PhD Theses in Portuguese Universities (2010-2018)

Prepared by the editors of e-JPH with the assistance of Elsa Lorga Vila (Graduate of University of Evora; Master’s Degree in History-Nova University of Lisbon)

Keywords: Ancient Egypt - Middle Kingdom; Egyptian Religion; Mortuary Literature; Coffin Texts; Isefet

Abstract: This thesis sets out to examine the notion of isefet, as it is found in the Coffin Texts arising from the Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt (c. 1980-1640 B.C.). It is our contention that a full-fledged analysis of the concept will help to shed light not only on the understanding of the concept itself, but also on the overall structure of these funerary texts. The conceptualization hereby proposed is particularly pertinent to the extent that, during the transition from the Old to the Middle Kingdom, one is able to discern a flourishing and a ramification of the dialectic maet/isefet. However, of the two maet has been, within the field of egyptological studies, the most exhaustively explored topic, whilst isefet has not yet merited substantial study, even though the categories of «disorder» undoubtedly call for a broader discussion. Methodologically, the research is based on textual passages taken from the selected corpus which explicitly mention the term isefet, so as to insure a consistent analysis which will then contribute to a better understanding of the conceptualization and to the consolidation of its field of meanings. We will thus try to conduct an essentially heuristic analysis which is framed by two dimensions: a more formal approach (embodied in an immediate context and language analysis) and a more interpretative approach (embodied in an extensive context analysis). In view of the magical-ritual nature of the Coffin Texts, we have chosen to inscribe this dissertation within the «implicit theology» theorization put forth by Jan Assmann, the ritual and constellative sacred practice which rests on the contact with the divine in all its cultic, cosmic, and mythical dimensions. It is our aim to highlight the level of ritual performitivity which allows us to understand these texts in their specific symbolic and chronological framework and in their operability.

ALMEIDA, Isabel Cristina Gomes de, The construction of INANNA/I`TAR in Mesopotamia: 4th-2nd millennia BC, PhD in History submitted to the School of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, supervised by Francisco José Gomes Caramelo, 2015 (http://hdl.handle.net/10362/16014)

Keywords: Mesopotamia; Religion; Literature; Syncretism; Inanna; Iatar

Abstract: The goddess Inanna/Iatar is recognized as one of the most important deities in the Mesopotamian religious universe, which led modern historians to dedicate special attention to her, as a subject of reference. Her importance is confirmed by her constant presence, as a leading character, in mythic narratives, but also by the diachronical cult manifestations, surrounding her figure, which are validated since the middle of the 4thmillennium BC. The construction of her personality had a first and biding moment when the Sumerian goddess Inanna merged with the Semitic divine figure of Iatar. The identifications that they shared the same astral identity, Venus, allowed the Mesopotamians to blend the characteristics that each one had, creating and defining a behavioral framework, whose archetypes one can find in literature, in cultic manifestations, and in iconography, simultaneously and throughout time. This thesis aims to reevaluate the constructive process surrounding this goddess, by shedding light on the Sumerian and Semites contributions, who met and started to mingle during the 4thmillennium BC. This encounter gave rise to a hybrid civilization, where both traditions were accommodated in the same identity. Like the religious and cultural framework that shaped this goddess, she was multiple but one. The intertwined examination of the data from the second half of the 4thmillennium BC (when the goddess first emerges) to the first centuries of the 2ndmillennium BC (the golden age of the Mesopotamian literature), allows us to define her globalizing character and actions, which finds its structure on power relations. Furthermore, it also permits the identification of previous divine syncretism, but also dissociations, which traditionally are identified during or after the Akkadian period. This historical epoch is known for having crystalized the symbiotic process that began a millennium before, which led to this conclusion. Thus, we aim to reunite the different religious expressions, from different times, which is somewhat different from the traditional approach, that tends to restrict the thoughts and acts of the Mesopotamian homo religiosus in a historical period. We intend, mainly, to evaluate the level of transformations that this divine figure went through, having in mind that she is the product of a mental framework which defines itself through a logic of perpetual rearrangements. Therefore, and following recent historiographical proposals, this thesis aims to present a new perspective on the development of his goddess, whose echoes we can identify throughout Antiquity.

