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A new fragment of the historian Theseus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Aldo Corcella
Aldo Corcella
Affiliation:
Università della Basilicata, Potenza
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Extract

In the collection of oracular responses included in Book 14 of the Palatine Anthology, the oracle which bears the number 77 is introduced by the lemma χρησμòς ⋯ν τοῖς θησ⋯ως β⋯οις ⋯ναφερόμενος its text is as follows:

The same oracle, with the same introductory formula, is also quoted as a scholium in the margin to the text of Herodotus 1.65.3 (the famous oracle given to Lycurgus that will be discussed below) in the manuscript Flor. Laur. 70.3; first discovered by Jacob Gronovius, it can now be read in the editions of Stein, Rosen and Asheri.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , May 1996 , pp. 261 - 266
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1996

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References

1 See Herodoti Halicarnassei Historiarum libri ix⃛industria Gronovii, J. (Leiden, 1715), p. 816;Google ScholarHerodoti Historiae, rec. Stein, H. (Berlin, 1869–71), ii.431;Google ScholarHerodotus, Historiae, H. B., Rosen (ed.), i (Leipzig, 1987), p. 41; Erodoto,Google ScholarLe Storie, i3: La Lidia e la Persia, D. Asheri (ed.) (Milan, 1991), pp. 244–5. The scholium, at the bottom of f.17r, was apparently written by the same scribe who copied the textGoogle Scholar (cf. Stein's praefatio, p. vi; Colonna, A., ‘De Herodoti memoria’, Boll. Class. Lincei NS 1 [1945], 43); it should therefore be dated between the end of the ninth and the beginning of the tenth centuries (see Rosén's edition, p. xxv), that is to say to the same years in which Constantinus Cephalas’ anthology was composedGoogle Scholar (see now A. Cameron, The Greek Anthology from Meleager to Planudes [Oxford, 1993]). As for the relationship between the two testimonies, the expression ., common to both of them, is the usual form of the lemmata which introduce most of the oracles in Anth. Pal. 14: we can therefore suppose that the scholiast copied the text of the oracle from the collection of responses which was possibly used by Cephalas, or from a copy of Cephalas’ anthology itself (for the presence of the oracles in the latter, cf. Cameron, op. cit., pp. 135–7).Google Scholar

2 Epigrammatum Anthologia Palatina, F. Dübner (ed.), ii (Paris, 1872), p. 497.

3 William Paton writes: ‘Not in Plutarch's Life of Theseus’ (The Greek Anthology, with an English translation by Paton, W.R., v [London, New York, 1918], p. 65, n. 2); Hermann Beckby does not make any comment on the lemma, but in the Natnen- und Sachenverzeichnis the oracle is quoted among the epigrams containing a reference to the hero Theseus (Anthologia Graeca, H. Beckby (ed.), iv2 [Munich n.d.], pp. 210–11, 694). David Asheri, op. cit. (n. 1), p. 244 comments on the scholium thus: ‘Deest in Vita Thesei a Plutarcho scripta’.Google Scholar

4 Parke, H.W., Wormell, D.E.W., The Delphic Oracle (Oxford, 1956), ii.235 (no. 607).Google Scholar

5 Anthologie Grecque, première partie: Anthologie Palatine, tome xii (livres xiii-xiv), texte ètabli et traduit par Buffiere, F. (Paris, 1970), p. 185, nn. 5–6.Google Scholar

6 Suda 363; FHG iv.518–19; FGrHist 453. Jacoby's commentary is still the best study on Theseus, while R. Laqueur's very short article in RE (vi A [1936]. 14) is of no use; see also Leo, F., Die griechisch-römische Biographie nach ihrer litterarischer Form (Leipzig, 1901), p. 117;Google ScholarSteidle, W., Sueton und die antike Biographie (Munich, 1963 2), pp. 142–3;Google ScholarGeiger, J., Cornelius Nepos and Ancient Political Biography (Stuttgart, 1985), pp. 39–40.Google Scholar

7 See FGrHist iii b, Text, p. 303; Noten, p. 187. But cf. below, p. 264 and nn. 18–19.

8 Parke, Wormell, op. cit. (n. 4), ii.235.

9 For the many other testimonies of the same oracle (among which is a Delphic inscription which was copied by Ciriaco d'Ancona: P. Foucart, ‘Sur des vers de la Pythie cites par Hérodote (I, 65)’, BCH 5 [1881], 434–5), and the variants they bear, see Parke, Wormell, op. cit. (n. 4), ii. 14 (no. 29);Fontenrose, J., The Delphic Oracle: Its Responses and Operations with a Catalogue of Responses (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1978), p. 270 (Q7);Google Scholarcf.Andersen, L., Studies in Oracular Verses: Concordance to Delphic Responses in Hexameter (Copenhagen, 1987), pp. 5–6 (no. 11). At line 1, a variant for is attested in the inscription, as well as in Elias, Prol. phil. 4 (CAG xviii.l, p. 7) and David, Prol. phil. 6 (CAG xviii.2, p. 16).Google Scholar

