Papers by John (Ioannis) Petropoulos
Classica Cracoviensia, 2021
Although the extraordinary progress in medicine since the 19th century has made Hippocrates and G... more Although the extraordinary progress in medicine since the 19th century has made Hippocrates and Galen irrelevant, Greek and Greek-derived terms continue to be used in the medical sciences today. The marked ability of the Greek language to form compounds facilitated the expansion of its medical lexicon. Greek medicine evolved far longer than its modern counterpart; its enduring cachet has lent it an atemporality. This article traces the main stages in the history of the nearly continuous reception of Greek medical nomenclature across more than two millennia. The process is shown to have been inseparable from the transmission and editing of Greek medical texts and their translation into Latin, Arabic, and eventually into vernacular languages. The article also sheds incidental light on the history of translation and transliteration in Europe and the Arab world.
To Ellīniko Vlemma, Dec 3, 2017
A primeira parte deste artigo discute o conceito de "bárbaro" na antiga sociedade grega e em sua ... more A primeira parte deste artigo discute o conceito de "bárbaro" na antiga sociedade grega e em sua literatura. Como usado a partir de meados do século V a.C., o termo serve como um marcador linguístico e cultural, denotando ou implicando a barreira conceitual entre "nós" (gregos) e "eles" (o resto do mundo), portanto entre gregos e 'outros'. No entanto, em alguns casos, essa divisão pode entrar em colapso com o uso não generoso dos gregos. A segunda parte do artigo examina o poema clássico de Kavafy "À espera dos bárbaros" (1904) à luz do antigo conceito de "bárbaro". Lançando mão de uma troca dialógica de perguntas e respostas entre dois cidadãos do final do Império Romano, o poema dramatiza o diálogo mental e a relação conceitual que surge quando, como os antigos, distinguimos entre nós e o "outro bárbaro". Por que os bárbaros de Kavafy são uma "solução" e "libertação" (ambos sugeridos por λύσις)? Por que seus não-bárbaros são paradoxalmente atraídos por eles? Como já foi proposto por outros, os bárbaros de Kaváfis podem pertencer ao clima de decadência literária do final do século XIX ou à atmosfera de incerteza política e declínio no Egito colonial ou, como sugiro, no Reino da Hélade, ainda em luta contra o império Otomano. Mais amplamente definido, seus "bárbaros" podem representar o alter ego decadente de sua sociedade.
Eλληνικo βλεμμα, 2017
A primeira parte deste artigo discute o conceito de "bárbaro" na antiga sociedade grega... more A primeira parte deste artigo discute o conceito de "bárbaro" na antiga sociedade grega e em sua literatura. Como usado a partir de meados do século V a.C., o termo serve como um marcador linguístico e cultural, denotando ou implicando a barreira conceitual entre "nós" (gregos) e "eles" (o resto do mundo), portanto entre gregos e 'outros'. No entanto, em alguns casos, essa divisão pode entrar em colapso com o uso não generoso dos gregos. A segunda parte do artigo examina o poema clássico de Kavafy "À espera dos bárbaros" (1904) à luz do antigo conceito de "bárbaro". Lançando mão de uma troca dialógica de perguntas e respostas entre dois cidadãos do final do Império Romano, o poema dramatiza o diálogo mental e a relação conceitual que surge quando, como os antigos, distinguimos entre nós e o "outro bárbaro". Por que os bárbaros de Kavafy são uma "solução" e "libertação" (ambos sugeridos por λύσις)...
Donum natalicium...Gregorio Nagy, 2012
An attempt to interpret Page's highly intriguing carmen populare 881 (PMG, pp. 468-9); perhaps we... more An attempt to interpret Page's highly intriguing carmen populare 881 (PMG, pp. 468-9); perhaps we are dealing with not one but two songs?
Kléos--entre deuses, homens e heróis, I. B. Cardoso, L. Lopes da Costa, Maria Cecília de Miranda Coelho (org.), pp. 17-23 , 2022
My preface (in English but subsequently translated into Portuguese) to a volume of fourteen essay... more My preface (in English but subsequently translated into Portuguese) to a volume of fourteen essays analysing the concept of the hero across different historical periods, geographies, and genres: Homeric and Virgilian epos, Roman historiography and the late Greek novel, the first epic in the Americas (Anchieta's 16 th century De gestis Mendi de Saa), Hollywood stars and sports heroes, anti-heroes, the cangaçeiros of João Guimarães Rosa, Boudica, Clarisa Lispector's Lucrécia, Li Bai, Tiradentes, Bob Dylan, and the heroes of modern westerns.
Café História [https://www.cafehistoria.com.br/conexao-grega]., 2018
A Revolução Grega de 1821: Hino à Liberdade os 200 anos da grécia moderna, 2022
The evolution of the Greek language across the millennia: a celebratory précis of the history of ... more The evolution of the Greek language across the millennia: a celebratory précis of the history of Greek from Linear B to demotic. Other linguae francae preceded Greek but its history arguably made it one of the most influential vehicles of communication in the ancient Mediterranean.
