Monday, September 4, 2023
Today began the fourth edition of the Annual Interdisciplinary School of Ancient Greek, Egyptology and Oriental Languages, titled "Vice and Virtue in Antiquity", organized by ISACCL in partnership with the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Faculty of Languages and Foreign Literatures of the University of Bucharest.
In his introductory speech, professor Emil Constantinescu, president of the Scientific Council of ISACCL, illustrated the perennialism of classical culture and its role in the context of our modern society. Professor Joanna Popielska-Grzyboska (Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences), the scientific director of this event, spoke about the complementarity of these two concepts, "vice" and "virtue", emphasizing the role of the inner work that every human being should undertake. Professor Maria-Luiza Oancea (Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Bucharest) highlighted the history of the concept "arete" ("virtue") in ancient Greek, starting from Plato to Saint Paul and presented the class schedules.
Emeritus Professor Emil Constantinescu, President of the Scientific Council of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization, President of Romania 1996-2000:
The topic of the current edition is interesting for the contemporary period, a time of exaltation of vices and mockery of virtues, in a diachrony that goes beyond the Greco-Roman classicism and Buddhism to Minoan and Hindu art, but even further, from art to pornography.
„Distinguished professor, dear participants, esteemed public,
On behalf of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization, I am happy to welcome you at the opening of the fourth edition of the Annual Interdisciplinary School of Ancient Greek, Egyptology and Oriental Languages, organized in partnership with the prestigious Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences, represented by the scientific director of the event, professor Joanna Popielska-Grzybowska, and the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Bucharest, represented by professor Maria-Luiza Oancea
After the previous editions, which dealt with Life and death, Cosmogony, Time and space, this year's topic is dedicated to virtues and vices in Antiquity. In the poster dedicated to the event, one can only see the seven capital virtues. In the medieval imaginary, vices are absent from the landscape. However, in Antiquity they were not hidden from the eyes of the world, they were accepted and assumed as such. The gods were portrayed like men, without any hypocrisy, with all their passions, jealousies, envies, gluttonies, and adulteries, both in Athens and in Rome, which took over the Greek religion after conquering its territory: Graecia capta, ferum victorem cepit. Zeus only changed his name to Jupiter and Athena to Minerva.
The supreme deity, Zeus-Jupiter also had a part of violence, greed and adultery, while the wisdom and peace embodied by Athena-Minerva were always armed and ready for war. Our continent was built on the basis of the Greek, Latin and Christian heritage. The very name of Europe is linked to the abduction of a young Phoenician maiden by Zeus, transformed into a bull, in a legend in which the virtue of love is intertwined with adultery and deceit. Vice and virtue: two sides of the same coin, like light and darkness. The balance between the deities personifying good and evil also characterized the mythology of Ancient Egypt.
In the Abrahamic religions, by tasting the apple from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the first people lost the chance of immortality, but gained the power to choose between good and evil. Literature and art transfigure vices in a creative way, which cannot be censored. The danger arises when the utopia or dystopia found in the society’s projections become coercive or manipulative ideologies.
The topic of the current edition is interesting for the contemporary period, a time of exaltation of vices and mockery of virtues, in a diachrony that goes beyond the Greco-Roman classicism and Buddhism to Minoan and Hindu art, but even further, from art to pornography.
Our world reflects us so much the vices that perhaps it is time to highlight the virtues, the aspiration to the Beauty, the Good and the True, which are not just empty words. These virtues were the foundation upon which some civilizations were built. The Egyptians with their rich culture, Homer and Plato, which you will read in their mother tongue, seem lost in a distant past. They cannot remain only the prerogative of some select circles. The immense legacy they left to the whole world must not be abandoned. Will influencers, who are now en vogue, still be read in a hundred, two hundred, five hundred, thousand years? Will the names of today's singers and TV stars still be known centuries from now? Will the tall buildings in glass and metal from nowadays be as impressive as were the pyramids in their times? We cannot know this.
But we can hope that there will always be little enclaves, worlds built outside the world, by those who study the Antiquity. I remember that during the communist dictatorship, the young people of my generation Zoe Petre and Dan Slușanschi or their mentors, Dionisie Pippidi and Mihai Berza, retreated with their dictionaries and grammar books, in their free time, to translate from the authors of Classical Antiquity. They were doing it as a leisure, in an era where there was not as much freedom as there is today, nor as many linguistic resources. Their portraits are in the hallway of our Institute, but also in the hearts of some of us, and I hope that, from the high worlds from which they look at us, they can be a source of inspiration. You, today's students, have a chance to follow in their footsteps. You have infinite resources, free and accessible on the Internet, printer and xerox to prepare your seminar texts. Your much older professors copied their texts by hand, reading them from some expensive and rare books, with yellow pages, they could hardly find in the libraries. Perhaps we should also remember the virtue of patience...
