Forma Breve

Phineus in Apollonius of Rhodes: godliness and philanthropy

2025-01-02T17:34:46+00:00

This paper examines the reasons behind the change in Phineus' character in Apollonius’ Argonautica. Instead of being devious and merciless, the blind and weakened old soothsayer is presented as a philanthropist so dedicated to humanity that he puts himself at risk. Phineus’ acceptance of suffering and his unshakable trust in the divine are reminiscent of some bibli- cal figures, such as Fineas, Heli, and Job. This cultural shift in Hellenistic epic follows the spirit of Alexander the Great himself, who attempted to implement a mixed administration and merge the Persian and Macedonian aristocracies. The famous weddings of Susa, in 324 BC, were supposed to mark the beginning of a cosmopolitan era, which was never more than a dream. Although the challenges faced by the heroes in Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica illustrate the traditional hostility of the unknown world (Amicus the pugilist king, Aeetes the inhospitable sovereign, the Cyanean rocks, the deadly sea passage), reverence towards the gods and solidarity are also on the new hero’s itinerary.

Between Book of Job and Goethe’s Faust : the man put to the test

2025-01-02T17:34:45+00:00

The text analyses the relationship between the Book of Job and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust. Both works explore themes such as faith, redemption and human frailty, through the relationship between humanity and the divine.
In the Book of Job, the protagonist is tested by his faith and loyalty to God, despite adversity. In Faust, the protagonist is tempted by the devil to give in to earthly pleasures and succumb to sin. Despite the differences, the works have in common the existence of a dialogue between God and the Devil, and the idea of an agreement between Good and Evil to test or tempt the characters. In Faust, the search for the Absolute is a central theme, reflecting the human aspiration for something greater, transcendent and eternal. The duality of the human soul, represented in the relationship between Faust and Mephistopheles, reveals the complexity and contradic- tions present in this quest.

While Job starts from a prosperous situation and faces misfortune, Faust is initially trapped in theoretical knowledge and is led to worldly pleasures. Although the trials are different, both stories explore the nature of faith and the relationship between God and man.
Despite the differences, the works share the idea that God judges, but his motives and actions are different. While in Faust God allows the trials to guide the search for redemption, in the Book of Job He tests the character’s faith and strengthens his relationship with her through suffering.

Illness, suffering and divine action in Ludlul bēl nēmeqi: the topos of the Righteous Sufferer in ancient Mesopotamia

2025-01-02T17:34:44+00:00

Since the end of the 3rd millennium BCE, numerous Mesopotamian wisdom texts have been known which focus on the literary topos of the Righteous Sufferer, such as the famous Babylo- nian poem Ludlul bēl nēmeqi. These compositions generally narrate the story of an individual who sees their fate crumbling due to the accumulation of misfortunes, and therefore appeals to the deities, begging for the restitution of his happiness and well-being. In this context, and although not always explicitly mentioned, the manifestation of illness as one of the many dis- graces that befall the sufferer is an unavoidable feature of these narratives.

In this sense, and considering that, according to Mesopotamian religious thought, any unfa- vourable event was seen as a sign of abandonment and/or divine punishment, this type of nar- rative presupposes the existence of a sufferer who claims to be innocent in their behaviour. Thus, by confessing an unconsciousness/unawareness of the offense committed that caused the deities to respond so implacably, the individual becomes a prime example of the extent of divine whims and injustice in the affairs and destinies of Humanity.

This paper therefore proposes to explore this complex relationship between illness, human suffering, and divine justice, in Ludlul bēl nēmeqi, with comparative references to other Meso- potamian texts to contextualize this theme. Through an analysis of the motifs and theological implications present in Ludlul bēl nēmeqi, this paper will seek to determine to what extent the notion of an innocent sufferer is truly in the literature and, ultimately, in the mental fra- mework of these populations of ancient Mesopotamia.

Poetry as a Kenotic Exercise in “The Days of Job” by José Tolentino Mendonça

2025-01-02T17:34:43+00:00

This article examines how José Tolentino Mendonça's poem 'The Days of Job' reflects a kenotic spiritual exercise, explored from different angles, namely theology, literature and philosophy, to address human vulnerability and dignity. In this sense, the text explores the poetic and political dimensions of spirituality from the intersection between the theoretical references of Michel Foucault, Michel de Certeau and Giorgio Agamben. In Tolentino's poetics, Job is interpreted as an emblematic figure who transcends his biblical dimension and emerges as a metaphor for creative resilience and ethical struggle in times of crisis. Poetry is presented as an anagogic way of rediscovering the indelible beauty of life even in the most adverse circumstances, promo- ting a spirituality that resists the logic of discard and reinvents ways of inhabiting the world.

