Tertullian's Chameleon
| Autor: | Blake Leyerle |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Literature
Archeology History 030505 public health 060103 classics Literature and Literary Theory Visual Arts and Performing Arts Point (typography) Metaphor business.industry media_common.quotation_subject Philosophy 06 humanities and the arts Clothing Sketch 03 medical and health sciences Argument Identity (philosophy) Natural (music) 0601 history and archaeology North african Classics 0305 other medical science business media_common |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Roman Studies. 109:275-289 |
| ISSN: | 1753-528X 0075-4358 |
| DOI: | 10.1017/s0075435819000923 |
| Popis: | Tertullian's treatiseDe palliois the briefest and most difficult of the North African's works. Its purpose, ostensibly, is to advocate for a change in clothing from the toga to the pallium. This sartorial shift functions, in turn, as a metaphor for conversion to the philosophical life, which, at the end of the treatise, is revealed to be the Christian life. Towards the centre of the work, Tertullian turns to nature to support his argument, citing the example of five different animals. This essay analyses his description of the chameleon, arguing that it is a riddle: drawing on the natural historians, Tertullian paints a realistic picture of the small lizard, but at the same time, skews the description of these features to depict the philosopher. The purpose of this central sketch is to alert listeners to the nature of the speech as a guessing game, and to point to the complex identity of the speaker. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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