I take this opportunity to send a message of solidarity for the "Dan Slușanschi" School of Classical Languages organized in Sibiu by Antoaneta Sabău and to highlight the fact that the Antiquity does not belong only to a small elitist circle of connoisseurs: it belongs all of us. It is necessary that we all make efforts to promote it, as possible, because by forgetting our roots, we forget our identity, we lose our landmarks, we forget who we are, we let ourselves be carried like leaves by the waves of this world, which does not know its needs and aspirations. I send my gratitude to all of you, because you carry, across the ages, the seeds and lights of a world, "which thought in fairy tales and spoke in poems... / from a sky with other stars, with other heavens, with other gods".
I wish you fruitful days in the company of ancient civilizations and also I wish you success in your academic career. Wherever life leads you, the days of labour, dedicated to acquiring the virtue of knowledge and wisdom of the ancient civilizations will light your way on the paths of modernity, full of tentations.
Prof. Dr. Joanna Popielska-Grzybowska, Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures at the Polish Academy of Sciences, the scientific director of the Annual Interdisciplinary School of Ancient Greek, Egyptology and Oriental Languages:
This year’s theme is exceedingly meaningful to us as human beings because each of us – no matter how hard we try or how hard we work on ourselves – and it is difficult to admit! but still, each of us has both advantages and disadvantages, vices and virtues. This is what humanity is all about.
Dear Mr. President, Profesor dr. Emil Constantinescu, Ladies and gentlemen, Dear students,
Good afternoon. As some of you already know, because it is the fourth time we meet, my name is Joanna Popielska-Grzybowska and I am a professor at the Institute of the mediterranean and oriental cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences. It the fourth time I am honoured to be invited to be the scientific director of this unique initiative of the Institute, namely the Annual Interdisciplinary School of Ancient Greek, Egyptology and Oriental Languages. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your trust.
The Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilizations, in partnership with the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures at the Polish Academy of Science, and the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Civilizations at the University of Bucharest, organize the fourth edition of the Annual Interdisciplinary School of Ancient Greek, Egyptology and Oriental studies, titled Vice and Virtue in Antiquity.
The challenge of a welcome speech is to find alternate ways to express oneself most sincerely and I am here to welcome you most sincerely and wholeheartedly.
It is my great pleasure and great honour to greet all the distinguished speakers and participants of the Summer School. It is my privilege and honour to welcome our most illustrious and honourable guest Professor Dr. Emil Constantinescu (Chairman of the Scientific Council of The Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization, Honorary President of the Senate of the University of Bucharest, the President of Romania - 1996-2000) – an eminent and world-renowned scholar. We all thank you from the bottom of our hearts, Mr. President.
We owe a particular debt of thanks to Professor Luiza Popa, General Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization as well as Professor Ana-Maria Răducan, one of the organisers of all editions of the Annual School from part of the Levant Institute, and Professor Maria-Luiza Oancea representing the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literature.
My heartfelt welcome and gratitude for being with us is to all my colleagues – professors of this year’s edition, namely, Professor Maria Luiza Oancea (University of Bucharest), David Gabriel Carpen, Asist. univ. dr. Beniamin Laurențiu Chircan and Valentin Cocan – all representing the University of Bucharest; Prof. univ. dr. Anca Dan, Centre National de Recherche, Paris; Rev. Ștefan Zară, The Archdiocese of Bucharest; Cristian Șimon, the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Bucharest; Dr. Andreea Ștefan, the National Museum of Romanian History; Assist. Andra Jugănaru, Faculty of History, University of Bucharest and Professor So Miyagawa (National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics/ Institutul Național pentru Limba Japoneză) as well as our Dr. Ana-Maria Răducan (ISACCL). I especially look forward to hearing a lecture by alumna Elena Andra Midache Cicarma who has been participating in all events I have been participating myself in Romania and she has always been a fabulous discussant. I wish you success and good luck!
