Sosates was an Alexandrian Jew who wrote

epic poetry In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard t ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and flourished during the 2nd or 1st century BC.

Dating

Sosates is known from a single line in the ''

Excerpta Latina Barbari The ''Excerpta Latina Barbari'', also called the ''Chronographia Scaligeriana'', is a late antique historical compilation, originally composed in Greek in AD 527–539 but surviving only in a Latin translation from the late 8th century. The ident ...

'', an 8th-century AD

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

translation of a lost Greek chronograph of the 6th century. It is preserved in a single manuscript also of the 8th century. It reads, "At this same time Sosates, the Jewish Homer, flourished in Alexandria" (''Hisdem temporibus Sosates cognoscebatur ille Ebraicus Omirus in Alexandria''). It is one of five literary historical notices placed within a

list of pharaohs The title "pharaoh" is used for those rulers of Ancient Egypt who ruled after the unification of Upper Egypt, Upper and Lower Egypt by Narmer during the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt, Early Dynastic Period, approximately 3100 BC. However, the sp ...

that is correlated with a list of Jewish high priests. The correlation, however, is erroneous, the dates of the pharaohs not lining up with those of the priests. Sosates thus lived either during the time of the high priests

Simon Thassi Simon Thassi ( ''Šīməʿōn haTassī''; died 135) was the second son of Mattathias and thus a member of the Hasmonean family. Names The name "Thassi" has a connotation of "the Wise", a title which can also mean "the Director", "the Guide" ...

(142–135 BC) and

John Hyrcanus John Hyrcanus (; ; ) was a Hasmonean (Maccabee, Maccabean) leader and Jewish High Priest of Israel of the 2nd century BCE (born 164 BCE, reigned from 134 BCE until he died in 104 BCE). In rabbinic literature he is often referred to as ''Yoḥana ...

(135–104) or during the reign of the Pharaoh

Ptolemy XII Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysus ( – 51 BC) was a king of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt who ruled from 80 to 58 BC and then again from 55 BC until his death in 51 BC. He was commonly known as Auletes (, "the Flautist"), referring to his love of pl ...

(80–51). Shaye Cohen leans towards the former. Richard Burgess, on the other hand, argues that the literary notices were originally added to the list of pharaohs and places Sosates in the reign of Ptolemy XII.

Writings

No identifiable fragment of Sosates' poetry is preserved. The works of his near contemporaries, the 2nd-century BC Jewish poets

Philo Philo of Alexandria (; ; ; ), also called , was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. The only event in Philo's life that can be decisively dated is his representation of the Alexandrian J ...

, Theodotus and

Ezekiel Ezekiel, also spelled Ezechiel (; ; ), was an Israelite priest. The Book of Ezekiel, relating his visions and acts, is named after him. The Abrahamic religions acknowledge Ezekiel as a prophet. According to the narrative, Ezekiel prophesied ...

, are only slightly better preserved. Fragments of their works are known only through quotation in the ''

Praeparatio evangelica ''Preparation for the Gospel'' (, ''Euangelikē proparaskeuē''), commonly known by its Latin title ''Praeparatio evangelica'', is a work of Christian apologetics written by Eusebius in the early part of the fourth century AD. It was begun about th ...

'' of

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...

, which cites a lost work of

Alexander Polyhistor Lucius Cornelius Alexander Polyhistor (; flourished in the first half of the 1st century BC; also called Alexander of Miletus) was a Greek scholar who was enslaved by the Romans during the Mithridatic War and taken to Rome as a tutor. After his r ...

. The dating of Sosates to the reign of Ptolemy XII precludes his mention by Polyhistor and thus explains his extreme obscurity. There is evidence that Bishop

Athanasius of Alexandria Athanasius I of Alexandria ( – 2 May 373), also called Athanasius the Great, Athanasius the Confessor, or, among Coptic Christians, Athanasius the Apostolic, was a Christian theologian and the 20th patriarch of Alexandria (as Athanasius ...

( AD) may have read Sosates. He cites the work of the European

Sotades Sotades (; 3rd century BC) was an Ancient Greek poet. Sotades was born in Maroneia, either the one in Thrace, or in Crete. He lived in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 BC). The city was at that time a remarkabl ...

in critiquing the ''Thalia'' of

Arius Arius (; ; 250 or 256 – 336) was a Cyrenaica, Cyrenaic presbyter and asceticism, ascetic. He has been regarded as the founder of Arianism, which holds that Jesus Christ was not Eternity, coeternal with God the Father, but was rather created b ...

, but erroneously calls him "the Egyptian Sosates", which may indicate a confusion with the similarly named Jewish poet, whose works may still have been read in 4th-century Alexandria. The only clue to the nature of Sosates' writings is his nickname, the "Jewish Homer". It implies that he wrote about Jewish history in

Homeric Greek Homeric Greek is the form of the Greek language that was used in the ''Iliad'', ''Odyssey'', and ''Homeric Hymns''. It is a literary dialect of Ancient Greek consisting mainly of an archaic form of Ionic, with some Aeolic forms, a few from Ar ...

, in epic style and

dactylic hexameter Dactylic hexameter is a form of meter used in Ancient Greek epic and didactic poetry as well as in epic, didactic, satirical, and pastoral Latin poetry. Its name is derived from Greek (, "finger") and (, "six"). Dactylic hexameter consists o ...

s. He probably reworked some of the

historical books The historical books are a division of Christian Bibles, grouping 12 or books of the Old Testament that follow the Pentateuch, beginning with the Book of Joshua. It includes the Former Prophets from the Nevi'im and two of the ungrouped books of K ...

of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Pentateuch The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () o ...

Heptateuch The Heptateuch (seven containers) is a name sometimes given to the first seven books of the Hebrew Bible. The seven books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua and Judges. The first four of these are sometimes called the ...

Octateuch The Octateuch (, from ) is a traditional name for the first eight books of the Bible, comprising the Pentateuch, plus the Book of Joshua, the Book of Judges and the Book of Ruth. These texts make up the first eight books of the Septuagint, which pr ...

. There was a long tradition in both Greek and

, active down to the 6th century AD, of adapting biblical content to epic and

tragic A tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character or cast of characters. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsis, or a "pain ...

verse., who notes that "even though Sosates is otherwise unknown, his work fits without difficulty into an existing genre as we understand it". Possibly, he wrote about the more recent

Maccabean Revolt The Maccabean Revolt () was a Jewish rebellion led by the Maccabees against the Seleucid Empire and against Hellenistic influence on Jewish life. The main phase of the revolt lasted from 167 to 160 BCE and ended with the Seleucids in control of ...

. The suggestion of that he wrote the '' Pseudo-Phocylidea'' can be dismissed, because the work is not Homeric.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sosates 1st-century BCE Jews Jews of Ptolemaic Alexandria Hellenistic Jewish writers Hellenistic poets Jewish poets Ancient Greek epic poets