner, 1993. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-663-12346-0

Hirzel, Rudolf. Der Eid: ein Beitrag zu seiner Geschichte. Leipzig: Verlag von S. Hirzel, 1902.

Hölkeskamp, Karl-Joachim. Reconstructing the Roman Republic: An Ancient Political Culture and Modern Research. Translated by Henry Heimann-Gordon. Princeton: Princeton University Press, [2004] 2010. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400834907

King, Charles. The Ancient Roman Afterlife: Di Manes, Belief, and the Cult of the Dead. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2020.

Lakoff, George & Johnson, Mark. Metaphors we live by. Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press, 1980.

Lewis, Charlton & Short, Charles. A Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1879. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059.

Mallory, James Patrick. “Indo-European Warfare.” Journal of Conflict Archaeology 2, no. 1 (2006): 77–98; https://www.jstor.org/stable/48601908. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/157407706778942312

McKie, Stuart. “The Legs, Hands, Head and Legs Race: The Human Body as a Magical Weapon in the Roman World.” In Occult Objects and Supernatural Substances, edited by Adam Parker & Stuart McKie, 115–125. Oxford/Havertown: Oxbow Books, 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh1dnfj.13

McKie, Stuart. Living and Cursing in the Roman West: Curse Tablets and Society. London: Bloomsbury, 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350103023

Parker, Adam & McKie, Stuart. “Introduction: Materials, Approaches, Substances, and Objects.” In Material Approaches to Roman Magic: Occult Objects and Supernatural Substances, edited by Adam Parker & Stuart McKie, 1–8. Oxford/Havertown: Oxbow Books, 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh1dnfj.4

Parker, Adam & McKie, Stuart. Occult Objects and Supernatural Substances. Oxford/Havertown: Oxbow Books, 2018.

Peukert Stock, Olivia. “’Pro Iuppiter!’: Oaths in Roman Comedy.” New Classicists 7 (2022): 4–28. https://www.newclassicists.com/publications.

Pölönen, Janne. “Religion in Law’s Domain: Recourse to Supernatural Agents in Litigation, Dispute Resolution, and Pursuits of Justice under the Early Roman Empire.” RIDA 65 (2018), 163–193.

Radden, Günther & Kövecses, Zoltán. “Towards a Theory of Metonymy”. In Metonymy in Language and Thought, edited by Klaus-Uwe Panther & Günther Radden, 17–59. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamin’s Publishing Company, 1999. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.4.03rad

Reekmans, Louis. “La dextrarum iunctio dans l’iconographie romaine et paléochrétienne.” Bulletin de l’Institut Historique Belge de Rome 31 (1958): 23–95.

Reinsberg, Carola. Die Sarkophage mit Darstellungen aus dem Menschenleben. Vita Romana. Die Antiken Sarkophagreliefs 1, Dritter Teil. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 2006.

Sommerstein, Alan. “What is an Oath?” In Oaths and Swearing in Ancient Greece, edited by Alan Sommerstein & Isabelle Torrance, 1–5. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1515%2F9783110227369. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110227369

Walker, Susan. Memorials to the Roman dead. London: BMP, 1985.

Watson, Alan. The State, Law and Religion: Pagan Rome. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1992.

Watson, George Ronald. The Roman Soldier. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1969.

Publicerad

2024-05-17

Referera så här

Peukert Stock, O. (2024). By Torches, Bones, and Temples: Material Metonyms in Personal Oaths in Latin Literature. Tidskrift för Litteraturvetenskap, 53(2-3). https://doi.org/10.54797/tfl.v53i2-3.16657

Liknande artiklar

<< < 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 > >> 

Du kanske också starta en avancerad sökning efter liknande artiklar för den här artikeln.