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This paper presents a Natural Language Processing approach for the in-depth study of ancient Greek literature. Specifically, our project mines the largest data collection of ancient Greek literature to extract descriptive words and their contextual collocations. We then present the Python libraries developed to perform sentiment analysis with a focus on words about gender, race, religion, ethnicity, and other distinguishable characteristics and how they were used by Greek authors. Finally, we showcase some initial findings as a proof of concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review article presents the newly released international handbook on Caucasian Albania, which provides a comprehensive academic examination of the history, ethnic formation, archaeology, culture, art, language and literature of this ancient kingdom. Featuring contributions from leading scholars, the handbook offers a diverse array of perspectives, encompassing ancient literary sources and contemporary events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay discusses the current state of research on the origins and textual history of early Jewish literature in light of three recently published books. On the one hand, the current practice of textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible, well presented in the standard handbook of the topic, is anchored in relatively traditional views on the origins of biblical books. On the other hand, two studies challenge current ideas about the ontology and materiality of ancient Jewish literature. An analysis of the Serekh ha-Yahad scrolls reveals that usual models of textual growth cannot account for the entirety of the intricate textual history of certain compositions. A material-historical perspective suggests that, before the Hellenistic period, literary works existed in the form of collections of scrolls, which has potentially profound implications for understanding how these collections became books. Whether conservative or innovative in outlook, these books show that theory and practice are inextricably linked in the field of textual criticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay traces expressions in which authors or narrators claim to or are said to kill a character, with the key question as to which ideas about storytelling the cases convey and how these ideas resemble or differ across different periods. Examples of the "poeta necans metalepsis" are found in ancient Greek literature all the way to the modern novel; however, they bear a remarkable variety of implications. Already in antiquity, we find a range of positive to outright derisory usages, which are united by the fact that they present killing as a natural and unquestioned task of authors, especially for epic poets. From the Renaissance onwards, the picture changes: Ariosto exposes the idea that a narrator should save rather than slay his characters, and in the past two centuries, narrators reflecting on their qualms about putting a character to death becomes all but the standard case. The essay works with case studies from different eras, with emphasis on early usages in antiquity, which are analyzed according to the principles of diachronic narratology. In this way, the essay sheds light not only on historical concepts of storytelling but also on the motif of death in literature, which, as is argued, is not a negation of life but rather supports and defends it in various ways, for the narrator, the audience, and the characters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The study of disability in the ancient world is a burgeoning field and is rapidly garnering interest outside of academia as well. This brief article argues that we can expand our engagement with the topic—and with ancient literature broadly—by acknowledging the disabled status of some Greek and Roman authors many of whom are mainstays of our traditional literary canon. Disability-informed approaches to themes like embodiment and phenomenology can contribute to a more complex and grounded under-standing of ancient life and experience as well as deepen our understanding of topics like Stoic philosophy ancient temporalities Greek tragedy and the discourse of disability in the ancient world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Folklor / Edebiyat is the property of Cyprus International University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract Dengue, an acute febrile disease transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, is caused by the dengue virus (DENV), presenting a formidable challenge to global public health. By examining clues from ancient Chinese books and conducting a comprehensive review, this study elucidates the characteristics of potential dengue epidemics in China prior to 1978. This evidence indicates that China may not have experience dengue epidemics before 1840. During 1840–1949, however, it experienced a noticeable dengue occurrence and prevalence in the 1870s, 1920s, and 1940s. Then from 1949 to 1978, only sporadic reports were accounted. The disparity in the frequency of dengue occurrences across three time periods suggests that the persistent characteristic of dengue epidemics in China primarily arises from imported cases resulting from international exchanges, subsequently leading to local outbreaks influenced by global epidemic trend. This research offers a novel perspective on retrospectively examining the historical trajectory of dengue epidemics and provides valuable insights into exploration of DENV epidemic patterns. Graphical Abstract

