Band 5, Heft 1-2

Abstract: Discussions of the disputed compositional unity of the Homeric Hymn to Apollo have sometimes suggested that the Delian and Pythian tales share certain analogous themes or topics, which seem to be arranged in at least roughly parallel sequences. Since such claims are exposed to charges of subjectivity, the present study attempts to constrain investigative bias by determining qualifying topics and qualifying sequences independently. The method finds that each tale consists of exactly twenty topics, that each topic has a unique counterpart in the other tale, and that with a very few limited exceptions the counterpart topics occupy identical positions in their respective sequences. The study shows that in this respect the Delian and Pythian tales jointly constitute a single compositional design.

Abstract: This paper aims to demonstrate that in Id. 7, 147 Theocritus is employing the term ἄλειφαρ to translate the unusual use of κρήδεμνον in Od. 3, 392 and, thus, at the same time both to recall and to interpret a Homeric passage that is particularly rich from a semantic and expressive point of view. In line with Theocritus’s interpretatio Homerica (and with the evidence of a new scholium on Od. 3, 392), it is possible to translate in Od. 3, 392 κρήδεμνον as ‘seal’ and thus explain it, not in relation to the position or to a specific form of the garment (and thus as the ‘head’, ‘cap’ or ‘binding’ of a jar), but rather in relation to its function, which is to preserve female honor from the gaze of men and, metaphorically, the purity of the wine away from damaging contact with the air.

Abstract: The aim of this article is to show that on the basis of a scholium in Oppian’s Halieutica , Eumelus’ Titanomachy may have included an episode in which Zeus defeated Typhon. To this end, the author discusses in considerable detail the Typhon myth, the role of Hermes and Pan and the chronological ‘problems’ associated with their participation in such an episode, as well as the nature of the actual scholium together with an important body of comparative evidence.

Abstract: Aesch. Sept. 576–579, from the Messenger report on the mantis Amphiaraus in the scene of the seven pairs of speeches, is one of the most puzzling passages of Aeschylus, in which the poet, as he is speaking about a mantis and is partly reproducing his words, makes use of the cunning contrivances of the oracular language; a language that is not in principle so remote from the poetic language, but, at least as Aeschylus applies it, is more abstruse and arcane, sometimes reaching to extremes. Within this framework, the present paper attempts to construct the intricate period, to interpret the enigmatic words, to approach the poetic etymologies and to associate them with the myth. In addition, some more passages reproducing oracular language in Aeschylus are examined and interpreted, mainly in the oracle of Calchas and the utterances of Cassandra in Agamemnon .

Abstract: The author of the Derveni papyrus makes wide use of etymologies of divine names to interpret an Orphic theogony. With the help of these etymologies, he links episodes of the Orphic theogony with a philosophical model of the evolution of the cosmos. In this article, I argue that the techniqu es used by the Derveni author for the analysis of divine names are related to Meso potamian hermeneutical and theological traditions that go back to the end of the second millennium BCE, but were still alive in the fourth century BCE when the text of the papyrus was presumably composed. I compare the interpretative strategies of the Derveni author with those of Assyrian and Babylonian scholars as found in Tablets VI and VII of Enūma eliš , in certain Akkadian commentaries, and cuneiform god-lists to show that there is a similar system of beliefs in the text compared

Abstract: This paper examines the relevance that the mythological part of the Victoria Berenices has for the praise of Queen Berenice II and its intercultural connections with both Greek and Egyptian traditions. The ensuing picture provides further insights into the poem’s unity and Callimachus’ compositional technique in the Aetia .

Abstract: In his work On the Ancient Comedy , fr. 25 Strecker, Eratosthenes of Cyrene gives a positive appraisal of a metaphorical play on words by the comic poet Cratinus (fr. 54 Kassel / Austin), describing it as εἰς τὸ εἶδος οὐκ ἀρύθμως παίζειν. In this paper, it is argued that this expression, which is in conformity with Aristotelian theorization on metaphor, could also imply an enunciative reminiscence of the judgement given by Aristotle, who held that the irony of the poets of the Archaia was based on αἰσχρολογία, whereas contemporary poets preferred ἐμμελῶς παίζειν ( NE 4.14, 1128a 9). Some ancient explications transmitted in the scholia to Aristophanes’ comedies seem to testify to the influence or reception of Eratosthenes’ attitude in this regard.

Abstract: In the autograph manuscript of the so-called Anonymus Londiniensis (P.Br.Libr. inv. 137), an isagogic text on medicine and the causes of disease, we have an interesting case study to focus on how an ancient author composed a new work by compiling a handful of written sources. In particular, through the text's analysis, my aim is to recognise, within the language mosaic, an ‘authorial’ language or layer that basically expresses the writer’s doctrinal choices.

Abstract: Petronius’s debt to Ovid’s amatory works is frequently acknowledged when discussion comes to the so-called “Croton episode”, where Encolpius’s love affair with an aristocratic woman, named Circe, ends rather unsuccessfully with the protagonist’s famous double sexual failure ( Sat. 126.12–128.4 and 131.8–132.5). Although most scholars connect this event with the well-known impotence theme, especially as treated by Ovid in Am. 3.7, the purpose of this paper is to move beyond the impotentia , tracing some other, unexplored, elegiac allusions and illusions in the whole narrative. Thus, it will become apparent that it is Petronius’s use of erotic motifs as well as the depiction of (stock-) characters and roleplaying that is further indebted to Ovidian discourse and poetics.