Books in the Studies in Classical Literature and Culture series

The aim of the book is to present a literary genre - the commentary as a main form of scientific literature in Antiquity and Middle Ages. The collectanea of studies of specialists in Asian and European literatures and historians of philosophy show the multicultural viewpoint of this problem.

The book analyses Herodotus' "Histories" by applying the natural narratology theory. The study presents his work not only as a general account of Greek history in a rationalizing, personal narrative of the historian who codifies it in a textual framework, but also as a conglomerate of numerous oral stories with a conversational narration structure.

An edition of the Church Histories by John Diakrinomenos and Theodore Lector. It contains their texts along with the first translations into English and a commentary. The edition clearly distinguishes between the original content of the Histories and the later transmission of the information derived from them as can be found in later works.

The book is an interpretation of the Hellenistic Greek literature. Its main aim is to describe the cultural process during which Greek authors in the 4th-3rd centuries B.C. have "textualized experience", i.e. transferred phenomenalistically understood qualities of human sensory experience to the categories characteristic for textual description.

Presentation of discoveries made by the Polish archaeological mission in Saqqara (Egypt) west of the Pyramid of Djoser, including cemeteries of noblemen form the Old Kingdom (the late third millennium BC) and the Ptolemaic Period (the late first millennium BC). Keywords: excavations, conservation, Old Kingdom, Ptolemaic Period, rock-hewn tombs.

The volume consists of articles, which are divided into the three main chapters: Literature, Visual and Performing Arts and Philosophy as well as Anthropology. The authors consider different methods of reception of ancient myths focusing on various cultural phenomena, e.g. literature, fine arts, theatre, cinema and pop culture.

This book scrutinizes Norwid's fascination with Greek history and culture, especially his peculiar synthesis of Greek thought and Christianity, the relationship of Platonism with early Christian writings and their presence in modern culture, the opposition of memory and history, and the image of the artist and its influence in 19th-c. social life.

Narses, ein Eunuch und Feldherr des Oströmischen Kaisers Justinian, war eine bedeutende Gestalt der ausgehenden Spätantike. Von den 530er Jahren bis etwa 568 spielte er als Politiker und Feldherr eine wichtige Rolle im Oströmischen Reich. Trotzdem sind viele Aspekte seiner Karriere umstritten.Das Buch untersucht die Karriere von Narses und bietet einen Einblick in die Faktoren, die zu seinem politischen Aufstieg beitrugen. Das Hauptaugenmerk der Untersuchung richtet sich auf seinen realen Wirkungskreis, der sich im Laufe vieler Missionen kristallisierte, während er als kaiserlicher Sonderbeauftragter agierte. Im Fokus der Studie stehen die konkreten Ereignisse, an denen Narses aktiv teilnahm, u. a. der Nika-Aufstand, die religionspolitischen Wirren in Ägypten und die Gotenkriege. Das Buch versteht sich auch als eine quellenkritische Studie zur spätantiken Historiographie, deren Aufgabe ist, die einzelnen historiographischen Traditionsstränge, die sich auf Narses beziehen, zu identifizieren, voneinander abzugrenzen und zu untersuchen.

The cultural category of monster is the key to understanding the "Mirabilia" by Phlegon of Tralles. Applied to Phlegon's 35 marvelous stories, this category allows all his reported cases to be defined as either hybrid creatures, or as beings monstrous in terms of scale, size or multiplicity. In each case corporeality receives the greatest emphasis.