PROGRAMME AND ABSTRACTS - Università degli Studi di Messina

Matthias Morgenstern, Tübingen University, Germany
Anmerkungen zur talmudischen Bibelhermeneutik
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Within the context of the recent Discussion, which doubts that the rabbinic Judaism is still a
biblical religion, this paper studies argumentation in palestinian Talmud – where confrontation
with Christianity is already important. Literary form and function of biblical proof will be
studied to understand when a biblical proof is acknowledged in Talmud (differently in
Aggadah und Halakhah). It will also be carefully studied when a polemic with Christians is
aroused out of examination of biblical proofs.
Daniela Motta, University of Palermo, Italy
Memoria eroica e polis: Achille ed Atene nella Historia Nova di Zosimo
Tue 15 th , 15.20, Classroom 9
At the time when most people believe in the intercession of the holy man to save the city from
barbarians or natural disasters, heroic memory still seems to be venerated by the last pagans.
Two passages from Zosimos’ Historia Nova (IV 18 and V 6) tell us how Achilles saved
Athens.The first time, the city was spared by the earthquake that devastated much of Greece
during the empire of Valens; the second time, the city was preserved from Alaric’ ravages in
396-397, thanks to the supernatural precence of Athena Promachos too. These events, told only
by Zosimos, are of great importance in the historian’s view, according to whom the neglect of
Roman ancestral religion brought about the decline of the empire. Achilles, a very popular hero
in the pagan culture of Late Antiquity, is chosen as the most famous warrior of Greek epic,
even if he has no specific connections with the Athenian polis. Firstly, the question of the
relationship between Zosimos and Eunapios concerning these anecdotes should be debated.
Secondly, the preservation of Athens through observance of ancient cults must be analyzed in
connection with an epochal event such as the Sack of Rome in 410 and with the myth of Roma
aeterna in the view of pagan circles.
Anna Multari, University of Messina, Italy
La componente magica nei papiri magico-medicali copti
Tue 15 th , 10.20, Classroom 7
The coptic medicine is the evolution of the magic-medical and magic-religious traditions of the
Egyptian culture, which the traditions of other Mediterranean social-religious cultures were
subsequently grafted to, in particular way the Greek-Hellenistic one; besides the coptic magical
medicine is the adaptation of the aforesaid traditions to the new christian religion. The
treatments in the coptic magic-medical texts are the result of the combination between
continuation of magic-medical practices and physician-knowledge cares. The purpose of the
cure was to obtain the recovery from the illnesses, both physical or metaphysical nature, or the
research of the prevention from these ones, or the maintenance of a good state of health, an
understood health in physical, mental and spiritual sense. As the texts allow to observe, in the
coptic magical medicine are employed substances possessing, in some cases, real therapeutic
ownerships and considered to be able to recover only after a magical ritual, that strengthen