Friday September 8, 2023
Day 5 continued with the theorizations of the concept of virtue in the thought of ancient Greek authors. Assoc. prof. Maria-Luiza Oancea (Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Bucharest) read and analyzed some passages from the work "Politeia (Republic)", written by Plato. The text was composed around 360 BC. and focuses on justice, seen as the supreme virtue of man, as shown by the following addition in the title, from the Alexandrian period: "Peri diakiou - About justice". The myth of Er, read in the original, together with the students from Classics department, includes some considerations about morality, the afterlife and reincarnation.
Dr. Andreea Ștefan (National History Museum of Romania) illustrated the Stoic conceptions of virtue, by reading some passages from the work "Diatribes", written by Epictetus (1st-2nd century AD) and from the emperor Marcus Aurelius´ "Ta eis ton heauton - Thoughts to myself" (2nd century AD). Epictetus' perspective of the program proposed by Cynic philosophy is an exhortation to live a life in accordance with one's nature and inclinations, beyond external circumstances, while Marcus Aurelius' reflections highlighted the model of the moral education he received from his family and teachers.
Professor Anca Dan (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, Paris) examined the myth of the Homeric hero Bellerophon, starting from Iliad´verses, correlated with his representations on a vessel dating from the 4th-5th centuries discovered in Afghanistan. It is a well-known fact that Homer was the fundament of the classical education for many centuries, and according to Dio of Prusa, his verses reached India, a claim supported by the archaeological discoveries in Central Asia, from northern India to China. Bellerophon´s myth speaks about the way in which heroic virtue turns into vice.
