Abstract: Studies of early mythography have stressed the dependent relationship between the so-ca... more Abstract: Studies of early mythography have stressed the dependent relationship between the so-called logographers and epic archaic poetry. Better knowledge of archaic and classic mythography in recent years have provided more accurate details of the context of the production and purposes of the fragmentary works by Hecataeus, Acusilaus, Pherecydes and Hellanicus. Each of them has his own agenda and programme, which has to be explained within its context and not, from a purely historic-literary perspective, like an appendix, a continuation or an exegesis of the epic tradition. The author argues that conditions of preservation, and means of transmission, of fragmentary mythographers have shaped the way we approach them. In other words, it is the actual process of reception of epic poetry through the exegetic and grammarian tradition that distorts our view and leads the modern reader to see mythography as being dependent on Homer or Hesiod.
1. Greek Mythographic Tradition (10,000 words)
Jordi Pàmias (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
... more 1. Greek Mythographic Tradition (10,000 words)
Jordi Pàmias (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
The opening chapter of Part Two will address mythographic (and paradoxographic) tradition in ancient Greece, the origins of the genre of mythography, and its evolution. Among individual mythographers discussed will be Hesiod (to whom the Catalogue of Women is ascribed), Acusilaus, Pseudo- Apollodorus (author of the Bibliotheca), Eratosthenes, Parthenius, Antoninus Liberalis, Greek scholiasts.
1. Introduction
The first section of this ‘Cambridge History of Mythology and Mythography’ (Part One: Myth) opened with four chapters dealing with Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Anatolian, and Semitic mythologies before turning to Greek myth. This second section (Part Two: Mythography), instead, starts with ‘Greek Mythographic tradition’. Although those ‘high civilizations’ were well acquainted with written sources, Greeks seem to deserve the honour of primacy in the task of recording myths (by writing). A Greek word, mythography appears to be a ‘Greek’ creation. Under which conditions should it be so? To start with, the word ‘mythographer’, unattested before the fourth century BCE, is rarely used in Greek (‘mythography’ is first used by Strabo in the first century CE). In fact, as a genre, delimiting its borders with other literary genres poses a major problem (Calame 2016: 403). In late archaic and classical Greece, those works that we are accustomed to call local history, universal history, ethnography, genealogy, and mythography, overlap at the base. And the Greek themselves did not make a distinction: for them such activities are named with generic terms such as historiē ‘inquiry’ or, simply, logoi ‘accounts’ (Fowler 2001: 96–97). We can thus say that mythography seems to be an ‘exogenous’ category in Greece. However, research conducted in the last decades (and especially the major contributions by Fowler 2000 and 2013) has made it clear that prose writers collected accounts dealing with the past ever since the sixth century BCE. From before the time of Herodotus (fifth century BCE), the ‘father of history’, a burgeoning writing activity was going on in the Greek cities...
The meaning of καλχαίνω (Sophocles, Euripides, Lycophron) poses a problem for scholars who attemp... more The meaning of καλχαίνω (Sophocles, Euripides, Lycophron) poses a problem for scholars who attempt to explain this word as metaphorical in each of the passages in which it occurs. The manuscripts provide authority for a variant reading, χαλκαίνω. This verb, I argue, had the specialized divinatory meaning of ‘utter or elucidate a prophecy’, which is the meaning that can be found in the three passages to be discussed.
The aim of this study is to focus on a particular aspect of early Greek mythography that has in g... more The aim of this study is to focus on a particular aspect of early Greek mythography that has in general passed unnoticed —namely the ‘eccentric’ view of the local past. By eccentric I mean oral accounts, or mentions, that go back to an authority coming from outside the political community, including another, or a ‘barbarian’, country. Alternatively, the ‘native’ historian may point to external traditions. It is my understanding that an assessment of these evidences may provide new insights into the origins of local history in Greece.
This paper will focus on some mythographic fragments concerning a minor character who appears to ... more This paper will focus on some mythographic fragments concerning a minor character who appears to be related to Agamemnon and Menelaos already in Homer – namely Echepolos, a Greek hero who managed to skip involvement in the Trojan war. The hero’s genealogies traced by Pherekydes and Akousilaos do not synchronize with the Homeric one and are independent from it. Particularly, Pherekydes’ arrangement does not seem unrelated to the pro-Spartan policy of Kimon and his resolute philolaconism.
L’étude des sources mythographiques fournit des informations intéressantes concernant l’évolution... more L’étude des sources mythographiques fournit des informations intéressantes concernant l’évolution du mythe d’Argos Panoptès. Ce personnage est défini comme natif d’Arcadie, où il entretient une relation étroite avec le dieu Pan, mais il a été attiré très tôt dans l’orbite argienne. Cependant nous verrons qu’en dépit de ce déracinement, les témoignages littéraires et iconographiques maintiennent une définition « panique » du personnage.
