Faravid – Historian ja arkeologian tutkimuksen aikakauskirja

Fecundity and Ferocity of the European Peoples: The Reception of Two Classical topoi in the Res Germanicae (1531) of Beatus Rhenanus

2025-06-16T14:33:07+03:00

This article looks at the reception, in the Res Germanicae of the prominent Alsatian humanist Beatus Rhenanus, of a classical assemblage of literary tropes that portrayed European barbarian groups as naturally prone to over-abundance of fertility as well as intrinsically fierce. In antiquity, the conjuncture of ideas about threatening demographic growth and natural ferocity affected deeply the way that Romans thought about their relationship with the northerners, whether ‘free’ groups or provincials. In Rhenanus’ conception of the early Germanic history, though, the otherwise faithfully followed testimonies of ancient authors have been selectively utilized in this regard. While the motif of ferocity is put into use, the idea of European barbarians’ fecundity is conspicuously avoided. Several explanations connected with Rhenanus’ authorial intentions
and historical context are proposed for this factor in classical reception, ranging from the role of the Ottoman threat in the Early Modern European imagination, to the preference for the notion of ancient Germanic martial virtus as an explanatory factor for their successes instead of their numbers. What Rhenanus’ strategies of reception reveal is an open-ended negotiation with the classical inheritance during a very crucial period in the formation of the concept of Europe.

Nordic Classicism and Helsinki’s Housing

2024-10-20T09:56:53+03:00

The brief period of Art Nouveau, or Jugend, architecture was an international response to the pomposity of the Beaux Arts. Like other styles, it quickly faded before WWI, followed by many styles before functionalism. Especially in the Nordic countries, a brief period in the 1920s produced a type of architecture that is now known as Nordic Classicism, in part a wholly new interpretation of the classical architecture found in Italy. A new generation of Nordic architects on the Grand Tour, such as Gunnar Asplund, Hack Kampmann and Aino and Alvar Aalto, saw Italy with new eyes.

In Helsinki, despite a rather hectic period of housing construction in the 1920s, almost no public housing was built. Various private joint building ventures were the principal developers of the city. The few public housing projects at the time were mainly designed by Gunnar Taucher and Martti Välikangas. Based on their architectural Grand Tours to Rome and Pompei, they connected the low-budget public projects to the more affluent classical private housing companies. The state’s civil service built the classical housing companies, while the army’s officers built their own. The working class had their own interpretations of the same theme. What architectural differences are evident due to the clients’ varying political backgrounds?

On the one hand, Nordic Classicism in Helsinki was an aspect of close-knit Nordic cooperation between different architects, which was connected to the architects’ Grand Tours to Italy. Many Italian architettura minore influences found in their travel sketches materialised in the newly built environment. What is interesting is that the priority given to the new simplified version of classical architecture occurred in parallel with the early state-building process in the Nordic countries. At the same time, the clients, whether public or private, favoured classical architecture, ranging from workers’ joint building ventures to the more affluent and luxurious housing companies. Do specific political motives underlie this style, helping connect the newly independent state of Finland to the West? How did the Grand Tour affect architectural styles?

This article focuses on Helsinki’s select apartment houses, or housing companies, discussing in particular their founders and the different architectural agencies involved. For the architects, the influential Grand Tour was the main driver of architectural style. According to archive and press material, Nordic Classicism and the interwar political situation after the 1918 civil war significantly influenced housing development in Helsinki.

Pohjolan Sparta ja Thermopylai joka päivä?

2024-09-15T20:46:32+03:00

The golden age of Sparta ended with the Battle of Leuktra in 371 BCE, yet its reception and influence remained strong, particularly during the Roman period. Writers like Pausanias and
Plutarch sustained its mythical reputation, and Leonidas’ hero cult was even revived to inspire Trajan’s Persian campaigns. Sparta has significantly influenced both social philosophy and
military culture throughout European and American history. Finland, too, has engaged with Spartan imagery, from its Grand Duchy period to independence. Songs like Ateenalaisten laulu (The Song of the Athenians), based on a poem by Tyrtaeus and set to music by Jean Sibelius, and Thermopylain laulu (The Song of Thermopylae) by Heikki Klemetti and Uuno Kailas, were widely popular in the Republic of Finland. At times, Finland has even been called
“The Sparta of the North.”