The biblical tradition of Job in Spanish Baroque Comedy

2025-01-02T17:34:42+00:00

The story of Job was collected, like other biblical narratives, by Baroque playwrights who were fond of bringing moralising and religious examples to the stage. Although, according to biblio- graphical tradition, there were many comedies that dealt with this story, only one of certain authorship is known to have survived to the present day: Los trabajos de Job (The Labours of Job) by Felipe Godínez. The parallels of this comedy with the biblical story show the respect that the playwright demonstrated for the text and the Tridentine doctrine, but also reflect the adver- sities he had to endure, unjustly accused before the Inquisition, for which he was prosecuted. The life and work of Job are a parallel in which he is an example in the face of misfortune.

The book of Job: one of the paradigms of Mon Cas

2025-01-02T17:34:40+00:00

The play O meu caso (1957), by José Régio, was the theme for the film Mon cas (1986), by Portu- guese director Manoel de Oliveira. Starting from the argument proposed by the Regian play, Manoel de Oliveira creates the argument for his film by adding elements collected in Pour en finir et autres foirades, by Samuel Beckett, a text published in English, by Still English Publhisher, in 1970, and in French by Éditions of Minuit, in 1975, and in the Book of Job, inscribed in the Old Testament. This study intends to take a look at the first two texts, that is, the Portuguese play and the Beckettian narrative, to focus on the biblical text, in order to seek the paths that led the Portuguese director to draw a parallel that obviously has its genesis in the concept of suffering, among the discourses listed.

“Who, being innocent, ever perished?” (Job 4,7): the book of Job and the doctrine of retribution

2025-01-02T17:34:39+00:00

The book of Job can only be understood against the background of the so-called doctrine of retribution: “he who does good, meets good”, and “evil harms”. This doctrine sought not only to encourage doing good and leaving evil, but also served as an explanatory mechanism: good things are due to good actions, while bad consequences must have been caused by bad actions. Old Testament authors often invoked this doctrine in an attempt to explain the dire situations Israel found itself in throughout history. Even if, in many cases, the notion of retri- bution seems to be a useful concept to explain calamity and suffering, when evil strikes good people, one hits its limit. Not surprisingly, several Bible texts are critical of the doctrine of retribution and the supposed idea of justice on which it is based. The book of Job is perhaps the best example of this.

Mourning, suffering and family loyalty in the mythical-literary cycle of Inanna and Dumuzi

2025-01-02T17:34:38+00:00

The mythical-literary cycle known as Inanna and Dumuzi includes a series of compositions writ- ten in the Sumerian language that focus on the relationship between these two deities, from the enthusiastic process of falling in love to the dramatic events surrounding Dumuzi’s death. Regarding the latter, perhaps the most famous episode is the one narrated in the composition known as Inanna’s Descent to the nether world, where, at certain point, the goddess decrees the death of her lover. Although less well known, other episodes in this cycle are very interesting in terms of one’s expected behaviour when faced with the loss of a loved one. This essay revi- sits these compositions with the aim of analysing the archetypal action of their central cha- racters, in what concerns mourning and suffering, to highlight the ideals of family loyalty and fidelity inherent to them.

Semantic levels of justice in the book of Job

2025-01-02T17:34:37+00:00

The book of Job is a very unique and original case in the Bible; it is also a very representative example of the incidences of humanism and a kind of philosophical investment specific to the cultures of pre-classical Near East. In it, we are faced with an enormous attempt to resolve a feeling of aporia that dramatically affects the concept of justice and the human being, in the deep frontier of conflict that reveals itself between ethics and theodicy. The result is a feeling of loneliness and emptiness on the horizon of human action, an emptiness that sounds absurd, a concept epistemologically unbearable for them. Through an analysis in successive states of dilemma about the existential conditioning of justice, the discussion unfolds in the gender of a true forensic citation in which God is the accused, and proceeds through multiple opposing deconstructions. The way of resolution consists on the dynamisms of a transcendental aesthe- tic emotion, converging towards an ending that is one of reconstruction, in order to recieve in a somehow ingenuous manner the life conditions of the beginning.

Dom Pedro, Count of Barcelos, between the Book of Job and Ecclesiastes

2025-01-02T17:34:36+00:00

In a poem that is part of his brief songbook, Dom Pedro, Count of Barcelos, makes an enigma- tic reflection on life, death and, above all, the divine power, which has aroused little attention from critics, and its understanding is far from satisfactory. We refer to the song «Nom quer'a Deus por mia morte rogar», whose rereading we propose to carry out in this article, taking into account the intellectual environment of the time, characterized by a marked naturalistic and Aristotelian drift. In this context, the commentaries that focused on the Book of Job and Ecclesiastes, giving priority to the latter, are particularly relevant.