This chapter provides an overview of the origins and early development of mythography in late arc... more This chapter provides an overview of the origins and early development of mythography in late archaic and classical Greece. A particular form of the reception of myth, mythographical collections are one of the results of the rapid spread of alphabetic writing, particularly from the 6th century bce onward. The chapter argues that even though the words mythography and mythographer are not attested until much later, these authors were in possession of a category comparable to our “myth” understood as a type of account that belongs to a heritage from which they are separated by a gap, onto which they can cast an objective gaze. Indeed, writing was a necessary instrument for encouraging a new attitude towards tradition. And the use of written prose had lasting effects. Critical intertextuality, a text that responds dialectically to preexisting texts, is consolidated with the transcription of myths by the early mythographers. Their writings respond to the tradition since they place the canonical texts of ancient poetry on the same level as the opinion of a ordinary private individual, who expresses himself in simple, secular prose. Unlike oral transmission, which is more restricted and more suitable for the elites to be able to exercise control over the spread of information, dissemination in writing guarantees a mass circulation of the text that is less controlled and more “democratic.”
‘Athena’s Thigh: Between Anatomy and Politics’
Key Words: Erichthonius, Hephaestus, Athena, At... more ‘Athena’s Thigh: Between Anatomy and Politics’
Key Words: Erichthonius, Hephaestus, Athena, Athens, Autochthony, Political Legitimacy
Abstract: This article analyzes the myth of the birth of Ericthonius. In one of the variants, Hephaestus’ semen is deposited on Athena’s thigh. Full of disgust, she rubs it with a piece of wool (ἔριον) to expel it and then casts it onto the ground (χθών), where it will sprout, and thus the Earth will give birth to the Athenian king. Far from the ancient rationalizing interpretations (according to which the name of Ericthonius, analyzed through Volksetymologie as a compound of ἔριον and χθών, would have given rise to the myth), an interpretation is proposed based on the cultural significance of the thigh in ancient Greece, which goes far beyond pure anatomy and carries ideological value. Similarly, the tuft of wool used by Athena has become a powerful cultural reference to incorporate the “non-Athenian” Hephaestus into the “national” genealogy of Athens. The goddess’ gesture constitutes a succesful biopolitical device that allows the political legitimacy of the primordial king of Athens to be sanctioned.
Abstract: This paper provides the historical and scientific context of the period in which Panzer... more Abstract: This paper provides the historical and scientific context of the period in which Panzer’s thesis on the MH came into light. The philological perspective was the dominant approach in German Scholarship of the late nineteenth century. This had consequences in the way the study of myth was tackled. But more to the point here, the author aims at showing how Panzer’s insights continue to loom large in modern approaches to the MH.
Jordi Pàmias ofrece en su «Mnēmē: la vieja memoria mitológica (a propósito de Calímaco, Aetia, fr... more Jordi Pàmias ofrece en su «Mnēmē: la vieja memoria mitológica (a propósito de Calímaco, Aetia, fr. 75.55)» una revisión y comentario del complejo sintagma ἐνὶ μνήμῃ μυθολόγῳ (Call., fr. 75.55 Pf.), con el que el poeta de Cirene alude a la obra de Jenomedes de Ceos, un tratado en prosa erudito y anticuario que Calímaco toma explícitamente como fuente para convertirlo en ficción poética (en uno de los ejemplos más antiguos de poetización de la materia histórica). El autor analiza en profundidad el significado exacto del término μνήμη, lo que permite comprender mejor su valor en el contexto de la historia local griega y de la historiografía más antigua. A raíz del estudio elaborado por Pàmias se puede concluir que a lo largo de la historia de la cultura griega la μνήμη seguirá poseyendo un valor indeterminado o no específico, en las difusas fronteras de la oralidad y la escritura, una indefinición o dualidad que podría entenderse mejor en términos estructuralistas, ya que, como demuestra Pàmias, μνήμη es el término no marcado en una oposición con un término marcado como γραφή (de la Presentación al volumen de Rafael J. Gallé).
This article argues that the river’s name Oeroe in Boeotia (attested in Hdt. 9.51 and in some man... more This article argues that the river’s name Oeroe in Boeotia (attested in Hdt. 9.51 and in some manuscripts of Paus. 9.4.4) is to be rejected in favour of the reading Peroe (found in some manuscripts of Pausanias). The author concludes that, a nomen nihili, Oeroe should be banned from encyclopaedias, atlases, and geographical lexica.
Résumé: Pausanias (2.16.4) attribue un logos sur les origines généalogiques de Mycènes à Acousila... more Résumé: Pausanias (2.16.4) attribue un logos sur les origines généalogiques de Mycènes à Acousilaos d’Argos. Or, le mot Ἀκουσιλάῳ, admis par les éditeurs modernes de façon unanime, n’est pas la variante transmise par les manuscrits de Pausanias (ἀκοῦσι λόγον), mais une conjecture de Porson. La leçon ἀκοῦσαι, acceptée par les premiers éditeurs de Pausanias, doit être retenue comme originale. Par conséquent, un fragment substantiel d’Acousilaos devrait disparaître des éditions de ce mythographe.
Mots clé: Pausanias, Acousilaos d’Argos, Mycènes, critique textuelle.
