This study examines the ancient Greeks’ attitudes to children during the Classical and Hellenistic periods. The investigation is limited to literary sources in selected pre-Christian texts. Problems which might bias interpretation have been noted. Parent-child relationships, as revealed in literary examples of parental love and concern, are of particular interest. Hazards affecting survival in early childhood, and factors which influenced attitudes regarding the fetus, abortion, exposure and infanticide are considered. Legal, political and socio-economic factors are amongst motivating forces. Childhood experiences such as education, sport, pederasty, step-families, slaves and slavery, preparation for marriage, and deprivation due to war and environmental factors are also examined. Ancient attitudes to children are compared with modern attitudes to children in similar situations prevailing in Western culture in the 21st century. The findings reveal that basic human behaviour has changed little over the millennia; however, factors influencing attitudes have undergone some change as society evolved.

Ce travail se concentre sur le cours d'analyse enseigné à l'École polytechnique de 1795 à 1809. En devenant professeurs, plusieurs mathématiciens au tournant du 19ème siècle y ont contribué par des ouvrages importants d’Analyse. Parmi eux, Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736-1813) joua un rôle central, en y devenant le premier Institutor d'analyse. Les trois premiers chapitres de cette thèse se focalisent sur les leçons que Lagrange donna de 1795 à 1799. En insistant sur le fait que Lagrange enseignait l'arithmétique à l’École Polytechnique avant son cours d'analyse, la première partie de cette thèse clarifie les raisons pour lesquelles de Lagrange incorporait ces éléments d’arithmétique et leur relation avec le cours d’analyse. Cette étude fournit une discussion détaillée des concepts fondamentaux des mathématiques dans les cours de Lagrange. Ainsi, on y montre que l'intention de Lagrange est de lier des branches différentes de l'analyse à l'algèbre à l'arithmétique. Ce travail montre de quelles façons et en quels termes Lagrange unifie ces branches. De plus, cette thèse met l'accent sur les valeurs épistémologiques que Lagrange poursuit et défend dans ses travaux mathématiques, sur la base desquelles Lagrange a choisi la méthode des développements des fonctions en séries pour présenter les principes du calcul différentiel. La but de la deuxième partie de cette thèse est de montrer à quel point le cours de Lagrange à l'Ecole Polytechnique a influencé l'enseignement de trois autres professeurs: Joseph Fourier (1768-1830), Jean-Guillaume Garnier (1766-1840) et Sylvestre-François Lacroix (1765-1843). Fourier inventa une nouvelle méthode en croisant la méthode de Lagrange et la méthode des limites. Garnier et Lacroix suivent essentiellement la méthode de Fourier, mais avec quelques modifications. En comparant les deux traités du calcul différentiel de Lacroix, cette étude montre que la pratique de l’enseignement, ainsi que la destination des élèves de l’École Polytechnique ont constitué des facteurs importants dans l’évolution des principes du calcul différentiel et de leur présentation / This work studies the courses of analysis taught at the Ecole Polytechnique (EP) from 1795 until 1809. Several mathematicians of the eighteenth century contributed important works as they practiced the teaching of analysis at this school. Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736-1813) was the central figure, who had been the first professor of the course of analysis at the EP and had great impact on his successors. In order to show in which way and to what degree the lectures that Lagrange gave exerted influence on the teaching of analysis at the EP, this dissertation gives a detailed discussion on Lagrange’s publications and courses of analysis, as well as those by other teachers, i.e. Joseph Fourier(1768-1830), Jean-GuillaumeGarnier(1766-1840)andSylvestre-FrançoisLacroix (1765-1843). It achieves the following conclusions. First, Lagrange, taking into account the utility for students, chose to found analysis on the method of the developments of functions in series, so that analysis could be united with algebra, and arithmetic as well. Second, Lagrange’s approach to differential calculus, as well as the epistemic values he pursued in his mathematical works, provided influential source for the teaching of analysis by other professors. The thesis is that the three professors who taught beside or after Lagrange followed Lagrange’s ideas, although each made some modifications on his own course

