Bibliotheca (Apollodorus)

The ''Bibliotheca'' (Ancient Greek: ), is a compendium of Greek myths and heroic legends, genealogical tables and histories arranged in three books, generally dated to the first or second century AD. The work is commonly described as having been written by Apollodorus (or sometimes Pseudo-Apollodorus), a result of its false attribution to the 2nd-century BC scholar Apollodorus of Athens.

Overview

The ''Bibliotheca'' of Pseudo-Apollodorus is a comprehensive collection of myths, genealogies and histories that presents a continuous history of Greek mythology from the earliest gods and the origin of the world to the death of Odysseus.. The narratives are organized by genealogy, chronology and geography in summaries of myth. The myths are sourced from a wide number of sources like early epic, early Hellenistic poets, and mythographical summaries of tales. Homer and Hesiod are the most frequently named along with other poets.Kenens, Ulrike. 2011. "The Sources of Ps.-Apollodorus' Library: A Case Study." ''Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica'' 97:129–46. . Oral tradition and the plays written by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides also factored into the compilation of myth in the ''Bibliotheca''. The ''Bibliotheca'' was written in the first or second century CE by an author who is referred to as Pseudo-Apollodorus to differentiate from Apollodorus of Athens, who did not write the ''Bibliotheca''.Diller, Aubrey. 1983. "The Text History of the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus." Pp. 199–216 in ''Studies in Greek Manuscript Tradition,'' edited by A. Diller. Amsterdam: A. M. Hakkert. Most extant manuscripts of the text end during the narration of Theseus's exploits, with there surviving only two codices, discovered in the 19th century, which transmit the remainder of the work. In the later scholarship it is used as a reference material.

Authorship

A certain "Apollodorus" is indicated as author on some surviving manuscripts, this Apollodorus has been mistakenly identified with Apollodorus of Athens (born E), a student of Aristarchus of Samothrace who also worked in Alexandria. It is known—from references in the minor scholia on Homer—that Apollodorus of Athens did leave a similar comprehensive repertory on mythology, in the form of a verse chronicle. The mistaken attribution was made by scholars following mention of the name by Photius I of Constantinople, though Photius did not name him as the Athenian and the name was in common use at the time. For chronological reasons, Apollodorus of Athens could not have written the book, the author of the ''Bibliotheca'' is at times referred to as the "Pseudo-Apollodorus", to distinguish him from Apollodorus of Athens. Modern works often simply call him "Apollodorus". The work is generally dated to the first or second centuries AD.

Manuscript tradition

The first mention of the work is by Photius, patriarch of Constantinople in 9th century CE, in his "account of books read". The last section of the ''Bibliotheca'' which breaks off during the section on Theseus is missing in surviving manuscripts, Photius had the full work and mentions that the lost section had myths about the heroes of the Trojan War. Byzantine author John Tzetes, who lived in Constantinople in the twelfth century, often cited the ''Bibliotheca'' in his writings. It was almost lost in the 13th century, surviving in one now-incomplete manuscript, which was copied for Cardinal Bessarion in the 15th century.Bessarion's copy, deposited in the Biblioteca Marciana, Venice, found its way into the Greek manuscripts of Archbishop Laud and came with them to the Bodleian Library in 1636. (Diller 1935:308, 310). Any surviving manuscripts of the ''Bibliotheca'' are descended from a fourteenth century manuscript in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, in Paris.

Printed editions

The first printed edition of the ''Bibliotheca'' of Pseudo-Apollodorus was published in Rome in 1555. Benedetto Egio (Benedictus Aegius) of Spoleto, was the first to divide the text in three books.He based his division on attributions in the ''scholia minora'' on Homer to Apollodorus, in three books. (). published an improved text at Heidelberg, 1559. The first text based on comparative manuscripts was that of Christian Gottlob Heyne, Göttingen, 1782–83. Subsequent editions Jurgen Muller (1841) and Richard Wagner (1894) collated earlier manuscripts. In 1921 Sir James George Frazer published an epitome of the book by conflating two manuscript summaries of the text, which included the lost section.

