Greek Mythography

Les mythes grecs et latins ont été transmis par les poètes et par les mythographes. Mais, quoique leur rôle ait été décisif, ces derniers ont été peu étudiés. Une des raisons en est que leur activité n'a jamais été constituée en genre, leurs pratiques étant aussi diverses que complexes. Ce volume, issu des travaux du groupe de recherches international Polymnia, cherche à répondre à la question : Que recouvre le terme 'mythographie' ? en étudiant un choix de textes représentatifs de la tradition mythographique en Grèce, à Rome, dans l'Europe du moyen âge et de la Renaissance. Pour mieux appréhender la diversité des méthodes et des propositions des mythographes anciens et modernes sur les significations et la fabrication des mythes, ces études sont centrées sur les formes, usages et visées de leurs écrits. Loin d' être de simples médiateurs et compilateurs, les mythographes ont été des analystes, des interprètes et des recréateurs de mythes, qui nous invitent à réfléchir à notre tour sur les constants efforts d' exégèse qui ont construit la culture occidentale.

RESUMEN
Situados en las fronteras entre el mito y la historia, Hecateo de Mileto, Ferécides de Atenas y Helánico de Lesbos suelen considerarse como los fundadores de dos tipos de prosa relacionados : la “historiografía” y la “mitografía”. Sin embargo, las taxonomías modernas podrían no coincidir con la percepción de los propios autores sobre el significado y alcance de su obra, ni con la de sus receptores antiguos. En este artículo, el examen de la nomenclatura aplicada a estos tres escritores (los genéricos ἱστορικός, ἱστοριογράφος y συγγραφεύς, por un lado, y los calificativos  λογοποιός y λογογράφος , μυθογράφος, por el otro), en la literatura griega, no sólo pone de relieve los diversos criterios manejados en la Antigüedad para catalogarlos como “historiadores” y / o “mitógrafos”, sino que también permite cuestionarse hasta qué punto, más allá de la  etimología, los valores actuales de  “mitografía” y “mitógrafo” se corresponden exactamente con los usos griegos.
ABSTRACT
Located on the borders between myth and history, Hecataeus of Miletus, Pherecydes of Athens and Hellanicus of Lesbos are generally considered the founders of two related types of prose : “historiography” and “mythography”. However, modern taxonomies could not correspond with the perception of the authors themselves on the meaning and scope of work, nor with their reception in Antiquity. In this paper, the examination of the names applied to these three writers (the generic ἱστορικός, ἱστοριογράφος and συγγραφεύς on one hand, and the qualifiers λογοποιός, λογογράφος and μυθογράφος on the other hand) in Greek literature, not only highlights the different criteria under consideration to categorized them as “historians” and / or “mythographers”, but also allows to question if, beyond etymology, the current meanings of “mythography” and “mythographer” correspond exactly with the Greek uses.

La présente étude vise à examiner les relations des textes contenus dans le Palatinus gr. 398, un codex unicus, autrement connu comme le codex de paradoxographes, conservé aujourd'hui à la bibliothèque de Heidelberg. 1 L'importance du Palatinus étant grande, grâce à la diversité de textes inclus, plusieurs études ont été menées au fil du temps. Elles s'attachent surtout à la datation du manuscrit, à la distinction des mains de copistes au sein de la Collection Philosophique et à sa relation avec les autres manuscrits de la Collection. 2 Concernant la structure, cette étude se fonde sur deux axes principaux : tout d'abord, une enquête paléographique visera à élucider les spéculations sur le milieu intellectuel dans lequel la formation du manuscrit et de la Collection a vu le jour ; puis, une enquête textuelle va démontrer la relation entre les textes du Palatinus, leur nature, leurs caractéristiques communes, ainsi que les méthodes et les pratiques d'écriture employées. La première section résume les théories déjà existantes sur la constitution de la Collection, tandis que la seconde est le résultat de ma propre recherche textuelle dans le cadre de ma thèse de doctorat.