Dramatic representations of Job: from the biblical-theological matrix to some literary variations

2025-01-02T17:34:35+00:00

In this text with a theoretical and analytical focus, it will be pertinent to develop a reflection in two complementary moments. Firstly, in the context of the fruitful relationship between the biblical-religious tradition and the literary tradition (literary theology), it is worth rethinking the genesis of the representation of the figure of Job – the symbolic profile and major charac- teristics of this mythographic construction. Secondly, based on theological studies and their hermeneutics of the biblical discourse on Job, it is pertinent to systematise some of the dominant features present in various literary interpretations at different times in Portuguese literature, from Classicism and Mannerism to contemporary poetry, in a plural and evolving reception.

Job and Adélia Prado: narrative voices and reception

2025-01-02T17:34:34+00:00

This article begins by recognizing that the narrative voice present in the prose segments at the opening and end of the book of Job (chapters 1, 2 and 42.7-17) guides the reader in understan- ding the large poetic block of the book (chapters 3 to 42.6). The next step is to build a compa- rative analysis with Adélia Prado’s poem: Story of Job, identifying the presence of quotations and appropriations of the poetic block of the biblical book. Finally, it explores the hypothesis that this procedure, by eliminating the original narrator, allows for the introduction of a new narrative voice and the construction of new meanings.

Job and the Comedy of Suffering in A Serious Man (2009), by the Coen Brothers

2025-01-02T17:34:33+00:00

The movie A Serious Man (2009), by Joel and Ethan Coen, can be interpreted as an ingenious and irreverent parody of the Book of Job. In the light of exoliterary intertextuality and comparative studies, my objective is to establish similarities, differences and relations between the Biblical parable and this movie. I will analyze the categories of time and space, the protagonist, the main events, and the message. To do so, I resort to interviews granted by the Coen brothers, to essays written by cinephiles and theologists and to intertextuality theory.

Job. The Adventure of Suffering: Pain and Faith as Anthropological Characteristics – A Philosophical Reading

2025-01-02T17:34:31+00:00

Perhaps one of the most basic existential questions a person of faith must wrestle with is why bad things happen to good people. Perhaps therein lies the key question of every human being that places it in the topos of limit situations.
The book of Job is a story that is part of that type of existential experience. Job is a righteous man who responds faithfully to difficult trials that God imposes on him to test his faith. Job’s experience calls us to reflect on those questions that call us to recognize the causes of suffe- ring, anthropological fragility and the reasons to trust in God, beyond the moment when life seems unfair to us.

The curious case of a discredited scribe (A.1258+): slander and suffering in 18th century BC Mesopotamia

2025-01-02T17:34:27+00:00

This paper aims to offer a translation and detailed analysis of the letter-psalm A.1258+, exhumed in the royal palace of Mari and dated from the 18th century BC. The text in question corresponds to a supplication addressed by a scribe to the sovereign Zimrî-Lîm and presents parallels with the famous Babylonian composition lulul bēl nēmeqi (The Righteous Sufferer), which, in turn, due to the themes addressed, was equated with the Book of Job. Thus, we intend to debate, through an interpretation of the text, questions such as the role of the sovereign, suffering and justice.

Job, fair misfortune, and the interpretation of suffering by friends. Eliphaz’s speeches

2025-01-02T17:34:26+00:00

The history of Job, known as history of unhappy upright, is part of the books of the holy Bible in Old Testament, whose writer is unknown as many other writers in the books of the Bible, being also, according to scholars of the Bible, known as part a “Sapient Literature” and a mas- terpiece of the wisdom movement. The book of Job and its personages lead us in thinking about the human experience in its whole, beginning with a higher conception of God and conside- rations about men, Satan, justice, redemption and resurrection by one hand; and invite us in another hand in analysing the problematical suffering of an upright man. This article intends to interpret the speeches of Eliphaz, one of Job console-friends, so his standing position on the suffering of his friend. The speeches of Job in Eliphaz view point as right to answer. We seek to an approach to the interpretation to the suffering in Eliphaz view point on regard to be the first personage to whom the narrator gives the word after Job been handed over to Satan by God`s will. We search in Eliphaz`s speeches the raised questions on Job sufferings of Job, questions we sought been present in our time: The innocent may or may not suffer? Why the upright undergoing afflictions? The human experience and God’s or Satan involvement in the human suffer. To answer these questions and others that may emerge alongside the work, we will have as support texts, beyond Job’s book others scientific texts and biblical that approach God`s intervention in suffering of men in a view point exclusively literary.

