Between tradition, ingenuity and innovation: authorial strategies in ancient Greek natural problems.

Why does holding one’s breath cure hiccups? Why can’t one tickle oneself? Why are bees quicker to sting adulterers? Why do some people feel sleepy the moment they open a book? These are just a few questions that illustrate the rich blend of ancient Greek natural problems, which are the subject of inquiry for this project. The solutions to such problems have no direct ‘use’, as their main dynamic is clearly intellectual curiosity. Their educational backdrop predetermines the often playfully rhetorical character of the solutions provided for them. As such, they are peculiarly intriguing and throw a fascinating and refreshing light on the ancient world, its society and scientific thinking. The central point of interest for this project is to evaluate the negotiation between scientific tradition and innovation in several collections of natural problems that date from the 1st and 2nd century AD. Important questions involve how the author of such problems ingeniously adapts the physiological theories that were at hand to the new context. How does he present himself as a transmitter of such theories and where and why does he raise his own authorial voice? In order to clarify these and related issues, the project argues, from a methodological perspective, for the relevance of the authorial strategies deployed in the problems. These strategies encompass a diversified conglomerate of discursive features that, either intentionally or not, reveal the author’s interference in his own text.