Este artículo consiste en un estudio de caso de cuatro textos, tres escolios Homéricos que citan ... more Este artículo consiste en un estudio de caso de cuatro textos, tres escolios Homéricos que citan a Ferecides y un texto del MH transmitido por un papiro (sch. (D) Hom. Od. 11.264 Ernst, sch. (bT) Hom. Il. 13.302 Erbse, sch. (D) Hom. Il. 13.302 Van Thiel y POxy. XLII 3003). Su objetivo es el de ilustrar los riesgos de equiparar unívocamente las historiae a la mitografía como tal y de separarlas de otros tipos de actividad filológica en la antigüedad, lo que contribuye a crear una relación de oposición prácticamente excluyente entre la mitografía y la crítica textual y literaria, siendo la primera equiparada a una actividad narrativa y la segunda a una actividad ecdótica y exegética.
The original structure of Pherekydes’ mythographical collection remains a controversial issue. It... more The original structure of Pherekydes’ mythographical collection remains a controversial issue. Its rearrangement in the Hellenistic period did not merely consist of a new division of the books by taking the length of the rolls into account. The article attempts to show that the overall structure of the Historiai underwent a major revision in the library of Alexandria. The author advances the theory that Pherekydes’ work was reorganized into an encyclopaedia of historiai arranged alphabetically.
It is my aim to focus the attention on a mythographic text by Acusilaus of Argos. The fragment at... more It is my aim to focus the attention on a mythographic text by Acusilaus of Argos. The fragment attempts to shed light on the Homeric verses alluding en passant to a dynastic rivalry between the line of Priam and the line of Anchises. However, Acusilaus offers a version of the Trojan myth which deviates from institutional Epic poetry and that may go back to local oral traditions from the Troad. Their main interest is to bridge the memory gap that separates the heroes of the Bronze Age from the recent past, the time of the polis
The origins and the development of astral mythology and catasterism offer diverse avenues of inqu... more The origins and the development of astral mythology and catasterism offer diverse avenues of inquiry. It is my aim to approach a rather marginal area: popular beliefs. The notion that body and soul are separated after death and each ones goes back to its original location —earth and aether— is quite common both in epigraphic epigrams and in some dramatic playwrights. This popular idea may have contributed to the development of Hellenistic catasterisms.
The Proem to the Genealogies of Acusilaus of Argos · According to the testimony provided by the l... more The Proem to the Genealogies of Acusilaus of Argos · According to the testimony provided by the lexicon Suda, Acusilaus had transcribed the Genealogies from some bronze tablets that his father had unearthed from somewhere in his home. Comparison with parallel expressions in ancient preambles shows that the term (λόγος) used to identify the story serves to designate and introduce the work. It may point to a formula like ἀρχή μοι τοῦ λόγου used by the author at the commencement of the book.
The story of Perseus is taken as a case study for the reception of myth in the early Middle Ages,... more The story of Perseus is taken as a case study for the reception of myth in the early Middle Ages, both in the Latin West and in the Greek East. The versions of Fulgentius, Hippolytus, Zenobius, and Malalas are examined. They show the flexible capacity of myth to adapt to new cultural contexts.
Abstract: Studies of early mythography have stressed the dependent relationship between the so-ca... more Abstract: Studies of early mythography have stressed the dependent relationship between the so-called logographers and epic archaic poetry. Better knowledge of archaic and classic mythography in recent years have provided more accurate details of the context of the production and purposes of the fragmentary works by Hecataeus, Acusilaus, Pherecydes and Hellanicus. Each of them has his own agenda and programme, which has to be explained within its context and not, from a purely historic-literary perspective, like an appendix, a continuation or an exegesis of the epic tradition. The author argues that conditions of preservation, and means of transmission, of fragmentary mythographers have shaped the way we approach them. In other words, it is the actual process of reception of epic poetry through the exegetic and grammarian tradition that distorts our view and leads the modern reader to see mythography as being dependent on Homer or Hesiod.
1. Greek Mythographic Tradition (10,000 words)
Jordi Pàmias (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
... more 1. Greek Mythographic Tradition (10,000 words)
Jordi Pàmias (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
The opening chapter of Part Two will address mythographic (and paradoxographic) tradition in ancient Greece, the origins of the genre of mythography, and its evolution. Among individual mythographers discussed will be Hesiod (to whom the Catalogue of Women is ascribed), Acusilaus, Pseudo- Apollodorus (author of the Bibliotheca), Eratosthenes, Parthenius, Antoninus Liberalis, Greek scholiasts.
1. Introduction
The first section of this ‘Cambridge History of Mythology and Mythography’ (Part One: Myth) opened with four chapters dealing with Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Anatolian, and Semitic mythologies before turning to Greek myth. This second section (Part Two: Mythography), instead, starts with ‘Greek Mythographic tradition’. Although those ‘high civilizations’ were well acquainted with written sources, Greeks seem to deserve the honour of primacy in the task of recording myths (by writing). A Greek word, mythography appears to be a ‘Greek’ creation. Under which conditions should it be so? To start with, the word ‘mythographer’, unattested before the fourth century BCE, is rarely used in Greek (‘mythography’ is first used by Strabo in the first century CE). In fact, as a genre, delimiting its borders with other literary genres poses a major problem (Calame 2016: 403). In late archaic and classical Greece, those works that we are accustomed to call local history, universal history, ethnography, genealogy, and mythography, overlap at the base. And the Greek themselves did not make a distinction: for them such activities are named with generic terms such as historiē ‘inquiry’ or, simply, logoi ‘accounts’ (Fowler 2001: 96–97). We can thus say that mythography seems to be an ‘exogenous’ category in Greece. However, research conducted in the last decades (and especially the major contributions by Fowler 2000 and 2013) has made it clear that prose writers collected accounts dealing with the past ever since the sixth century BCE. From before the time of Herodotus (fifth century BCE), the ‘father of history’, a burgeoning writing activity was going on in the Greek cities...