BARBOSA, Leandro Mendonça, Representations of Ctonism in Greek culture (8th-5th centuries BC), PhD in History: Ancient History submitted to the School of Arts and Humanities of the Universidade de Lisboa, supervised by Nuno Simões Rodrigues, 2014 (http://hdl.handle.net/10451/11696)

Keywords: Ctonism; Myth; Greece; Deities; Social Transformations

Abstract: The research that is materialized in this doctorate thesis is the result of work of comparison between different sources of different periods of Greek history. It is intended, with this research, to understand how, to the religious imagination of the Hellenes, the chthonic deities were conceived and worshiped. Understand how the terrestrial gods were represented and how these symbols were shifting over the centuries is the main intention of this work. As chronological cut, were listed VIII to V centuries BC, ie, a time which starts at the called Homeric period and ends in the middle of the Classical period. The deities framed at the ctonism, in these periods, experienced many changes in their meanings, aspects, worship and even functions; know what these changes were and why it is crucial to realize the social dynamics of the Greek people and how their society was also present in constantly changing. The documentation, both textual as iconographic, were always read and analyzed with a questioning look, trying to see in what time the chthonic gods were changed and what were the reasons that led to it. We’ve opted for two types of documents to include a wider range of sources and to understand the deities in a larger whole. In short, this research that is now presented has as main purpose to understand that the deities, just as other aspects of human everyday, are subject to variations and changes - conscious or not - are the fruit and, the extended mirror of the society that produced them.

BERNARDES, Joana Duarte, Beyond historical imagination: memory, death, phantasia, PhD in History submitted to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the Universidade de Coimbra, supervised by Fernando Catroga, 2014 (https://estudogeral.sib.uc.pt/handle/10316/26544)

Keywords: Theory of History; Historiographic Operation; Phantasia; Death; Memory; Imagination

Abstract: “Historia vero testis temporum, lux veritatis, vita memoriae, magistra vitae, nuntia vetustatis, qua voce alia, nisi oratories, immortalitati commendatur?” (What voice, other than that of the orator, can entrust History, which is truly the witness of the times, the light of truth, the life of memory, the teacher of life, the announcer of past times, to eternity?). This is possibly the best-known definition of History. Cicero wrote it in his De Oratore, thus linking the emergence of studies on the past to the dimension of proof and, therefore, to the emergence of Greek rhetoric and medicine. The consolidation of writing not only reaffirms the need to record (also) all that must not be forgotten, but also it blends into the very Platonic conception of anamnesis as a trait, as well as the Aristotelian theory of memory as pathos. From this will result a register of events which will be under the sign of sight and care, thus assuming a character which, if it is not yet that of the search for truth, is already that of preserving memory against forgetting. It is at this threshold that we find Herodotus and Thucydides, steadfast in their intention to prevent the event from being lost - even though, according to the cyclical conception of time, the event would become an event indefinitely. And it is on another threshold that we can say that, through an emergence that gains strength with Judeo-Christianity, writing testifies truth directly or indirectly: because God dictated the Word and because the Word became flesh. The threshold of revelation. Ars memoriae, materialized in the palaces (places) of memory, offers the Renaissance man's spectacle as the center of his world's projection, in which the light and the undercover begin (or resume) a slow process of opening: the world in which light serves as the metaphor for Mnemosyne, since a possibility of knowledge arose from it, contrary to what Socrates had foreseen (for fear that the most hidden truth would remain). Yet another flame exists, though veiled and concealed: that of phantasia, deferred by Western thought in favor of imagination, a fact which, still reflecting the dictates of Nicaea, leads to an excessive pre-figuration of the world, stifling what one does not see because it had not yet been discovered. To trace the fortune and misfortune of the notion of phantasia means, therefore, to raise the illusion to which time has condemned it, in order to finally be able to give it place in the writing of History - and therefore to make it cognitive light. Is it, therefore, in these conditions that history is the master of life if the present tries to portray the past without recognizing its own ontology and persisting in the imposition of images that always result from a skewed mimesis - which cannot copy but the present? Can history be master of life when it is urgent to make being-to-death a being out of life? More responsible will be to think of the writing of history as “resurrection”, which implies a re-reading of the so-called historiographical operation, so that the writing of history can be seen as a thanatological rite. Therefore, as a Thanatology on which the memory of life depends.