Dengue, an acute febrile disease transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, is caused by the dengue virus (DENV), presenting a formidable challenge to global public health. By examining clues from ancient Chinese books and conducting a comprehensive review, this study elucidates the characteristics of potential dengue epidemics in China prior to 1978. This evidence indicates that China may not have experience dengue epidemics before 1840. During 1840–1949, however, it experienced a noticeable dengue occurrence and prevalence in the 1870s, 1920s, and 1940s. Then from 1949 to 1978, only sporadic reports were accounted. The disparity in the frequency of dengue occurrences across three time periods suggests that the persistent characteristic of dengue epidemics in China primarily arises from imported cases resulting from international exchanges, subsequently leading to local outbreaks influenced by global epidemic trend. This research offers a novel perspective on retrospectively examining the historical trajectory of dengue epidemics and provides valuable insights into exploration of DENV epidemic patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The origin of numerous inventions and discoveries that have impacted global science and technology can be traced back to ancient India. Many contemporary scholars and scientists have drawn inspiration from our ancient religious texts and epics to drive their own discoveries and advancements. The rich literature of ancient India is a treasure trove of scientific knowledge, spanning across all fields of modern science and acting as a central repository of information. The striking parallels with modern physics underscore the relevance of this knowledge, which ancient Indians during the Vedic period had already demonstrated. The objective of this study is to identify the contributions of ancient India to the development of modern physics - a detailed investigation aimed at understanding the role of ancient Indian literature. This research is a descriptive study that aims to investigate the impact of ancient Indian literature on the advancement of modern physics. The study relies on ancient Indian books, articles, and epics, as well as information from online journals and websites to identify contributions from ancient India to the development of modern physics and technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese medicinal fungi "Sanghuang" have been long recognized for their significant and valued medicinal properties, as documented in ancient medical literature. However, in traditional folk medicine, various macrofungi sharing similar appearance, habitat, and therapeutic effects with Sanghuang were erroneously used. These Sanghuang-like fungi mainly belong to the Porodaedalea, Phellinus, and Inonotus genera within the Hymenochaetaceae family. Despite the establishment of the Sanghuangporus genus and the identification of multiple species, the emerging taxonomic references based on morphological, ITS, and mycelial structural features have been inadequate to differentiate Sanghuangporus and Sanghuang-like fungi. To address this limitation, this study presents the first comparative and phylogenetic analysis of Sanghuang-related fungi based on mitogenomes. Our results show that Sanghuangporus species show marked convergence in mitochondrial genomic features and form a distinct monophyletic group based on phylogenetic analyses of five datasets. These results not only deepen our understanding of Sanghuang-like fungi but also offer novel insights into their mitochondrial composition and phylogeny, thereby providing new research tools for distinguishing members of the Sanghuangporus genus. Key points: • Sanghuangporus, Inonotus, and Porodaedalea are monophyly in sanghuang-like species. • Mitogenome-based analysis exhibits high resolution in sanghuang-like genus. • The mitogenomes provide strong evidence for reclassifying Phellinus gilvus S12 as Sanghuangporus vaninii. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Text mining technology combined with mining themes has become a powerful tool for studying works of Chinese literature. This study introduces a new way to measure the features of text mining by combining mining algorithms. This makes it less subjective to determine the value and language of ancient Chinese literature. This paper shows that the model can correctly classify text mining in Chinese literature words with a maximum level of accuracy. The study propose a Text mining based Enhanced hierarchical based gradient boost algorithm (TEHGBA) model for analyzing the thematic trends in the Chinese literature. This new TEHGBA model gets better scores for all the different Chinese Literature results. The study results found that the proposed model has provided an accuracy of 98.6%. The study conclude that the proposed model helps in analyzing Chinese literary works and get good results in terms of recall, accuracy, and precision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The appearance of the so-called hapax legomena in a given biblical book is always a great mystery, which raises a justified question about the purpose of their use by the inspired author. This is even more important because the biblical authors develop their own styles and ways of expressing thoughts using more or less clear terms and sentence syntax. The adverb ἀνδρωδῶς0 raises similar questions about its place in the First Book of the Maccabees. The article tries to find an answer to the possible purpose of its use by the hagiographer. Therefore, the following issues are considered. Firstly, is the theology of the book itself sufficient to explain the place of the adverb in this text? Secondly, is it necessary to refer to other books of the Septuagint? Thirdly, should the semantic meaning of the discussed adverb be clarified by reference to the texts of ancient Greek literature in which it appears? It seems that it is in its meaning, discovered in the course of the analysis, that the answer to the purpose of the record made by the hagiographer should be sought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reader is offered a Ukrainian translation of the first chapter of the Śvetāśvatara-Upaniṣad. The Upaniṣads are a late Vedic genre of ancient Indian literature that completes the formation of the Vedic corpus of sacred texts. The first texts of the Upaniṣads appear around the 8th century BC. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the Upaniṣads for the study of the origins of Indian religious and philosophical thought. Leading Indian philosophers developed the ideas of the Upaniṣads, quoted them in their own works, and, starting with Gauḍapāda, wrote their own commentaries on them. They are the first component of the triple canon (prasthānatrayī) of the Vedānta philosophical school. For more than a century, not only in world Indological circles, but also among much wider intellectual circles of various countries, primarily in Europe and North America, there has been a steady interest in the Upaniṣads. The Śvetāśvatara-Upaniṣad is one of the most authoritative and well-known Upaniṣads. It received its high recognition not only in Hindu, but also in scientific circles. And although its studies and translations have a long history, there are still many controversial and unresolved issues. Our publication is intended to renew the existing Ukrainian academic interest in the Upaniṣads, which was interrupted by the Soviet authorities in the 1920s and 1930s, and to draw attention to some still insufficiently researched aspects of the Śvetāśvatara-Upaniṣad. Thus, emphasis is placed on the features of the description of the Highest principle (reality), the soteriological component of the ancient Indian text, on the role played by sages in the Upaniṣad, on the features of text creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes P. Ritter's translation of 44 verses of the Pāli Dhammapada, which were included in his book Voices of Ancient India: An Anthology of Ancient Indian Literature, and gives a list of terminology of Pāli Buddhist vocabulary present in the text, which includes 53 lexical units: akata, aṭṭhaṅgikamagga, attan, adhamma, anuyogin, ariya, ariyasaccāni, ariyāṭṭhaṅgikamagga, asāra, kamma, kalyāṇa, kāma, kiliṭṭha, kusala, cattāri ariyasaccāni, citta, taṇhā, dukkha (= dukha), nibbāna, dhamma, paññā, paññavant, paṇḍita, pāpa, puñña, bāla, buddha, brāhmaṇa, bhikkhu, magga, manas, micchā, yoga, yogin, rāga, loka, virāga, visaṅkhāra, visuddhi, saṅkappa, saṅkhāra, saṁsāra, sacca, saṅgha, saddhamma, santi, sammā, sammāsambuddha, saraṇa, sāra, sāvaka, sukha, sugata. For each lexical unit grammatical information and a Sanskrit analogue is given, as well as an antonymic and synonymous term (if it occurs in the verses under consideration), all translation variants that occur in Ritter's translation (including cases where the word was not translated by a specific corresponding term) are included with indication of the number of the verse, translation options of this word proposed by Max Müller and V. N. Toporov, as well as, if necessary, an explanatory comment on the corresponding term. In the course of a comparative analysis of three translations of these verses (by P. G. Ritter, Max Müller and V. N. Toporov) a number of significant coincidences between the translations of Max Müller and V. N. Toporov were also revealed, the evaluation of which requires further work with a wider textological context (full text Dhammapada). At the same time, Ritter's translation is completely original and not similar to previous translations of the Dhammapada from the original known to him (German translations by A. Weber and L. fon Schröder, French translation by F. Hû, English translation by M. Müller). Pavlo Ritter's "Buddhist dictionary" presented in this article should in the future be supplemented with vocabulary from the rest of the Buddhist texts translated by him (Suttanipāta, Mahāvagga, Mahāparinibbāna-sutta, Jātaka Book, Milinda-pañha), as well as a specialized study of Ritter's manuscript materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the issue of literary and cultural reflection on patrological and theological texts. The outline of possible analysis of texts related to the history of doctrine and the dissemination of Christianity using methods other than those developed in patristics and theology shows ways to enrich both the spectrum of interpretation of texts originating from Christian antiquity or its reception, as well as the possibilities of disseminating knowledge about them. For exemplification, texts by three authors of Christian antiquity were selected: Damasus I, Firmicus Maternus, Filaster of Brescia, and native reception texts from Poland (Walenty of Warta, Andreas Stredonius), referring both to the achievements of ancient literature, Christian apologetics, and to the literary tendencies of the era (16th and 17th centuries). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of KUL Journal of Legal Studies / Studia Prawnicze KUL is the property of John Paul II Catholic University of Lubin / Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawla II and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Ancient Chinese literature is an important carrier of Chinese traditional culture while Chinese incense culture is an important part of the excellent traditional Chinese culture. The ancients used incense to compare the people with good deeds and noble character; incense can exorcise evil spirits, dispel evil spirits, and forget worries, while exotic incense can also welcome gods and help the dead into immortals. Integrating incense culture into the teaching of ancient literature course can not only enrich the teaching content, inject new vitality and imagination into the teaching, but also guide students to consciously shape a perfect personality, take the initiative