La place que tient Orphée dans la mythologie et la religion gréco-romaines est connue depuis fort longtemps. Ce qu'on savait moins jusqu'à une époque récente, c'est que le chantre thrace n'a jamais disparu de la culture occidentale. On le retrouve en effet dans la littérature pseudépigraphique de l'époque hellénistique et romaine, chez les Pères de l'Église, dans l'art paléochrétien, la philosophie médiévale et les littératures en langues latine et vernaculaires du Moyen Âge. Le livre de John Block Friedman s'interroge sur les raisons de cette survivance et étudie les métamorphoses de la figure mythique au cours quelque dix-huit siècles qui séparent le judaïsme hellénisé de la Renaissance écossaise.
Cet ouvrage ne met pas seulement à disposition des lecteurs francophones un classique des études médiévales, il présente en outre plusieurs traductions françaises inédites de textes écrits originellement en grec, en latin et dans diverses langues vernaculaires du Moyen Âge.
Une postface intitulée "De l'Orphée juif à l'Orfée écossais" propose un bilan des travaux effectués depuis la publication de l'ouvrage et fait le point sur les perspectives qui s'offrent encore aux chercheurs.

Note: The PDF does not exactly match with the printed book and the page references in the index are not right.

RESUMEN: Entre los escritores bizantinos que mencionan a Paléfato, sobresale Juan Tzetzes por el número de referencias y por su actitud crítica. En efecto, el erudito comneno, que otorga un lugar destacado a Paléfato en la historia de la alegoría, no solo lo cita, resume y parafrasea, sino que en varios pasajes polemiza con sus interpretaciones. Así ocurre en los dos capítulos del Libro de historias (Quilíadas) relativos a los centauros, donde Tzetzes desacredita la exégesis del Περὶ  πίστων y propone la suya propia, utilizando una metodología argumentativa típicamente “palefatea”. En el anexo se ofrece la traducción de los textos sobre los centauros de Paléfato y Tzetzes.
ABSTRACT: Among the Byzantine writers who mention Palaephatus, John Tzetzes points out by the number of references and his critical attitude. Indeed, the Komnenian scholar, which gives a prominent place to Palaephatus in the history of allegory, not only quotes, summarizes, and paraphrases him, but in several passages polemicizes with his interpretations. This is the case in the two chapters of the Book of Histories (Chiliades) concerning the Centaurs where Tzetzes discredits the exegesis of the Περὶ  πίστων and proposes his own, using a typically “palaephatean” argumentative methodology. The appendix provides the translation of the texts on the Centaurs of Palaephatus and Tzetzes.

This paper offers a fresh discussion of Hecataeus of Miletus’ fr. 33 EGM, usually dismissed for its opaqueness. The reference to the seer Amphiaraus, who, according to Aelian, slept away his watch and nearly suffered the consequence of his negligence, is obscure, but has sometimes been interpreted as being a lost piece of the Theban saga. This reconstruction, however, is not the only one possible: as the story of the seer Evenius in Herodotus shows, this fragment might come from an account about Amphiaraus’ initiation to the prophetic art.

RESUMEN: Aproximación a los problemas de la mitografía griega a través de la revisión  crítica de la literatura especializada. Se señalan conceptos y perspectivas que inciden tanto el establecimiento del corpus, como en su delimitación cronológica. El examen de la terminología revela la pertinencia para la configuración del género de los debates filosóficos e historiográficos acerca de las fronteras entre verdad y ficción.

ABSTRACT : This is an approach to the problems of Greek mythography through a critical revision of the literature on the theme. The focus is on the concepts and perspectives that influence both the establishment of the corpus and the chronological limits. The analysis of the terminology reveals the pertinence for the configuration of the genre of the philosophical and historiographical debates on the border limits between truth and fiction.

The article examines the evidences about Dionysios Kyklographos (FGrHist 15), author of the Historical Cycle, and some cases of syntheses in prose, transmitted by papyri of Hellenistic and Imperial age, which deal with mythical subject matters of the
traditional canonized literary genres, especially Homeric and cyclic epic poetry. The papyri are examined from a palaeographical, bibliological and philological point of view, in order to suggest some hypotheses on their readership.

Recorrido crítico por la figura y la obra del filósofo griego Metrodoro de Lámpsaco, discípulo de Anaxágoras, mitógrafo alegorista de Homero. Esquema del capítulo: Fragmentos. Bibliografía. Datos biográficos. Obra y doctrina. ¿Metrodoro como el autor del papiro de Derveni?

Parallels between ἱστορίαι in the Homeric D-Scholia and the mythographic handbook attributed to a certain ‘Apollodorus’ have troubled the scholarship on the MH from its very beginnings. Even before Panzer coined the term ‘Mythographus Homericus’ (1892), these parallels have influenced investigations into the authenticity and reliability of the subscriptions as Julius Schwartz (1878) and Eduard Schwartz (1881) pointed to discrepancies between ἱστορίαι linked to ‘Apollodorus’s’ Bibliotheca and their subscriptions.

