Le dossier hagiographique de saint Aréthas et de ses compagnons (24 octobre) comprend, du côté des sources grecques, plusieurs œuvres en prose: l'ancienne Passion prémétaphrastique BHG 166, qui date du VIe s., et qui est la pièce essentielle, la Métaphrase BHG 167, par Syméon Logothète à la fin du Xe s., ainsi que d'autres métaphrases plus anciennes ou plus tardives. Mais il contient aussi un kontakion resté inédit que nous présentons ici. On a souvent insisté sur l'intérêt que présentent les (...) kontakia hagiographiques pour le dossier d'un saint. Le poème que nous éditons ici est l'illustration de ce principe. Il est, en effet, intéressant tant pour son ancienneté et sa qualité narrative que pour son témoignage sur le culte des reliques de saint Aréthas. (shrink)

Abstract:In this paper I will explore the contribution of philosophical anthropology to music education research which, over recent years, has been showing an increasing interest in the human body. In order to do this I will especially be drawing on the ideas of one of its pioneers, Helmuth Plessner. Plessner’s philosophy should be understood as an effort to overcome the Cartesian dualism ‘mind/body’ and to highlight the unity of a human being and her/his relation to her/his environment. With his central (...) theory of “eccentric positionality,” Plessner draws on a human’s relation to her/his body because a human is able to acknowledge that “I am body” and “I have body” while at the same time being able to realize her/his own situation and reflect upon it. Plessner grounds his thinking about music on his phenomenological observation about sound. He remarks that sound, which can be at the same time far and near, has voluminosity, impulsivity, an undeviating relation to human expressivity, is organized in vertical and horizontal arrangement, and tends towards sequentially. Because of all this, sound is compliant with a human body. His philosophy and especially his writings about music and sound could be fruitful for music educational theory and praxis. Some crucial aspects of his theory are embodiment in music, the relation between the meaning of music and body movements, the relation between the conduct of music and conduct of a human and the formation of culture as an open process. In this theoretical terrain concrete proposals and more general suggestions for an efficient and successful music education practice can be located. (shrink)

In the article, we discuss the views of Theocharis Kessidis, an eminent classical researcher and philosopher of the 20 th century, on the origins of Greek philosophy (on the transition from myth to logos ). We define the key stages of his life: studying philosophy at Moscow State University, the impact of political atmosphere on the formation of his outlook, reflection on the discussions about the history of Western philosophy and the origin of philosophical rationalism. According to Kessidis, Homer’s (...) mythopoetic works anteceded and prepared the substantiation of the role of reason in the comprehension of the world, which the ancient Greek philosophers (Milesian schools, Pythagoreans, Heraclitus, and the Eleatics) offered. Kessidis pays special attention to Homer’s epic style and Homeric comparisons. The epic consciousness inherits myth when dealing with the gods, but it also diffuses myth, abandoning the original unity of the image and the thing. There can be found Kessidis’s central thesis -about the “discovery of man,” self-understanding started by Homer and continued by the ancient Greek thinkers. The “discovery of man” by the Greeks made possible the development of democracy. Polis democracy is related to agonality, which is widespread among the Greeks type of social behavior and the main feature of their national character. Philosophy, as opposed to myth and religious belief, created a space for reasoning and rational self-assertion of the individual. But along the same path, abysses of the unconscious in man’s psyche opened up, as the ill-fated Peloponnesian War showed, leading to the historical defeat of logos in its fight against irrational faith. Kessidis’s ideas about the agonal, irrational that concomitant to the reason in its genesis and historical development allow us to take a new look at the transition from myth to logos and stay significant and relevant today. (shrink)