The meaning of καλχαίνω (Sophocles, Euripides, Lycophron) poses a problem for scholars who attemp... more The meaning of καλχαίνω (Sophocles, Euripides, Lycophron) poses a problem for scholars who attempt to explain this word as metaphorical in each of the passages in which it occurs. The manuscripts provide authority for a variant reading, χαλκαίνω. This verb, I argue, had the specialized divinatory meaning of ‘utter or elucidate a prophecy’, which is the meaning that can be found in the three passages to be discussed.
The aim of this study is to focus on a particular aspect of early Greek mythography that has in g... more The aim of this study is to focus on a particular aspect of early Greek mythography that has in general passed unnoticed —namely the ‘eccentric’ view of the local past. By eccentric I mean oral accounts, or mentions, that go back to an authority coming from outside the political community, including another, or a ‘barbarian’, country. Alternatively, the ‘native’ historian may point to external traditions. It is my understanding that an assessment of these evidences may provide new insights into the origins of local history in Greece.
This paper will focus on some mythographic fragments concerning a minor character who appears to ... more This paper will focus on some mythographic fragments concerning a minor character who appears to be related to Agamemnon and Menelaos already in Homer – namely Echepolos, a Greek hero who managed to skip involvement in the Trojan war. The hero’s genealogies traced by Pherekydes and Akousilaos do not synchronize with the Homeric one and are independent from it. Particularly, Pherekydes’ arrangement does not seem unrelated to the pro-Spartan policy of Kimon and his resolute philolaconism.
L’étude des sources mythographiques fournit des informations intéressantes concernant l’évolution... more L’étude des sources mythographiques fournit des informations intéressantes concernant l’évolution du mythe d’Argos Panoptès. Ce personnage est défini comme natif d’Arcadie, où il entretient une relation étroite avec le dieu Pan, mais il a été attiré très tôt dans l’orbite argienne. Cependant nous verrons qu’en dépit de ce déracinement, les témoignages littéraires et iconographiques maintiennent une définition « panique » du personnage.
This chapter provides an overview of the origins and early development of mythography in late arc... more This chapter provides an overview of the origins and early development of mythography in late archaic and classical Greece. A particular form of the reception of myth, mythographical collections are one of the results of the rapid spread of alphabetic writing, particularly from the 6th century bce onward. The chapter argues that even though the words mythography and mythographer are not attested until much later, these authors were in possession of a category comparable to our “myth” understood as a type of account that belongs to a heritage from which they are separated by a gap, onto which they can cast an objective gaze. Indeed, writing was a necessary instrument for encouraging a new attitude towards tradition. And the use of written prose had lasting effects. Critical intertextuality, a text that responds dialectically to preexisting texts, is consolidated with the transcription of myths by the early mythographers. Their writings respond to the tradition since they place the canonical texts of ancient poetry on the same level as the opinion of a ordinary private individual, who expresses himself in simple, secular prose. Unlike oral transmission, which is more restricted and more suitable for the elites to be able to exercise control over the spread of information, dissemination in writing guarantees a mass circulation of the text that is less controlled and more “democratic.”
‘Athena’s Thigh: Between Anatomy and Politics’
Key Words: Erichthonius, Hephaestus, Athena, At... more ‘Athena’s Thigh: Between Anatomy and Politics’
Key Words: Erichthonius, Hephaestus, Athena, Athens, Autochthony, Political Legitimacy
Abstract: This article analyzes the myth of the birth of Ericthonius. In one of the variants, Hephaestus’ semen is deposited on Athena’s thigh. Full of disgust, she rubs it with a piece of wool (ἔριον) to expel it and then casts it onto the ground (χθών), where it will sprout, and thus the Earth will give birth to the Athenian king. Far from the ancient rationalizing interpretations (according to which the name of Ericthonius, analyzed through Volksetymologie as a compound of ἔριον and χθών, would have given rise to the myth), an interpretation is proposed based on the cultural significance of the thigh in ancient Greece, which goes far beyond pure anatomy and carries ideological value. Similarly, the tuft of wool used by Athena has become a powerful cultural reference to incorporate the “non-Athenian” Hephaestus into the “national” genealogy of Athens. The goddess’ gesture constitutes a succesful biopolitical device that allows the political legitimacy of the primordial king of Athens to be sanctioned.
Abstract: This paper provides the historical and scientific context of the period in which Panzer... more Abstract: This paper provides the historical and scientific context of the period in which Panzer’s thesis on the MH came into light. The philological perspective was the dominant approach in German Scholarship of the late nineteenth century. This had consequences in the way the study of myth was tackled. But more to the point here, the author aims at showing how Panzer’s insights continue to loom large in modern approaches to the MH.
