A Versatile Gentleman

Plutarch was a brilliant Platonist, an erudite historian, a gifted author of highly polished literary dialogues, a priest of Apollo at Delphi, and a devoted politician in his hometown Chaeronea. He felt confident in the most technical and specialized discussions, yet was not afraid of rhetorical generalizations. In his voluminous oeuvre, he appears as a sharp polemicist and a loving father, an ardent pupil but also a kind, inspiring teacher, a sober historian and a teller of wondrous tales. In view of all these different personae, erudite versatility is without any doubt a major characteristic of Plutarch’s works. A Versatile Gentleman is dedicated to Luc Van der Stockt, professor emeritus of Greek language and literature at KU Leuven and a truly versatile gentleman. The volume aims to do justice to his and Plutarch’s versatility by discussing the Chaeronean from many different angles. As such, it sheds new light on the coherence of, and the tensions in, Plutarch’s thinking and writing.

This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

Introduction
F.B. TITCHENER

I. Plutarch's Versatile Philosophy
Plutarch the Philosopher and Plutarch the Historian on Apatheia
JOHN DILLON

The Dividing Line: Theological/Religious Arguments in Plutarch's Anti-Stoic Polemics
RAINER HIRSCH-LUIPOLD

The Cruel Consistency of De sera numinis vindicta
JAN OPSOMER

Psychē in Plutarch's Works
PAOLA VOLPE CACCIATORE

II. Literary Versatility
Plutarch's Simonides: A Versatile Gentleman?
EWEN BOWIE

Plutarch's Flawed Characters: The Personae of the Dialogues
FREDERICK E. BRENK

Dionysus and the Structure of Plutarch's Table Talk
JUDITH MOSSMAN

Tragic Colouring in Plutarch
CHRISTOPHER PELLING

III. The Versatile World of the Lives
The Serio-Comic Life of Antony
MARK BECK

The Nature of Virtue and the Need for Self-Knowledge in Plutarch's Demosthenes-Cicero
JEFFREY BENEKER

“This Topic Belongs to Another Kind of Writing”: The Digressions in Plutarch's Life of Coriolanus
G. ROSKAM -; S. VERDEGEM

Sulla's Three-Thousand-νοῦμμοι Apartment: Plutarch's Problematic Code-Switching
PHILIP A. STADTER

IV. A Versatile Paideia
Who Was Eucles? Plutarch and His Sources on the Legendary Marathon-Runner (De gloria Atheniensium 347CD)
LUCIA ATHANASSAKI

De Plutarchi Malignitate
HEINZ GERD INGENKAMP

Consistency and Criticism in Plutarch's Writings Concerning the Laws of Solon
DELFIM F. LEàƒO

Selenographic Description: Critical Annotations to Plutarch, De facie 944C
AURELIO PÉREZ-JIMÉNEZ

Bibliography
Index locorum

Format: Edited volume - hardback

Size: 240 × 160 mm

ISBN: 9789462700765

Publication: June 28, 2016

Series: Plutarchea Hypomnemata

Languages: English

Stock item number: 109686

Geert Roskam is Professor of Greek language and literature at KU Leuven.

Jan Opsomer is Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Leuven.