to inherit and innovate traditional Chinese culture, and serve the construction of contemporary culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tsutsugamushi disease was first described in China by Hong Ge in 313. In his book Zhouhou Beiji Fang, three escharassociated febrile diseases were described: Shashidu, Zhongxidu, and Shegongdu. Shashidu was identified as being identical to tsutsugamushi disease in Japan: it occurred in riverside areas, exhibited an eschar, and was transmitted by tiny red “sand lice”. The nature of Zhongxidu remains unknown, but we propose that it is another type of Orientia tsutsugamushi infection: it occurred in mountainous areas, an eschar was observed, and the causative vector was not identified. Moreover, Zhongxidu would have predated Shashidu by five centuries; thus, the first documentation of tsutsugamushi disease would date back 2.2 millennia. O. tsutsugamushi infection without eschar has not been identified in ancient Chinese literature and may be included in Shanghan. Several ancient Chinese books describe that Shegongdu occurs following a Shegong bite. Shegong is described as a bug resembling a cockroach or cicada with a crossbow-like structure, possibly the hypostome and unfolded palps of tick, in its mouth. Thus, Shegong refers to an engorged tick and Shegongdu is a tick-borne rickettsiosis. However, due to a lack of entomological knowledge, these findings have not been recognized for the past 1.7 millennia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the myth of the death of the Norse god Baldr in a comparative framework. Scholars working in the fields of comparative mythology and religion have long argued that a myth concerning the sacrificial killing of the first man is represented in the ancient and medieval literatures of several languages in the Indo-European family. In the reconstruction of this myth, the first priest sacrifices his brother, whose corpse is integrated into the structure of the cosmos, and who rules the realm of the dead. It has long been argued that Ymir's death and dismemberment and the use of his body to construct the world in Old Norse sources is a reflex of this myth; this study argues that the myth of the death of Baldr is also a cognate version of this myth. This article is the first part of a two-part study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid advancements in intelligent knowledge management technologies, exemplified by generative large language models, have yet to be fully explored and applied in the field of collation of ancient Chinese poetry. This study investigates the application of BERT-based pre-trained models, namely bert-base-chinese and SikuBERT, in the specialized task of ancient Chinese poetry collation. Focusing on the poetry of Li Bai, we employed a meticulously curated dataset to fine-tune these models, with the objective of enhancing their ability to identify and rectify errors in classical verse. Through a systematic approach to model adaptation, our research aimed to bridge the gap between generic language understanding and the nuanced complexities of ancient poetry.Results indicate that both models, after fine-tuning, exhibit substantial improvement in accurately addressing textual issues in the poetry. Specifically, SikuBERT, with its background in classical Chinese literature, achieved an impressive accuracy rate exceeding 40% post-fine-tuning, reflecting a marked increase from its base performance, thereby validating the significance of domain-specific training data. Meanwhile, bert-base-chinese also displayed notable enhancements, underscoring the models' adaptability to specialized tasks. The investigation further emphasizes the potential for artificial intelligence to contribute to the precision and efficiency of ancient literature studies. We highlight future directions including refining fine-tuning methodologies, expanding the models' capability to generalize across diverse poetic styles and periods, and integrating multi-modal data to deepen the understanding of historical context and authorial intent. This work underscores the transformative role of AI in the digital preservation and scholarly analysis of ancient poetry, paving the way for innovative approaches in the field of classical literature collation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of the Association of Arab Universities for Higher Education Research is the property of Journal of the Association of Arab Universities for Higher Education Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Association of Arab Universities Journal of Engineering Sciences (JAARU) is the property of Association of Arab Universities and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Selçuk University Journal of Faculty of Letters is the property of Selcuk Universitesi Edebiyat Fakultesi Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the 1950s and 1960s, to address the flooding issues and power shortage that hindered national construction, the Xinfeng River hydropower plant was planned and built to prevent floods, store water, and generate electricity. Consequently, many ancient ruins in the study area were drowned, including ancient post roads, channels, villages, towns, bridges, and other relic sites. By checking historical data and adopting integrated underwater acoustic detection, we conducted a comprehensive cultural-relics survey on the flooded area under Wanlv Lake in the Xinfeng River Basin. A side-scan sonar detection of the underwater relics within the flooded area confirmed the spatial distribution of cultural relics in the Xinfeng River Basin. It portrayed ancient people's production and life scenarios, outlined the migration and trade history within the region and beyond, and contributed to the enrichment of the literature and understanding of ancient shipping