ANTIQUITATIS

RES

JOURNAL OF ANCIENT HISTORY

Published online: January 2022,

pp. 3-24

• Abstract

  In two 2013 articles, Hartwig Altenmüller proposes that the figures on the so-called ‘magical knives’ represent characters from the later Myth of the Sun’s Eye. He further suggests that the griffin depicted on these objects is a zoomorphic form of the syncretised god Shu-Onuris, an idea which is expanded to further explain the contemporary griffins from the tombs at Beni Hassan. Despite numerous flaws, these conclusions have been espoused by various scholars, causing them to adopt a prominent place in the current literature. The present article comprehensively dismembers these arguments, suggesting instead that the griffin is a precursor to a character from the later netherworld texts. Three separate understandings of the different griffins at Beni Hasan are then proposed, based on their varying names and iconography.

Published online: January 2022,

pp. 25-46

• Abstract

  Despite their small size, amulets were essential to accomplish the ritual of mummification and to guarantee the rebirth of the deceased in the Egyptian afterlife. For this purpose, they were placed directly between the bands that wrapped the body to extend their magical properties. The choice and position of a particular amulet was not the result of chance. However, researchers have often underestimated their meaning. This article aims to present the interest of a detailed study of these objects and the information they can provide on Egyptian funeral practices. By the analysis of recent studies in several mummies, mostly from the Late Period and the Graeco-Roman period, we would like to present the evolution of Egyptian funerary conceptions through some Egyptian amulets from the collection of the Louvre Museum.

Published online: January 2022,

pp. 47-57

• Abstract

  During the Renaissance, emblem books, a collection of allegorical illustrations accompanied by an explanatory text, became very popular. They were intended to teach a moral truth in an intuitive way, using an image to apprehend a concept. And for this reason, they were called ‘emblems’, meaning a ‘mosaic work’.

  There is a strong connection between the authors of these books and the Alexandrian poets, as it happens with Alciato. He doesn’t only create his emblems based on authors as Athenæus, Aulus Gellius, Ælian, Stobæus, Pliny or Pausanias, but uses several epigrams from The Greek Anthology, which he translates into Latin adding a picture to it.

  On the other hand, we have Otto van Veen (Vænius). Though he does not translate the epigrams in the anthology, yet he is inspired by them, namely those describing Eros and his power.

  The purpose of this paper is to analyse the emblems representing the god of love, in order to understand how this deity was seen by the authors of emblem books and how far was this a legacy of the Hellenistic period.

Published online: January 2022,

pp. 58-83

• Abstract

  This article is the result of research in progress conducted in connection with a project to study both the Rhetoric as textual analysis tool and the Reception of Antiquity by newspapers from the Brazilian South in the 19th century.  I analyze specially articles of the Correio da Liberdade, published in the city of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in the year 1831.  I firstly evaluate the classical rhetorical resources used to persuade the readers; secondly, I analyze the peculiar appropriation of the Athenian tyranny of Peisistratos in an article about the Brazilian political regime of that time.