While the twin matters of authenticity and reliability have now been settled for the MH corpus in general, they remain a contentious issue for the ‘Apollodorus’ ἱστορίαι. It is still open to debate whether the subscriptions to ‘Apollodorus’ are authentic (and for that matter, whether the ἱστορίαι were part of the original MH collection) and whether they are reliable witnesses to the relationship between the MH and ‘Apollodorus’.

Taken into consideration these and other ms. ἱστορίαι that to a varying extent correspond to Bibliotheca passages, this paper discusses four scholarly positions on this matter and offers some notes on the ramifications for the edition of the MH corpus.

The Τραγγ ωδδδμενα by Asclepiades of Tragilus: a Mythographical Work Literary evidence allow us to locate Asclepiades of Tragilus in the middle of the 4th century B.C. Comparison with ππππσεις, specially with the Tales from Euripides, and other historical and literary considerations offer arguments in favour of a mythographical and not strictly summary nature of the Τραγγ ωδδδμενα.

Περὶ ἀπίστων (Μονή Ιβήρων 1317 = Lambros 5437) El códice 1317 del Monasterio de Iviron en el Monte Athos contiene extractos, hasta ahora inéditos, de los opúsculos Περὶ ἀπίστων atribuidos a Heráclito y a un compilador anónimo. Este artículo, tras describir el manuscrito y sus contenidos, estudia las aportaciones de estos dos Περὶ ἀπίστων «athonitas» a la tradición textual de Heráclito «Mitógrafo» y el Anónimo, a quienes se conocía por un codex unicus, el Ms. Vaticanus graecus 305. Palabras clave: Codex Iviron 1317; Heráclito (Mitógrafo); Anónimo Περὶ ἀπίστων; transmisión y crítica textual; mitografía griega. Codex 1317 of Iviron's Monastery in Mount Athos contains extracts, until now unpublished, of the opuscules Περὶ ἀπίστων attributed to Heraclitus and to Anonymous compiler. This article, after describing the manuscript and its contents, studies the contributions of these two «Athonite» Περὶ ἀπίστων to the textual tradition of Heraclitus «Mythographus» and the Anonymous, who were known by a codex unicus, the Ms. Vaticanus graecus 305.

Daniel Werner’s revision of his admirable 2005 dissertation argues that ‘myths’ in Socratic conversations serve, at least in the Phaedrus, a poikilos set of goals. Myths — narratives unfolding into a constellation of traditional characters, images andmotifs (pp. 7–9, 23–6, 239–43, 252, 263–4)—capture the attention of the audience’s sub-rational nature; provide images for philosophers to think about; manifest the limits of language; organize written conversations into literary wholes; and co-opt traditional authority for an ascendant discipline. These goals conduce to psychagogein (‘soul-lead’) a
person towards the philosophical life, the life of ‘“grasping” the immutable, imperceptible, and universal Forms’ (p. 2). The argument gets its force through close readings of the six most prominent myths in the Phaedrus — those of Boreas and Oreithuia, the Charioteer, the Cicadas, Thamos and Theuth, the Gardens of Adonis and Pan. Chapters 7 and 9, previously published, address the supposed ‘true techne' of rhetoric and the purported problem of the dialogue’s unity.

'Tzetzes' (Venezia, September, 6-8, 2018)
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Vaticanus gr. 950 (14th century) contains the so-called 'Excerpta Vaticana', excerpts from John Tzetzes' Chiliades and from his commentary on Lycophron by a 13th century 'vir doctus' (Leone, 1964-1965). Aside from these excerpts, the manuscript contains an epitome of the mythographic handbook Bibliotheca by Ps.-Apollodorus, the 'Epitome Vaticana'. Its attribution to John Tzetzes (Wagner, 1891) is thus far unchallenged.
It is opportune to re-examine the attribution of the Bibliotheca epitome to Tzetzes and to investigate its relationship to the excerpts from the Chiliades and the Lycophron commentary. To this end this paper looks into excerpting habits in the Excerpta Vaticana and the Epitome Vaticana. The mythographic excerpts in the manuscript put the spotlight on Tzetzes' relationship to the Bibliotheca and on his own mythographic practices.

