Papers by Kevin Protze
Classical Quarterly, 2023
This article discusses the text of seven passages in the etymological books 5-7 of Varro's De lin... more This article discusses the text of seven passages in the etymological books 5-7 of Varro's De lingua Latina, and proposes new conjectures for all of them. The discussions are of direct relevance to the interpretation of fragments and testimonies of lost Latin authors quoted by Varro: the scenic poets Naevius, Pacuvius, Caecilius Statius, Juventius and Atilius, and the grammarian Aurelius Opillus. The starting point for the discussions is the new Oxford edition of Varro's De lingua Latina by Wolfgang de Melo.
Glotta, 2019
This article offers a new reading and translation of Herodas’ neologism ταταλίζω, which is common... more This article offers a new reading and translation of Herodas’ neologism ταταλίζω, which is commonly translated as ‘coax’ or ‘call by pet names’. Since ταταλίζω is a derived verb, its meaning can best be accessed by examining the use of the lexemes on which it is based (τατί and τατᾶ/ταταῖ). It is thus shown that neither ‘coax’ nor ‘call by pet names’ are satisfactory renderings. Instead, translating ταταλίζω as ‘beg’ appropriately reflects both its derivational background and the contexts in which the word appears.
Platon digital: Tradition und Rezeption, 2019
Da Paraphrasen sich voneinander in vielerlei Hinsicht unterscheiden, ist es sinnvoll, zu untersuc... more Da Paraphrasen sich voneinander in vielerlei Hinsicht unterscheiden, ist es sinnvoll, zu untersuchen, ob es Wechselwirkungen zwischen verschiedenen ihrer Eigenschaften gibt. Zwei dieser Eigenschaften, die relativ leicht feststellbar sind, sind der Grad der Markiertheit und der Anteil der aus dem Prätext in den Posttext unverändert übernommenen Wörter („Zitatanteil“). Diese werden hier mit Hilfe des im Projekt erarbeiteten Referenzannotierers einander gegenübergestellt, wobei sich auf die Autoren Aristoteles, Iamblich und Themistios beschränkt wird. Die dabei entstehenden statistisch nachweisbaren Unterschiede in der Zitierweise zwischen den Autoren bzw. zwischen den Graden der Markiertheit werden dann knapp kontextualisiert, um deren Plausibilität zu überprüfen.
Conference Presentations by Kevin Protze
seminario/lezione, Università di Pisa, 29.4.24
"Ope Ingenii", International Conference, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, 15.–17. II 2024
The role of making conjectures in an edition of Roman comic fragments splits in two major aspects... more The role of making conjectures in an edition of Roman comic fragments splits in two major aspects: The close context in which the individual fragment is quoted, and the text of the fragment itself.
As for the close context, our main concern are the attributions which are made by the citing authors, namely the name of the poet and the title of the comic piece. This information is used as categories to sort the fragments and to reconstruct literary history and should, therefore, be treated with great care. We will show examples of different problems in the transmissions of the texts that require conjectures, and how we deal with different levels of certainty of these conjectures and their consequential attributions.
Concerning the text of the actual fragment, we ask for the role of the conjecture bearing in mind that we mostly know nothing about the original dramatic context of what is preserved to us as a fragment. We propose to avoid both extreme scepticism and extreme self-confidence and want to achieve a most readable text without hiding our honest insecurities. The decision between printing the crux desperationis or a conjecture plays a crucial role in this approach.
Terence chooses to present his polemical argument in his prologues as a generational conflict by ... more Terence chooses to present his polemical argument in his prologues as a generational conflict by referring to himself as nouus poeta and his opponent as maleuolus uetus poeta. Regardless of an actual age difference between the two poets, Terence thus connects to a specific motif of his comedies: In almost all his plays, the generational conflict between adulescens and senex is at the centre of the plot.