10 This fuller form of the oracle (no. 216 Parke, Wormell 55 Andersen) is also attested (up to , line 6) in Oenomaus fr. 10 Hammerstaedt Eusebius, Praep. Ev. 5.27–8; Theodoretus, Graec. off. curatio 10.33–4; Arsenius 28.59 (Apostolius 8.46a), CPG ii.443–4 (for the variant readings, see below, note 11). Cf. the paraphrase in Plutarch, Lye. 5.3.

11 The change from the second to the third person is made according to the lines that precede: there is no need to emend into , as H. van Herwerden proposed (‘Ad poetas Graecos’, Mnemosyne NS 14 [1886], 44). For instead of , see above, n. 9. The minor variants ( Diodorus) and eycu ( Diodorus) are also attested in the tradition of Oenomaus—Eusebius, Theodoretus and Arsenius (see above, n. 10): the first one, at least, is superior (cf. J. Hammerstaedt, Die Orakelkritik des Kynikers Oenomaus [Frankfurt am Main, 1988], pp. 65–6). Diodorus’ reading is difficilior than Theseus’ , while, on the contrary. is better than , this latter form being due to assimilation.

12 No. 8 Parke, Wormell Q61 Fontenrose ═ 7 Andersen (cf. no. 206 P.-W. L41 F. 53 A.). Theseus probably read : cf. the oracle no. 406 Parke, Wormell L99 Fontenrose =117 Andersen; Herwerden, loc. cit. (n. 11); Hammerstaedt, op. cit. (n. 11), p. 221.

13 For the , cf. ll. 9.404; Od. 8.80 (quoted by Asheri, loc. cit.); oracle no. 74 Parke, Wormell Q123 Fontenrose 30 Andersen. at the beginning of the verse: Od. 9.201; Horn. Hy. 3.52, 395; 4.102,425; 27.14; Orph. Hy. 67.6; cf. the verse in the inscription of the end of the 2nd century A.D. published by T. B. Mitford, ‘Inscriptions from the Cappadocian limes’, JRS 64 (1974), 173–5 (no. 9).

14 Oenomaus, fr.10 Hammerstaedt (Eusebius, Praep. Ev. 5.28) laughed at this ‘divine’ Lycurgus who needs advice from the Pythia and receives something very trivial: Also the defence of the oracle in Elias and David seems to presuppose a criticism:(Elias, Prol.Phill.4, CAG xviii.1, P.7); . (David, Prol. phil. 6, CAG xviii.2, p. 16). See also Philostratus, Life of Apollonius 8.7.7, and the parallels quoted by Hammerstaedt, op. cit. (n. 11), p. 246.

15 F. Jacoby, commentary on FGrHist 287 F 2 (iii a, pp. 384–5); id., ‘Die Überlieferung von Ps. Plutarchs Parallela minora und die Schwindelautoren’, Mnemosyne iii 8 (1940), 120ff. (Abhandlungen zur griechischen Geschichtsschreibung [Leiden, 1956], pp. 401ff.); cf. P. Kohlmann, ‘Othryades, eine historisch-kritische Untersuchung’, RhM 29 (1874), 463–80.

16 Polybius 9.38.2 (exemplum in a speech); Aristides 1.125, p. 52 Lenz-Behr 13, p. 211 Dindorf; 8.20, p. 622 Lenz-Behr 32, p. 608 Dindorf; Plutarch, Them. 6. Cf. also Libanius, decl. 10.27–8, v.498–9 Foerster; decl. 17.66–7, vi.228–9 Foerster; Suda B 442, 54, ∑ 924; Nicetas Choniates, or. 4, p. 33.21ff. van Dieten; Theodoras Prodromus, PG 133, p. 1386 A 5.71ff., p. 216 Hörandner.

