| Abstract | Paper -a:
Nature and climate are one of the key elements shaping the image of the Christian afterlife. The aim of the presentation is to analyze how the depiction of climatic phenomena of the hereafter could enhance the didactic message of the late antiquity and early medieval narratives of Christian otherworlds. The deliberations will be based on the cognitive theory of conceptual integration. Following the adopted methodology, elements such as rivers of fire or ice, abysses, or lush vegetation will be treated as complex conceptual blends that could have enabled the proper interpretation of the texts in the mind of the recipients.
Paper -b:
The paper offers a comparative analysis of the topic motif of ruined, wind-swept cities, in Old English and Medieval Latin Poetry. Nostalgic tones appear in the topic motif of ruin under the influence of the attitude to the destruction of the city in Classical Antiquity: Virgil and later Dares and Dictys describe the burning and ravaging of Troy, viewing Rome with its universal mission as its direct descendent. The fall of Rome gives a new impulse to the development of the poignantly represented lyrical motif of ruin, enriched by the associative bond between earthly city and sin, which was given to world culture by the Holy Scriptures. The discovery of the individual in the Middle Ages transforms an ancient genre, encomium urbis (glorification of Rome), into a lyrical subject de excidio urbis, which is prompted by the destruction of Rome. The repeatability and reproducibility of the motif in medieval lyric (not only European but also Persian, as is confirmed by Khāqānī's qasida), the generalisation of the description of ruins, the shift of accent from the material ruin to the symbolic meaning of the destruction signify the birth of a lyrical topos.
Paper -c:
Performance of Christian relics and icons in battles as reflected in Byzantine historiographic narratives will be discussed in the paper. The texts of the authors (Theophanes the Confessor, Niketas Choniates, Michael Attaleiates, John Skylitzes and others) of the 8th-13th centuries will be analysed. This tradition is first evidenced in the battle of the Milvian Bridge (312) when Constantine the Great was led by the radiant cross. The emperor also used Christ's nails for his war attire. This work was supported by Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (SRNSFG) grant number FR-18-677 - 'Cult and Worship in Byzantine Historiographic Narrative' (8th-13th c.).
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