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Metaphern, insbesondere solche, die auf den Raum als Bildspender zurückgreifen, sind ein Hauptcharakteristikum der Redekunst des Kirchenvaters Johannes Chrysostomos (ca. 349–407). Da er ein versierter Redner mit einer Vorliebe für bildliche Sprache war, untersucht der vorliegende Beitrag, wie räumliche Metaphern zum Erreichen der persuasiven Ziele des Chrysostomos beitragen. Im Rückgriff auf die kognitive Metaphertheorie wird der Traktat An Theodor analysiert, wobei die erkenntnistheoretischen und paränetischen Funktionen, die konzeptuelle Metaphern erfüllen, in den Blick genommen werden. Die Besonderheit des Metaphergebrauchs des Chrysostomos besteht darin, dass er sein Publikum in metaphorische Szenarien, die er in seiner visuellen Rhetorik entwirt, einbezieht, um seine Leser dazu zu bringen, ihre Einstellungen und Verhalten zu überprüfen. Damit versucht er, eine praktische Reaktion auf die gegenwärtige Situation hervorzurufen. Metaphors, in particular those with spatial source domains, are a frequent feature of the oratory of the Greek Church Father John Chrysostom (c. 349–407). Given that he was an accomplished religious orator with an eye for imagistic language, this article explores how spatial metaphors contribute to Chrysostom’s achieving his persuasive goals. Adopting the approach of cognitive metaphor theory, it examines the treatise To Theodore with a focus on the epistemic and paraenetic functions fulfilled by conceptual metaphors. What is peculiar to Chrysostom’s metaphor use is that he involves his audience in metaphorical scenarios created by his visual rhetoric, in order to make his readers reappraise their attitudes and behaviour and, at once, elicit from them a specific response to the present situation.

In presenting philological reading of spatial metaphors in ancient texts and their reception based on theoretical approaches to metaphor, this is a pioneering study which also bears testimony to the increasing interest in the potential and cognitive functions of metaphor in literary studies. The individual studies of er a representative synopsis of current theories on spatial metaphors and encompass applications to literary texts from a number of genres and languages ranging from wisdom texts and philosophical treatises to tragedy and from Ancient Egyptian to Shakespearean English, thus spanning almost 3000 years of human thought and language. Based on this framework of theory and practice, this volume collects a series of papers originally delivered at a conference entitled Raum-Metaphern in antiken Texten und deren Rezeption, organized by research group C-2 Space and Metaphor in Cognition, Language and Texts of the Excellence Cluster of Topoi The Formation and Transformation of Space and Knowledge in Ancient Civilizations in Berlin in June 2014.

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