BRAGA, Alessandro Eloy, The seeds of Cadmus: Autochthony, miasma, nemesis and the tragic in the tragedies of the Theban cycle, PhD in Classical Studies: Ancient World submitted to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the Universidade de Coimbra, supervised by Delfim Ferreira Leão, 2015 (https://estudogeral.sib.uc.pt/handle/10316/28494)

Keywords: Autochthony; Miasma; Nemesis; Tragic; Tragedy; Cadmus; Tragedies of the Theban cycle

Abstract: The royal lineage of the founder of the city of Thebes, the Tyrian Cadmus, is represented in seven tragedies written by the three Athenian tragedians whose works have come down to our time: Aeschylus, in The Seven against Thebes; Sophocles, in Antigone, Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus; Euripides, in The Suppliants, The Phoenician Women and The Bacchae. The objective of this thesis work was to verify the presence of autochthony in these seven Athenian plays acclimated in Thebes, from the Theban myth of autochthony starring by Cadmus, and the influences on this tragic fate that desolated the successive generations of kings from the founder's oikos and his city. The autochthony is the noun that refers to the quality of autochthon assigned to that people inhabiting the same land since time immemorial, or in a mythical context, one who sprang from the earth. In both contexts, autochthony became a very important aspect of social and political organization of the Greek city-states, especially in relation to Athens. In this city, between the seventh and fourth century B.C., autochthony became an important criterion in the assignment of citizenship, besides being used as an ideological tool in the formulation of laws and in the conduct of domestic and foreign policy of Attica. In addition to these two concepts, the present investigation, however, pointed to a third sense in which autochthony set up as a 'sense of belonging' between autochthon and patris, characterized as a congenital connection, innate, emotional and mysterious which unites them unconditionally. This relationship between son and mother earth turned out to be something that has great influence in the shaping of the identity and in the both their lives. In the seven tragedies of the Theban cycle, such influences are evident in relation to the formation of collective identity and tragic fate that falls on Thebes during the domain of Cadmus’ oikos represented on the course of the seven plays. Yet we verified that, in the case of Thebes, contrary to what is seen in the ancient Athenian history, autochthony is not represented in its positive values, but as the thread of a resulting curse of the nemesis of Ares, initiated by the actions of Cadmus which form the Theban myth of autochthony, and that befell the royal lineage of the founder and his city in the form of several killer actions. So autochthony became a miasma polluting the Theban soil, is transmitted to the descendants of the first king Thebes and condemns the city to the suffering and ruin uninterrupted until the founder's lineage comes to an end. Ultimately, it is apparent that the understanding of the reasons why Thebes suffers misfortunes followed passes through the joint reading of these seven tragedies of the Theban cycle that came to us, because only in this way is possible to see in full the saga of the oikos of Cadmus, which proved to be the protagonist of its own tragedy, which was not written as a play by the ancient dramatists, but reveals interspersed in the body of these seven tragedies.

CANHÃO, Telo Ferreira, Egyptian Literature of the Middle Kingdom: Mirror of a Civilization, PhD in History: Ancient History submitted to the School of Arts and Humanities of the Universidade de Lisboa, supervised by Luís Manuel de Araújo, 2010 (http://hdl.handle.net/10451/2461)

Keywords: Not available

Abstract: Not available

CARREIRA, Paulo Jorge Borges, Iconotextuality of the Tombs of Royal Officials from the Amarna Period, PhD in History and Culture of Religions submitted to the School of Arts and Humanities of the Universidade de Lisboa, supervised by José das Candeias and José Augusto Ramos, 2017 (http://hdl.handle.net/10451/27994)

Keywords: Iconotextuality; Tombs; Royal officials; Amarna Period; Religious anthropology

Abstract: The present work belongs to the intersection of two important sets that are part of the Egyptian patrimony: the semyotic domain - text, iconography - and the religious domain, embracing discourses both about creation and life and death maintaining as well as concerning the gods that were present at each one of these moments. Its main purpose is to study the importance of those vectors on a specific group of people that were closed to Amen-hotep IV/ Akhenaten: its royal officials. The extensive documental corpus we set up as a cd-text, named as Additament, is intersected by five analytical planes, who are part of the printed volume (a basis for its six chapters) concerning respectively of textuality, iconography, protocols of the royal family and from the officials, selection and way of life of the officialdom, as well as their death and envolving rituals. The analysis of related contents has integrated comparative and qualitative episodes from the tombs of the royal amarnian officials, (Teban Tombs, North and South Tombs from El-Amarna) that we have presented in detail resorting to their texts and scenes or to graphics and tables that were composed from them.

