La figure du sphinx apparaît en Grèce dans différents contextes légendaires et iconographiques, au point que l’on s’est résolu à parler de plusieurs sphinx grecs aux fonctions diverses. Toutefois un examen des seules représentations figurées permet de réduire ces différences et de faire du sphinx un gardien de l’arbre stylisé et un passeur d’âmes. En ceci, il ne diffère guère des sphinx levantins (les « chérubins » bibliques) et cypriotes. Ces derniers constituent avec l’Arbre de la Vie, la déesse et (...) le dieu-roi un ensemble fonctionnel que l’on retrouve dans le monde hellénique, sous des formes diverses. Le sphinx thébain lui-même peut s’expliquer de la même manière. L’enjeu de la confrontation avec Œdipe est bien de nature eschatologique. Cette étude suggère de comparer l’épisode légendaire avec certains textes dits « orphiques » et propose de voir dans les « gardiens » qui interrogent le défunt des sphinx-chérubins qui gardent l’accès à l’Arbre de la Vie. (shrink)

Thucydides the Historian identifies himself as the son of a certain Oloros and, since Thucydides was by birth an Athenian , and Oloros is a Thracian name, the question arises how he acquired this Thracian patronymic. According to the view which has gained almost general acceptance, Thucydides of the deme Halimous in Attica owed his Thracian patronymic to a connexion by marriage. The hypothetical reconstruction of the family tree is that Thucydides' Athenian grandfather had married a daughter of Miltiades the (...) Athenian and Hegesipyle, daughter of the Thracian ruler Oloros, and a son of this marriage was called Oloros after his maternal great-grandfather. This Athenian Oloros became, as shown in Figure, the father of Thucydides the historian – an Athenian with a Thracian patronymic. (shrink)

Thucydides the Historian identifies himself as the son of a certain Oloros and, since Thucydides was by birth an Athenian, and Oloros is a Thracian name, the question arises how he acquired this Thracian patronymic. According to the view which has gained almost general acceptance, Thucydides of the deme Halimous in Attica owed his Thracian patronymic to a connexion by marriage. The hypothetical reconstruction of the family tree is that Thucydides' Athenian grandfather had married a daughter of Miltiades the Athenian (...) and Hegesipyle, daughter of the Thracian ruler Oloros, and a son of this marriage was called Oloros after his maternal great-grandfather. This Athenian Oloros became, as shown in Figure, the father of Thucydides the historian – an Athenian with a Thracian patronymic. (shrink)