Chiara Di Serio

"Forma Breve" n.15 (2018), Em busca da terra prometida: mitos de salvação, pp. 135-141

Abstract.
This study focuses on the Collatio Alexandri et Dindimi, a fictional exchange of five letters between Alexander the Great and Dindimus, the king of the Brahmans. It is a work that attests to a cultural debate between the classical world and a different point of view, represented by the Brahmans’ people. The present research examines the dynamics underlying the text, beginning from the analysis of the particular Brahman’s lifestyle, founded on the ius naturae, and then shifting to the contents of the Alexander’s letters, which opposes a different way of thinking, based on lex civilis. If we look at the text carefully, Dindimus’ reasoning turns out to be in agreement with an ascetic ideal shaped on the principles of Christian doctrine. On the contrary, Alexander’s arguments rest upon typical criteria reasons of rationality and moderation insofar as they are distinctive features of the classical thought. This perspective highlights how the “natural” space of the Brahmans is opposed to that of the Greek-Roman culture, in a context of total denial of civilization, and then demonstrates how the Collatio illustrates the mechanisms whereby Christian thought, identifying itself with a world “other”, contrasts with the earlier classical society.

M. Movellán Luis & J.J. Pomer Monferrer (eds.) Mite i miracle a les literatures antigues i medievals, Tarragona, Rhemata, 2018, pp. 19-31.

Abstract. This work focuses on the analysis of a section of Solinus’ Collectanea Rerum Memorabilium, that describes the territory and the wonders of India as a symbolic, not yet civilized space. The research starts from the analysis of a series of data on the fabulous peoples of that territory, mostly characterized by monstrous features, and on their costumes, also fantastic and completely unlikely. The Indian space conceals terrifying beings and wild animals, hides immeasurable treasures, and its vegetation is extraordinary and luxuriant. The report moves from a real historical dimension to an out-of-history, timeless perspective. Ultimately Solinus’ text reveals the mechanisms whereby Western thought has devised a "mythical" description of India, that is both attractive and terrible at the same time. The mythicization of the ethno-geographic aspect emerges powerfully to strengthen the dual devise of self- identification and exclusion of the Other, who is bound to become a subject to Western domination. Through a process of "colonization" of the imaginary, in order to justify its superiority, the culture of the classical world relocates on a figurative level the diversity and the alleged incivility of the peoples and territories with which it comes into contact.

THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE “In search of the promised land: salvation myths” will be held in the Department of Languages and Cultures of the University of Aveiro, Portugal, on 20, 21 and 22 September 2017

THEMATIC PANELS

• Religious exegeses
• Literature and migrations
• Utopias and dystopias
• Rhetoric of seduction
• Myths and stereotype

This research focuses on the analysis of chapter I 24 of the treaty of Hippolytus Refutatio omnium haeresium. At the end of the review of the doctrines of the Greek philosophers, the lifestyle and the thinking of the Brahmans are presented. Their habits are very unique, and among these stand out their being naked - because they think that the body was made by God as a dress for the soul – their eating fruits of the earth and their abstinence from the flesh of animals. There are no women or children between them. They despise death, always celebrate God and raise hymns in his honour. Moreover they also have their own conception of God, which is Logos, that of knowledge (γνώσις). According to Hippolytus' account, the Brahmans conceive some particular ideas: that even the Logos is corporeal; that in the body that covers them there is a war and that they fight against the body; that men are slaves to the parts of the body that generate passions. The short Hippolytus’ text raises several questions: first of all, why they are presented in a positive light. The information reported by Hyppolitus is, in part, confirmed by a long tradition of the classical world that reconstructs the image of the Brahmans, attributing to them the characteristics of the asceticism of the Cynics. Therefore, the aim of this study is to verify in which perspectives these characters are presented, first in the Greek and Roman authors, and, secondly, in the literature of the Fathers of the Church, in order to identify the specific connections and the possible divergences.

