IMAGE AS THE ACT OF CONSOLATION. SOME REMARKS ON THE METAPHOR OF PASSAGE IN THE CLASSICAL LITERATURE (Obrazowanie jako pocieszenie. Kilka uwag o metaforze przejscia w literaturze klasycznej)

• Authors: Borowicz Sebastian
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The article deals with the problem of the Greek consciousness' limited ability to image certain abstract notions: abysm/chasm, death and the Underworld in the Classical period. The first part of the analysis, based on Greek classical literature sources, concerns the general problem of categorization and conceptualization of the idea of the Underworld which human consciousness was trying to seize by means of a metaphor 'to die is to pass'. The author argues that the ability of the human mind (gnome) to understand abstract notions metaphorically limits the idea of the Underworld simultaneously; it is a reversed reflection of the senses experienced during reality, which creates the anti-world of human visions of passage into a different space. Only the notion of chasm does not have its mirror image; however, it is still perceived as a part of the Greek kosmos (order). Being conceived as a physically existing space, it is frequently figured as a whale's barrel. The second part contains a detailed structural analysis of an old, drunken woman's figure being devoured by a whale which was introduced in Phrynichos' lost comedy. The example is to illustrate the mechanism in displaying abstract notions connected with the sphere of death which the Greek mind could only properly understand as the act of mimesis. Such a construction of the Underworld and chasm which was just an extension of the existing reality denoted the human desire to get rid of fear of emptiness. The image of the 'inexpressible' was, as a result, a mode of self-consolation.

Keywords

EN

ANCIENT GREEK LITERATURE (CLASSICAL PERIOD); UNDERWORLD; VISUALISATION

Discipline

• PHILOLOGY_&_LINGUISTICS: PHILOLOGY & LINGUISTICS

• Publisher: Institute of Literary Research, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Teksty Drugie (Second Texts)
• Year: 2009
• Issue: 1-2
• Pages: 77-93
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Borowicz Sebastian

• Sebastian Borowicz, c/o Uniwersytet Jagiellonski, Zaklad Archeologii Klasycznej, ul. Golebia 11, 31-007 Kraków, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

09PLAAAA06704