and trade in the basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperbole may be the most visible variation of immoderacy in ancient Indian literature, not infrequently developing into adynata. The West, conditioned as it is by mimetism in art, finds this feature one of the major obstacles in its reception of that literature. However, a realistic approach, not just to ancient Indian literature, but its containing culture in general, takes us only to a miscomprehension of a different way to treat reality. Distortion of characters, of plot, of the external, supposedly real, world, as well as of other coordinates of poetry remains loyal, in fact, to a higher reality, a reality that is imaginative and transreal. The article starts from various examples in the Indian epics, mostly the Mahābhārata, not just because this is the largest literary work of India, but also because it is a work claiming to be allencompassing. In order to illustrate the far-reaching potential of the imaginative, instead of realistic, imperative in ancient India, examples are also included from nonliterary texts, technical and legal, in which absence of realism becomes, by western standards, especially worrying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Job 40:15–24 describes a monstrous creature named Behemoth, whom ancient Jewish literature treats as a supernatural monster. In contrast, much literature of the thirteenth century and later applies a zoological approach, interpreting Behemoth as a species of animal, usually the hippopotamus in publications from 1663 onward. Since 1974, numerous advocates of the zoological approach have reinterpreted Behemoth as a dinosaur, usually a sauropod. Arguments for Behemoth as a sauropod include allegations that Job 40 describes an animal that is herbivorous, aquatic, docile, and indomitable; drinks large amounts of water; has strong bones, strong hips, a bulbous midsection, tight sinews, and a cedar-like tail; and is the largest land animal that God made. Here, I investigate the relative popularity and temporal duration of each such argument and determine which such arguments are based on sound interpretations of the Hebrew text. This investigation reveals that no argument for Behemoth as a dinosaur survives scrutiny. Several, notably including the argument that Behemoth’s tail is like a cedar, are based on misinterpretations of the Hebrew text. In contrast, all parts of the Hebrew text are consistent with the interpretation of Behemoth as a primordial, supernatural monster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we concentrate on the garden as a place capable of offering physical protection from danger, as well as fostering psychological or physical well-being through relaxation and soothing activities in a variety of ancient Greco-Roman sources, including not just poetry but also philosophical, medical, and specialist literature generally. In the first part, we consider the environment in Greco-Roman medical discourses with specific reference to gardens. Various themes in what are sometimes called 'enviromental' medical approaches are illustrated to narrow the analysis to the case of gardens and cultivated land as a space for therapeutic activity, relaxation, diversion, and intellectual and philosophical exchange. The inclusion of the garden, we propose, within the range of the medically useful is indebted to the stereotyping of gardens in philosophical genres, but also to a wider understanding and exploitation, literal and metaphorical, of the garden as 'controlled nature'. The latter point emerges more clearly in the second part of the chapter in which we focus on two poetic texts (Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.623–771; Columella, De Re Rustica 10.255–310). In our conclusions, we bring together these two strands of observations and offer remarks about the conceptual parallel between the human body (including its health and safety) and landscaped vegetation in ancient cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that sensory-based methods of gardening have the potential to offer a form of self-awareness, to create memories, and to shape a meaningful relationship with nature. In this way, sensory gardening contributes to human well-being by enriching people's lives with meaningful moments. Contemporary gardening manuals tend to use explanations of gardening based on purely scientific worldviews, while multi-sensory approaches to gardening are rare. This quantification of the encounter with the environment is criticised by some scholars in environmental ethics debates. They emphasise the importance of experiencing nature with all the senses and based on bodily experience for human well-being. In order to include gardening in this discussion, I present sequences from pre-modern writings on gardening. My guiding question is what feelings, associations, or changes of perspective inspired by ancient literature might enrich the contemporary gardening. Drawing on the phenomenologists Hermann Schmitz and his successor Gernot Böhme, I will analyse Roman texts by Vergil, Dioscorides and Pliny (all first century AD), among others. All of these texts contain descriptions of intense sensory experiences that correspond to the phenomenological philosophies of Schmitz and Böhme. They can therefore serve as a source of inspiration for contemporary garden experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fearless ancient Amazons have been seen as forebears and prototypes by lesbians, feminists, and transgender men. In this introduction, I will explore why the Greek legends of the Amazons lend themselves to such interpretation. Ancient Greek literature details how the Amazons challenged patriarchy, lived without men, and defeated their male enemies, thus setting a precedent that would later be emulated by feminists