Lovely and heart-warming to meet you all for the fourth time. This year’s theme is exceedingly meaningful to us as human beings because each of us – no matter how hard we try or how hard we work on ourselves – and it is difficult to admit! but still, each of us has both advantages and disadvantages, vices and virtues. This is what humanity is all about. However, on the one hand Abraham Lincoln perversely said: “It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues”. While, on the other hand, Aristotle described virtue as a mean between two opposite “vices,” one representing an excess, the other a lack of the virtuous quality in question. Thus exactly this: our complex and not flawless human nature, is an invitation to constant, uninterrupted self-work, self-improvement. This is what I wholeheartedly and soulfully encourage all of you, dear students (and all of us, not excluding professors 🙂 to do, in the face of both the minor daily and the major problems encountered throughout our lives.
Our task for the coming days is to introduce, debate and elaborate on the conceptualisation of vices and virtues of ancient people. Studying what others thought had never been an easy task. And the task before us is all the more difficult as we are to talk about values. Especially so, for values are relative and what is an advantage in one society may be a disadvantage in another, as we most probably learn and experience during our 2023 Summer School, and which I intend to expound upon in my lecture today.
Dear students – as I will not cease to repeat year after year, this Annual School would not be possible if it were not for you! It is my great joy to extend an enthusiastic and wholehearted salute to you, dear students.
In the face of the difficulties we face especially in these times and so acutely, I incite you – never stop fighting for your qualities and talents! Be “peaceful worriers” who fight exclusively through their achievements, good heart and through his or her self-realisation. May all of us be creative and imaginative. May you, dear students, delve into your elusive creative genius that we all received as a virtue, a gift that must be caught by those who are lucky enough to realise they have it – by those who learn to find it among their virtues and harness it.
We invite you to participate to the lectures and seminars. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your attention.”
Associate Professor Maria-Luiza Oancea, University of Bucharest:
The parable speaks about the moment when Herakles, reaches a crossroads and meets, on his right, Virtue (Ἀρετή), and on his left, Vice (Κακία). These two abstractions entice him to choose one he considers useful in his labour. Herakles choose the path of Virtue, becoming therefore one of the most important heroes of Greek antiquity.
„Dear Mister President, dear colleagues, dear participants,
We welcome you to the fourth edition of the Annual Interdisciplinary School of Ancient Greek, Egyptology and Oriental languages, hosted, as always, thanks to the great kindness of Professor Emil Constantinescu, president of the Scientific Council of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization (ISACCL), and organized under the careful direction of Professor Joanna Popielska-Grzybowska from the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences, in partnership with the University of Bucharest – Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures.
As you may have perceived from the title of this edition (Virtue and Vice), we have chosen now to highlight an ethical or a moral theme.
If one may find numerous theorizations about virtue, both in ancient authors and in modern hermeneutics and philosophers, the references to vice are completely insignificant, as vice is being rather negatively defined, as the opposite of virtue, what is not virtue or what is not considered virtuous.
From a terminological point of view, in the ancient Greek language, the term ἀρετή derives from the radical ἀρ- "to (to) adapt, to fit", originally meaning "fitting" or "perfect adaptation to a situation", "harmonization ". The term is also related to the adjective which has the meaning of excellence: ἄριστος. Therefore, ἀρετή alludes to an individual's ability to perform his task with excellence. The merit of the one who has the ability to prove his excellence leads to the idea of social recognition, therefore the second meaning of the term ἀρετή: "fame, renown". The term was originally applied mainly to heroes, athletes and gods, and therefore to all people who managed to develop some inner virtues such as justice (δικαιοσύνη) or self-control (σωφροσύνη). Excellence could be understood also as physical power, courage, strength, justice or self-control.
If virtue (ἀρετή) was referring to excellence, its opposite, vice, represented the denial of excellence, often expressed by the word κακία.
The concept of ἀρετή represented in ancient Greece a significant part of the so-called παιδεία, the education of children, which had the purpose to guide the young man to maturity.
This παιδεία included physical exercises, especially gymnastic, intellectual (oratory, rhetoric etc.) and spiritual training (music and moral education).
The notion of ἀρετή gained fame throughout Hellenism, from Homer to the Odyseas Elytis, from Archaic Greek to modern Greek, and it always remained a recurring theme.