The reception of Job in the earliest greek literature

2025-01-02T17:34:25+00:00

Due to his blunt skepticism and an impatience that borders on irreverence, the Job portrayed by the Old Testament Masoretic Text is one of the most philosophically and theologically chal- lenging figures of the Bible. The original Septuagint translator of Job provided a startlingly loose translation which took the first step in rendering the message of the book less theolo- gically problematic. However, the leap in reception from Septuagint Job to the exemplary Job of late-ancient and early medieval Christianity is still dramatic and noteworthy. This article traces the reception of Job in the Greek language from the Septuagint through the earliest Christian-era texts. It also compares the Job in these texts with that of the Testament of Job, a text whose relationship to Christianity is complicated. It will show that the patristic recep- tion of Job, much like that of the Testament of Job, had already progressed a great deal toward a typology that would lead to a Christian reading of the story of Job as a holy man, a saint, and a prefiguration or type of Christ himself.

Argumentative movements of emotions in political speeches

2025-01-02T17:34:23+00:00

Emotion, as a form of argumentation, has always been a constitutive element of speeches, appearing already in Aristotle’s Rhetoric. Whether the emotions are real (emotional commu- nication) or have discursive purposes (emotive communication) (Plantin, 2000), the Speaker summons them into his speech, using different modes of semiotization. The use of emotions is a way of acting on the addressee, persuading him in favor of a certain idea or capturing his pietas. It is, therefore, a discursive technique with the potential to change the disposition of the audience, converging to increase the effectiveness of an argument. At the verbal level, emotions can be expressed, explicitly or implicitly, or constructed (“visée”, in the terminology of Kerbrat-Orechhioni, 2000), resorting to emotion terms or other descriptive terms, which are conventionally associated with an emotion. In addition to these, rhetorical figures are often used, such as metaphor or hyperbole, which enhance a scene that induces a state of mind that favors persuasion (Micheli, 2010). Although they are sometimes seen as an ornamental form, they constitute argumentative tools, as they allow to present reasoning in a forceful way (Reboul, 2004). Based on a corpus of political interventions made by senior State representatives, the verbal material will be analysed, in particular the “words of emotion” and the rhetorical figu- res that contribute to the pathos of suffering and (in)justice. We will try to demonstrate that these elements integrate argumentative movements in favor of reasoning and aligned with the purpose of the text producer to make the other agree, absolutely, with his point of view (Charaudeau, 2016).

The figure of Job as a literary motif. The desire for meaning in the face of suffering

2025-01-02T17:34:22+00:00

It is well known that the biblical character of Job has inspired thinkers and artists throughout the ages, so that in the history of Western culture his figure has appeared in numerous pain- tings, sculptures and musical compositions, as well as novels and poems. By examining the formal and thematic similarities and divergences in some literary recreations of the story of Job, I intend to argue that this character has given rise to a literary motif, that is, to the ver- bal representation of a typical situation that is repeated, a stereotypical situation like that of other literary motifs identified in comparative literature such as ‘impossible love’ (represen- ted for example in Romeo and Juliet) or ‘unjust banishment’ (embodied, among others, by El Cid). In order to characterise the literary motif of Job, it will be necessary to analyse which elements of the biblical story survive in the works inspired by it and which transformations it has undergone as it has been adapted to different times and worldviews. Is the desire for a rational explanation of suffering a characteristic element of this literary motif? Does the out- come of the biblical story itself provide an explanation for pain? What about Voltaire’s philo- sophical novel Zadig (1747), Joseph Roth’s short novel Job. The Story of a Simple Man (1930) or Carlos Pujol’s collection of poems Fragmentos del Libro de Job (1998)?

From the slave duo of Greco-Latin comedy to the pair of spurred boys of Quem tem farelos? by Gil Vicente. Tradition and dramatic potentialities of a classical motif

2025-01-02T17:34:21+00:00

The use of duos in comedy is as old as the genre itself. Considering the literary testimonies that the classical tradition has bequeathed to us, Aristophanes successfully rehearsed this comic procedure. Menander and Plautus were not indifferent to this procedure and recovered it in some of their plays. At the Portuguese theater, the duo formed by two young men from the play Quem tem farelos? (Who has crumbs?) by Gil Vicente is illustrative of the revival process to which the playwright of the 16th Century may have paid some attention. A singular case in Gil Vicente’s production, the pair made up of Apariço and Ordoño reacquires, in the first instance, the traits of the pairs of slaves of the ancient theater, but later reveals new features. Are these the result of a metamorphosis to which Gil Vicente has subjected the classic motif of the comic duo?

Isabel Cristina Pires (2023). O Planeta Irreal. Vila Nova de Famalicão: Edições Húmus, 116 pp

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