and lesbians. Though the Amazons are clearly designated as women they are also identified with men in ancient Greek lore; in ancient Greek vase painting, they wear masculine outfits and engage in masculine habits, including fighting and hunting. Thus I will examine the Amazons' gender transgression in ancient Greek contexts in order to understand how and why these myths set the stage for the adoption of the Amazons as role models by later generations of gender nonconformists. I will also briefly examine the history behind those myths, a history which is just as important to lesbian and other queer communities as the myths which it spawned. Finally, I will weave my analysis of the ancient Greek ideology of Amazons with innovative, new research on the reception of the Amazons found in the six other articles that make up this special edition. These essays explore the powerful place of Amazons and Amazon-like women in the imaginaries of peoples ranging from the ancient Romans to modern lesbian feminists, and the importance of historical and legendary warrior women who defied patriarchy and colonialism in locales ranging from the West to Africa to India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the fear of Yhwh has been presented as an intrinsic feature of the ancient Israelite religion, the fear of God(s) is not limited to the people of Israel in the Hebrew Bible, and similar ideas of fearing deities occur in various texts produced by neighbouring cultures in the ancient eastern Mediterranean. This article investigates the prosocial role of this virtue in situations of human mobility and intercultural contact in the light of the Hebrew Bible and the Odyssey. First, I analyse those Hebrew Bible texts in which the fear of God(s) characterizes or is presented as being intelligible to non-Israelite people in situations involving movement and cultural encounter (Gen 20:11; 42:18; Exod 1:17, 21; Deut 25:18; Jon 1:9). Second, I explore the fear motif in other texts from the ancient eastern Mediterranean region and argue that biblical scholars have overlooked illuminating intertexts found in ancient Greek literature. I especially highlight the interpretative importance of the Odyssey, which frequently stresses the prosocial role of the virtue of fearing deities in the context of travel and contact with outsiders. In so doing, the Odyssey helps us see how the Hebrew Bible texts portraying the fear of God(s) as a universalistic virtue are rooted in and belong to a broader ancient Mediterranean milieu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines ancient restoration practices in the Pamphylia Region, focusing particularly on the city of Perge. It builds upon T. Ismaelli's extensive studies of Roman Imperial Period architecture and restoration methods, supplementing them with new examples specific to Pamphylia. Various restoration methods were identified and analyzed using archaeological evidence, including metal clamps, new marble inserts, and detailed repair processes aimed at extending the lifespan of architectural elements. The findings highlight the period's advanced engineering and architectural skills, demonstrating how these techniques were applied to preserve and restore significant public and private buildings. Additionally, the research categorizes these restoration practices and details techniques such as replacing damaged sections with new materials and reinforcing weakened structures using innovative methods. This detailed examination enriches the literature on ancient restoration practices in Pamphylia and interprets studies on the restoration of ancient architecture through tabular analysis. The study underscores the importance of these practices in preserving cultural heritage and offers a framework for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on interpretations of lines 46–47 from Ancient Greek lyric poet Pindar's Olympian 7, with divided opinions on whether sense can be extracted from them. It reports that some commentators, like Gildersleeve, criticize proposed changes to the text, while others, like Verdenius and Giannini, offer their own interpretations without providing clear parallels. It highlights the ongoing debate among scholars about the meaning of the lines.

In this article I explore how superhero tales can be used in the university classroom to help students think about the changing nature of Greek myth and narrative. In doing so I examine a handful of Batman tales in light of Walter Burkert’s ideas about myth. Applying these concepts to such tales allows students to get a better sense of how stories can adapt over time to their audiences. I conclude by offering practical suggestions on how to introduce this topic into the classroom as a fun and contemporary hook to get students thinking about how myth functions in the world, both ancient and modern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extent of the Beowulf poet's knowledge of pre-Christian Germanic mythology is a matter of considerable dispute. The present article reconsiders the claims of Ursula Dronke's 1969 essay "Beowulf and Ragnarǫk" and corroborates her argument that the poet, instead of unwittingly transmitting pre-Christian mythological traditions, knew and deliberately utilized the myth of Ragnarǫk. Parallels between the background narrative of Beowulf and the myth preserved in eddic materials are detected; resemblances between Herebeald and Baldr, and between the father in the "Old Man's Lament" and Frigg, are explored. By identifying an array of hitherto unrecognized connections, this article increases the likelihood that the Beowulf poet was well informed about Germanic mythological traditions similar to those preserved in later Old Norse sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantitative cultural studies have witnessed a surge