Akroterion - Volume 45, Issue 1, December 2000

Extracted from text ... TRIBUTE TO MARGARET ROSABEL MEZZABOTTA (17.07.1946-20.02.2000)1 R Whitaker (University of Cape Town) The tragic death of Margaret Mezzabotta in a car accident on the morning of Sunday the 20th of February came as a terrible shock to her friends and colleagues not only in the Department of Modern & Classical Languages & Literatures, but also in the Faculty of Humanities, and throughout the University of Cape Town. Maggie (which was the name all her friends knew her by) had worked at UCT for exactly 30 years. Maggie Mezzabotta was born and educated in England, gaining a BA (Hons) in Classics from the University of Bristol in 1967, and a Postgraduate ..

Extracted from text ... TRIBUTE TO MARGARET ROSABEL MEZZABOTTA (17.07.1946-20.02.2000)1 R Whitaker (University of Cape Town) The tragic death of Margaret Mezzabotta in a car accident on the morning of Sunday the 20th of February came as a terrible shock to her friends and colleagues not only in the Department of Modern & Classical Languages & Literatures, but also in the Faculty of Humanities, and throughout the University of Cape Town. Maggie (which was the name all her friends knew her by) had worked at UCT for exactly 30 years. Maggie Mezzabotta was born and educated in England, gaining a BA (Hons) in Classics from the University of Bristol in 1967, and a Postgraduate ..

Extracted from text ... Vraag vir Margaret Rosabel Mezzabotta Ontydig, voortydig jou vertrek na 'n ander onbekende oord. Die siel, onthou ek vanoggend, is soos wyn wat stadig moet verouder. Iets glo soos bottelskok as dit te gou ontkurk of geskink word. Jy sou my dadelik kon reghelp: dit staan in die Egiptiese Boek van die Dood. Om jou dood te begryp is 'n hi?roglief onontsyferbaar in 'n donker gang onbegaanbaar. Die dood keer woordordes om, dit laat ons terugkyk, onthou, selfs gryp na klein momente van die toeval- soos hoe ek eenmaal jou bril skoongemaak het, oor duister simbole met jou praat. Vir hierdie lykwaak, groot gelykmaak, is ek as digter onvoorbereid, nee, eerder onbereid. Die sogenaamde consolatio of vertroosting van 'n medium (kyk, sy stuur ..

Extracted from text ... Domanda For Margaret Rosabel Mezzabotta Untimely, premature your exit to an unknown region. The soul, I remember this morning, needs the slow maturation of wine. If hastily uncorked or poured wine suffers bottle shock. You would have been able to verify this for me: it is a reference to the Egyptian Book of the Dead. But to comprehend your death is a hieroglypic undecodable in a dark impassable alley way. Death reverses the order of words, it makes us look back, remember, even seize small moments of chance- like me cleaning your glasses once, discussing dark symbols with you. For this funeral oration, rather, declamation, as a poet I am completely unprepared, no, undeclared, undeserved... The so-called consolatio or comfort of a medium (Look, ..

Extracted from text ... ASPECTS OF THE ANCIENT GREEK SYMPOSION W J Henderson (Rand Afrikaans University) Introduction For the duration of its history in the period when Greece was still a predominantly oral culture, deep into the 4th century BC, the symposion was one of the most important places where citizens, young and old, were prepared for their civic roles in the city-state. At the same time it provided the context in which poetry, as one of the media in the educational process, was created, communicated and preserved. Its religious-philosophical character and its secure and frank environment provided a context conducive to intellectual debate, friendly and genial association, and the uninhibited enjoyment of sensual pleasures. Although ..

In die somer van 326 v.C. is Alexander die Grote se Asiatiese veroweringsveldtog van sewe jaar onverwags aan die bolope van die Indus-rivier gestuit - nie deur vyandelike aksie nie, maar deur die weiering van sy soldate om verder ooswaarts te trek. 'n Moontlike rede vir sulke drastiese optrede deur 'n leër wat hul koning tot op daardie stadium blindelings gevolg het, is dat erge oorlogstres kon ingetree het. Die oorlogstres-sindroom, soos vandag gedefineer, is goed nagevors, en in hierdie artikel word die moontlikheid ondersoek dat dit by bovermelde geleentheid 'n beslissende rol kon gespeel het. Sou dít dalk die verklaring kon wees vir hierdie dramatiese gebeurtenis waarin Alexander se droom van 'n ryk wat tot aan die einde van die wêreld strek, verpletter is - deur sy eie soldate?

