29654 - Religions of the Classic World (1) (LM)

Academic Year 2019/2020

Course contents

Semi-divine agency: the figure and spaces of the daimon / demon from antiquity to the Middle Ages between religion and philosophy. Analysis and discussion of literary testimonies and iconographic representations

 

LIST OF TOPICS:

1. Introductory lesson (2 hours)

2. The daimon in the mythological tradition and in Greek speculation:

2.1. From Homer to Hesiod (2 hours)

2.2. Eros dèmone mediator: the game of masks in Plato's symposium (2 hours)

2.3. The Platonic demonology and the development of the notion of demon in the last Neoplatonists (2 hours)

2.4. The Demon of Socrates in the interpretations of Plutarch and Apuleius (2 hours)

2.5. Pan's death in the imperial era: the silence of the oracles and the demon mortality (2 hours)

2.6. Philosophical and personal implications of demonology: the intellectual soul of Marcus Aurelius and the Platonic reading of Diogenes Laerzio (2 hours)

2.7. Chaldean demonology: Julian the Chaldean (or Julian the Theurgist) and Michael Psellos (2 hours)

3. The figure of the demon in patristic sources:

3.1. The gnostic reflection of Justin and Tatian the Syrian (2 hours)

3.2. Angels and demons in Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian (2 hours)

3.3. The work of Origen and Augustine of Hippo (2 hours)

4. From the demon to the devil in biblical sources:

4.1. The books of Genesis and Job (2 hours)

5. The devil in the Middle Ages: a journey through images from the 6th to the 14th century:

5.1. Representations of the afterlife (2 hours)

5.2. Iconographic aspects of the "bestiary of the Evil One" (2 hours)

5.3. Hell and its Prince: demonic metamorphosis (2 hours)

Readings/Bibliography

- J.B. RUSSELL, Il diavolo nel mondo antico, Laterza, Roma-Bari 1989

- L. PASQUINI, Diavoli e inferni nel Medioevo: origine e sviluppo delle immagini dal VI al XIV secolo, Il Poligrafo, Padova 2015

- F. BLAKOLMER, The Many-faced "Minoan Genius" and his iconographical prototype Taweret. On the character of Near Eastern religious motifs in Neopalatial Crete, in There and Back Again – the Crossroads II (Proceedings of an International Conference Held in Prague, September 15–18, 2014), edited by Jana Mynářová, Pavel Onderka and Peter Pavúk, Charles University in Prague Faculty of Arts 2015, pp. 197-219

- C. SCHICK, Il concetto dell’anima presso gli indo-europei attraverso la terminologia greca, «Rivista di Storia della Filosofia», 3/3(4), 1948, pp. 213-236

- M. UNTERSTEINER, Il concetto di daimon in Omero, Libreria Editrice Aseq, Roma 1939

- C. MAGGI, Il Demiurgo e l'Anima demiurgica. Platone, gli gnostici e Plotino, in Epinomide. Studi sull'opera e sua ricezione, a cura di Francesca Alesse e Franco Ferrari, Bibliopolis, Napoli 2012, pp. 395-424

- G.F. GIANOTTI, Tra Platone e Iside: per una rilettura dell’undicesimo libro delle Metamorfosi di Apuleio, «Atti Sc. Mor.» 148, 2014, pp. 51-103

- E. PACHOUMI, The religious-philosophical concept of personal daimon and the magico-theurgic ritual of systasis in the Greek Magical Papyri, in «Philologus» 157, 2013, pp. 46-69

- NOTES (from lessons) and INDIVIDUAL READINGS (in view of the discussions in the classroom)


Non-attending students have to add:

- J.C. SCHMITT, Medioevo «superstizioso», Laterza, Roma-Bari 2004

Teaching methods

The course is divided into a series of frontal lessons on classification and analysis of the indicated topic supported by Power Point presentations and in different moments of reading, translation, individual interpretation by the students of texts and documents (literary and iconographic) reported in class, followed by a collective discussion in the classroom.

Assessment methods

The course includes a final oral examination in which students must demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of the reported bibliography, reasoning skills and critical analysis of the material studied, aptitude for processing and / or identification of conceptual links and intertextual links, language skills. The final exam consists of a question on the first part and two questions on the second part for attending students and two questions on the first part and three questions on the second part for non-attending students.

The following assessment levels will be taken into consideration when assigning the vote:

  • a judgment of excellence (30 cum laude) will be formulated if the student demonstrates that he possesses solid, critically acquired and solidly reasoned knowledge, wealth of discursive articulation and expressive properties;
  • the judgment will be excellent (30) if the student proves to possess complete and adequate knowledge, well articulated and expressed correctly;
  • the judgment will be good (29-27) if the student proves to possess more than satisfactory knowledge, expressed correctly;
  • the judgment will be discreet (26-24) if the student proves to possess the basic knowledge in the essential lines, but not completely exhaustive and / or not articulated with due correctness;
  • the judgment will be sufficient (23-21) where the student proves to possess general knowledge but acquired in a superficial way, expressed in a not always appropriate way and articulated in a confused way;
  • the judgment will be just enough (20-18) where the acquired knowledge is expressed and articulated in a confused, inorganic and / or incomplete way;
  • the judgment will be below the sufficiency (<18) where the knowledge should be absent or extremely incomplete and the student should show lack of orientation in the discipline.

Teaching tools

Power Point presentations projected in class and PDF copies of the documentation reported in the Texts / Bibliography section will be made available to students among the teaching materials and / or distributed in class during the course.

Office hours

See the website of Giuseppina Paola Viscardi

SDGs

Quality education

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.