Between Necromancers and Ventriloquists: The έγγαστρίμυθοι in the &lt;i&gt;Septuaginta&lt;/i&gt;

Tovar, Sofía Torallas; Maravela-Solbakk, Anastasia

doi:10.3989/sefarad.2001.v61.i2.591

Sefarad

2001

DOI: 10.3989/sefarad.2001.v61.i2.591

|View full text |Cite

Between Necromancers and Ventriloquists: The έγγαστρίμυθοι in the <i>Septuaginta</i>

Sofía Torallas Tovar¹,

Anastasia Maravela-Solbakk²

Help me understand this report

Search citation statements

Order By: Relevance

Paper Sections

Select...

Citation Types

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Year Published

2004

2011

Publication Types

Select...

Article2

Relationship

Self Cite0

Independent2

Authors

Journals

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

Hipponax Fragment 128W: Epic Parody or Expulsive Incantation?

Faraone

2004

Classical Antiquity

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Scholars have traditionally interpreted Hipponax fragment 128 (West) as an epic parody designed to belittle the grand pretensions and gluttonous habits of his enemy. I suggest, however, that this traditional reading ultimately falls short because of two unexamined assumptions: (1) that the meter and diction of the fragment are exclusively meant to recall epic narrative and not any other early hexametrical genre, and (2) that the descriptive epithets in lines 2 and 3 are the ad hoc comic creations of the poet and simply refer to the table manners of a glutton or a parasite. I argue instead that this fragment in several ways reflects the language, the meter and the performative goal of hexametrical chants or incantations designed to expel harmful famine demons or to escort human scapegoats from the city. I also suggest that the vivid and somewhat comic descriptions of the enemy in fragment 128 probably do not aim at his personal eating disorders, but rather they are drawn from two interrelated and generic features of archaic Greek thought: a tradition of describing famine-demons as insatiable eaters, and a popular theme in Greek invective which demonizes political enemies as rapacious pests who threaten to gobble up the commonwealth of the city and who therefore must be expelled from the community, precisely like a famine-demon.

show abstract

Hipponax Fragment 128W: Epic Parody or Expulsive Incantation?

Faraone

2004

Classical Antiquity

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Magical and Medical Approaches to the Wandering Womb in the Ancient Greek World

Faraone

2011

Classical Antiquity

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The idea that the womb moved freely about a woman's body causing spasmodic disease enjoyed great popularity among the ancient Greeks, beginning in the classical period with Plato and the Hippocratic writers and continuing on into the Roman and Byzantine periods. Armed with sophisticated analyses of the medical tradition and new texts pertaining to the magical, this essay describes how both approaches to the wandering womb develop side by side in mutual influence from the late classical period onwards. Of special interest will be the tendency in both traditions to imagine both demons and errant wombs as wild animals and to use fumigations to control both. It concludes with a discussion of the historical development of and consequences for the idea that women alone possessed an internal organ that was variously interpreted as a mechanically defective body-part, a sentient and passionate animal, and then finally a demon with malicious intent, who bites and poisons the female body. It also argues against the hypothesis or assumption that midwives or wet-nurses were the original source for the idea of the wandering womb, suggesting that the syndrome never fit comfortably into the category of gynecological illness, because the womb was not the site of disease, but rather a cause of spasmodic disease in other areas of the body.

show abstract

scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.

Contact Info

customersupport@researchsolutions.com

10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614

Henderson, NV 89052, USA

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Blog Terms and Conditions API Terms Privacy Policy Contact Cookie Preferences Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Made with 💙 for researchers

Part of the Research Solutions Family.

Between Necromancers and Ventriloquists: The έγγαστρίμυθοι in the <i>Septuaginta</i>

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Hipponax Fragment 128W: Epic Parody or Expulsive Incantation?

Hipponax Fragment 128W: Epic Parody or Expulsive Incantation?

Magical and Medical Approaches to the Wandering Womb in the Ancient Greek World

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About