Chiara Ferella and Cilliers Breytenbach (Eds.), Paths of Knowledge. Interconnection(s) between Knowledge and Journey in the Greco-Roman World, Berlin: Edition Topoi, 2018

Abstract

This volume is mainly concerned with two conceptual spheres of experience, the journey and knowledge, and how they interconnect in ancient Greco-Roman representations and texts. It is a collection of papers presented at the International Conference ‘Paths of Knowledge in Antiquity’ that was hosted in Berlin in December 2016. The papers provide case-studies from the Greco-Roman world that exemplify the interconnection between the two conceptual domains from two perspectives. First, focusing on actual journeys and concrete paths aimed at knowledge acquisition, such as literary quest stories, nostoi, training paths, historical voyages, and the like. Second, using metaphorical mapping, in which elements included in the conceptual domain of knowledge are depicted as connected figuratively to the domain of the journey. However, it turns out that these two approaches, despite being useful starting points for textual analysis, are often so deeply intertwined with one another that it is difficult to separate them. Actual journeys often become metaphors for the path towards knowledge acquisition. In turn, journey metaphors are essential for depicting unfamiliar and abstract physical processes and are, therefore, used in theoretical constructions, as it were, literally. Finally, the two directions also divide to reveal a third perspective: the metaphorical path to knowledge becomes the pathway through the text, namely the path on which a reader and author set out upon together. The contributions of this volume clearly show to what extent the macro-theme of the journey is essential for the narrative of knowledge acquisition.

Content

7–17 Chiara Ferella, "Introduction", in: Chiara Ferella and Cilliers Breytenbach (Eds.), Paths of Knowledge. Interconnection(s) between Knowledge and Journey in the Greco-Roman World, Berlin: Edition Topoi, 2018, 7–17
19–33 Elizabeth Stockdale, "With and without You. The νόστοι of Helen and Menelaos and the Path to μῆτις", in: Chiara Ferella and Cilliers Breytenbach (Eds.), Paths of Knowledge. Interconnection(s) between Knowledge and Journey in the Greco-Roman World, Berlin: Edition Topoi, 2018, 19–33
35–46 Martin Hose, "The Journey as Device for Structuring Poetic Knowledge: A Poetic Method in Pindar's Epinicia", in: Chiara Ferella and Cilliers Breytenbach (Eds.), Paths of Knowledge. Interconnection(s) between Knowledge and Journey in the Greco-Roman World, Berlin: Edition Topoi, 2018, 35–46
47–73 Chiara Ferella, "‘A Path for Understanding’: Journey Metaphors in (Three) Early Greek Philosophers", in: Chiara Ferella and Cilliers Breytenbach (Eds.), Paths of Knowledge. Interconnection(s) between Knowledge and Journey in the Greco-Roman World, Berlin: Edition Topoi, 2018, 47–73
75–91 Elisaveta Shcherbakova, "The Paths of the Soul in the Pseudo-Hippocratic De victu", in: Chiara Ferella and Cilliers Breytenbach (Eds.), Paths of Knowledge. Interconnection(s) between Knowledge and Journey in the Greco-Roman World, Berlin: Edition Topoi, 2018, 75–91
93–110 Mai Oki-Suga, "An Invitation from Plato: A Philosophical Journey to Knowledge", in: Chiara Ferella and Cilliers Breytenbach (Eds.), Paths of Knowledge. Interconnection(s) between Knowledge and Journey in the Greco-Roman World, Berlin: Edition Topoi, 2018, 93–110
111–136 Albert Joosse, "Philo’s De migratione Abrahami: The Soul’s Journey of Self-Knowledge as Criticism of Stoic oikeiôsis", in: Chiara Ferella and Cilliers Breytenbach (Eds.), Paths of Knowledge. Interconnection(s) between Knowledge and Journey in the Greco-Roman World, Berlin: Edition Topoi, 2018, 111–136
137–150 Cilliers Breytenbach, "Incomprehension en route to Jerusalem (Mk8:22–10:52)", in: Chiara Ferella and Cilliers Breytenbach (Eds.), Paths of Knowledge. Interconnection(s) between Knowledge and Journey in the Greco-Roman World, Berlin: Edition Topoi, 2018, 137–150
151–176 Greta Hawes, "Pausanias’ Messenian Itinerary and the Journeys of the Past", in: Chiara Ferella and Cilliers Breytenbach (Eds.), Paths of Knowledge. Interconnection(s) between Knowledge and Journey in the Greco-Roman World, Berlin: Edition Topoi, 2018, 151–176
177–187 Sara Fascione, "Finding Identities on the Way to Rome", in: Chiara Ferella and Cilliers Breytenbach (Eds.), Paths of Knowledge. Interconnection(s) between Knowledge and Journey in the Greco-Roman World, Berlin: Edition Topoi, 2018, 177–187
189–215 Safari Grey, "Homer’s Odyssey in the Hands of its Allegorists: Many Paths to Explain the Cosmos", in: Chiara Ferella and Cilliers Breytenbach (Eds.), Paths of Knowledge. Interconnection(s) between Knowledge and Journey in the Greco-Roman World, Berlin: Edition Topoi, 2018, 189–215
217–240 Valeria Flavia Lovato, "The Wanderer, the Philosopher and the Exegete. Receptions of the Odyssey in Twelfth-century Byzantium", in: Chiara Ferella and Cilliers Breytenbach (Eds.), Paths of Knowledge. Interconnection(s) between Knowledge and Journey in the Greco-Roman World, Berlin: Edition Topoi, 2018, 217–240