Specimen Litterarium Inaugurale--Utrecht. / "Stellingen": leaf, inserted. "Libri saepius laudati": p. [141].

Understanding Plutarch’s Parallel Lives as a literary text is the focus of current scholarship. However, to this date, no one has looked at Plutarch’s Life of Cimon to analyze what it reveals about morality. My thesis endeavours to understand how Plutarch shapes Cimon as a literary character to bring to light the moral focus of this Life. It first investigates Plutarch’s life and the atmosphere in which he lived to understand what influenced his writing. Chapter One follows with a discussion of the composition of the Lives to understand how they are organized. The insistence on reading each book’s four parts (proem, Life 1, Life 2, synkrisis) to fully appreciate their moral relevance leads to Chapter Two, which dissects the main components of Plutarch’s moral mirror. This provides the necessary background needed for Chapter Three’s case study of Plutarch’s Cimon. Here, I argue that the main moral message contained therein is the importance of generosity and euergetism.

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This thesis examines Plutarch's vague comments about the materiality of the soul in Moralia. My contention is that, despite suggestions to the contrary, Plutarch aligned with Plato in thinking about the soul as immaterial. I argue that a deeper understanding of Plutarch's relationship to Plato as well as the Stoics and Epicureans of his time shed light on his otherwise ambiguous passages. The end result will be (1) a more secure understanding of Plutarch's position on the materiality of the soul and (2) an improved ability to appreciate Plutarch's playful and vivid language as he describes immaterial souls with material descriptions.

Habilitationsschrift--Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 272-281) and index.

Habilitationsschrift--Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen. / Includes index. Bibliography: p. 272-281.

A pesquisa apresentada consiste em cinco momentos distintos: Capítulo I - introdução situando a abra e o autor; Capítulo II - ensaios que contextualizam as obras traduzidas, apresentando alguns aspectos relevantes no olhar de Plutarco para a posição da mulher nos âmbitos público e privado; Capítulo III - traduções de três tratados de Plutarco: As virtudes das mulheres, Preceitos para o casamento e Carta de consolação à sua mulher; Capítulo IV - sob o título de considerações finais, destaca como a idéia de virtude feminina perpassa os textos traduzidos e como o conceito de virtude em alguns autores gregos dialoga com a idéia de virtude feminina presente na obra de Plutarco. O Capítulo V, por sua vez, apresenta um glossário dos nomes traduzidos. / The research done has five different moments: Chapter I - an introduction presenting the author and his work; Chapter II - essays that remit the translated works to the context at that period, showing some relevant thoughts of Plutarch about women position in public and private spaces, during the Ancient times; Chapter III - translation of three Plutarch\'s works: Bravery of Women , Advice to bride and groome and Consolation to his wife; Chapter IV - the final considerations emphasize how the idea of feminine virtue is inserted in the translated works and also the interlocution between the concept of virtue in some Greek authors and Plutarch\'s ideas. Chapter V presents a glossary of the translated names.

This thesis is an investigation into Herodotus’ views about the gods and how they relate to human life and history, and particularly how narrative and theology interact. It is divided into four chapters: Chapter one (The History of Herodotean Theology) falls into two parts. In the first I outline the reception of Herodotus’ theological views from antiquity to the present, focusing on the warners’ statements that ‘the divinity is phthoneros’, the subject of controversy since Plutarch. I explore the role of contemporary rhetorical and religious pressures in forging various interpretative traditions, and trace their evolution over the last five centuries of scholarship. The second part examines the assumptions and approaches of more recent scholarship to the problems that arise in Herodotean theology. Chapter two (Religious Discourses in the Histories) develops our understanding of Herodotus’ theological inconsistencies, which have increasingly come to dominate discussion of Herodotean religion. I make the case that Herodotus uses various theological discourses or registers, which are (literally interpreted) quite incompatible. I explore the influence of narrative style, narratorial persona, and context upon Herodotus’ theological assumptions and vocabulary, before considering the question of his own ‘belief’. Chapter three (The Phthonos of Gods and Men) offers my own analysis of the much-disputed concepts of ‘divine φθόνος’ and ‘νέμεσις’ in the Histories and classical Greek more widely. I begin by examining the use of phthonos in the context of humans from Homer to the fourth century. I then offer a close analysis of the meaning and significance of the five speeches that assert that ‘the divinity is phthoneros’ (or phthoneei), which precede or refer back to the most dramatic reversals of fortune in the work. Chapter four (Theology in the Croesus Logos) analyses the treatment of theology in the Croesus logos. It explores how Herodotus crafts a coherent narrative while negotiating the numerous theological principles of his contemporary world and narrative tradition. I argue that Croesus’ character and the deceptive oracles that force him to campaign are commonly misread, largely due to attempts to interpret the story on a quite different narrative patterning that is compatible with anachronistic principles of divine ‘benevolence’ or ‘divine justice’. The Epilogue draws together the themes discussed in the previous chapters, with some comments on the relationship between literature and theology more generally.

This dissertation is a study of Plutarch's portrayal of military leadership in his Parallel Lives. I investigate Plutarch's use of extended military narrative to provide examples of good generalship for his readers, his conception of the importance and dangers of a military education, his attitude toward the moral use of deception in warfare, and the importance of synkrisis to the reader's final assessment of a general's military ability. I conclude with a case study of the Pyrrhus-Marius, in which I examine how Plutarch uses military narrative throughout the pair to compare the generalship of the two men. I demonstrate that Plutarch's conception of generalship in the Parallel Lives is nuanced, consistent, and often significant to the interpretation of a pair. Plutarch constructs his military narratives in such a way as to identify specific acts of generalship through which the military leaders among his readership could evaluate and improve their own generalship. Plutarch's treatment of the morality of generalship is consistent with his views on education and character; while he accepts the necessity and appreciates the effectiveness of military deception, he also recognizes its limitations and holds up for criticism those generals who do not use it appropriately. I also examine the importance of the formal synkrisis at the end of each pair of Lives to the structural integrity of the Plutarchan book and the evaluation of military leadership in each pair. These concluding synkriseis demonstrate that Plutarch had a consistent set of criteria for evaluating the generalship of his subjects, and encourage the reader to make similar judgments on military ability themselves. This process of evaluation and comparison of military leadership is particularly important to my reading of the Pyrrhus-Marius, as comparing the military careers of its subjects allows for a more complete reading of the pair than is otherwise possible.