In Greek Antiquity, ethics focused mainly on the human essence, seeking to offer an answer to some questions such as: What is the human being? what is happiness? where can one find this happiness? etc. For the ancient Greeks, ethics operated with three fundamental notions:
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- a) The soul (ψυχή), a notion in centre of the ethics, since its purpose was, to offer a certain benefit to the soul;
- b) Virtue (ἀρετή), understood as excellence; both people and objects could have virtue: for example, the virtue (excellence) of a knife was to cut well, while the virtue of a builder was to build well. The most widespread moral virtues among the Greeks were: wisdom, moderation, courage, justice, etc.;
- c) Happiness (εὐδαιμονία), seen as the ultimate goal of every human being.
Socrates was the first philosopher to focus his attention on the human being, placing him at the center of his philosophical reflection.
According to Socrates, the reason based on ethical norms differentiates human beings from animals. The human soul attains perfection mainly through knowledge. Therefore, in his view, the knowledge is the main human virtue. The developing of reason leads to the control of emotions and instincts, thus to the balanced control of the self.
On the other hand, the vice, as opposite of virtue, represented for Socrates the ignorance of good and evil. Therefore, all moral error has its origin in ignorance. So, according to Socrates, knowledge was sufficient in order to achieve happiness.
Plato, following his master, proposes a rationalistic ethics, highlighting the separation between body and soul. According to him, the wisdom is the essential virtue, thus vice means ignorance.
Starting from the idea that the body is the seat of passions and desires, which can divert the human being from the right path, Plato supports the need to take a distance from this material world, in order to be able to have access to the Good. The Platonic myth of the cave clearly illustrates the fact that only the wise man is able to free himself from the chains that forced him to see only the shadows of things. Only him is able to enjoy the contemplation of the sun, as a symbol of the idea of Good. But man, a social being, is not able to reach the path of good alone. This is why he always needs the πόλις.
Aristotle followed the approach initiated by Socrates and Plato in terms of theorizing ethical principles and promoting a rationalist ethics.
According to Aristotle, the ultimate goal of any human being is the achievement of happiness, assimilated to the idea of improving the reason or developing the intellectual virtues. However, in his view, the virtue is a habit acquired through personal effort of continuous and constant practice.
Aristotle proved to be a supporter of the ethics of the „middle way”, of balancing two extremes (lack and excess). For example, courage would represent a virtue that would lie between cowardice (lack) and indifference (excess).
Resuming Plato's thesis, Aristotle's ethical thinking appears to be linked to political life, since the human being is a social being, forced to live in society in order to be happy and to reach the perfection of his own nature.
Epicurean ethics, often confused with hedonism, is characterized by the avoidance of suffering and pain, as well as the pursuit of self-control, mental peace (ἀταραξία), and spiritual pleasure.
Stoic ethics is also based on the search for inner peace and self-control away from the hustle of political life. But the Stoics’ethical conception is opposed to the Epicureans’one, as it argues that pleasures are the cause of many evils. According to the Stoics, human reason must dominate the human instincts through will.
The Stoics promote several important ethical concepts, such as ἀπάθεια (freedom from all suffering or emotional disturbance) and ἀταραξία (lack of disturbance of the soul).
According to Saint Paul, who felt inspired by the Stoic theology, faith, hope and love are three fundamental Christian theological virtues.
Among the very well-known ancient Greeks legends there is one related in a Greek parable, attributed to the philosopher Prodicos from Ceos (fifth century AD) and known to us thanks to Xenophon who mentioned it in Memorabilia (2.1.21-34). The parable speaks about the moment when Herakles, reaches a crossroads and meets, on his right, Virtue (Ἀρετή), and on his left, Vice (Κακία). These two abstractions entice him to choose one he considers useful in his labour. Herakles choose the path of Virtue, becoming therefore one of the most important heroes of Greek antiquity. The reason of this choice proves to be extremely current. It has inspired numerous writers and painters. I will mention only Albrecht Durer "Hercules at the Crossroads" (1498), Paolo Veronese, "Allegory of Virtue and Vice" (1565) etc.
As concerning our School, this year we will continue to focus especially on the translation of ancient Greek texts, but unlike previous years, you will have at your disposal an impressive number of ancient Greek courses and seminars (9), interwoven with extremely interesting theoretical courses, concerning the Egyptian, Jewish and Byzantine world, as you could see in our program.
We also continue the tradition of promoting the so-called "alumni" whom we have trained more and more in teaching practical and theoretical courses, having the purpose of shaping, as possible, a relevant profile of a true "school" of ancient languages in Romania.
To conclude, I invite you to participate to all our classes, offered from the bottom of our heart by our colleagues and our former students, now colleagues, during these five fabulous days. Good chance!”
