Approaches to Greek Poetry: Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, and Aeschylus in Ancient Exegesis

Description

In the last decades the field of research on ancient Greek scholarship has been the object of a remarkable surge of interest, with the publication of handbooks, reference works, and new editions of texts. This partly unexpected revival is very promising and it continues to enhance and modify both our knowledge of ancient scholarship and the way in which we are accustomed to discuss these texts and tackle the editorial and exegetical challenges they pose. This volume deals with some pivotal aspects of this topic, being the outcome of a three-year project funded by the Italian Ministry for Education, University and Research (MIUR) on specific aspects of the critical re-appraisal of Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, and Aeschylus in Greek culture throughout antiquity and the Middle Ages. It tackles issues such as the material form of the transmission of the exegesis from papyri to codices, the examination of hitherto unexplored branches of the manuscript evidence, the discussion of some important scholia, and the role played by the indirect tradition and the assimilation of the exegetical heritage in grammatical and lexicographical works. Some strands of the ancient and medieval scholarship are here re-evaluated afresh by adopting an interdisciplinary methodology which blends modern editorial techniques developed for ‘problematic’ or ‘non-authorial’ medieval texts with current trends in the history of philology and literary criticism. In their diversity of subject matter and approach the papers collected in the volume give intended readers an excellent overview of the topics of the project. Contents Foreword Part I: Homeric exegesis in antiquity Observations on Aristarchus’ Homeric studies Eratosthenes, Crates and Aristarchus on the Homeric dual. Rethinking the origins of the ‘analogy vs. anomaly controversy’ Chi Glossary to Odyssey VIII in a new papyrus fragment from the Leipzig Papyrus- und Ostrakasammlung Part II: Homeric and Hesiodic exegesis in Byzantine manuscripts and texts The Iliad “Textscholien” in the Venetus A The oldest textual witness of John Tzetzes’ Exegesis of the Iliad On the sources of Lascaris’ edition of the D-scholia on the Iliad Enumerating the Muses: Tzetzes in Hes. Op. 1 and the parody of catalogic poetry in Epicharmus Part III: Pindar between scholia and lexica Aristarchomastix. Dionysius of Sidon between epic and lyric poetry Theon’s Pindaric exegesis: new materials from marginalia on papyri Criticism of Pindar’s poetry in the scholia vetera A lexicographical collection in two manuscripts of Cyrillus’ Lexicon and a new testimonium on Pindar Part IV: Aeschylus in the exegetical tradition The imaginative poet: Aeschylus’ phantasiai in ancient literary criticism Aeschylus’ scholia in ms. Ath. Iber. 209: Two examples Around Europe in two hundred years: The wanderings of ms. Ath. Iber. 209 Afterword Ancient Scholarship Today List of Contributors Index nominum et rerum Index locorum