In this work we will discuss the image of the gymnosophistai, who are identified with the Brahmans, in classical and late ancient literary sources. They appear in the Alexander Romance  in the episode where they meet the Macedonian ruler. In the texts at our disposal, this people is presented as showing a very peculiar lifestyle: they are naked and practice philosophy, eat the wild fruits of the earth, sleep in woods on leaf-beds, or live in caves, mate only once or twice, have no diseases, despise death, do not work, their basic characteristic being the remoteness from any form of civilization. In the literary sources these features represent an Otherness which is placed in the Far East, at the borders of the oikoumene, at the margin of what was considered civilized. Their function is that of defining, by contrast, what classical culture was really like. On the other hand, their figures are also used to stigmatize Alexander’s attitude to exercise power with the force of oppression. This theme is particularly evident in the so-called “Indian Tractates”, as defined by G. Cary: the apocryphal correspondence called Collatio Alexandri et Dindimi, Palladius’ De gentibus Indiae et Bragmanibus, and the short treatise Commonitorium Palladii, a series of texts from the late antiquity, that describe the lifestyle of the Brahmans.

Abstract. In the first scene of Aeschylus’ The Persians, Queen Atossa, Xerxes’ mother, tells about the dream she had the night before. Two beautiful women had appeared to her, one wearing Persian clothes, the other Greek clothes; one lived on Persian soil, the other on Greek soil. They quarreled with each other, but her son Xerxes separated them and tried to put them under the yoke of his chariot. One of them gladly accepted, full of pride, but the other was reluctant and, ripping the harness, shook the bite and broke the yoke. At that time Xerxes fell and Darius appeared to console his son who was tearing his clothes, humiliated. Once awakened from sleep, Atossa goes to the altar to give some libations, but has the vision of an eagle attacked and wounded by a falcon. The specific aim of this study is to clarify the deep meaning of this story, which relates to the function of the entire tragic text formulated by Aeschylus. According to the hypothesis formulated by A. Brelich in 1965, it would be the foundation of the Persian defeat and the defence of Greek freedom once and for all.

Abstract. The present work focuses on the analysis of some passages of the two Plutarchian orations on Alexander’s virtue and fortune. In the texts the character is portrayed as a cultural hero, who founds many cities and teaches civilization to the conquered peoples. The “mythical material” on which Alexander’s symbolic image is built reveals a cultural operation founded on an ideological basis. In the framework thus represented and returned, Plutarch creates a model of thinking dominated by the idea of a universal empire and where the process of colonization by the West is justified.

Abstract. This work focuses on the analysis of a series of famous episodes marking the prodigious birth and the exceptional destiny of Alexander the Great.
    First of all, we discuss the accounts of the king's conception, due to the union of his mother Olympias with the king / magician Nectanebo, or with a snake, or with the god Ammon, depending on the different versions. Subsequently, we pass in review the premonitions and omens, marking his rise to power and the stories of oracles pronounced on his domination over the world. Finally, the deadly presumptions are also taken into account. Overall, in this study, the topics related to Alexander's mythology are dealt with and the reasons by which he is presented in the documentary sources of the classical world as a being halfway between human and divine.

Abstract. The analysis of the classical and medieval sources concerning the figure of Manto shows that her connotation remained unchanged for many centuries, up to the modern age and beyond. In the mythical tradition, but non only, her founding acts are connected mostly with the art of prophecy.

Abstract. This study focuses on the Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem, an apocryphal letter sent by Alexander to Aristotle, describing the territory and the wonders of India. The text probably dates back to the 7th century AD. It is a work that portrays India as a symbolic, not yet civilized space.
    This research deepens the dynamics underlying the text, starting from the analysis of the narrative pathway that progressively follows the advancement of Alexander and his army, who are able to conquer the territory thanks to a skillful use of weapons and the endurance of the soldiers. The Indian space, especially in King Porus' palace, conceals immeasurable treasures, but the Macedonians have to fight with weapons against terrifying beings, monsters and wild animals. They also have to face extraordinary atmospheric phenomena. War moves from a real historical dimension to an to an out-of-history, timeless perspective because it is devoid of enemies that are concretely human. At the end of the story Alexander is said to have built gold pillars and five gold trophies for himself, to affect his victories and travels. Examining the matter well, it emerges that he represents the new order of the cosmos, because he has now subdued the world.
    Thus, the main aim of this investigation is to demonstrate how the Epistola reveals the mechanisms through which the Western thought has devised a "mythical" description of India that is both attractive and terrible at the same time. The mythologization of the ethno-geographic view emerges powerfully to strengthen the dual device of self-identification and exclusion of the Other, who - through a process of "colonization" of the imaginary - is bound to become a subject to Western domination.