CARVALHO, Tiago Nascimento de, The Ideal of the Prince and the Ideal City: Reflections on the Ancient World in dialogue with the “FVNDAMENTA” of the construction of Brasília, PhD in Classical Studies: Ancient World submitted to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the Universidade de Coimbra, supervised by Nair de Nazaré Castro Soares, 2016

(https://estudogeral.sib.uc.pt/handle/10316/30174)

Keywords: The ideal prince; The ideal city; Ancient world approach to modern world; The project and construction of Brasília

Abstract: The treaties about education of princes from antiquity until Renaissance are directly responsible for an outline of the construction of history of States and broader relations in the political sphere, or it is truly your speculum. Through the incursions made for this genre of literature - a European topic in the Renaissance - emerged texts that confirm the necessity of the Ideal City; so that it was built by a Statesman or for somebody’s belives that personify an ideal of the Statesman. Aware of this traditional idealist line, that incarnated in the role of the princes proactive education of Humanism, another perspective, pragmatic and realist, shows in the starting of XVI Century, traced the footsteps of History. This perspective - motivated by the experience of the troubled times of borderland‘s definition within the European States and of the despotic actions of ambitious politicians - justifies the stereotype of a prince as an heir of a violent and bloody tradition, exemplified by II principe (ms. 1513-1514) by Machiavelli, published in 1516, the same year of the Utopia by Thomas More. It was in the humanistic line of Institutio principis christiani of Erasmus, that the European and Portuguese Renaissance defined the homo faber’s thought and action - also inherited by Brazil, discovered by Lusitanian people in 1500. In this particular case, a watchful analysis of humanistic principles that informed the educational and political treaties of the sixteenth century - cultivated by the Greco-Latin tradition - reveals that, although temporal distance, the values persist beyond the wall of time and space. Through of the incursions and reflections of how this prince of ideal (statesman) and the ideal city in the Antiquity and Renaissance, it was possible to find the parallel between the Prince Ideal (Statesman) and The Ideal City dialogue with the design and construction of Brasilia, the princely role of its founder, Juscelino Kubitschek, between the regis maiestas (the political obligations of the Statesman) and the architectus civitatis (the utopia of the built city and the popular desires) and also the observation about the perfect city intented for the Capital of Brazil.

KOIKE, Katsuzo, Hecataeus of Miletus and the Formation of the Greek Historical Thought, PhD in Classical Studies: Ancient World submitted to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the Universidade de Coimbra, supervised by Maria do Céu Fialho and Carmen Isabel Leal Soares, 2014 (https://estudogeral.sib.uc.pt/handle/10316/24283)

Keywords: Not available

Abstract: Hecataeus of Miletus is not an author mostly remembered in Greek historical studies, and over his image there was deposited a lot of "dust". This research intends to show, among its purposes, the importance of this classic author for the construction of the historical knowledge, that he is much greater than the scholars have accredited. He faithfully represents the intellectual production of archaic Greek aristocracy, and both his image and his works deserve to be reassessed in a new light, and thus, the studies of Greek historical thought will be expanded and updated. The historical reason cultivated and expressed in his principal judgment, the famous fragment 1, became a model for proper treatment about the past, in Greek culture. The critical judgment of mythical narratives of the epic tradition, especially those of Homer and Hesiod, is the first stage in the development of historical thinking. Likewise, the emergence of Greek history would not be possible without two aspects produced in the Ionian culture: the development of literacy, with the production of prose works, and the exploration of the world made by men like Hecataeus. As a representative figure of the logographic tradition, the Milesian will use writing to expose and spread his historical consciousness. His two works, the Periegesis and Genealogiai, of which little remains, produced knowledge about space and past times, in the Greek world, as a real encyclopedia. In the fifth century BC, they served as a source for both Hellanicus of Lesbos as to Herodotus, and later, these two books arrived in the libraries of the Hellenistic period, and they became really monuments of archaic Ionian prose. What is proposed in this research is to evaluate the fragments attributed to Hecataeus, under a broader plan than modern researches have followed, as they commonly consider these fragments purely as examples of ancient geography or mythography. His extensive work was not limited to investigating space or myths, but included a range of knowledge fully consistent with the characteristics of Ionic Historíe. The analysis we propose for the hecataean fragments, according to their current state, are still enough to suggest trends or clues about what the tradition has preserved. This has allowed us, in a limited way, form an outline of what was the original work of Hecataeus, and what their influence on later writers. As for modern historiography, Hecataeus is considered a mere precursor of Herodotus, the ancient Greek tradition regarded him a thinker worthy of mention. As the evidence present in the fragments and testimonies, we believe that Hecataeus deserves to rank among the leading personalities in the formation of the Greek historical thought.

