Article

1. About the ‘artificial habits’ in the lullian anthropology and the men spiritual upbeat

   José G. Higuera Rubio

   Original title: Acerca de los “hábitos artificiales” en la antropología luliana y el ascenso espiritual del hombre

   Published in Ramon Llull (1232-1316): the cooperation among different cultures and the inter-religious dialogue

   Keywords: Lullian Art, habitus artificialis, liberal arts, mechanics arts, medieval anthropology, medieval universities, students guides.

   The concept of “habitus artificialis” in lullian anthropology involves the knowledge of the divines virtues -the nature’s secrets-, and it represents the spiritual way of human being. Similarly, some documents of medieval universities contain the natural knowledge and the transcendence of prime cause. Therefore the lullian though and the Student’s guides are the model of spiritual finality in the intellectual practice –liberal arts and Lullian Art- and that practice is defined like “habitus artificialis”.

2. A Small Big Problem in Medieval History: the Revolt of Arrabal de Cordoba (818) and the conquest of the Island of Crete in 827

   Diego Melo Carrasco

   Original title: Un Pequeño Gran Problema de la Historia Medieval: La Revuelta del Arrabal (Rabad) de Córdoba (818) y la Toma de Creta en el 827

   Published in Mirabilia 4

   The present article deals with a topic might appear of marginal importance in the context of medieval history, thas is, the expulsion of the Cordoban conspirators after the Revolt of Arrabal de Cordoba (818) and their conquest of the Island of Crete in 827, Nevertheless, it becomes important when one realizes the implications in the Eastern Mediterranean, when this area was transformed into a “Moslem Lake” –as it has been called by Henri Pirenne. Which would prevente the free transit of Byzantine shipping, forcing the Empire to employ all of its diplomatic abilities to deal whit the situation.

3. Considerations concerning the Aristotelian ethics into the Sophocle's tragedy: The case of King Oiedipus

   Tito Barros Leal de Pontes Medeiros

   Original title: Considerações acerca da ética aristotélicanas tragédias sofoclianas: o caso de Édipo Rei

   Published in Mirabilia 4

   Keywords: Aristotelian Ethics, History, King Oiedipus, Sophocles.

   This article tries to understand the Sophocle's production questioning the traditional temporary demarcation of the Greek history in the Archaic Period (XII - VI B.C.) and in the Classic Period (V - IV B.C.), proposing the century V B.C. as transition among these periods. They are also analyzed some Aristotelian concepts that are supposed fundamental to understand the philosophical-educational dimension of the Sophocle's tragedy and, in this sense, to try to observe ethical elements in the actions of Oiedipus, starting from the tragedy King Oiedipus.

4. To The God and The Goddess That I Know and That I Don´t Know: the Tremendum in a Sumero-Akkadian Prayer

   Cláudia Cerqueira do Rosario

   Original title: Ao Deus e à Deusa que conheço e que não conheço: oTremendum numa prece sumero-acadiana

   Published in Mirabilia 4

   Keywords: mysterium tremendum, prayer, religious phenomenom.

   This paper analyses the notion of mysterium tremendum posed by the historian and philosopher of religions Rudolf Otto, through a prayer produced in the sumero-akkadian historical context – circa 3500/1800 BCE. This notion becomes a fundamental one for the study and understanding of the religious phenomenon's essence.

5. The Medical Wars: Proximity of Etnic and Geographic Frontiers between athenians and ethiopians in the VI and V B. C. Centuries

   Cristiano Bispo

   Original title: As Guerras Médicas: Proximidade de fronteiras étnicas e geográficas entre atenienses e etíopes nos séculos VI e V a. C.

   Published in Mirabilia 3 (2003)

   Keywords: Persians Wars, athenians, ethiopians, ethnics contacts.

   This article presents the Persian Wars as a historic factor able to agglutinate the ethnic and geographic frontier between athenians and others ethnics groups if his kept relations. However, our attention will be look upon in this abstract the interactions existing among athenians and ethiopians in the VI and V B. C. Centuries.

6. A Different Expression of the Divine: Jewish Knowledge on Geography Spaces in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

   Márcia Siqueira de Carvalho

   Original title: Uma outra expressão do Divino: O Conhecimento do Espaço Geográfico pelos judeus na Idade Média e no Renascimento

   Published in Expressing the Divine: Language, Art and Mysticism

   Keywords: Geographical Knowledge, Jews, Voyages.

   Voyages, since Antiquity, are important sources for topographical descriptions. Thus, religious persecutions, pilgrimages and commercial routes played a major role for geographical knowledge. This article focuses Jewish geographical knowledge in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

7. Pletho's Nomoi - A Case of Polytheism in the Latebizantinian Era and its Reception in the Islamic World

   Anna Akasoy

   Original title: Ein Beitrag zum Polytheismus in spätbyzantinischer Zeit und seiner Rezeptionìn der islamischen Welt

   Published in Expressing the Divine: Language, Art and Mysticism

   Keywords: Byzantinian Philosophy, George Gemistos Pletho, Islam.

   During his stay in Italy as a member of the Greek delegation at the Council of Union in Ferrara/Florence in 1438/9 George Gemistos Pletho criticized the intellectuals of the Latin West heavily for their overestimation of Aristotle and their disregard of Plato. Meanwhile he blamed the Arabic commentators of the Aristotelian corpus Avicenna and Averroes for this misinterpretation, Islam is used as a positive example in Plethos historical writings. On the other hand Pletho s works were received in the Islamic world as well through the Arabic translation of his Nomoi done at the court of Mehmet II. This article offers a short overview of the different aspects of the relation between Pletho and Islam and the transliteration and translation of the Arabic translation of his Compendium Zoroastreorum.