This dissertation investigates how the Greeks of the Trojan War and Alexander the Great are presented in Old French and Middle English literature. These ancient Greeks are depicted ambiguously: they share some of the characteristics of Jews and Saracens as they are portrayed in medieval literature. The thesis begins with an overview of the frameworks used to define ancient Greek identity. These include the philosophical heritage Greece left to the medieval West; the framework of Jewish identity, encompassing “variable characterization” and the hermeneutics of supersession; and the historical template, seen through the Orosian paradigm of translatio imperii and the Trojan foundation myth. The first chapter examines the Roman de Troie of Benoît de Sainte-Maure. The Greeks of the Trojan War are noble and valorous, but through their gift of the Trojan horse and sack of Troy, they display the treachery associated with post-Incarnation Jews and the cruelty and violence associated with Saracens. Due to the myth that the Trojans founded the Roman people, through their siege of Troy, the Greeks seem like the movers of imperium, the authority to rule, from Troy to Rome, which will eventually become a Christian empire. In the second chapter, I turn to the depiction of Alexander in Thomas of Kent’s Roman de toute chevalerie and the Middle English Wars of Alexander. In the Roman de toute chevalerie, Alexander is ambiguous: he is chivalrous, learned, and even a proto-Christian, though he himself assumes some typical Saracen characteristics. Alexander participates in translatio imperii, holding the right to rule in its Orosian succession and providing a model of empire to Rome. The Wars of Alexander witnesses the changes wrought to Alexander’s depiction in the fourteenth century due to revised views of chivalry, eschatology and crusade. The third chapter investigates the depiction of the Greek Diomede in Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, a depiction informed by classical ideas and Chaucer’s depictions of Jews and Saracens in his other works. Diomede is both treacherous and cruel, seen in his seduction of Criseyde, rather than in battle. The ending of the tale posits a proto-Christian identity for Troilus and the Trojans, and suggests that Diomede participates in the supersession of the Greeks by the Trojans. Greeks function as movers of imperium, and are necessary for the beginnings of Christian empire.

This dissertation investigates how the Greeks of the Trojan War and Alexander the Great are presented in Old French and Middle English literature. These ancient Greeks are depicted ambiguously: they share some of the characteristics of Jews and Saracens as they are portrayed in medieval literature. The thesis begins with an overview of the frameworks used to define ancient Greek identity. These include the philosophical heritage Greece left to the medieval West; the framework of Jewish identity, encompassing “variable characterization” and the hermeneutics of supersession; and the historical template, seen through the Orosian paradigm of translatio imperii and the Trojan foundation myth. The first chapter examines the Roman de Troie of Benoît de Sainte-Maure. The Greeks of the Trojan War are noble and valorous, but through their gift of the Trojan horse and sack of Troy, they display the treachery associated with post-Incarnation Jews and the cruelty and violence associated with Saracens. Due to the myth that the Trojans founded the Roman people, through their siege of Troy, the Greeks seem like the movers of imperium, the authority to rule, from Troy to Rome, which will eventually become a Christian empire. In the second chapter, I turn to the depiction of Alexander in Thomas of Kent’s Roman de toute chevalerie and the Middle English Wars of Alexander. In the Roman de toute chevalerie, Alexander is ambiguous: he is chivalrous, learned, and even a proto-Christian, though he himself assumes some typical Saracen characteristics. Alexander participates in translatio imperii, holding the right to rule in its Orosian succession and providing a model of empire to Rome. The Wars of Alexander witnesses the changes wrought to Alexander’s depiction in the fourteenth century due to revised views of chivalry, eschatology and crusade. The third chapter investigates the depiction of the Greek Diomede in Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, a depiction informed by classical ideas and Chaucer’s depictions of Jews and Saracens in his other works. Diomede is both treacherous and cruel, seen in his seduction of Criseyde, rather than in battle. The ending of the tale posits a proto-Christian identity for Troilus and the Trojans, and suggests that Diomede participates in the supersession of the Greeks by the Trojans. Greeks function as movers of imperium, and are necessary for the beginnings of Christian empire.

This study examines the ancient Greeks’ attitudes to children during the Classical and Hellenistic periods. The investigation is limited to literary sources in selected pre-Christian texts. Problems which might bias interpretation have been noted. Parent-child relationships, as revealed in literary examples of parental love and concern, are of particular interest. Hazards affecting survival in early childhood, and factors which influenced attitudes regarding the fetus, abortion, exposure and infanticide are considered. Legal, political and socio-economic factors are amongst motivating forces. Childhood experiences such as education, sport, pederasty, step-families, slaves and slavery, preparation for marriage, and deprivation due to war and environmental factors are also examined. Ancient attitudes to children are compared with modern attitudes to children in similar situations prevailing in Western culture in the 21st century. The findings reveal that basic human behaviour has changed little over the millennia; however, factors influencing attitudes have undergone some change as society evolved.