with the rapid development of computer technology in recent years. Since ancient literature constitutes a long-time-span repository for human culture, with quantitative methods and ancient texts, scholars can study the genesis and progression of human history and society across historical epochs from digital perspectives. Nevertheless, traditional humanities scholars often lack the requisite technical skills, creating a demand for interactive platforms. This paper introduces the Evol platform—an online tool designed for the quantitative analysis of ancient literature. Equipped with various analysis functions and visualization tools, the Evol platform allows users to quantify literary documents through intuitive online interaction. Using this platform, we investigated three cases of cultural evolution in ancient Chinese history: (1) the changing attitude of the government towards nomadic ethnic groups; (2) the formulation and propagation of an allusion phrase related to the Battle of Muye; (3) the influence of the Book of Changes across diverse cultural domains. By showcasing cases across diverse semantic units and topics, Evol demonstrates its potential in providing efficient and low-cost experimental tools catering to the realms of culturomics, history, and philology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dialogue represents an essential part of the aesthetics of the literary text, with the aesthetic interaction and multiplicity of voices within the text that it achieves. It helps to reveal the features of the creator's personality and its psychological tendencies. Through his conversation, the creator may look to show the characters who surrounded him, which may have affected his creative process. It psychologically impacted the creator and created an essential influence on the recipient. The method research is the theory of reading and reception and the mechanisms of the German theorist (Wolfgang Iser) in revealing the aesthetic effect of the creative artistic and poetic techniques that the text carries. The most important result of the research is that there is much dialogue in Ibn Muqbil's poetry, employing him to express psychological impulses such as grief, illness, and love toward the beloved woman or to complain about her. Dialogue contributed to the aesthetic of influence through artistic techniques that exposed creative poetics and the susceptibility of ancient texts to permanence, life, and harmony with theories of modernity (such as reading and receiving theory). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction The aim of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of the indigenous package based on ancient Persian literature on forgiveness on the differentiation and emotional safety of adolescents attempting suicide. One of the social problems of today's societies is suicide, which worries the family, society, and statesmen. Based on this, much research has been conducted by researchers in the fields of psychology, social sciences, and mental health because the statistics published by the World Health Organization and the health organizations of the countries are very worrying and show an increase in suicide among young people. Method The research method was quasi-experimental, with a pre-test, post-test and follow-up with the control group. The statistical population included all adolescents in the age group of 16 to 18 years who attempted suicide in Isfahan, and the sample size included 30 people, 15 of whom were randomly selected in the experimental group and 15 in the control group and selected by the available sampling method. An indigenous package based on ancient Persian literature of forgiveness (based on poems by Ferdowsi, Nezami, Khayyam, Molavi, Saadi and Roudaki) was implemented for adolescents who attempted suicide in the experimental group (in 8 sessions). Measurement tools included the 13-item Emotional Safety Questionnaire of Casey Family Service Center (2007) and the 46- item Differentiation Questionnaire of Skowron (2000). For data analysis, a covariance analysis test with repeated measures was used. Results The results showed that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of differentiation post-test and emotional safety of adolescents attempting suicide in the experimental and control groups. In explaining the findings of the research, it can be said that in the poem there are emotions and emotions such as sadness, happiness, anxiety, hope, despair, nostalgia, and surprise, which arise from the mental and mental states of the poet, and the poet tries to convey them to the audience as they are and based on the theory of the emotional-emotional life of the Eastern man, which defines the emotional-emotional states of each person as a result of his emotional-emotional education and considers it necessary to know his own emotions and emotions. In the noble Persian poetry and ancient literature, these emotional-emotional aspects are well taken into consideration and easily affect the emotional-emotional characteristics of the audience. The attention of poets of ancient Persian literature, such as Ferdowsi, Nizami, Khayyam, Molavi, Saadi and Rudaki, to the emotionalemotional components of human beings has caused them to choose a specific model for the emotional aesthetics of their poems. Discussion In the therapeutic atmosphere of a non-threatening atmosphere, along with unconditional positive attention to express the feelings of anger and resentment of others, the researcher has provided an opportunity for the teenager to complete the incomplete gestalts. Unhealed emotions were released, and the adolescent's psychological defenses were broken. Therefore, the adolescents of the experimental group were able to find out that revenge and malice are useless, and this was the beginning of their cognitive processing