Issue

  1. Returning to Eden

    Revaluation of the Earthly World. From Antiquity to the Ancien Régime

    Organized by José María SALVADOR-GONZÁLEZ (org.)

    Mirabilia Journal 38 (2024/1)

  2. The Kingdom of the Spirit

    The Transcendent, from the Ancient World to the Ancien Régime

    Organized by Humberto Schubert COELHO (org.)

    Mirabilia Journal 39 (2024/2)

  3. Intercultural Mediterranean

    From Antiquity to Baroque

    Organized by Antonio CORTIJO OCAÑA; Vicent MARTINES (orgs.)

    Mirabilia 40 (2025/1)

Article

  1. Presentation

    Alexander Fidora and Jordi Pardo Pastor

    Published in Expressing the Divine: Language, Art and Mysticism

  2. Memory and Rhapsody: The Divine Song in Archadia

    Ciléa Dourado

    Original title: Memória e Rapsódia: o canto divino na Arcádia

    Published in Expressing the Divine: Language, Art and Mysticism

    Keywords: Poetry, Power., tradition, truth.

    The poetic activity of the Greek Golden Age, better known as Archadia, grew inside a pre-literate culture which was characterized, above all, by a mythological symbolism. The Archadian poetry points to the notion of the fantastic, of the sublime and of the divine in its purest form. The archaic Poet was endowed with the power directly by the gods, and such a power was non-negotiable and non-transferable. The lineage and succession of a rhapsodist was often brought out by Arete, the choice of the nobler.

  3. The Relationship between Divinity and Secular Power on Laconian Black-Figure Vases in the 6th Century B.C.

    José Francisco de Moura

    Original title: Vínculos entre divindade e poder secular nos vasos de figuras negras da Lacônia no século VI a.C.

    Published in Expressing the Divine: Language, Art and Mysticism

    Keywords: Gods, Kings, Politic, Sparta, power.

    This article wants to examine the divine images on Laconian black-figure vases with regard to the iconography in other types of Laconian materials, thus hoping to understand their politico-social function in the context of the Spartan society of the 6th century b.C.

  4. 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.

  5. Superstition and Religiousness in the Res publica: Areas of Power?

    Luís Filipe Silvério Lima

    Original title: Superstições e Religiosidade na Res Publica: Espaços de Poder?

    Published in Expressing the Divine: Language, Art and Mysticism

    Keywords: Livy., Prophecy, Religion, power.

    This paper deals with the links between religion and prophecy as forms of power in Livy.

  6. Presentation

    Ricardo da Costa

    Published in Mirabilia 1

  7. Jñâna Yoga’s “Liberation in Life”, as Viewed by the Vedanta

    Edrisi Fernandes

    Original title: A “Liberação em vida” do Jñâna Yoga na visão do Vedanta

    Published in Mirabilia 1

    Keywords: Jivanmukti, Jñana Yoga, Kevaladvaita, Shankara, Uttara-Mimamsa, Vedanta.

    Jñâna Yoga, the control of vital functions aiming at the actualization of wisdom/of “absolute knowledge”, is based, with rare exceptions, almost completely on the teachings of the Advaita (non-dualist) branch of the Vedânta (from the “End of the Veda”) school, and has chapter IV of the Bhagavad-Gitâ (the “Song of the Divine Master”) as a fundamental referece. Shankara (788-820), whose philosophical system is called kevalâdvaita (unique/perfect non-dualism [monism]) ou shuddhâdvaita (inqualified nondualism), has taken moral life as an essential requisite to metaphysical knowledge, necessary to reaching the ultimate objective of life: knowledge of the essential identity between the “I”(âtman) and the Supreme Being (Brahman). In his Viveka-Chûdâmani (“The Supreme Jewel of Discernment”), as well as in other vedantic writings, Brahman is called Sat-Chit-Ânanda (Being-Conscience-Blessedness), and G. Dandoy makes the following analogy between this conception and images of God in Saint Augustine (De Civitate Dei, VIII, 10): Sat - “causa constituta universitatis”; Chit - “lux percipiendæ veritatis”; Ânanda - “fons bibendæ felicitatis” (G. Dandoy, L’Ontologie du Vedanta, 1932: 33). We analize the way how these characteristics of the divine nature, that can be attained solely by those men that have reached the stage of jîvanmukti (“liberation in life”), can motivate men to reach the Divine, mirroring themselves in His/Her characteristics while trecking the trail of viveka (discerniment), and practicing as pre-requisites the obligatory actions of yama (“moral discipline”, consisting in Ahimsâ [“non-violence”], Satyâ “truthfulness”], Asteyâ [“notrobbing”], Brahmacaryâ [“chastity” or “non-vicious sexuality”], Aparigrahâ [“non-envy”]) and niyama (“self-control”, consisting in Shachka [“cleanliness” or “purity”], Samtosha [“content”], Tapas [“austerity” or “askesis”], Svâdhyâya [“study”], and Îshvara-pranidhâna [“devotion to the Supreme Being”]). We see in depth the reasons why, in the Vedânta, victory over ahamkâra (egotism) is the most important event in the life of the seeker of liberation, in the spirit of what Vivekânanda has thaught: “altruism is the negation of our lower or apparent self. It’s our task to freed ourselves from the miserable dream in which we are those bodies we see...” (Swami Vivekânanda, Jnâna-Yoga, 1936: 463).

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