Jordi Pàmias ofrece en su «Mnēmē: la vieja memoria mitológica (a propósito de Calímaco, Aetia, fr... more Jordi Pàmias ofrece en su «Mnēmē: la vieja memoria mitológica (a propósito de Calímaco, Aetia, fr. 75.55)» una revisión y comentario del complejo sintagma ἐνὶ μνήμῃ μυθολόγῳ (Call., fr. 75.55 Pf.), con el que el poeta de Cirene alude a la obra de Jenomedes de Ceos, un tratado en prosa erudito y anticuario que Calímaco toma explícitamente como fuente para convertirlo en ficción poética (en uno de los ejemplos más antiguos de poetización de la materia histórica). El autor analiza en profundidad el significado exacto del término μνήμη, lo que permite comprender mejor su valor en el contexto de la historia local griega y de la historiografía más antigua. A raíz del estudio elaborado por Pàmias se puede concluir que a lo largo de la historia de la cultura griega la μνήμη seguirá poseyendo un valor indeterminado o no específico, en las difusas fronteras de la oralidad y la escritura, una indefinición o dualidad que podría entenderse mejor en términos estructuralistas, ya que, como demuestra Pàmias, μνήμη es el término no marcado en una oposición con un término marcado como γραφή (de la Presentación al volumen de Rafael J. Gallé).
This article argues that the river’s name Oeroe in Boeotia (attested in Hdt. 9.51 and in some man... more This article argues that the river’s name Oeroe in Boeotia (attested in Hdt. 9.51 and in some manuscripts of Paus. 9.4.4) is to be rejected in favour of the reading Peroe (found in some manuscripts of Pausanias). The author concludes that, a nomen nihili, Oeroe should be banned from encyclopaedias, atlases, and geographical lexica.
Résumé: Pausanias (2.16.4) attribue un logos sur les origines généalogiques de Mycènes à Acousila... more Résumé: Pausanias (2.16.4) attribue un logos sur les origines généalogiques de Mycènes à Acousilaos d’Argos. Or, le mot Ἀκουσιλάῳ, admis par les éditeurs modernes de façon unanime, n’est pas la variante transmise par les manuscrits de Pausanias (ἀκοῦσι λόγον), mais une conjecture de Porson. La leçon ἀκοῦσαι, acceptée par les premiers éditeurs de Pausanias, doit être retenue comme originale. Par conséquent, un fragment substantiel d’Acousilaos devrait disparaître des éditions de ce mythographe.
Mots clé: Pausanias, Acousilaos d’Argos, Mycènes, critique textuelle.
Este artículo consiste en un estudio de caso de cuatro textos, tres escolios Homéricos que citan ... more Este artículo consiste en un estudio de caso de cuatro textos, tres escolios Homéricos que citan a Ferecides y un texto del MH transmitido por un papiro (sch. (D) Hom. Od. 11.264 Ernst, sch. (bT) Hom. Il. 13.302 Erbse, sch. (D) Hom. Il. 13.302 Van Thiel y POxy. XLII 3003). Su objetivo es el de ilustrar los riesgos de equiparar unívocamente las historiae a la mitografía como tal y de separarlas de otros tipos de actividad filológica en la antigüedad, lo que contribuye a crear una relación de oposición prácticamente excluyente entre la mitografía y la crítica textual y literaria, siendo la primera equiparada a una actividad narrativa y la segunda a una actividad ecdótica y exegética.
The original structure of Pherekydes’ mythographical collection remains a controversial issue. It... more The original structure of Pherekydes’ mythographical collection remains a controversial issue. Its rearrangement in the Hellenistic period did not merely consist of a new division of the books by taking the length of the rolls into account. The article attempts to show that the overall structure of the Historiai underwent a major revision in the library of Alexandria. The author advances the theory that Pherekydes’ work was reorganized into an encyclopaedia of historiai arranged alphabetically.
It is my aim to focus the attention on a mythographic text by Acusilaus of Argos. The fragment at... more It is my aim to focus the attention on a mythographic text by Acusilaus of Argos. The fragment attempts to shed light on the Homeric verses alluding en passant to a dynastic rivalry between the line of Priam and the line of Anchises. However, Acusilaus offers a version of the Trojan myth which deviates from institutional Epic poetry and that may go back to local oral traditions from the Troad. Their main interest is to bridge the memory gap that separates the heroes of the Bronze Age from the recent past, the time of the polis
The origins and the development of astral mythology and catasterism offer diverse avenues of inqu... more The origins and the development of astral mythology and catasterism offer diverse avenues of inquiry. It is my aim to approach a rather marginal area: popular beliefs. The notion that body and soul are separated after death and each ones goes back to its original location —earth and aether— is quite common both in epigraphic epigrams and in some dramatic playwrights. This popular idea may have contributed to the development of Hellenistic catasterisms.