Revista Teolgica Ano 13 N. 14 (2023), pp. 133-6
On St Paul's visit to Athens in the year 50
Harvard Advocate , 1980
together with Erik Rieselbach, I interviewed G. Steiner in 1980: a daunting but exhilarating expe... more together with Erik Rieselbach, I interviewed G. Steiner in 1980: a daunting but exhilarating experience
Magia e Superstição no Mediterrãneo Antigo, 2019
On the magical features of the 'divine drink' (Odyssey 9.205) that incapacitated the cannibal Pol... more On the magical features of the 'divine drink' (Odyssey 9.205) that incapacitated the cannibal Polyphemus
Πλειών, Papers in Memory of Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood, Ariadne, Supplement 1, , 2018
A discussion (with commentary) of the hymn to Adonis inTheocritus Idyll 15 with special referenc... more A discussion (with commentary) of the hymn to Adonis inTheocritus Idyll 15 with special reference to the treatment of ritual time
CHS-Harvard Univ. Press, 2019
The Homeric Telmachy revisited; growing up as a Homeric Greek
Ελληνικό Βλέμμα, Revista de Estudos Helênicos-UERJ, no. 3, 2019
C. P. Cavafy's 'barbarians' (1904) as an alluring solution and 'other' read in the light of the ... more C. P. Cavafy's 'barbarians' (1904) as an alluring solution and 'other' read in the light of the ancient concept of βάρβαρος.
Hélade/Dossiê: Etnicidade e formação de identidades no mundo de Homero 5, no. 1 (2019) pp. 150-163 [http://periodicos.uff.br/helade/issue/view/1589/showToc, 2019
Examples of ancient Greek 'apophatic' ethnography and the Tupinambá of Brazil
Classica Cracoviensia XXIV, pp.119-32, 2021
Although the extraordinary progress in medicine since the 19 th century has made Hippocrates and ... more Although the extraordinary progress in medicine since the 19 th century has made Hippocrates and Galen irrelevant, Greek and Greek-derived terms continue to be used in the medical sciences today. The marked facility of the Greek language for word-formation facilitated the expansion of its medical lexicon. Greek medicine evolved far longer than its modern counterpart; its enduring cachet has lent it an atemporality. This article traces the main stages in the history of the nearly continuous reception of Greek medical nomenclature across more than two millennia. The process is shown to have been inseparable from the transmission and editing of Greek medical texts and their translation into Latin, Arabic, and eventually into vernacular languages. The article also sheds incidental light on the history of translation and transliteration in Europe and the Arab world.
Mare Nostrum, vol. 12.v, pp.1-20, 2021
Odysseus’ ethnographic digressions in books 9-12 of the Odyssey—the so- called Apologue—have serv... more Odysseus’ ethnographic digressions in books 9-12 of the Odyssey—the so- called Apologue—have served as the premier paradigm for mythic and actual ethnography from Herodotus through Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus, and more particularly, for the ‘I-witnessing approach’ of ethnography. Among the peoples and lands and styles of thinking he encountered (Odyssey 1.3), the hero also became acquainted with several islands. As microcosms of larger societies, islands furnish ‘master metaphors’ and models with which to think about culture. In this article I discuss three islands from the Apologue in the chronological order of Odysseus’ travels. They are inseparable from their geography and the personality and ‘life style’ of their inhabitants, as will be seen; these islands adumbrate the moral and gendered mythic cartography of Archaic Greece.
Paros V, Paros through the ages..., ed. D. Katsonopoulou, 2021
A multi-disciplinary interpretation of the portrayal of a little-known tethered Chimaira on a 6th... more A multi-disciplinary interpretation of the portrayal of a little-known tethered Chimaira on a 6th c. BC amphora from Paros
Calíope: Presença Clássica 35 , Separata 1, pp.4-11 , 2018
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Papers by John (Ioannis) Petropoulos
Greeks, casting about for a king for their fledgling nation, first turned to Portugal and the House of Braganza. Using unpublished Portuguese documents, the article presents this little known (or unknown) fact.
Greeks, casting about for a king for their fledgling nation, first turned to Portugal and the House of Braganza. Using unpublished Portuguese documents, the article presents this little known (or unknown) fact.
The theory of orality, first introduced by the Homerists Milman Parry and Albert Lord, was further expanded by Gregory Nagy of Harvard University. Up until now, it has been studied primarily in terms of literary works of the middle Byzantine period (Theodore Prodromos’ poems, Manganeios Prodromos’ poems, Digenis Akrites etc.) by Michael and Elizabeth Jeffreys. The last few years have seen several studies by Margaret Mullett, Emmanuel Bourbouhakis, Przemysław Marciniak and Stratis Papaioannou examining various aspects of the relationship between rhetoric and performance.
The aim of the project is to explore basic aspects of the theory of orality and performance in Byzantium, placing special emphasis on the themes of lamentation and the circle of life as recorded in literature.