Extracted from text ... THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY: AN ORGANISING PRINCIPLE IN HORACE'S EPODES? Sjarlene Thom (University of Stellenbosch) Over the years there have been various attempts to make sense of the Epodes as a collection, as well as of individual poems.1 Scholars who have focussed on the collection as a whole have tried generally grouping the poems according to metre 2 or to subject matter into either different areas of criticism or different categories of invective.3 The subsequent scholarly debate centred on arguments why individual groups were identified and why a specific poem should fall into a specific group. My personal reaction to these attempts to structure the collection according to groups is rather ..

Extracted from text ... ASPECTS OF MULTICULTURALISM IN THE MULOMEDICINA OF VEGETIUS * M R Mezzabotta? (University of Cape Town) Thanks to the theme for this conference (i.e. Multiculturalism in Antiquity) I have been prompted to look at the Mulomedicina of Vegetius from an angle that has not yet been explored. Like other Latin medical and veterinary treatises this work synthesises Greek theories for Roman use. But the kind of opposition to Greek medical ideas that Cato had voiced in the second century BC 1 and that Pliny had echoed 200 years later 2 is no longer an issue in this late text. The domestic medicine of the early Romans, based on incantations and ..

Extracted from text ... WHISTLING IN ANTIQUITY A V van Stekelenburg (University of Stellenbosch) Plocamus, one of the guests at Trimalchio's dinner-party, when encouraged by his host to give proof of his histrionic and musical talents, is only too keen to oblige: oppositaque ad os manu nescio quid taetrum exsibilavit quod postea Graecum esse affirmabat ("and he put his hand to his mouth and whistled out some terrible stuff I couldn't identify. Afterwards he told us it was a Greek air"; transl. Lindsay 1960). If we were to pose ourselves the question whether antiquity knew the phenomenon of people whistling tunes, this episode from Petronius' Satyricon (64.5) seems to provide us with an affirmative ..

Damage caused by animals is one of the aspects of law dealt with by legal codes dating as far back as the Old Babylonian period (1894-1595 BC). As part of a discussion of the legal aspects involved under such circumstances and of how losses were compensated for, the purpose of this article is to give the reader a broad overview of the ancient legal codes and law collections, to indicate the legal philosophies and similarities inherent to these codes, and to indicate to what extent the modern South African legal system derived its application of the concept of pauperies ("damage caused by animals") directly from Roman law.

The first recorded instance of poisoning in ancient Rome occurred in 331 BC when, during an epidemic, a large number of women were accused of concerted mass poisoning. Overreaction of the community in times of stress particularly, when scapegoats for unexplained phenomena are sought, might have played an important role in this and many subsequent incidents of suspected poisoning. Rome represented a culture steeped in superstition, fear and mythology with virtually no scientific means of retrospectively proving or disproving alleged poisoning. The drug trade in antiquity is briefly reviewed, from the Marsi and rootcutters who collected materials, and the intermediary herbalists and drug pedlars, to the physicians and other prescribers of drugs. There was a general lack of proper knowledge, which led to much abuse and death of patients. The distinction between these professional groups was often vague and physicians were generally not held in high regard. From authoritative writings of Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny and others it is evident that the Romans were aware of a very large number of toxic (and assumed toxic) substances, of plant, animal and mineral origin, but it is evident that the poisoners of ancient Rome almost exclusively made use of plant (and to lesser extent animal) products, and not mineral poisons. A brief overview of the recorded crimes by poison, and known poison dispensers of the time is given. Poisoning probably reached a maximum during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, when the Julio-Claudian emperors in particular achieved great notoriety, and a wide variety of specific and "universal" antidotes came into vogue.