Today, Sparta remains well known in Finland, primarily through movies, comics, and video games. Its influence is visible in gym names, security companies, and sports teams. However,
in global and social media contexts, Spartan imagery is often linked to far-right ideology and militarism. While European right-wing populism has surfaced in Finland, its engagement with Sparta differs from that of other countries.

This article examines Finland’s reception of ancient Sparta from the early 19th century onward, drawing primarily from historical newspapers in The National Archives of Finland.
Two key findings emerge: first, Finland was frequently likened to the Spartans at Thermopylae during the Civil War of 1918 and World War II. Second, unlike their counterparts in for example
France, Greece, Sweden, and the U.S., Finland’s far-right movements have not widely adopted Spartan iconography or ethos.

Lucretius’ Atomism as an Ideological Forerunner of Modern Astronomy

2024-10-08T15:16:21+03:00

The modern astronomic picture of the universe is astonishing: outer space is filled with a myriad of planets, stars, galaxies, and black holes, and it seems that the universe has come into existence through a primordial explosion. The modern image has required highly developed scientific
devices, such as powerful telescopes. In antiquity, the description of the celestial world was established by ordinary observation of the sky, empirical reasoning and primitive astronomical devices. Titus Lucretius Carus, a poet, philosopher and an adherent of Epicureanism in the late
Roman period, favoured experience and empirical reasoning. Although he is not an astronomer and propounds incorrect, obsolete, and unclear astronomical views, I argue in this article that he is an ideological forerunner of modern astronomy. Specifically because (1) his work De rerum natura was a source of inspiration for natural scientist especially in the early modern period,
(2) his astronomical views and modern astronomy have points of contact and (3) he discusses matters, which are topical in modern astronomy.

Kaaos hallitsee. Hesiodoksen Theogonia ja kreikkalainen black metal

2025-06-16T14:46:10+03:00

Ancient gods and their mythology are one of the most important themes in black metal music. Particularly from the early 1990s onwards, with the rise of the modern, so-called second wave
of black metal, some of the new bands of the genre replaced the satanic/individualistic approach
that had been the predominant theme in the genre. Instead, they turned to traditional, pre-Christian mythologies of their native cultures as an inspiration for their music and lyrics.

The birth of modern black metal is usually considered to have taken place in Norway and other Nordic countries, and rightly so. However, from very early on, we can find black metal bands from other parts of Europe as well. A particularly important scene outside the north was in Greece, where several black metal bands emerged already in the 1980s and later as part of the
second wave in the 90s.

My paper takes a closer look at the role of Theogonia (‘the birth of the gods’) by Hesiod in Greek black metal. Hesiod’s poem, composed circa 730–700 BCE, is one of the most complete and important sources for understanding early Greek cosmology and mythology. As a result, it should provide an excellent starting basis for Greek black metal bands, considering the vast
importance of national mythologies for the genre.

As my paper shows, while the gods of Theogonia are widely used by Greek bands, the actual opus of Hesiod is much less used by them. Accordingly, the article mostly concentrates on the most explicit case, the album Theogonia by one of the most important Greek black metal bands, Rotting Christ. As the paper points out, while the band used Hesiod’s work as a basis and framework, their approach was not very similar to traditional ‘pagan’-oriented black metal bands. Instead, their lyrics concentrated on individualism and rebellion, not so much on national or even ‘collective’ themes that were often prominent when dealing with ancient mythology.