17 Apophthegmata Laconica 63, 235F–236A. Plutarch, however, does not expressly connect the oracle with a plague, as Theseus does (also for this reason, I agree with Jacoby in thinking, against Lampros, that Theseus is not epitomizing Plutarch: see FGrHist iii b, Noten, p. 187, n. 5). The consultation of an oracle in case of plague is a topos, see Fontenrose, op. cit. (n. 9), pp. 39–41,442; for the popularity of this theme in rhetorical declamations, cf. Russell, D.A., Greek Declamation (Cambridge, 1983), pp. 26–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 So in one of Arellius Fuscus’ suasoriae both Lycurgus and Othryades are quoted as traditional exempla, in connection with Thermopylae: ‘quid Lycurgum, quid interritos omni periculo quos memoria sacravit viros referam? ut unum Othryadem excitem, adnumerare trecentis exempla possum’ (Seneca the Elder, suas. 2.2). Cf. Maximus of Tyre 23.2, 32.10; Libanius, decl. 24; Kohlmann, op. cit. (n. 15); Tigerstedt, E.N., The Legend of Sparta in Classical Antiquity (Stockholm, Gothenburg, Uppsala, 1965–1978), esp. ii.168ff.;Google ScholarRawson, E., The Spartan Tradition in European Thought (Oxford, 1969), esp. pp. 107–15Google Scholar

19 Theseus could narrate the stories of Othryades and Boulis and Sperthias in his biography of Lycurgus in order to confirm, by these examples, the excellence of the Spartan constitution; in the same way, Plutarch, in his Life of Lycurgus, quotes anecdotes about Leotychidas, Agis, Agesilaus, etc. in illustration of some aspects of Lycurgus’ reforms. On the other hand, Theseus’ Lives might have been a series of anecdotes: ‘the difficulty of seeing the dividing line between a collection of anecdotes and biography proper’ was rightly emphasized by Momigliano, A., The Development of Greek Biography (Cambridge, MA, 1971), pp. 72–3. See also above, p. 262 and n. 7.Google Scholar

20 This is clear, inter alia, from the scholia to Aelius Aristides' Panathenaicus, which try to explain the exact meaning of anapxai (iii.141–2 Dindorf).

21 FGrHist iii b, Text, p. 303. There is no ground for dating Theseus ‘in das dritte oder sogar zweite Jahrhundert v.Chr.’, as suggested by Steidle, op. cit. (n. 6), p. 142.

22 The name might already occur in an inscription of the fourth or third century B.C. from Cyzicus (GIBM 1005; Maier, G.F., Griechische Mauerbauinschriften [Heidelberg, 1959], no. 59), where Hitler von Gartringen restored the restoration is not, however, certain ( is, for instance, also possible), while other Cyzicene men who bore the name or the cognomen Theseus (quoted byGoogle ScholarHasluck, F.W., Cyzicus [Cambridge, 1910], p. 247) lived in the imperial age, when ‘l'eclat d'un beau nom mythologique’Google Scholar (Robert, L., Hellenica xi-xii [Paris, 1960], p. 224) was particularly appreciated. So in Athens the name Theseus is attested in the second and third centuries A.D.Google Scholar (A Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, ed. Fraser, P.M. and Matthews, E., vol. ii: Attica, ed. M.J., Osborne and S.G., Byrne, [Oxford, 1994], p. 226), and also in the rest of the ancient world it seems to have been especially in use between the first and the third centuries A.D.: some examples have been collected by H. Herter, RE Suppl. xiii (1973), 1050; see e.g. (I also add some further instances)Google ScholarBrixhe, C., Hodot, R., L'Asie Mineure du Nordau Sud(Nancy, 1988), pp. 70–2, no. 21 (Aspendos, 1st cent. B.C.- 1st cent, A.D.); IKalch 67 (end of the 2nd cent, A.D.); MAMA viii.569 (Aphrodisias, 2nd-3rd cent, A.D.: cf.Google ScholarRobert, L., Hellenica xiii [Paris, 1965], pp. 191–2); Inscr. Italiae x.4 336 (Trieste, 2nd-3rd cent. A.D.); RECAM ii.392 (North Galatia, 2nd-3rd century A.D.); SEG XXXV.1268 (Lydia, A.D. 225/6);Google ScholarG. Alföldy, Die römischen Inschriften aus Tarraco (Berlin, 1975), no. 684 (3rd cent. A.D.); I Smyrna 781 TAM iii.225 (Termessus); MAMA i.24a (Laodicea); IG v.l 1178 (Gythium); SEG xxvi.1531 (Commagene);Google ScholarJ. and L. Robert, Fouilles d'Amyzon en Carie, i (Paris, 1983), pp. 173–4 (Ephesus);Google Scholarfor Rome, Solin, H., Die griechischen Personennamen in Rom. Ein Namenbuch (Berlin, New York, 1982), i.487–8.Google Scholar, probably after the Constitute Antoniniana: IGR iv.1268 (Thyatira); LeBas-Waddington 1631 (Aphrodisias); BMC, Phrygia, p. xc (coins of Philomelium); maybe also IG xii Suppl. 646 (Tanagra). Christian inscriptions (3rd-6th cent, A.D.): ICUR ii.2910; ix.24371. No Theseus is mentioned in PLRE; see, however, Symmachus, relatio 2.28.

