Spyridon Tzounakas – författare

Pliny's Epistles are full of literary artistry. This volume of essays by an impressive international team of scholars showcases this by exploring the intertextual, interdiscursive and also intermedial character of the collection. It provides a contribution to the recent scholarly interest in Latin prose intertextuality and in the literary and cultural interactions of the Imperial period. Focusing on the whole collection as well as on single books and selected letters, it investigates Pliny's strategies of incorporating literary models and genres into his epistolary oeuvre, thus creating a kind of 'super-genre' himself. In addition to displaying Pliny's literary techniques, the volume also serves as an advanced introduction to Latin prose poetics.

Pliny's Epistles are full of literary artistry. This volume of essays by an impressive international team of scholars showcases this by exploring the intertextual, interdiscursive and also intermedial character of the collection. It provides a contribution to the recent scholarly interest in Latin prose intertextuality and in the literary and cultural interactions of the Imperial period. Focusing on the whole collection as well as on single books and selected letters, it investigates Pliny's strategies of incorporating literary models and genres into his epistolary oeuvre, thus creating a kind of 'super-genre' himself. In addition to displaying Pliny's literary techniques, the volume also serves as an advanced introduction to Latin prose poetics.

The reception of ancient Cyprus in the Western world has not received much attention in scholarship, despite the fact that significant literary and extra-literary evidence presented by European intellectuals and artists explicitly or implicitly refers to the history of Cyprus, as well as to the myths and art produced on it or inspired by its landscape. This is a neglect that this volume wishes to address, by re-establishing the literary thread of the representation of ancient Cyprus beyond generic, spatial and temporal limits, and by thus shedding light on its depiction throughout the centuries, from the ancient Roman to the Western world up until modern times. The volume’s central thesis is that a number of Cypriot traditions constitute a unique example of intercultural and multi-level fusions of diverse European civilizations. By investigating the various and often contradictory ways in which Cyprus was represented in Latin literature and beyond, the volume treats its multifaceted reception as a vastly complex matter, and suggests that even though the island has always been an outlier, it has often been explored in literature as an intellectual landscape and a precious pathway between at times conflictual yet compatible worlds.

This book demonstrates that the carefully chosen Greek words in Persius’ programmatic passages play a significant role in the context of his literary criticism: they allow him to express his objection to the Graecizing poetic compositions of his day more convincingly, while facilitating intertextual dialogues with many writers. Greek words that occur in programmatic passages throw into relief various pathologies of poetry which Persius disapproves of and which contribute effectively to a justification of his rejection. However, this practice, which does not continue into the rest of his work, where Greek words are incorporated into the satirist’s thought more harmoniously, appears to serve specific expediencies and should not be considered characteristic of Persius’ attitude towards Greek culture in general. Besides, the satiric persona adopts a positive stance regarding Greek philosophy or comedy and criticizes the ignorant critics of Greek culture, while many aspects of Greek thought enrich his own poetry in several passages. Thus, despite the intensity with which he turns against the Graecizing compositions of his day, generalizations regarding an anti-Hellenic stance on Persius’ part should be deemed unfounded.