La ᾿Επιδρομή es uno de los pocos manuales didácticos de la Antigüedad que ha llegado hasta nosotros. Este trabajo analizará la relación establecida en el texto entre el autor y su destinatario, un joven romano a quien Cornuto intenta instruir en la física estoica a través de la revisión y reinterpretación de los mitos griegos tradicionales.

Antonopoulos Andreas P., Christopoulos Menelaos M., and Harrison George W. M. (eds.), Reconstructing Satyr Drama. MythosEikonPoiesis 12. Berlin – Boston, MA: De Gruyter, 2021, pp. 539-566.

This contribution demonstrates that the traces of satyr dramas are similar in nature to the tragic vestiges in the Bibliotheca, even if they have not sparked the same interest in modern research. Examination of episodes with satyrs also indicate the degree to which and ways in which the Bibliotheca can contribute to a reconstruction of several satyr dramas known only in fragments. Finally, they illustrate the second life of satyr dramas as material for mythographic consumption.

El Coloquio está concebido como un espacio de encuentro para la difusión, discusión y reflexión sobre la transmisión de los textos mitográficos griegos en un sentido amplio (manuscritos, ediciones, traducciones, comentarios, etc.).Estará centrado principalmente en la mitografía, pero serán bienvenidas las contribuciones sobre la presencia de materiales mitográficos en otros tipos de literatura erudita (vg., la paradoxografía y la paremiología).
- Fecha límite de aceptación de propuestas: 5 de septiembre de 2021 ([email protected]).
The Colloquium  is conceived as a meeting space of researches on the transmission of Greek mythographic texts in a broad sense (manuscripts, editions, translations, comments, etc.). The Colloquium will focus primarily on mythography, but contributions on the presence of mythographic materials in other types of scholarly literature (eg., paradoxography and paraemiology) are welcome.
- Deadline for abstract:  September 5, 2021([email protected])

Artoxc its myriad uses in Greek society, rnyth had rnany political applications.l It could, for instance, be a means of expressing a community's political, social, or cultural identity or aprorninent family'* clairn to noble origins, for example, through a heroic ancestor. Myths with political implications can be found in many walks oflife, responding to various needs. The primary concern of this chapter is the role mythogrqphy played in the proce$$ of political mythopoecis (mythmaking), for indeed, to understand such political outcomesl one often has to turn to the source recording the rnyth. One of the challenges scholars face is deciding whether a myth recorded in, for exarnple, a historical nsrrative served a political purpose for the players in that narrative or for the historian who had his own agenda, or both. Before discussing mythography, therefore, lt is may be better to be$n with a brief consideration of how political myths worked in ancient Greece (for some recent studiesl see the *Further Reading" section at the end ofthe chapter). Myth provided a powerful tool for the political machinations of communities, families, and prominent individuals, This was only possible because of the basic reality the Greeks ascribed to myths, especially heroic myths. ln general, the world of the heroes was perceived as real; their tirne on earth was, essentially, an earlier ero, the eguivalent of ancient history (Calarne zoo3: tz-r7)'. The Trq*n War, as told by Homeric and later tradition, actually happened, as did the Argonautic expedition

RESUMEN: Entre los escritores bizantinos que mencionan a Paléfato, sobresale Juan Tzetzes por el número de referencias y por su actitud crítica. En efecto, el erudito comneno, que otorga un lugar destacado a Paléfato en la historia de la alegoría, no solo lo cita, resume y parafrasea, sino que en varios pasajes polemiza con sus interpretaciones. Así ocurre en los dos capítulos del Libro de historias (Quilíadas) relativos a los centauros, donde Tzetzes desacredita la exégesis del Περὶ  πίστων y propone la suya propia, utilizando una metodología argumentativa típicamente “palefatea”. En el anexo se ofrece la traducción de los textos sobre los centauros de Paléfato y Tzetzes. ABSTRACT: Among the Byzantine writers who mention Palaephatus, John Tzetzes points out by the number of references and his critical attitude. Indeed, the Komnenian scholar, which gives a prominent place to Palaephatus in the history of allegory, not only quotes, summarizes, and paraphrases him, but in several passages polemicizes with his interpretations. This is the case in the two chapters of the Book of Histories (Chiliades) concerning the Centaurs where Tzetzes discredits the exegesis of the Περὶ  πίστων and proposes his own, using a typically “palaephatean” argumentative methodology. The appendix provides the translation of the texts on the Centaurs of Palaephatus and Tzetzes.

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.