LEITE, Priscilla Gontijo, Ethics and forensic rhetoric: asebeia and hybris in the characterizing of the opponents in Demosthenes, PhD in Classical Studies: Ancient World submitted to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the Universidade de Coimbra, supervised by Delfim Ferreira Leão, 2013 (https://estudogeral.sib.uc.pt/handle/10316/23809)

Keywords: Demosthenes; Rhetoric; Hybris; Asebeia

Abstract: The aim of this study is to analyze the use of the terms asebeia and hybris in the forensic discourses contained at the corpus Demosthenicum. Both of these concepts play an important role in the discourse to describe negatively the character of the opponent and to assign a greater guilt to the offense committed. The efficiency of these terms in attracting the sympathy of the judges in the discourses is proven by their recurrence about various situations, such as homicide, assault, misuse of citizenship, political rivalries and family quarrels. This study was divided into three parts. The first is devoted to a discussion of the methodological issues, the second deals with the notions of asebeia and hybris in the Archaic and Classical period and, finally, the third is about the use of such notions in the world of the speakers, mostly in Demosthenes. The third part is divided into seven chapters, each of them is dedicated to a specific use of such notions. Demosthenes has chosen carefully the use of the notions of asebeia and hybris to compose the negative ethos of the opponent. He has done that by enriching the prosecution with factors that are not necessarily connected to the main legal action, but are reprehensible in the eyes of citizens. Thus, both of these notions are widely used in cases where the tradition of the city is in danger.

MONTE, Marcel Luís Paiva do, Idea and presence: The image of the king in the symbolic construction of the neo-Assyrian Imperial space (10th-7th centuries BCE), PhD in History: Ancient History submitted to the School of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, supervised by Francisco José Gomes Caramelo, 2017 (http://hdl.handle.net/10362/20612)

Keywords: Neo-Assyrian Empire; Representation of power; Rituals; Monuments; 10th-7th centuries BCE

Abstract: During the first millennium BCE, the Neo-Assyrian Empire imposed a wide hegemony over the Near East. The ways it used to build such rule over vast and diverse territories were not only political, military, diplomatic and administrative. Communication and propaganda were also fundamental to spread the reputation of the Assyrian military might and to proclaim a divine legitimacy to unleash it, according to values of an ancient political culture in Mesopotamia. Since the royal institution was the higher instance of authority on earth, and the king its visible face and personification, the sovereign’s images were the main element of a more general political discourse that unfolded into iconography, texts and ceremonies on which the ruler was due to participate. This work intends to investigate yet another facet of representations such as these: the materialization of the image of the king as symbolic instrument for the appropriation and organization of the imperial space, either in its centers or in peripheral areas. It intends to demonstrate that, in many ways, this symbolic dimension of kingship was supplementary to the effective conquest and administration of territories, and to the more concrete and mundane management of politics and diplomacy. It was through the performative capacity of rituals that used images, pictures and other signs considered to represent and substitute the king that the presence of the ruler - and of power itself - came to be understood as real and concrete. Therefore, this dissertation will deal with relevant aspects of Assyrian royal ideology resorting, on the one hand, to structural features of Mesopotamian culture transmitted by mythological, literary and celebrative texts; on the other, to monuments such as statues on the round, stelae and rock reliefs bearing the picture of the king. The iconography, the contexts and potential audiences of artifacts such as these were only some of the most explicit aspects of the materialization of the king’s presence, ergo, of Assyrian dominance, in diversified spaces and places.