The Proem to the Genealogies of Acusilaus of Argos · According to the testimony provided by the l... more The Proem to the Genealogies of Acusilaus of Argos · According to the testimony provided by the lexicon Suda, Acusilaus had transcribed the Genealogies from some bronze tablets that his father had unearthed from somewhere in his home. Comparison with parallel expressions in ancient preambles shows that the term (λόγος) used to identify the story serves to designate and introduce the work. It may point to a formula like ἀρχή μοι τοῦ λόγου used by the author at the commencement of the book.
The story of Perseus is taken as a case study for the reception of myth in the early Middle Ages,... more The story of Perseus is taken as a case study for the reception of myth in the early Middle Ages, both in the Latin West and in the Greek East. The versions of Fulgentius, Hippolytus, Zenobius, and Malalas are examined. They show the flexible capacity of myth to adapt to new cultural contexts.
Una tragèdia grega pot tenir vigència en l’època contemporània? No només això, sinó que ens expli... more Una tragèdia grega pot tenir vigència en l’època contemporània? No només això, sinó que ens explica moltes coses sobre nosaltres mateixos. En un aassaig amè i rigorós, així ho demostra Jordi Pàmias, que, partint de Les bacants d’Eurípides, ens reivindica el vessant antisistema que s’amaga al darrere d’allò que anomenem «dionisíac».
Obra guardonada amb el Premi Literari La Central 25, modalitat en català.
Tierra, territorio y población en la Grecia antigua: aspectos institucionales y míticos, 2017
These two volumes bring together the papers given in an international conference held at the Univ... more These two volumes bring together the papers given in an international conference held at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Bellaterra, Spain) in October 2013 dealing with the relations between land and population in Ancient Greece, in the 2nd and the 1st millennium BC, according to the written sources. The papers are classified in three sections: A. Mycenaea; B. Leges et institutiones; C. Mythographica.
To review a work that itself undertakes to review the literature on a particular aspect of antiqu... more To review a work that itself undertakes to review the literature on a particular aspect of antiquity – a sort of research au deuxième degré – may seem superfluous. In the wake of the development of digital humanities, in the last decades scholarship has developed strategies to find and retrieve information easily (search engines, databases), which are instrumental in coping with the enormous amount of data at our disposal. However, conceived within the German tradition of Jahresberichte, R.’s report is not a mere list of publications concerning research on Greek myth. Rather, R. attempts to offer a critical and descriptive account of many of the titles. More to the point: a list is never a neutral enumeration of elements. On the contrary, a seemingly rigid and simple form, it is a sophisticated cultural practice that foregrounds the principles of selection and combination. As important as what you find in a list is what is left out or how it is arranged.
As for what is left out, the (sub)title already puts forward an anteoccupatio: this Forschungsbericht is necessarily a selective (‘selektiver’) survey that does not aspire to completeness (see also p. vii). The focus of this selection is Germanocentric. By this, I do not simply mean that German and German-speaking scholarship is massively represented. R. often marks off those titles produced by German (or German-speaking) scholars as being apart from what is produced abroad (‘im Ausland’: p. 33) or by international research (see p. 97: ‘in der deutschsprachigen und internationalen Mythosforschung’; cf. also pp. 35, 37, 169, 319–20). What is more unfortunate, at certain points (not in a consistent way and without an identifiable purpose) some scholars are identified as Jews (Paula Philippson; p. 23: ‘jüdische[n] Religionswissenschaftlerin’). The study of antiquity, as J. Bromberg reminds us (Global Classics [2021]), has not yet disentangled itself from national and ethnic borders in a satisfying way, and scholars are often subject to the limitations of a state-centred perspective that has come to be known as ‘methodological nationalism’.
As a result of this bias, a number of researchers and some relevant theoretical schools are left out. Most blatantly, French scholarship is strongly underrepresented. In my opinion, a book covering research on ancient myth over the period from 1920 to 2020 is expected to devote more than half a page to the École de Paris (see pp. 66–7). Scholars like Gernet, Loraux, Hartog, Svenbro, Frontisi, Schnapp, Borgeaud, Georgoudi or Durand are not even mentioned. H. Jeanmaire’s Couroi et Courètes (1939), the only study before the 1960s in which the initiation scheme was applied to Greek myths, finds no place in this book either. Not a single allusion is made to G. Dumézil’s comparative hypothesis and his theory of trifonctionnalité. A scholar that has made crucial contributions to the understanding of the reception of Greek myth in the twentieth century, Hendrik Versnel, is ignored altogether...
The main, twofold, purpose of Michael Herren's book is established in the third line of the prefa... more The main, twofold, purpose of Michael Herren's book is established in the third line of the preface. Although written for students, it is not a textbook. On the one hand, The Anatomy of Myth has down-to-earth aspirations: a 170-page book (excluding notes and bibliography), it is intended to be read-and not to be used as a manual for reference. On the other hand, the book is designed as a narrative and, as such, it entertains an ambitious thesis: the extension of pagan Greek methods of myth criticism have had a long-term effect on later readers of religious books. Written in the aftermath of the critical events in Paris in 2015 (p. ix), H. assumes that Greek skepticism and criticism regarding myth has served, and may serve, as an antidote against literalism and religious fundamentalism. (While I was reading and reviewing this book, again, a fundamentalist attack hit the core of Barcelona in August 2017)...