“Pythagoras, Ptolemy, Socrates these people are thieves”: Afrocentrism and Classical Past in Rap Music

2025-06-16T14:51:45+03:00

Hyvä jätkä ku Caligula – antiikin representaatioita suomenkielisessä rap-lyriikassa

2024-10-04T17:24:43+03:00

The influence of the Greco-Roman world is deeply embedded in all spheres of Western culture. Its stories, myths, and classical quotations are woven into everyday language and cultural expression, making their presence in popular poetic forms, such as rap lyrics, unsurprising. This article examines Finnish rap lyrics from the 2010s and 2020s that contain references to the classical world. Notably, references to Greek mythology are the most prevalent, with figures such as the Midas touch and the Trojan horse frequently used as idiomatic expressions. For example, these allusions serve as a means to critique contemporary societal issues and generational concerns, such as consumerism and biodiversity loss, as rap lyrics often reflect the socio-political context in which they are composed. Additionally, quotations from ancient authors are present in the lyrics, appearing in various forms—some as direct citations in Latin, others as modified versions, and some translated into Finnish. Overall, the use of references to the classical world in the analyzed lyrics is highly creative, revealing multiple layers of meaning upon closer examination. Moreover, the lyrics demonstrate that expressions rooted in classical antiquity seamlessly integrate into contemporary Finnish self-expression.

Images of Inequality: AI Created Depictions of Ancient Social Stratification

2024-08-28T14:57:16+03:00

The study of historical inequality has gained increasing attention in recent years, particularly in archaeology. Our understanding of the past is shaped by contemporary perspectives, especially
when examining concepts such as inequality, which were perceived differently in antiquity than they are today. This article explores how artificial intelligence (AI) contributes to the visualization of ancient inequality by generating images based on textual prompts. Focusing on the ancient Roman world, it examines the biases embedded in AI-generated images and their implications for historical understanding.

AI image generators, such as DeepAI and Adobe Firefly, produce visuals by drawing on extensive training datasets of images and captions. As AI-generated images become more prevalent – often used alongside textual narratives and oral presentations – they have the
potential to shape public and scholarly perceptions of historical subjects, including ancient inequality. This article addresses four key questions: 1. What do AI image generators produce
when given prompts related to antiquity and inequality? 2. What can the generated images reveal about the training data used in these AI models? 3. How useful are AI-generated images for studying ancient inequality and its reception? 4. What broader insights can these images offer for the study of ancient social structures?

To investigate these questions, this study analyzes AI-generated images of inequality using three levels of prompts: general (“ancient”), more specific (“Roman”), and highly specific
(“Pompeii”), and with different types of other definitions, such as social, wealth, and health inequality. The results reveal that AI-generated images primarily depict outdoor scenes featuring people and architectural elements, often including columns and similar supporting structures.

A key finding is that the visual styles of these AI-generated images reflect the biases of their underlying datasets. DeepAI tends to generate images resembling early modern and modern
paintings, suggesting that its training data associates these artistic traditions with depictions of ancient inequality. Firefly, by contrast, produces images with a more video game-like aesthetic,
likely influenced by social media and commercial sites.

Although AI-generated images offer valuable insights into how ancient material has been received and reinterpreted over time, they do not explicitly highlight ancient social hierarchies or inequality. Recognizing their relevance to historical inequality requires extensive knowledge of both ancient history and later artistic traditions. Moreover, AI-generated images inherently reflect and amplify the biases of their source material. Since much of the surviving ancient literature represents elite perspectives, these biases are embedded in the AI-generated reconstructions. Additionally, the training material – often in the form of historical paintings/pictures – likely embodies the preconceptions of the artists at the time the originals were created.
These images serve as starting points, which the AI modifies using the full range of textual connotations associated with the concepts it is prompted to generate, further compounding the layers of historical and cultural bias.

Valheita Trumpin Amerikasta – vastine kirja-arvioon

2025-06-16T14:57:08+03:00

Antiikintutkimuksesta Oulun yliopistossa vuosina 1972–2024

2025-06-16T14:54:07+03:00

Introduction

2025-06-17T09:48:57+03:00