Seeing the face, seeing the soul : Polemon's Physiognomy from classical antiquity to medieval Islam / edited by Simon Swain ; with contributions by George Boys-Stones ... [and others].

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Swain, Simon.

Boys-Stones, G. R.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Polemo, Antonius, approximately 88-145. Physiognomy.

Polemo, Antonius.

Physiognomy--History.

Physiognomy.

History.

Physical Description:

ix, 699 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007.

Summary:

Polemon of Laodicea (near modern Denizli, southwest Turkey) was a wealthy Greek aristocrat and a key member of the intellectual movement known as the Second Sophistic. Among his works was the Physiognomy, a manual on how to tell character from appearance, thus enabling its readers to choose friends and avoid enemies on sight. Its formula of detailed instruction and personal reminiscence proved so successful that the book was re-edited in the fourth century by Adamantius in Greek, translated and adapted by an unknown Latin author of the same era, and translated in the early Middle Ages into Syriac and Arabic. The surviving versions of Adamantius, Anonymus Latinus, and the Leiden Arabic more than make up for the loss of the original.

The present volume is the work of a team of leading Classicists and Arabists. The main surviving versions in Greek and Latin are translated into English for the first time. The Leiden Arabic translation is authoritatively re-edited and translated, as is a sample of the alternative Arabic tradition of Polemon in Arabic. The texts and translations are introduced by a series of masterly detailed studies which tell the story of the origins, function, and legacy of Polemon's work, a legacy especially rich in Islam. The story of the Physiognomy is the story of how one mans obsession with identifying friends and foes came to figure in the fascinating transmission of Greek thought into Arabic.

Contents:

Part I Antiquity

2 Physiognomy and Ancient Psychological Theory / George Boys-Stones 19

3 Polemon's Physiognomy / Simon Swain 125

4 Physiognomies: Art and Text / Jas Elsner 203

Part II Islam

5 The Islamic Background to Polemon's Treatise / Robert Hoyland 227

6 The Semiotic Paradigm: Physiognomy and Medicine in Islamic Culture / Antonella Ghersetti 281

7 Polemon's Physiognomy in the Arabic Tradition / Antonella Ghersetti, Simon Swain 309

Part III Texts and Translations

8 A New Edition and Translation of the Leiden Polemon / Robert Hoyland 329

9 The Istanbul Polemon (TK Recension): Edition and Translation of the Introduction / Antonella Ghersetti 465

10 The Physiognomy of Adamantius the Sophist / Ian Repath 487

11 Anonymus Latinus, Book of Physiognomy / Ian Repath 549

Appendix The Physiognomy Attributed to Aristotle / Simon Swain 637.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [663]-690) and index.

ISBN:

9780199291533

0199291535

OCLC:

70399046