Scholarship

The ''Bibliotheca'' has been referenced in scholarship throughout history. As a mythographical work it has influenced scholarship on Greek mythology.. An epigram recorded by the important intellectual Patriarch Photius I of Constantinople expressed its purpose:Victim of its own suggestions, the epigraph, ironically, does not survive in the manuscripts. For the classic examples of epitomes and encyclopedias substituting in Christian hands for the literature of Classical Antiquity itself, see Isidore of Seville's ''Etymologiae'' and Martianus Capella.

It has the following not ungraceful epigram: 'Draw your knowledge of the past from me and read the ancient tales of learned lore. Look neither at the page of Homer, nor of elegy, nor tragic muse, nor epic strain. Seek not the vaunted verse of the cycle; but look in me and you will find in me all that the world contains'.

Photius is one of the first surviving reviews of the use of the ''Bibliotheca'' in the field. Throughout the 12th and 13th centuries CE, the ''Bibliotheca'' was referred to in scholarship about Ancient Greece most often found in letters from scholars of the time. Much of the modern scholarship on the work has focused on the interpretation of its manuscripts by various translators and compilers of the ''Bibliotheca'' in later editions. A critical view of past interpretations, compilations, and organization has also been a source of contention. The sources of information that may have informed the creation of the ''Bibliotheca'' are also studied in the modern scholarship. The question of authorship is another area of study that has shaped the interpretation of the work throughout history.

See also

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References

Notes

Citations

Works cited

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* Diller, Aubrey. 1983. "The Text History of the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus." Pp. 199–216 in ''Studies in Greek Manuscript Tradition,'' edited by A. Diller. Amsterdam: A. M. Hakkert. .
* Dowden, Ken. 1992. ''The Uses of Greek Mythology.'' London: Routledge.
Internet Archive

* Fletcher, K. F. B. 2008. "Systematic Genealogies in Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca and the Exclusion of Rome from Greek Myth." ''Classical Antiquity'' 27:59–91. .
* Hard, Robin. 1997. ''Apollodorus: The Library of Greek Mythology''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. .
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* Higbie, Carolyn. 2007. "Hellenistic Mythographers." Pp. 237–54 in ''The Cambridge Companion to Greek Mythology'', edited by R. D. Woodard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
* Huys, Marc. 1997. "Euripides and the Tales from Euripides: Sources of Apollodoros' Bibliotheca?" ''Rheinisches Museum'' 140 308–27. .
* Kenens, Ulrike. 2013. "Text and Transmission of Ps.-Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca: Avenues for Future Research." Pp. 95–114 in ''Writing Myth: Mythography in the Ancient World'', edited by S. M. Trzaskoma and R. S. Smith. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters. .
* Kenens, Ulrike. 2011. "The Sources of Ps.-Apollodorus' Library: A Case Study." ''Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica'' 97:129–46. .
* Scully, Stephen. 2015. "Echoes of the Theogony in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods." In ''Hesiod's 'Theogony', From Near Eastern Creation Myths to 'Paradise Lost'.'' New York: Oxford University Press. .
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* Trzaskoma, Stephen. 2013. "Citation, Organization and Authorial Presence in Ps.-Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca." Pp. 75–94 in ''Writing Myth: Mythography in the Ancient World'', edited by S. M. Trzaskoma and R. S. Smith. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters. .
* Trzaskoma, Stephen M. and R. Scott Smith. 2008. "Hellas in the Bibliotheke of Apollodorus." ''Philologus'' 152(1):90–6. .

External links

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''Apollodorus The Library translated by J. G. Frazer''

Works by Apollodorus at Perseus Digital Library
* ''Mythographoi. Scriptores poetiace historiae graeci'', Antonius Westermann (ed.), Brunsvigae sumptum fecit Georgius Westermann, 1843
pagg. 1-123

*
Apollodori Bibliotheca
', Immanuel Bekker (ed.), Lipsiae sumptibus et typis B. G. Teubneri, 1854.
* ''Mythographi graeci'', Richardus Wagner (ed.), vol. 1, Lipsiae in aedibus B. G. Teubneri, 1894
pp. 1-169
(the epitome i
pp. 171-237
.

Apollodorus, The Library translated by J. G. Frazer




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Ancient Greek pseudepigrapha
1st-century books
2nd-century books
References on Greek mythology