Therefore, the polemic prologues, which have repeatedly been described as ‘completely detached’ from the comedies, connect in numerous aspects on the stylistic level to patterns of generational conflicts within the actual comedies. They thus prove not to be detached from their plays, but rather to fulfil a specific function of comic prologues: to prepare the audience for the central plot elements of the following play – which, in view of the absence of the plain argumentum, is all too often denied to them by scholars.
Terence thus dresses his polemic, which is in itself (at least in its accumulation) unconventional for the prologue, in a design that is, on the other hand, all the more appropriate for the genre. In addition to that, the poet succeeds in a double performativity: first, he practically demonstrates his level of artistry while arguing for it defensively in the prologues. Second, the parallelisation of his own argument with generational conflicts in comedy is cleverly chosen, since it is, after all, consistently the adulescentes in the plays who are successful in the end against their patres duri.
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Papers by Kevin Protze
Conference Presentations by Kevin Protze
As for the close context, our main concern are the attributions which are made by the citing authors, namely the name of the poet and the title of the comic piece. This information is used as categories to sort the fragments and to reconstruct literary history and should, therefore, be treated with great care. We will show examples of different problems in the transmissions of the texts that require conjectures, and how we deal with different levels of certainty of these conjectures and their consequential attributions.
Concerning the text of the actual fragment, we ask for the role of the conjecture bearing in mind that we mostly know nothing about the original dramatic context of what is preserved to us as a fragment. We propose to avoid both extreme scepticism and extreme self-confidence and want to achieve a most readable text without hiding our honest insecurities. The decision between printing the crux desperationis or a conjecture plays a crucial role in this approach.
Therefore, the polemic prologues, which have repeatedly been described as ‘completely detached’ from the comedies, connect in numerous aspects on the stylistic level to patterns of generational conflicts within the actual comedies. They thus prove not to be detached from their plays, but rather to fulfil a specific function of comic prologues: to prepare the audience for the central plot elements of the following play – which, in view of the absence of the plain argumentum, is all too often denied to them by scholars.
Terence thus dresses his polemic, which is in itself (at least in its accumulation) unconventional for the prologue, in a design that is, on the other hand, all the more appropriate for the genre. In addition to that, the poet succeeds in a double performativity: first, he practically demonstrates his level of artistry while arguing for it defensively in the prologues. Second, the parallelisation of his own argument with generational conflicts in comedy is cleverly chosen, since it is, after all, consistently the adulescentes in the plays who are successful in the end against their patres duri.
As for the close context, our main concern are the attributions which are made by the citing authors, namely the name of the poet and the title of the comic piece. This information is used as categories to sort the fragments and to reconstruct literary history and should, therefore, be treated with great care. We will show examples of different problems in the transmissions of the texts that require conjectures, and how we deal with different levels of certainty of these conjectures and their consequential attributions.
Concerning the text of the actual fragment, we ask for the role of the conjecture bearing in mind that we mostly know nothing about the original dramatic context of what is preserved to us as a fragment. We propose to avoid both extreme scepticism and extreme self-confidence and want to achieve a most readable text without hiding our honest insecurities. The decision between printing the crux desperationis or a conjecture plays a crucial role in this approach.
Therefore, the polemic prologues, which have repeatedly been described as ‘completely detached’ from the comedies, connect in numerous aspects on the stylistic level to patterns of generational conflicts within the actual comedies. They thus prove not to be detached from their plays, but rather to fulfil a specific function of comic prologues: to prepare the audience for the central plot elements of the following play – which, in view of the absence of the plain argumentum, is all too often denied to them by scholars.
Terence thus dresses his polemic, which is in itself (at least in its accumulation) unconventional for the prologue, in a design that is, on the other hand, all the more appropriate for the genre. In addition to that, the poet succeeds in a double performativity: first, he practically demonstrates his level of artistry while arguing for it defensively in the prologues. Second, the parallelisation of his own argument with generational conflicts in comedy is cleverly chosen, since it is, after all, consistently the adulescentes in the plays who are successful in the end against their patres duri.