MOTA, Susana Isabel Silva, The sacred in a profane space: the Household Religion in Ancient Egypt, PhD in History: Ancient History submitted to the School of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, supervised by Maria Helena Trindade Lopes, 2015 (http://hdl.handle.net/10362/16049)

Keywords: Household Religion; Ancient Egypt; Home; Family; Ancestors; Gods; Magic; Material sources

Abstract: The Egyptian Religion, an omnipresent element of this civilization, is a composite reality where different aspects fit. One of these aspects is the Household Religion - the set of religious expressions made by the believer in his house. This religious practice was, up until the moment of this investigation, insufficiently known. The scarcity of textual sources and the features of the material sources - with great dispersion, both in time and space, and without secure origins and interpretations - were always determinant constrains for the accomplishment of this goal. It was with clear conscience of the existing difficulties, but motivated by the singularity and importance of the theme, that we initiated our research. We started our characterization of the Household Religion in the ancient Egypt by identifying the sources, and, in the case of the material sources, it was created a database. After that, we did a time and spatial framework that allowed us to know the diachronic and geographic presence of this practice. These two previous steps were essential for us to analyze cautiously this phenomenon - the Household Religion - taking into account the gods involved, the motivations, the ritual space implicated - in the house - and its expressions. The knowledge and acknowledgement of this religious phenomenon and its relevance in the religious context of this civilization are, from now on, more evident, intelligible and, above all, accessible. This was what driven us to do this work.

NETO, Félix Jácome, Salvation of the tragic character and the city in the late work of Euripides, PhD in Classical Studies: Ancient World submitted to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the Universidade de Coimbra, supervised by Frederico Lourenço, 2018

(https://estudogeral.sib.uc.pt/handle/10316/43032)

Keywords: Greek Tragedy; Ancient Greece; Euripides

Abstract: This PhD Thesis investigates the intersection between two realms of crisis and salvation - the individual salvation of the tragic hero and the collective salvation of the city - in three late dramas of Euripides: Orestes, Phoenician Women, and Iphigenia at Aulis. The argument advanced in this PhD Thesis lies within a neglected confluence of two established lines of investigation in the Greek tragedy. On the one hand, there are studies focusing on how the Greek tragedy staged the crisis and the salvation of the characters in the plot of a particular play or set of plays, such as the monograph of Antonio Garzya dedicated to the theme of salvation in the Euripidean drama. On the other hand, the representation of certain “tragic cities” has been investigated, as Froma Zeitlin has done especially on Thebes. Taking into account the occurrences of the lexical field of salvation, especially the substantive σωτηρία and the verb σῴζω, this work intends to reinterpret these Euripidean dramas by means of the interconnection of three types of salvation: a physical salvation consisting of a mere escape from a threat, a psychological or moral salvation in which the hero acquires a new condition after having experienced some tragic suffering and, finally, a political salvation, characterized as a resolution not only to the crisis of the tragic hero and his family, but also to the crisis of the city or of the whole of the Greek cities. While each of these varieties of salvation has already merited specific studies, a work articulating them in each of these three plays of the late Euripides has not been done yet. In the first chapter I will argue that the Orestes dramatizes, in a profoundly different way from Aeschylus, the incompatibility between the Orestes' salvation and the salvation of the Argos, whose citizens vote to condemn Orestes and Electra for matricide, removing them from the community. In the second chapter I will demonstrate that the Phoenician Women has a complex narrative about crisis and salvation that articulates three temporal dimensions: Apollo's wrath against Cadmus at the time of Thebes' founding, Laius's disobedience to the oracle that forbade him to have descendants, and the current problem that directly influences the play: the curse of Oedipus against his sons. This new configuration of the ancestral guilt of Oedipus’ family requires a new means of salvation: the voluntary sacrifice of Menoeceus for the salvation of Thebes. In the third chapter I will discuss the complex relationship between leaders and soldiers in times of crisis shown in Iphigenia at Aulis. This crisis is revealed through the debate about the legitimacy of killing a young innocent, Iphigenia, in order to undertake a morally ambiguous pan-Hellenic war against Troy. The play dramatizes the successive failures of the characters to save Iphigenia until that the young woman, in a spectacular change of mind, resolve to accept her sacrifice in order to make the Trojan War feasible. The change of mind of Iphigenia can be interpreted as a reframing of the patriotic words of Agamemnon encouraged by feelings of compassion for Achilles. This thesis intends therefore to contribute both to a reading of the dramatic construction of these plays and to clarify the dialogue they established with their historical moment. The theme of the salvation of the city, as will be argued, was not only a literary topic but an urgent issue for the Athenians threatened by the destruction of their political regime and of their city itself in the last years of the Peloponnesian War.