Ara fa just trenta anys —devia ser pels volts del curs 1993/1994— que vaig cursar amb la Prof. Sa... more Ara fa just trenta anys —devia ser pels volts del curs 1993/1994— que vaig cursar amb la Prof. Santiago l’assignatura de ‘Tragèdia grega’. Aleshores traduíem llargs passatges dels Set contra Tebes d’Èsquil. Amb mirada retrospectiva, m’adono ara que la manera amb què la Roseli s’aproximava a la tragèdia era el resultat d’una sòlida formació històrico-lingüística i històrico-literària. Amb això vull dir que els comentaris i interpretacions que ella anava desgranant, seguint el ritme vacil·lant de les nostres traduccions, tenien una densitat que feia sospitar que, darrere del text d’Èsquil, s’amagaven capes espesses i compactes d’una llunyana història religiosa i cultural. [...] Els fragments 2 i 3 de les nostres edicions de la Tebaida registren dos motius alternants que duien el rei de Tebes, encolerit, a imprecar els seus fills: segons el primer, Polinices ha parat la taula de Cadme, i la copa de Laios, davant d’Èdip; d’acord amb el segon, tots dos fills, Etèocles i Polinices, no han ofert al seu pare la porció de l’espatlla en el banquet sacrificial, com tenien per costum i com pertoca, sinó el maluc. Un venerable escoliasta ja es demanava per la desproporció del gest d’Èdip. I la filologia moderna no ha fet sinó continuar explorant el sentit profund d’aquesta overreaction del rei. No és aquest l’indret de fer un repàs de les diferents explicacions, més o menys temptatives, que s’han donat per conjuminar totes dues ofenses de la Tebaida. Fins on he pogut veure i escatir, la proposta de la Prof. Santiago és única i té el mèrit de retre compte de les dues variants alternants amb una explicació senzilla i econòmica. Aquesta interpretació consisteix a presentar tots dos gestos dels fills com el símbol dels dos grans “pecats” d’Èdip: parricidi i incest. [fragment del text]
The author provides a critical overview of arguably the most influential work by Walter Burkert, ... more The author provides a critical overview of arguably the most influential work by Walter Burkert, Homo Necans (publ. 1972). Burkert’s insights reach beyond the narrow confines of the origins of sacrifice and establish a comprehensive theory of culture. A critical assessment of the scientific reception of this book is advanced. In particular, the author tackles some of the reasons behind its reticent reception when it first appeared.
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Jordi Pàmias (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
The opening chapter of Part Two will address mythographic (and paradoxographic) tradition in ancient Greece, the origins of the genre of mythography, and its evolution. Among individual mythographers discussed will be Hesiod (to whom the Catalogue of Women is ascribed), Acusilaus, Pseudo- Apollodorus (author of the Bibliotheca), Eratosthenes, Parthenius, Antoninus Liberalis, Greek scholiasts.
1. Introduction
The first section of this ‘Cambridge History of Mythology and Mythography’ (Part One: Myth) opened with four chapters dealing with Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Anatolian, and Semitic mythologies before turning to Greek myth. This second section (Part Two: Mythography), instead, starts with ‘Greek Mythographic tradition’. Although those ‘high civilizations’ were well acquainted with written sources, Greeks seem to deserve the honour of primacy in the task of recording myths (by writing). A Greek word, mythography appears to be a ‘Greek’ creation. Under which conditions should it be so? To start with, the word ‘mythographer’, unattested before the fourth century BCE, is rarely used in Greek (‘mythography’ is first used by Strabo in the first century CE). In fact, as a genre, delimiting its borders with other literary genres poses a major problem (Calame 2016: 403). In late archaic and classical Greece, those works that we are accustomed to call local history, universal history, ethnography, genealogy, and mythography, overlap at the base. And the Greek themselves did not make a distinction: for them such activities are named with generic terms such as historiē ‘inquiry’ or, simply, logoi ‘accounts’ (Fowler 2001: 96–97). We can thus say that mythography seems to be an ‘exogenous’ category in Greece. However, research conducted in the last decades (and especially the major contributions by Fowler 2000 and 2013) has made it clear that prose writers collected accounts dealing with the past ever since the sixth century BCE. From before the time of Herodotus (fifth century BCE), the ‘father of history’, a burgeoning writing activity was going on in the Greek cities...
Key Words: Erichthonius, Hephaestus, Athena, Athens, Autochthony, Political Legitimacy
Abstract: This article analyzes the myth of the birth of Ericthonius. In one of the variants, Hephaestus’ semen is deposited on Athena’s thigh. Full of disgust, she rubs it with a piece of wool (ἔριον) to expel it and then casts it onto the ground (χθών), where it will sprout, and thus the Earth will give birth to the Athenian king. Far from the ancient rationalizing interpretations (according to which the name of Ericthonius, analyzed through Volksetymologie as a compound of ἔριον and χθών, would have given rise to the myth), an interpretation is proposed based on the cultural significance of the thigh in ancient Greece, which goes far beyond pure anatomy and carries ideological value. Similarly, the tuft of wool used by Athena has become a powerful cultural reference to incorporate the “non-Athenian” Hephaestus into the “national” genealogy of Athens. The goddess’ gesture constitutes a succesful biopolitical device that allows the political legitimacy of the primordial king of Athens to be sanctioned.
