Escape from Phalaris

Escape from Phalaris
Author: Frank Hazard
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 99
Release: 2008-05
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1436302889

The title as well as the thematic impetus of ESCAPE FROM PHALARIS are derived from the legend of Perilaus and Phalaris as related by the ancient Greek satirist Lucian. Perilaus, a gifted sculptor, created for Phalaris, tyrant of Agrigentum, an ornate bronze bull reputed to be a magnificent work of art, into which was carved a secret chamber in which the tyrant imprisoned hapless victims. And victims, when flames were ignited underneath the statue, inside were roasted to death as their shrieks of agony were transformed into dulcet music through ancillary pipes attached to the beautiful statue. The first victim whom the tyrant, Phalaris, tortured was Perilaus, the artist. ESCAPE FROM PHALARIS comprises a deft and original concept of art and creative impulse, examining (among other eminent themes) the necessity of the solitary artist to transcend minatory environmental inhibitions--to escape, as it were, from Phalaris--that impede or negate his own profound freedom and purpose affirmed in the distant chance of artistic achievement.The book is divided into three parts.Part One comprises twenty sections of varied length including meditations, a dialogue, and analysis, and establishes essential questions and themes addressed and elaborated and fulfilled in the ensuing narrative. (For instance: the dialogue in Section 12 is a complete autonomous statement in itself, but it is also continued and developed in Part Three--Section 7, which is also a complete and autonomous statement in itself.) Themes addressed in Part One include the fundamental--and questionable--validity of critical analysis of art, and evaluations of time, history, authenticity and inauthenticity, science, aesthetic choice and compulsion, elaborated both analytically and among vivid poetic impressions that establish mood and raise questions and ideas and themes which, again, the overall narrative fulfills.Part Two consists of fourteen sections and it comprises a bridge (mostly but not exclusively analytic) that unites Part One and Part Three, although Part Two also is of course an autonomous independent statement of its own unified by themes including evaluations of aesthetic consciousness, intrepid analyses of journalistic and pedagogical criticism of art, a description of the Perilaus-Phalaris story from which the title of the book is derived, and the ardent spiritual and psychological processes out of which a solitary creator devises his art.Part Three comprises seventeen sections of varied length including meditations, a dialogue and analysis, addressing themes and questions and ideas previously approached and now conclusively and altogether fulfilled in the comprehensive pattern of the narrative. The dialogue in Section 7 is a continuation of the dialogue in Section 12 of Part One. Analysis, poetic impressions and dialogue unite to achieve a vigorous and comprehensive portrait and expostulatory vindication of aesthetic passion, struggle, individuality, compulsion and (solitary) aesthetic consciousness.Each section of every part is autonomous and can be read separately from the others but each section of every part is also absorbed by and unified within the comprehensive thematic pattern of the narrative whole. The reader section by section is drawn irresistibly into the narrative web and participates in the solitary agony and exultation of creative endeavor and the pain and peril and the affirmation of aesthetic deliberation and achievement. ESCAPE FROM PHALARIS comprises a provocative argument and ideas, vivid meditations and artistic impressions, two dialogues, and analyses, but it is also a suspenseful experience more thrilling and edifying than any similar tractual or fictive exposition could ever attain to be.

Escape from Phalaris

Escape from Phalaris
Author: Frank Hazard
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 82
Release: 2008-05-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9781462804856