of the incident. During this cognitive processing, they were able to review their role in the loss of this relationship, to be guided from only paying attention to the mistakes and weaknesses of others, and to face the essence of their existence. Become the main ones who make mistakes and, at the same time, are valuable with a feeling of shame and guilt, thus they can live more calmly, and by maintaining their mental health, they have a greater sense of emotional safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Krsna Dvaipāyan Vyāsa, popularly known as Veda Vyasa, is regarded to be the greatest seer of ancient India. He was an erudite scholar. He is credited with writing the epic Mahābhārata and dividing the Veda into four texts. Unlike other texts, Krsna Dvaipāyana Vyāsa also features as an important character in the Mahābhārata. He is believed to be the grandfather of the main protagonists of the epic. His character in the Mahābhārata shows that he is supremely wise. Vyāsa lived around the 3rd millennium BCE. There are references in the epic and the Purānas to the fact that Vyāsa lived at the close of the DvāparaYug (era). The festival of Guru Purnima is dedicated to him. Indian mythology says that 'Vyāsa' is not a particular person's name. It is the name given to a compiler. It is thus evident that there were compilers of the Veda who preceded Krsna Dvaipāyana Vyāsa. However, as mythical as it may be, the chronicler of the Mahābhārata is the twenty-eighth Veda Vyāsa to be succeeded by Droni (Ashwathāma) in the forthcoming Dvāpara Yug. In the Mahābhārata, Vyāsa was worshipped as an incarnation of Brahmà, Narayana Vishnu and Maheshwara. Thus, the life of this great saint of ancient India is mired in many myths and realities, some of which are difficult to retrieve from the hold of time. The present study is an attempt to discern myth from reality and to draw a comprehensive sketch of the life and philosophy of the mystic based on the epic Mahābhārata. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Renaissance genre of utopia has its forerunners in the extraordinary voyages of the Roman Empire's literature. Two of these adventure novels, Wonders beyond Thulé by Antonius Diogenes and True Histories by Lucian, from the 2nd century CE, stage different places with utopian characteristics (Hyperborea, Pythagora's and Zamolxis' communities, the Island of the Blessed, the Island of Dreams) or early SF traits (the Moon, the Sun, several aerial cities). Nourished by the rich imaginary of the ancient paradoxographia (historical, geographical and literary texts about the mirabilia of the East), these texts display a tremendous freedom of invention. Intended to copy or parody previous writings, in order to entertain and please their readership, they ignore all Aristotelian precepts of structure or the need for a global unified meaning, and develop random narrative scenarios, which I would characterize as "anarchetypal". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the traditional sense, a character should be a participant in the story, perform an action, express an attitude towards this or that object or event... This view has changed, to some extent, by those characters who are only mentioned by others, but are connected to any possible option of the development of the story. In the article, we will discuss the secondary characters of the texts of ancient literature, who do not appear in the development of the story, but have a certain, sometimes, even a key function. Moreover, they do not play an episodic role, but even appear throughout the story. This "invisibility" does not necessarily prevent their individualization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article examines different interpretations of Miguel de Cervantes' novel Don Quijote de la Mancha. It argues that the novel does not have a clear moral or philosophical message, but rather invites individual interpretations. The article discusses the contrasting views of influential Spanish thinkers José Ortega y Gasset and Miguel de Unamuno, who saw the novel as a cautionary tale or an embodiment of idealism, respectively. It also introduces María Zambrano's alternative reading, which focuses on the theme of liberty. The article defends the novel as a work of literature rather than a political-philosophical treatise. [Extracted from the article]

Convinced of the major advantages and effectiveness of an interdisciplinary approach in teaching, colleagues from American Studies, Economics, and Greek Studies offered a joint seminar for master's degree students on "Individual Goals and the Common Good: Perspectives on Utility Concepts from Ancient Greek Literature, American Studies, and Economics." We intended to expose the students to a new approach to significant texts and authors that address these key economic concepts and to integrate the perspectives from the three disciplines. In this essay, we describe the development of our methodological approach, the individual and common goals that guided us, the challenges that we encountered, and the extent to which we achieved our goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses a new form of environmental visibility of ancient highland sites in Abruzzo (Central Italy) during arcaic period. This investigation offers unique opportunities for understanding the management of economic and political spaces of pre-Roman populations (i.e., Peligni). Through spatial analyses, the sites of valle Peligna are classified into different types. Then, they are contextualised within the historical and archaeological landscape. The results offer new clues for identifying a nonurban state system, which is well known in ancient literature but has yet to be traced in archaeological reconstructive models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]