The interest of Hellenistic by collect, compile, or document information considered relevant past became a scholar desire to know that end up favoring the emergence of new genres bookish life of its own, the paradoxography and mythography. This desire for erudition responded to a renewed awakening of imagination and curiosity, but also to the pursuit of prestige record. In this article we will try to detail the roots of mythography, nurtured in the chronography, local histories, genealogy and mythology, as well as the purposes sought, among which they outperformed, as well as a specific educational objective, the possibility of associating some important families big gods and noble heroes of a past model and idealized, with the purpose of acquiring an indelible reputation. VeryOldWisdomApproximationtotheOriginsandIntentionsoftheMythographyandParadoxographyofHellenism Strictly as per the compliance and regulations of:

ABSTRACT: The paper aims to present a panoramic view of the reception of Palaephatus’ mythological treatise Περὶ  ἀπίστων / Peri apiston in Byzantine Greek literature. The study is organized in three parts: the first one, dedicated to the Christian Chronography, begins with Eusebius, and special attention is paid to the Palaephatean exegesis mentioned by Malalas; the second section focuses on commentary concerning quotations and indirect references found in the works of two prominent scholars of the Komnenian period, Eustathius of Thessalonike and John Tzetzes; the last piece attends to excerpts from Peri apiston in the anthologies of proverbs composed by Greek humanists of the diaspora during the 15th and 16th centuries such as Michael Apostoles. In summary, the entire study offers a comprehensive record of quotations, thereby increasing the number of indirect testimonies of Palaephatus and demonstrating his remarkable presence in the corpus of Byzantine literature. Moreover, commentary on a selection of texts illustrates the uses and valuations of Peri apiston as historical and mythographic source, as well as ethical example, which can serve to characterize different moments of a decisive period in the history of its transmission and reception.

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 mythographic handbook called Bibliotheca (falsely ascribed to Apollodorus of Athens) is unique in its genre because of its comprehensive aim and state of preservation. As a result it is an invaluable source on myths from the Theogony to the Returns of the Greeks from Troy.

This dissertation aims to unlock the Bibliotheca as a mythographic text in its own right. A key aspect of this objective is to counteract the way that the handbook has regularly been disregarded and misjudged as a repository of 'standard versions' of myths or as a primary witness to the archaic stories. Such a reductive view at once underestimates and romanticizes the merits of the Bibliotheca.
Combined, the persistent misconceptions about the representative character of the Bibliotheca's myths, about Ps.-Apollodorus' personal merits as an author/compiler and about his source use have divided the scholarship on the mythographic handbook and are liable to mislead someone not versed in the debate.
The present study aims to contribute in a positive way to this divided field of research and to lay some of these questions to rest. To this end an illustrative section of bk. III of the Bibliotheca has been selected (i.e. the Agenorids in III.1-56) and has been made the object of a philological commentary. This close approach of the text is a serious lacuna and a prerequisite for further research into the Bibliotheca.

Additionally, this dissertation offers a synthesis on the basis of the most important lines of research explored in the commentary. The first two chapters provide an overview of respectively the state of the research on Ps.-Apollodorus' date and name and on the purpose, intended readership, and actual audience of the Bibliotheca. Subsequently, the third chapter presents progress in the description of the indirect traces and the manuscript tradition of the Bibliotheca. The next chapter acts as a hinge between the textual history and the following chapters by taking a closer look at the book division of the Bibliotheca.
The second half of the synthesis deals with various aspects of the composition and organization of the Bibliotheca. First it addresses the genealogical arrangement of the Bibliotheca and book III in particular. Formulaic phrases are the focus of the next chapter: they indicate the narrator's intervention to guide the reader and to structure the account. Finally, the question of the realization of the handbook is also one of its sources. Therefore, the last chapter presents a general picture of Ps.-Apollodorus' method and potential sources to supplement the individual findings of the commentary.

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...

Thèse soutenue le 12 avril 2018, à l'Université Paris Nanterre

La présente thèse, une étude de cas, consiste en l’édition, la traduction et le commentaire d’un texte en grec ancien, la Collection d’Histoires Curieuses, oeuvre du pseudo-Antigonos de Carystos. Ce texte permet de définir un type d’énoncé particulier, l’ "histoire paradoxographique", qui transmet au lecteur des informations curieuses, des anecdotes incroyables qu’elles soient l’oeuvre de la nature ou de l’homme. Ce projet de recherche a pour but de donner au public un nouvel accès au texte, qui n’a jamais été traduit en français, et de le délimiter dans un cadre littéraire.