The title as well as the thematic impetus of ESCAPE FROM PHALARIS are derived from the legend of Perilaus and Phalaris as related by the ancient Greek satirist Lucian. Perilaus, a gifted sculptor, created for Phalaris, tyrant of Agrigentum, an ornate bronze bull reputed to be a magnificent work of art, into which was carved a secret chamber in which the tyrant imprisoned hapless victims. And victims, when flames were ignited underneath the statue, inside were roasted to death as their shrieks of agony were transformed into dulcet music through ancillary pipes attached to the beautiful statue. The first victim whom the tyrant, Phalaris, tortured was Perilaus, the artist. ESCAPE FROM PHALARIS comprises a deft and original concept of art and creative impulse, examining (among other eminent themes) the necessity of the solitary artist to transcend minatory environmental inhibitions—to escape, as it were, from Phalaris—that impede or negate his own profound freedom and purpose affirmed in the distant chance of artistic achievement. The book is divided into three parts. Part One comprises twenty sections of varied length including meditations, a dialogue, and analysis, and establishes essential questions and themes addressed and elaborated and fulfilled in the ensuing narrative. (For instance: the dialogue in Section 12 is a complete autonomous statement in itself, but it is also continued and developed in Part Three—Section 7, which is also a complete and autonomous statement in itself.) Themes addressed in Part One include the fundamental—and questionable—validity of critical analysis of art, and evaluations of time, history, authenticity and inauthenticity, science, aesthetic choice and compulsion, elaborated both analytically and among vivid poetic impressions that establish mood and raise questions and ideas and themes which, again, the overall narrative fulfills. Part Two consists of fourteen sections and it comprises a bridge (mostly but not exclusively analytic) that unites Part One and Part Three, although Part Two also is of course an autonomous independent statement of its own unified by themes including evaluations of aesthetic consciousness, intrepid analyses of journalistic and pedagogical criticism of art, a description of the Perilaus-Phalaris story from which the title of the book is derived, and the ardent spiritual and psychological processes out of which a solitary creator devises his art. Part Three comprises seventeen sections of varied length including meditations, a dialogue and analysis, addressing themes and questions and ideas previously approached and now conclusively and altogether fulfilled in the comprehensive pattern of the narrative. The dialogue in Section 7 is a continuation of the dialogue in Section 12 of Part One. Analysis, poetic impressions and dialogue unite to achieve a vigorous and comprehensive portrait and expostulatory vindication of aesthetic passion, struggle, individuality, compulsion and (solitary) aesthetic consciousness. Each section of every part is autonomous and can be read separately from the others but each section of every part is also absorbed by and unified within the comprehensive thematic pattern of the narrative whole. The reader section by section is drawn irresistibly into the narrative web and participates in the solitary agony and exultation of creative endeavor and the pain and peril and the affirmation of aesthetic deliberation and achievement. ESCAPE FROM PHALARIS comprises a provocative argument and ideas, vivid meditations and artistic impressions, two dialogues, and analyses, but it is also a suspenseful experience more thrilling and edifying than any similar tractual or fictive exposition could ever attain to be.

Athens and Jerusalem

Athens and Jerusalem
Author: Lev Shestov
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Total Pages: 526
Release: 2016-12-31
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0821445618

For more than two thousand years, philosophers and theologians have wrestled with the irreconcilable opposition between Greek rationality (Athens) and biblical revelation (Jerusalem). In Athens and Jersusalem, Lev Shestov—an inspiration for the French existentialists and the foremost interlocutor of Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, and Martin Buber during the interwar years—makes the gripping confrontation between these symbolic poles of ancient wisdom his philosophical testament, an argumentative and stylistic tour de force. Although the Russian-born Shestov is little known in the Anglophone world today, his writings influenced many twentieth-century European thinkers, such as Albert Camus, D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, Czesław Miłosz, and Joseph Brodsky. Athens and Jerusalem is Shestov’s final, groundbreaking work on the philosophy of religion from an existential perspective. This new, annotated edition of Bernard Martin’s classic translation adds references to the cited works as well as glosses of passages from the original Greek, Latin, German, and French. Athens and Jerusalem is Shestov at his most profound and most eloquent and is the clearest expression of his thought that shaped the evolution of continental philosophy and European literature in the twentieth century.

Lucian, True History

Lucian, True History
Author: Diskin Clay
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2021-07-29
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 0192665421

Lucian of Samosata's True History is a fantastical tale of voyage and imagination. No editor, translator, or reader knows quite how to describe it or fit it comfortably into a familiar genre of Greek literature: 'satires' and 'dialogues' only partially describe the genre or genres he wrote in. Of all the ancient Greco-Roman writers, Lucian is without doubt one of the most inventive and witty. The Greek text in this edition of the True History is accompanied by a facing page English translation, making it an accessible and informative resource aimed at students and teachers of Greek. Whether used in the classroom or in research, readers will benefit from an introduction to Lucian and his place in imperial Greek literature, as well as a translation and commentary that bring out the wonders of his True History.

Ornamental Grasses and Grasslike Plants

Ornamental Grasses and Grasslike Plants
Author: A. J. Oakes
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 623
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1468414550

The Gramineae, or grass family, is second in size only to the Compositeae, or sunflower family. It is among the most important plant families in the world. The major food crops of the world are found in the grass family. From time immemorial, grasses have provided food and shelter for humanity, domesticated livestock, and wildlife; without grasses, these forms of life might cease to exist. The grass family is large in size, diverse in habit, and ubiquitous in distribution. Earth would be bleak and bare, indeed, in the absence of this life-sustaining plant family. In addition to its economic and industrial value, the grass family has some ornamental value. It provides us with physical sustenance and gives us much pleasure and satisfaction in its ornamental forms. The purpose of this book is to point out the value and usefulness of grasses as ornamentals and to deline:tte their attributes and uses in the home, in the garden, and in the landscape. Ornamental grasses serve a unique and significant purpose in ornamental horticulture. Horticulturists, other plant scientists, and nursery personnel are more fully aware of the value and usefulness of grasses as ornamentals than is the general public. It is mainly for this reason that this work is directed toward the home gardener and the scientist alike, in the hope of enhancing reader appreciation of the roie grasses play in ornamental horti culture.