Centre for Classical and Humanistic Studies

This article begins with an analysis of the current state of scientific publication in Portugal, with reference to the impact of the open access (OA) policies of commercial and academic publishers. It then explores the relationship between academic publishing and institutional repositories, discussing the way they should complement one another, taking as reference the activities of the Portuguese Association of Higher Education Publishers (APEES). Final remarks deal more specifically with the UC Digitalis project from Coimbra University Press (CUP), and the way it is committed to the goal of fostering science produced in Portuguese-speaking countries.

Scholars who deal with the tradition of the Seven Sages are well aware of the fact that one has to wait until Plato’s Protagoras (343a) in order to have a first mention of a complete list of seven sophoi. This detail grants a special place to the testimony of Plato, but two more aspects should be added, although of a very different nature: the central role that he attributes to Solon among the Sages and the fact that he must have influenced Plutarch in imagining the Septem Sapientium Convivium. Taken as a whole, these three factors explain why Plato is usually an obligatory presence in discussions dealing with the Seven Sages. Although his contribution cannot be ignored, some scholars have pushed the argumentation too far, by asserting that the sophoi never existed as an assembled group before Plato, and that he was responsible for the creation of the concept of a sylloge of Seven Sages. With this paper, I intend to argue that the importance of Plato’s testimony is undeniable, although the weight attributed to it is not due to the radical novelty of what he says about the Sages, but more to the circumstance that it was Plato who wrote this testimony.

Orestes’ trial in this court obliged Aeschylus to articulate very different realities: the legacy of myth and earlier literary tradition, as they referred to the saga of Orestes; Attic constitutional history and the legal traditions current in the Athens of his own day; and a consciousness of certain recent
political measures, such as the reforms of Ephialtes and the murder of which he was a victim, hardly the norm for democratic standards. These factors, allied with the demands of the dramatic phenomenon itself, led him to introduce new ways of dealing with the myth and to alter some historical and procedural details. He did this, however, with a clear objective in mind: to link the end of Orestes’ wanderings to the foundation of the Areopagus, the most esteemed of Athenian courts. On examining the competencies which Athena attributed to the court, it seems reasonable to suggest that Aeschylus was not wholly hostile to Ephialtes’ measures. It is not necessary, however, to view this attitude as the sign of
a marked political ideology. The analysis of the historical and legal context of this dramatic production helps us to understand this reality and reinforces another one, the most important: the timelessness of the civilizational principles developed throughout this trilogy.

This paper focuses on a legal approach to the motivations that lie behind the tragic outcome of Euripides’ Medea. No attempt will be made in order to absolve or condemn entirely the conduct of Medea or Jason — a task that would be impossible in the way Euripides conceived those characters. The main purpose of the paper is to discuss and analyze some of the legal circumstances that, together with ethical, religious, cultural and esthetic factors, may have contributed to the way the original Athenian audience perceived the drama.

Although the terminology employed by Plutarch to express divine influence in human affairs varies a lot, the words tyche, daimon and theos are those that he uses most frequently. In this paper, special attention is given to the action of tyche and other related concepts, precisely because they are attached mainly to fluid and unpredictable factors. The analysis focuses on the Life of Phocion, which is especially suitable for studying the way the power of divinity is exerted. Phocion had a good character as well as enjoying the benefits of a fine paideia, but despite these important qualities, he was neither capable of preventing Athens from being occupied by the Macedonian forces nor was he able to avoid his own capital punishment. Plutarch does not fail to point out that all this happens because Phocion did not live in a favorable time, and could therefore not exploit completely his own virtues. This notion of a ‘favorable time’ is explored in order to combine the concepts of kairos and chronos with that of tyche, as a means of justifying Phocion’s failures.

Although the tradition of the Seven Wise Men typically
presents us with an Erwartungshorizont where the sophoi reflect the sensibility of a more privileged part of the population (they are generally men, Greeks and aristocrats), it was still capable of self-interrogation and enriching itself with
new elements. It was in this way that it was possible to include a barbaros (Anacharsis) in its restricted circle of sapientes, as well as opening its meetings to the presence of an ex-slave (Aesop) and a young woman (Cleobouline). The concomitance of these different personalities in the Conuiuium Septem
Sapientium represents an interesting example of the way in which the “Other” can be welcomed into a highly eclectic group.

After debating the meaning of asebeia within the context of Greek religion, the author discusses the details concerning the scandals prior to the Sicilian expedition of 415: the mutilation of the Hermes and the representation of the Eleusinian
Eleusinian Mysteries. He seeks to examine the historical, political and religious background involving these events, especially in what concerns Alcibiades' role and Andocides' defense.