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[German Version] I. The Term 1. Earliest occurrence. The word ϑεολογ-/ theolog- (and its derivatives) appeared late in the history of the Greek language and was initially rare. The earliest witness dates from the late classical period, where we find the noun ϑεολογία/ theología. Plato criticized using fictional, mendacious, and immoral myths in the education of children. He names Homer, Hesiod, and the other poets who describe theogonies, theomachies, and battles between giants. Philosophers must specify guidelines (“types,” frames, feat…

[German Version] (a post-classical coinage) is a genre of classical texts that recount wonders (Gk ϑαύματα/ tháumata; Lat. mirabilia) from the realm of nature and from history – extraordinary phenomena that are incredible and contrary to all expectations (Paradox). Paradoxography is a subdivision of natural history ( naturalis historia) and historiography. Its materials are considered emp…

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[German Version] The word “Caesar” has three senses: (a) a branch of the Julian clan ( gens Julia), which traced its genealogy through Aeneas back to Aphrodite; (b) a title (cf. Mark 12:13–17; Acts 25:11) and the office of supreme ruler (cf. OHG keisar, Russian Tsar); (c) the personification of a modern conception of antique greatness, drive, and genius, which can be interpreted as the antithesis of Christian humility, passivity, and “foolishness” (F. Nietzsche: “Caesar figure,” “Jesus figure”; Gundolf). The best-known representative of the gens Julia is C. Julius Caesar (100–44 bce).…

[German Version] I. Name and Image – II. Cult I. Name and Image 1. In the Roman pantheon (II), the name Jupiter denotes the “father of heaven” ( Diespiter, Jovis Pater; vocative: Ju-piter), the highest position, the power and the right (not war and violence), the principle of sovereignty and legitimacy in all spheres of life, the family, the state, history. He is the “grandest and best” ( …

[German Version] I. The Cliché – II. The Classical Paradigms I. The Cliché 1. The words Orient and Occident (“the rising/setting sun”; Lat. ortus/occasus, Gk ἀνατολή/ anatolē/ δύσις/ dýsis) denote either (a) an East (cf. Matt 2:1: “Magi from the East”; also Anatolia/Turkey) or West (cf. the Hesperides), always relative, or (b) a geographical fiction, a construct of “mythic geography,” an ideological stereotype. The administrative language of the Roman Empire was clearer. After the reorganization of the Empire by Diocletian, the praefectus praetorio per Orientem (there was no an…

[German Version] I. Concept – II. Antiquity as Epoch – III. Religion and Antique Culture I. Concept 1. English – Latin – French. a. The English word …

[German version] A. Greek-Roman While the term for human dignity (HD) was formed and transmitted through Stoic anthropology and ethics ( Stoicism), the concept itself was very common and well-founded in Greek and Roman antiquity.  Cicero (Off. 1,30,106; autumn of 44 BC), in a comparison between animal and man, realizes ‘what eminence and dignity lies in (our; sc. human) nature’: …

[English version] A. Griechisch-römisch Der sprachliche Ausdruck für M. wurde von der stoischen Anthropologie und Ethik gebildet und überl. (Stoizismus); die Vorstellung selbst ist in der griech. und röm. Ant. weit verbreitet und vielfältig begründet. Cicero (off. 1,30,106; Herbst 44 v…

Cancik, Hubert [English version] A. Das Begriffsfeld (RWG) Das Verhältnis der mediterranen (altorientalischen, hell., röm., etrusk. etc.) Kulturen zueinander und das der nachant. zu den ant. wird mit einem reichen Wortfeld beschrieben, das die verschiedenen Arten der Beziehung, ihre Intensität und die Bewertung dieser Einflüsse mehr oder weniger deutlich ausdrückt. Mehr organologische (biomorphe) Metaphern stehen neben mehr technischen oder ökonomischen: Einverleibung, Nachleben, (kollektives) Gedächtn…

[English Version] I. Griechisch-römische Antike 1.  Typen, Topik, Argumentationsmuster. a) Gottesvorstellungen, Mythen (Mythos/Mythologie), Kultpraxis (Kult/Kultus) waren in der griech.-röm. Kultur von Anfang an Gegenstand von Reflexion, Analyse und Kritik (Homer, Hesiod). Dabei sind zu unterscheiden erstens Mythen-, Kult-, R., Formen des Atheismus (Pantheismus, Deismus) und zweitens die Kritik der eigenen von der fremder Rel. (intra-/interrel. Kritik). Die Kritik zielt (α) (meist) auf Teilbereiche, Mißstände, Übertreibungen (»Aberglauben«), Mißbrau…

[English Version] I. Begriffsgeschichtlich (Antike) 1. Wichtige Begriffe neuzeitlicher Rechtskultur sind in der Antike ausgebildet worden: Naturrecht, Freiheit, Gleichheit, Gerechtigkeit u.a. Einige stehen in der Antike jedoch in einem anderen Zusammenhang, sind weniger zentral und verbreitet als in der Neuzeit. Dies gilt für »Menschenrecht« (ius humanum), »Religionsfreiheit« (libertas religionis), »Person« (persona, Selbst), aber auch für »W. des M.« (dignitas hominis…

[English Version] I. Philosophiegeschichtlich V. bez. alle griech. Denker bis ca.400 v.Chr., die etwas zu dem beigetragen haben, was hernach Philosophie genannt wurde, v.a. Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras und seine Schule, Xenophanes von Kolophon, Heraklit, Parmenides, Zenon, Melissos, Empedokles, Anaxagoras, die Atomisten (Atomismus: I.) und weitere Naturphilosophen (Naturphilosophie), aber auch die Sophisten (Sophistik). Der Ausdruck kam Ende des 18.Jh. auf und gewann durch die Philosophiegeschichtsschreibung des 19.Jh. an Bed…

[German Version] I. Greco-Roman Antiquity 1. Types, topics, argumentation patterns a. …

[German Version] I. Historical Background – II. Theology I. Historical Background 1…

[German Version] I. Historiography of Philosophy The Pre-Socratics include all Greek thinkers prior to c. 400 bce…

Cancik, Hubert (Tübingen) [German version] A. The Conceptual Field (CT) The relationship of the Mediterranean (Ancient Oriental, Hellenistic, Roman, Etruscan, etc.) cultures to one another and of Post-Antiquity to Antiquity is described with a broad lexical field which expresses the various types of relationship, their intensity and the assessment of these influences more or less clearly. More organological (biomorphic) metaphors are ranged alongside more technical or economic ones: assimilation, heritage…

[English Version] I. Griechisch-römische Antike 1. Das Bild (imaginaire, Mythos, Idee), das die Rö…

[German Version] I. Greco-Roman Antiquity 1. The picture (imaginaire, myth, idea) that the Romans developed of themselves, their city, and their rule (Imperium Romanum) has an exemplary early period, with its founders – “pious father Aeneas” (Virgil, Aen.), Romulus, and Numa, founder of the city and founder of religion (Livy, Book I); its type – “the good old Roman” in a toga, beardless (Cicero, Cato maior), and its distinctions from its rivals in Greece (Athens). Might and right are contrasted with learning, art, and philosophy: excudent alii... / tu regere imperio populos, Romane; “o…