How to Read Hyginus’ Fabulae? Theories and Practices
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Jacqueline Fabre-Serris
Abstract
The Fabulae of Hyginus results from the editing work of a Renaissance scholar, Micyllus, in 1535, based on a single damaged manuscript, in which an “original text” was/is impossible to identify due to successive interpolations and deletions. Two approaches can be applied to this “unfinished text”, depending on the answers given to two questions: What is a mythographer? What is the mythographer’s project? The first approach is based on the idea that the mythographer is a compiler who intended to provide a variety of information, deemed useful for a better knowledge of mythology in general. The second approach is based on the idea that “the first author” wrote his text as poets do, that is, by selecting mythological elements from the tradition, organizing them and creating individual versions of the myths. I support this second approach by giving as an example a detailed analysis of Fabulae 66-75 focused on the Theban myth.
Abstract
The Fabulae of Hyginus results from the editing work of a Renaissance scholar, Micyllus, in 1535, based on a single damaged manuscript, in which an “original text” was/is impossible to identify due to successive interpolations and deletions. Two approaches can be applied to this “unfinished text”, depending on the answers given to two questions: What is a mythographer? What is the mythographer’s project? The first approach is based on the idea that the mythographer is a compiler who intended to provide a variety of information, deemed useful for a better knowledge of mythology in general. The second approach is based on the idea that “the first author” wrote his text as poets do, that is, by selecting mythological elements from the tradition, organizing them and creating individual versions of the myths. I support this second approach by giving as an example a detailed analysis of Fabulae 66-75 focused on the Theban myth.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents VII
- List of Figures XI
- Introduction 1
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Part I: Facing Unfinishedness
- From the Authorial to the Editorial tour de force: How to Read Callimachus’ Aetia and Hecale 21
- How to Walk Along a Pioneer’s Fragmentary Track: Theophrastus’ Meteorological Studies 41
- Fragments of Roman Sexuality in Petronius’ Satyricon 59
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Part II: Questioning (In)Completeness
- The “Alexandrian End” of the Odyssey 89
- Reconsidering Closure in Ovid’s Fasti 115
- Statius’ Achilleid: How to Break off a carmen perpetuum 127
- Literatura Incompleta: Borges’ Antiquity between World and Universe 143
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Part III: Constitutive Unfinishedness
- Sed redeo ad formulam (Off. 3.20): Completeness and Imperfection in Cicero’s De officiis 165
- Relativizing Unfinishedness: Lucretian Textuality and Epicurean Therapy 189
- The Fragment as a Form: A Reading of Fragments d’un discours amoureux by Barthes 211
- Arrhythmic Historiography, Lost Letters and Broken Meanings: Fulgentius’s De aetatibus mundi et hominis 225
- “This City Will Always Pursue You”: The Impossible End of Rutilius Namatianus’ Return 241
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Part IV: Reading Unfinishedness
- Finishing Iphigenia in Aulis 261
- Seneca’s Phoenissae: In Search of an Ending 275
- How to Read Hyginus’ Fabulae? Theories and Practices 289
- The Rest was not Perfected: Platonic Endings and their Modern Echoes 311
- War as a Permanent Civil War: The “Unfinished” History in Pasolini’s Petrolio 331
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Part V: Searching for Completion
- The Missing Conclusion to Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica 353
- Speaking Silences: The Incompleteness of Tacitus’ Annals and Gustav Freytag’s Die verlorene Handschrift 383
- Putting an Unfinished Novel Back into Motion: A Digital Tool to Create Possible “Second Volumes” of Bouvard et Pécuchet 405
- List of Contributors 419
- General Index 423
- Index of Passages 427
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents VII
- List of Figures XI
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: Facing Unfinishedness
- From the Authorial to the Editorial tour de force: How to Read Callimachus’ Aetia and Hecale 21
- How to Walk Along a Pioneer’s Fragmentary Track: Theophrastus’ Meteorological Studies 41
- Fragments of Roman Sexuality in Petronius’ Satyricon 59
-
Part II: Questioning (In)Completeness
- The “Alexandrian End” of the Odyssey 89
- Reconsidering Closure in Ovid’s Fasti 115
- Statius’ Achilleid: How to Break off a carmen perpetuum 127
- Literatura Incompleta: Borges’ Antiquity between World and Universe 143
-
Part III: Constitutive Unfinishedness
- Sed redeo ad formulam (Off. 3.20): Completeness and Imperfection in Cicero’s De officiis 165
- Relativizing Unfinishedness: Lucretian Textuality and Epicurean Therapy 189
- The Fragment as a Form: A Reading of Fragments d’un discours amoureux by Barthes 211
- Arrhythmic Historiography, Lost Letters and Broken Meanings: Fulgentius’s De aetatibus mundi et hominis 225
- “This City Will Always Pursue You”: The Impossible End of Rutilius Namatianus’ Return 241
-
Part IV: Reading Unfinishedness
- Finishing Iphigenia in Aulis 261
- Seneca’s Phoenissae: In Search of an Ending 275
- How to Read Hyginus’ Fabulae? Theories and Practices 289
- The Rest was not Perfected: Platonic Endings and their Modern Echoes 311
- War as a Permanent Civil War: The “Unfinished” History in Pasolini’s Petrolio 331
-
Part V: Searching for Completion
- The Missing Conclusion to Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica 353
- Speaking Silences: The Incompleteness of Tacitus’ Annals and Gustav Freytag’s Die verlorene Handschrift 383
- Putting an Unfinished Novel Back into Motion: A Digital Tool to Create Possible “Second Volumes” of Bouvard et Pécuchet 405
- List of Contributors 419
- General Index 423
- Index of Passages 427