23 FGrHist iii b, Text, p. 303.

24 Th. Martin, R., ‘Inscriptions at Corinth’, Hesperia 46 (1977), 192;CrossRefGoogle Scholarcf. Moretti, L., Iscrizioni agonistiche greche(Rome, 1963), nos. 84, 86, 88–90.Google ScholarA survey of Greek agons under the empire in Spawforth, A.J.S., ‘Agonistic festivals in Roman Greece’, in Cameron, A.M. and S., Walker (edd.), The Greek Renaissance in the Roman Empire (BICS Suppl. 55, London, 1989), pp. 193–7.Google Scholar

25 See Weiler, I., ‘Zu “Krise” und “Niedergang” der Agonistik im dritten nachchristlichen Jahrhundert’;, in Krise-Krisenbewusstsein-Krisenbewaltigung. Ideologie und geistige Kultur im Imperium Romanum währenddes 3. Jahrhunderts (Wiss. Beiträge der Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 62 [1986]; Halle, 1988), pp. 112–19; on festivals in the late imperial period,Google ScholarRobert, L., Opera minora selecta, v (Amsterdam, 1989), pp. 647–68;Google ScholarRoueche, Ch., Performers and Partisans at Aphrodisias in the Roman and Late Roman Period (London, 1993), pp. 5–7.Google Scholar

26 Julian's letter 198, in which the games appear to be still in existence, is most probably spurious and should be dated to the first half of the first century A.D. (B. Keil, ‘ Ein ’, NGG [1913], 1'41), or rather between A.D. 80 and 120 (Spawforth, A.J.S., ‘Corinth, Argos, and the Imperial Cult. Pseudo-Julian, Letters 198, Hesperia 63 [1994], 211–32).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

27 See also above, n. 14 and text thereto, for a possible connection with Oenomaus (who can be dated to the second or to the first half of the third century A.D., but was still read, quoted and discussed in the fourth century: Hammerstaedt, op. cit. [n. 11], pp. 11–28; id., ‘Der Kyniker Oenomaus von Gadara’, ANRW ii 36.4 [1990], 2835–65).

28 The authenticity of a Libanian declamation can always, however, be questioned: as Paul Maas once said, ‘fällt bei alien die Last des Beweises nicht mehr dem zu, der die Unechtheit, sondern dem, der die Echtheit irgend eines Stückes behauptet’ (Deutsche Literaturzeitung 34 [1913], 609; in any case, when A.F. Norman mentions declamation no. 17 among the ‘spuria’, this is only a slip, or a misprint, instead of no. 18: see Libanius, Selected Works, i [London, Cambridge, MA, 1969], p. xlviii and note (a)). So, one could even suppose that the Invective was written in the second or third centuries A.D., by an author who imitated Aristides. There are other resemblances between Aristides' Panathenaicus and the Invective: see e.g. Aristid. 1.174, p. 70 Lenz-Behr 13, p. 233 Dindorf ≈ Lib. decl. 17.30, vi.208 Foerster (cf. further above, n. 16).

29 Concession of land and water in Ephorus: Diodorus 11.2–3; in Attic orators: Aeschines 3.132; Lycurgus 71. Aristotle, Rhet. 2.23, 1399 b 11–13, testifies that the definition of this act as was common in rhetorical language.

30 For the historical sources of Aristides, see Beecke, E., Die historischen Angaben in Aelius Aristides Panathenaikum aufihre Quellen untersucht (Diss. Strasbourg, 1905).Google ScholarAs for Libanius, Werner, G. (De Libanii studiis Herodoteis [Diss. Bratislava, 1910]) thought that he derived his historical information directly from Herodotus, but the thesis of a vulgata is more probable:Google Scholarcf. Münscher's, K. review of Werner in Bursians Jahresbericht 170 (1917), 144–5;Google ScholarNorman, A.F., ‘The Library of Libanius’, RhM 107 (1964), 158–75; Tigerstedt, op. cit. (n. 18), ii.272–9, 553 n. 1332;Google ScholarSchouler, B., La tradition hellénique chez Libanios (Paris, 1984), pp. 519–22.Google Scholar

31 See Tigerstedt, op. cit. (n. 18), ii. 183ff. (who, strangely enough, ignores Theseus). A general survey, and further literature, in Nicolai, R., La storiografia nell'ducazione antica (Pisa, 1992).Google Scholar