NUNES, Sofia de Paula Poejo Vasconcelos, On catabasis and anabasis: Itineraries between worlds, from Sumer to Rome, PhD in History and Culture of Religions submitted to the School of Arts and Humanities of the Universidade de Lisboa, supervised by Nuno Simões Rodrigues and José Augusto Ramos, 2016 (http://hdl.handle.net/10451/23634)

Keywords: Not available

Abstract: The extensive reference to the theme of travels between worlds present in the majority of the ancient traditions, particularly in the Ancient Near East and Greco-Latin cultures, denounces the existence of common human conceptions - which experience a long evolution of several mythical and religious visions - in the constant human search for answers concerning his existence in this and other-world. If the terms catabasis and anabasis, to be thorough, should be applied only to the travels to hell percussed by the heroes of the Greco-Latin tradition, they designate after all, lato sensu, by the notorious pre and post existence of the theme, all the travels between worlds before and after this same tradition. Thus, if initially these transits were confined to the gods and the defuncts, they become, with the Greek Man, spearheaded almost exclusively by the hero-man. This opening of the inferior space to man, who there descends and from there ascends alive, will lead the soul, a posteriori, to the eschatological catabatic and anabatic journey. Therefore, if the initial transits aimed, somehow, to provide the oncoming of the gods towards Man and his world, the evolution of the vision concerning this theme will lead the Man, finally, up to the divinity.

PINTO, Pedro Miguel Boto Ferreira, The Sertorian War (80-72 BC), PhD in History: Ancient History submitted to the School of Arts and Humanities of the Universidade de Lisboa, supervised by Amílcar Manuel Ribeiro Guerra, 2016 (http://hdl.handle.net/10451/27967)

Keywords: Sertorian War; Spain; Rome; Lusitania; I BC.; Military History; Ancient History

Abstract: The present doctoral thesis propounds to approach the military conflict known as Sertorian War, happened during the years of 80 BC and 72 BC. Beginning from the reanalysis of the literary sources and his conjunction with the survey of some of the more recent archeological advances, this work will try to contribute to the clearing of the multiple questions leaved in open about the domain in study. Giving continuity to the various historiography perspectives that have succeed and debated in the appreciation of the events related with the sertorian conflict, this thesis constitutes an interpretation specially focused in the aspects related with Military, Political and Institutional History. The integration of the reader in the subject area request a synthetic survey of the roman civilization ambience during the civil struggles of the final century of the aristocratic Republic, combined with the analysis of the model and evolutionary stage of the provincial regime established in the Iberian Peninsula. The contextualization of the subject in study before the immersion in his substance his finished with the summary of the biographic course of the protagonist that name it, Quintus Sertorius, historical personality of singular importance by the dimension of his talents and ouevre, in the zenith of which can be recognize the one of pioneer of the guerrilla warfare in large scale, enunciating the today principles of this martial branch. The select domain of analysis in this work consists in the tactics, strategies and typology of the military forces employed by the contenders. Singular highlight will be conferred to the creation (by Quintus Sertorius), of an army representing a synthesis between the indigenous guerrillas with the conventional roman martial way. The scrutiny of the methods used to the legitimation of a foreign leadership between the peninsular peoples, as also the discrimination of the motives of each one of the factions involved in the conflict, integrate the complex bunch of questions that its aspired to clarify in the approached thematic. To survey the significance of the sertorian conflict to the historical evolution of the Iberian Peninsula, of the Roman State and of the Mediterranean world in his ensemble, constitutes the ultimate objective of the developed investigation.

