The Flower of Suffering: Theology, Justice, and the Cosmos in Aeschylus' ›Oresteia‹ and Presocratic Thought

277 Pages·2020·2.015 MB·English

by  Nuria Scapin

Nuria Scapin
The Flower of Suffering
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Bernhard Zimmermann

Volume 97
Nuria Scapin
The Flower of
Suffering
Theology, Justice, and the Cosmos in Aeschylus’
Oresteia and Presocratic Thought
ISBN 978-3-11-068552-7
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-068563-3
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-068576-3
ISSN 1868-4785
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020933848
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
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
To My Parents
Who taught me passion and dedication

Contents
Acknowledgments  XI
 Introduction  1
. Setting the Scene  1
.. Philosophical inquiries into the Oresteia  2
.. Themes and Aims  6
.. Some objections to Seaford’s argument  8
. Aeschylus and the Early Greek Philosophical Tradition:
Methodology  14
.. The violent grace of divine justice in the Oresteia  14
.. Self-reflective statements and ‘metatheological’ discourse  16
.. Archaic poetry: towards an explicit theology?  21
.. A world teeming with gods: philosophical theology and theistic
philosophy  29
Part I: Philosophical Theology in Presocratic Philosophy and
the Oresteia
 Explicit Theological Innovations: Xenophanes’ God  35
. Theology is separate from nature  35
. Proper speech and moral behaviour  37
. On the nature of god(s)  41
 God and the Unity of Opposites: Heraclitus  51
. That which is in common  55
. All things are one  59
. God and the unity of opposites  62
. Wisdom, immanence, separation, and governing plan  68
 Zeus Whoever He Is  76
. Zeus and justice in the parodos of the Oresteia  76
. The role of Zeus in the Oresteia: a brief note on the history of
interpretation  83
 Zeus as the Ultimate Principle behind Reality  90
. Epistemological prudence  91
VIII  Contents
. Light in darkness: following the beacon  100
. Zeus cause and effector of all  104
Part II: Cosmic Justice: between Metaphysics of Harmony and a
Metaphysics of Conflict
 Cosmic Justice and the Metaphysics of Opposites: Anaximander,
Heraclitus, and Parmenides  117
. Dikê in the archaic period  118
. Dikê as a metaphor of cosmic order  120
. The metaphor extended: the notion of cosmic justice  132
. Dikê, necessity, and the opposites in Parmenides’ poem  137
 Dikê, Time, and Necessity in the Oresteia  146
. Short premise  147
. Time and necessity  150
. Agamemnon 40–257: time and necessity  152
. Agamemnon 40–257: the inextricability of justice and
injustice  159
. Agamemnon 355–502  162
 Dikê as conflict in the Oresteia  172
. Setting the mood  172
. Dikê as poinê and the code of revenge  177
. Dikê as poinê, dikê as polemos  180
. Agamemnon 1407–1576  180
. Choephori 306–478  190
 Persuasive Dikê: from violence to kindness  204
. Persuasion and fidelity in Parmenides’ poem and the
Oresteia  206
. The Journey of persuasive reality  209
. Persuasion, fidelity, and the necessity of autonomy  211
 A Cosmos of Opposites  214
. Opposites in the Agamemnon and Choephori  214
. The unity of opposites in Eumenides  224
. Differentiation of opposites in Eumenides  227
Contents  IX
. The reconciliation of opposites in Eumenides  229
. Fear in time and the golden midpoint  231
 Epilogue  234
. The Flower of Suffering  234

Bibliography  243
Index of Sources  261