8. Heaven versus Hell: The vision Tnugdal and the voyage of the soul in search of salvation (12th century)

   Adriana Zierer

   Original title: Paraíso versus Inferno: a Visão de Túndalo e a Viagem Medieval em Busca da Salvação da Alma (séc. XII)

   Published in Expressing the Divine: Language, Art and Mysticism

   Keywords: Heaven, Hell, Seven deadly sins, Tnugdal.

   The Salvation in Middle Ages was connected to the idea of voyage. The medieval man saw himself as a voyager (homo viator), a walker between two worlds: the ephemerous earth, place of tentations and the Heaven, the kingdom of God and of celestials beings. If the individual suceeded in maintain his body pure, he would obtain the salvation, but if he failed his soul would be condemned with eternal chastiments in Hell or provisorial in the Purgatory. It was a medieval paradox the fact that the soul could only be saved by the body. Because this sentiment of guilt, broght by the Original Sin, the population usually searched for salvation by means of a voyage, for example the peregrinations to achieve the Saint Earth (Jerusalem). These displacements were insecures (bad trails, menace of robbery and of diseases) and seen as a form of salvation since the pilgrim never knew for sure if he would come back or not. He wanted to experience in his flesh what Christ and other martyrs had suffered. Another means of salvation was the isolation from the rest of society in search of a life connected to God, such as the hermits and monks did. Because of their despite for terrestrial pleasures and their lives consacrated in prayers and fastings to God, they were considered the purest in terrestrial society. The benedictine monks dedicated themselves to write Visions with the purpose of presenting the chastiments and pleasures of the souls in beyond. Their intention was to show to the people the correct rules of behavior to obtain the salvation. The exempla, such as the Vision of Tundalo, present the types of chastiments based on the seven capital sins, and the actions that should be performed to reach the Paradise: to give alms, to go to mass, to give riches to the Church and to avoid lust. Un common element from the Visions is the emphasis in the sensations of the five senses. For example, stink in Hell and perfume in Heaven. Tortures are explained by the use of darkness, screams and sorrows, in opposition to clarity, singing and happiness. In Iconography, with the Seven Deadly Sins, by Bosch, and The Final Jugdement, by Fra Angelico, the structure of the Visions is confirmed. The topos of the beyond, in the case of the Heaven, are characterized by an edenic landscape represented by gardens, chants, fountains, angels and leafy trees. Once in Hell, the geography presuppose some obstacles such as ways with narrow brigdes, boiling rivers, mountains, lakes of ice and monsters. Thus, the individual in Middle Ages wanted the salvation more for the fear of Hell than from the glories of the Heaven, and the human soul debated herself between the desire for the pleasures and the dread of the infernal abyss.

9. Bringing the Divine down into Man: the building-up of the yoga path

   Edrisi Fernandes

   Original title: Trazendo o Divino para Dentro do Homem: a Construção do Sistema do Yoga

   Published in Expressing the Divine: Language, Art and Mysticism

   Keywords: Atharvaveda, Purusha, Rigveda, Upanishads., Yoga.

   The author analizes the evolution of Yoga as an ascetic discipline, since the time of the absorption of the local inhabitants by the Aryan tribes, that settled in India in protohistoric times. Austerity vows, magical practices, breath control exercises and ascetic attitudes of the locals were incorporated in Vedic metaphysics and religion, and also in preclassical Yoga. The discovery of the power of ascetic/meditational practices gave rise to a progressive distantiation of the yogis from external religious practices such as sacrifices, intended to propitiate the gods, and to a parallel advance of the view of yoga as a kind of sacrifice in itself, grounded on the association - thought as a binding or [re]union - between the Self/the living Soul (âtman; jivâtman) of man and the eternal norm (sanatana dharma), the “Lord of Creatures” (Prajâpati), the Supreme Being (Parameshtin; Brahman; Shiva of Shaivism; Vishnu of Vaishnavism), or the force or power (Shakti of Shaktism [Tantrism]) that makes life possible and maintains the cosmos. Through a review of the Purusha (Sanskrit for “person; man”, but also for “Universal man; man-god”) theme in some classical Indian literary references - encompassing the Rigveda, the Atharvaveda, many Upanishads, relevant portions of the Mahâbhârata (particularly of the Bhagavad-Gîtâ, and of the Mokshadharma and other sections of the Shânti Parva), the Yoga-Sûtra of Patañjali (the founding text of classical yoga), the Bhâgavata-Purâna, the Yoga-Vâsishtha attributed to Vâlmîki, and the Kulârnava-Tantra (an essential text to tantra-yoga), among others -, an articulation that consolidates human autonomy and superior status in the universe is perceived, giving way to the idea that one can be “enlighted”, and the God-in-man status can be achieved, both through knowledge (jñâna) and through yoga - the way of enlightment associated with bodily and mental control and stability, and with the achievement of trans-rational conciousness. Purely “transcendental” meditation and concentration practices progressively [re]turn to a situation where the body is valued as a kind of “temple”, that must be appropriately constructed and cared for in order to allow and to favour the final encounter and assimilation between man and the Divine.

10. The Quotidianity of an Image: the Face of the Christ

    Ofelia Manzi

    Original title: La Cotidianeidad de una imagen: el rostro de Cristo

    Published in Expressing the Divine: Language, Art and Mysticism

    Keywords: Early Christian Art, Face of Christ, Iconography, Late Antiquity Art, Portrait, Roman Emperors.

    After the third century, a widespread repertoire of Christian images is created. Recognition of the characters of Biblical history was made by their assimilation to motifs of Roman art. The study of origin, development and modifications that modified the face of Christ offers the possibility of analyzing the multiple sources for this image as well as establishing the changes of its meaning, that run parallel to the history of the Church.