ROSA, Maria de Fátima Castanheira da Silva, The perception of order and the conscience of time in Marri in the Old Babylonian period (19th and 18th centuries B.C.), PhD in History submitted to the School of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, supervised by Francisco José Gomes Caramelo, 2015 (http://hdl.handle.net/10362/15002)

Keywords: Mari; Amorite tribes; Zimrî-Lîm; Time; Order; Syria; Mesopotamia

Abstract: This work intends to study the concept of time and order in the kingdom of Mari. The analysis of these questions shows two important aspects: on the one hand, the convergence of two distinct cultures - an Akkadian culture, more Mesopotamian, and an Amorite culture, derived from the west - in the same space and, on the other hand, the importance of the kingdom of Mari as a case study that portrays, sometimes with great detail, the influence of the penetration of the nomadic people in the lands of Mesopotamia and its repercussions in various aspects of public life. To study the concept of order we need to understand the organization of the world and of society, as well as the relationship between the human and the heavenly spheres. To study the concept of time we need to understand how man comprehends his space, how he understands his history and his destiny. An analysis focused on these two subjects will enable us to understand, therefore, what was the real meaning of life and of the world for the man of Mari. As we shall see, for him, life was based on an intense dynamics on which family held a leading role: it was the family that allowed him to participate in the public life and receive the appropriate honours after his death. In this perspective, family and blood ties acquired a very important role on various domains of human life. In fact, the consanguineous ties prevailed when choosing allies and supporters. On the other hand, the kinship cult implied a vision of history according to which the past was the great theoretical model of the actions undertaken in the present. In addition to the family, the man of Mari believed that in the divine world resided his real hope to live a happy life. The image of a theocracy, where god and man shared the same fate, is shown throughout every aspect of Mari’s life. In this thesis, we propose to develop an analysis covering all aspects of human and social life: religion, politics, culture and society.

SANTOS, Severino Augusto dos, Iustae nuptiae vel matrimonium: Roman Law, Christianity and reflections on Brazilian Civil Law, PhD in Law: Legal History submitted to the Faculty of Law of the Universidade de Coimbra, supervised by António Alberto Vieira Cura, 2016

(https://estudogeral.sib.uc.pt/handle/10316/28939)

Keywords: Roman family; Righteous marriage; Christianism; Brazilian civil law

Abstract: This doctoral thesis has as its theme the Iustae nuptiae vel matrimonium: Roman law, Christianity and its effects on the Brazilian civil law. It begins by a small study on the Roman family, from the historical stage to justinian law. This approach has important significance and is necessary for understanding the subject. On the ancient world and even nowadays world, marriage was the condition for the formation of the legitimate family. In this familiar universe, the highlight was the majestic figure of the paterfamilias, radiating his powers in all directions. Over time, the old household prerogatives of the pater were attenuated and some disappeared, leaving a humanized authority which finds shelter in the family power of today. The Roman marriage is the main object of study. In this context the influence of Christianity will be highlighted. Both left a strong influence in the Brazilian civil law, in several respects, standing out the following: definition, heterosexuality marriage, consent capacity (marriageable age), monogamy, marriage impediments, the celebration form, the conjugal union extinction. The analysis discusses Christian marriage, from the earliest possible origin to the expansion to achieve its institutionalization under the force of the Roman Empire, starting with Constantine and continued by the Christian emperors. From then on, it was consecrated as an institution and transformed the world. The Christian marriage is evoked from its biblical foundations, found in the book of Genesis and other sacred texts, particularly in some parts of the gospel of Jesus Christ and in the letters of the Apostle Paul. It became indissoluble in the light of Christian doctrine, contrasting with the ius romanum. The writings of the Church Fathers, yet in roman world, contributed to this transformation of marriage. It will achieve its most solid structure in the Council of Trent and subsequently in papal encyclicals, the Code of Canon Law and the Catechism of the Church. Finally, there will be an approach of influences received are by the Brazilian civil law. In the previous civil law (1916), these influences were more significant, because marriage was the only way of incorporation of the legitimate family, imposing the indissolubility of marriage. The Civil Code of 2002, in addition suppressed these features, established several innovations: the recognition of other family organizations such as the cohabitation and single parent family; e more significantly, the possibility of the union dissolution. However, these old features embodied in Roman law and accepted by Christianity in its legislation remained: heterosexual union, the capacity of future spouses, monogamy, marriage impediments, indispensability of parties consensus. Were still preserved, although optionally, those not legal forms consecrated by Kronos: the wedding party, the covenants, the bouquet of flowers, the pageboys, witnesses and wheat cake.

Copyright 2020, ISSN 1645-6432
e-JPH, Vol. 17, number 2, December 2019