Mots clé: Pausanias, Acousilaos d’Argos, Mycènes, critique textuelle.
Jordi Pàmias (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
The opening chapter of Part Two will address mythographic (and paradoxographic) tradition in ancient Greece, the origins of the genre of mythography, and its evolution. Among individual mythographers discussed will be Hesiod (to whom the Catalogue of Women is ascribed), Acusilaus, Pseudo- Apollodorus (author of the Bibliotheca), Eratosthenes, Parthenius, Antoninus Liberalis, Greek scholiasts.
1. Introduction
The first section of this ‘Cambridge History of Mythology and Mythography’ (Part One: Myth) opened with four chapters dealing with Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Anatolian, and Semitic mythologies before turning to Greek myth. This second section (Part Two: Mythography), instead, starts with ‘Greek Mythographic tradition’. Although those ‘high civilizations’ were well acquainted with written sources, Greeks seem to deserve the honour of primacy in the task of recording myths (by writing). A Greek word, mythography appears to be a ‘Greek’ creation. Under which conditions should it be so? To start with, the word ‘mythographer’, unattested before the fourth century BCE, is rarely used in Greek (‘mythography’ is first used by Strabo in the first century CE). In fact, as a genre, delimiting its borders with other literary genres poses a major problem (Calame 2016: 403). In late archaic and classical Greece, those works that we are accustomed to call local history, universal history, ethnography, genealogy, and mythography, overlap at the base. And the Greek themselves did not make a distinction: for them such activities are named with generic terms such as historiē ‘inquiry’ or, simply, logoi ‘accounts’ (Fowler 2001: 96–97). We can thus say that mythography seems to be an ‘exogenous’ category in Greece. However, research conducted in the last decades (and especially the major contributions by Fowler 2000 and 2013) has made it clear that prose writers collected accounts dealing with the past ever since the sixth century BCE. From before the time of Herodotus (fifth century BCE), the ‘father of history’, a burgeoning writing activity was going on in the Greek cities...
Key Words: Erichthonius, Hephaestus, Athena, Athens, Autochthony, Political Legitimacy
Abstract: This article analyzes the myth of the birth of Ericthonius. In one of the variants, Hephaestus’ semen is deposited on Athena’s thigh. Full of disgust, she rubs it with a piece of wool (ἔριον) to expel it and then casts it onto the ground (χθών), where it will sprout, and thus the Earth will give birth to the Athenian king. Far from the ancient rationalizing interpretations (according to which the name of Ericthonius, analyzed through Volksetymologie as a compound of ἔριον and χθών, would have given rise to the myth), an interpretation is proposed based on the cultural significance of the thigh in ancient Greece, which goes far beyond pure anatomy and carries ideological value. Similarly, the tuft of wool used by Athena has become a powerful cultural reference to incorporate the “non-Athenian” Hephaestus into the “national” genealogy of Athens. The goddess’ gesture constitutes a succesful biopolitical device that allows the political legitimacy of the primordial king of Athens to be sanctioned.
Mots clé: Pausanias, Acousilaos d’Argos, Mycènes, critique textuelle.
Obra guardonada amb el Premi Literari La Central 25, modalitat en català.
As for what is left out, the (sub)title already puts forward an anteoccupatio: this Forschungsbericht is necessarily a selective (‘selektiver’) survey that does not aspire to completeness (see also p. vii). The focus of this selection is Germanocentric. By this, I do not simply mean that German and German-speaking scholarship is massively represented. R. often marks off those titles produced by German (or German-speaking) scholars as being apart from what is produced abroad (‘im Ausland’: p. 33) or by international research (see p. 97: ‘in der deutschsprachigen und internationalen Mythosforschung’; cf. also pp. 35, 37, 169, 319–20). What is more unfortunate, at certain points (not in a consistent way and without an identifiable purpose) some scholars are identified as Jews (Paula Philippson; p. 23: ‘jüdische[n] Religionswissenschaftlerin’). The study of antiquity, as J. Bromberg reminds us (Global Classics [2021]), has not yet disentangled itself from national and ethnic borders in a satisfying way, and scholars are often subject to the limitations of a state-centred perspective that has come to be known as ‘methodological nationalism’.
As a result of this bias, a number of researchers and some relevant theoretical schools are left out. Most blatantly, French scholarship is strongly underrepresented. In my opinion, a book covering research on ancient myth over the period from 1920 to 2020 is expected to devote more than half a page to the École de Paris (see pp. 66–7). Scholars like Gernet, Loraux, Hartog, Svenbro, Frontisi, Schnapp, Borgeaud, Georgoudi or Durand are not even mentioned. H. Jeanmaire’s Couroi et Courètes (1939), the only study before the 1960s in which the initiation scheme was applied to Greek myths, finds no place in this book either. Not a single allusion is made to G. Dumézil’s comparative hypothesis and his theory of trifonctionnalité. A scholar that has made crucial contributions to the understanding of the reception of Greek myth in the twentieth century, Hendrik Versnel, is ignored altogether...