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Bibliotheca (Apollodorus)

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Compendium of Greek myths and heroic legends

The title page ofÉtienne Clavier's 1805 edition and French translation of theBibliotheca

TheBibliotheca (Ancient Greek:Βιβλιοθήκη,romanized: Bibliothēkē,lit. 'Library'), is acompendium ofGreek myths and heroic legends, genealogical tables and histories arranged in three books, generally dated to the first or second century AD. The work is commonly described as having been written byApollodorus (or sometimesPseudo-Apollodorus), a result of its false attribution to the 2nd-century BC scholarApollodorus of Athens.

Overview

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TheBibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus is a comprehensive collection of myths, genealogies and histories that presents a continuous history ofGreek mythology from the earliest gods and the origin of the world to the death ofOdysseus.^[1] The narratives are organized by genealogy, chronology and geography in summaries of myth.^[1]^[2] The myths are sourced from a wide number of sources like early epic, early Hellenistic poets, and mythographical summaries of tales.^[1]Homer andHesiod are the most frequently named along with other poets.^[3] Oral tradition and the plays written byAeschylus,Sophocles andEuripides also factored into the compilation of myth in theBibliotheca.^[1]^[4] TheBibliotheca was written in the first or second century CE by an author who is referred to as Pseudo-Apollodorus to differentiate from Apollodorus of Athens, who did not write theBibliotheca.^[5] Most extant manuscripts of the text end during the narration ofTheseus's exploits, with there surviving only two codices, discovered in the 19th century, which transmit the remainder of the work.^[1] In the later scholarship it is used as a reference material.^[1]

Authorship

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A certain "Apollodorus" is indicated as author on some surviving manuscripts,^[5] this Apollodorus has been mistakenly identified withApollodorus of Athens (bornc. 180 BCE), a student of Aristarchus of Samothrace who also worked in Alexandria. It is known—from references in the minorscholia on Homer—that Apollodorus of Athens did leave a similar comprehensive repertory on mythology, in the form of a verse chronicle.^[5] The mistaken attribution was made by scholars following mention of the name byPhotius I of Constantinople, though Photius did not name him as the Athenian and the name was in common use at the time.^[1] For chronological reasons, Apollodorus of Athens could not have written the book, the author of theBibliotheca is at times referred to as the "Pseudo-Apollodorus", to distinguish him from Apollodorus of Athens.^[5] Modern works often simply call him "Apollodorus".^[1] The work is generally dated to the first or second centuries AD.^[6]

Manuscript tradition

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The first mention of the work is by Photius, patriarch ofConstantinople in 9th century CE, in his "account of books read".^[1] The last section of theBibliotheca which breaks off during the section on Theseus is missing in surviving manuscripts, Photius had the full work and mentions that the lost section had myths about the heroes of theTrojan War.^[1] Byzantine authorJohn Tzetes, who lived in Constantinople in the twelfth century, often cited theBibliotheca in his writings.^[5] It was almostlost in the 13th century, surviving in one now-incomplete manuscript,^[7] which was copied forCardinal Bessarion in the 15th century.^[i] Any surviving manuscripts of theBibliotheca are descended from a fourteenth century manuscript in theBibliothèque nationale de France, in Paris.^[1]

Printed editions

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The first printed edition of theBibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus was published inRome in 1555.^[5]Benedetto Egio (Benedictus Aegius) ofSpoleto, was the first to divide the text in three books.^[ii]Hieronymus Commelinus [fr] published an improved text atHeidelberg, 1559. The first text based on comparative manuscripts was that ofChristian Gottlob Heyne,Göttingen, 1782–83. Subsequent editions Jurgen Muller (1841) and Richard Wagner (1894) collated earlier manuscripts.^[5]^[8]^[1] In 1921Sir James George Frazer published an epitome of the book by conflating two manuscript summaries of the text,^[9] which included the lost section.

Scholarship

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TheBibliotheca has been referenced in scholarship throughout history. As a mythographical work it has influenced scholarship on Greek mythology.^[10] Anepigram recorded by the important intellectual Patriarch Photius I of Constantinople expressed its purpose:^[iii]

It has the following not ungraceful epigram: "Draw your knowledge of the past from me and read the ancient tales of learnedlore. Look neither at the page ofHomer, nor ofelegy, nortragic muse, norepic strain. Seek not the vaunted verse of thecycle; but look in me and you will find in me all that the world contains".

Photius is one of the first surviving reviews of the use of theBibliotheca in the field.^[5] Throughout the 12th and 13th centuries CE, theBibliotheca was referred to in scholarship about Ancient Greece most often found in letters from scholars of the time.^[5] Much of the modern scholarship on the work has focused on the interpretation of its manuscripts by various translators and compilers of theBibliotheca in later editions.^[5]^[3] A critical view of past interpretations, compilations, and organization has also been a source of contention. The sources of information that may have informed the creation of theBibliotheca are also studied in the modern scholarship.^[3] The question of authorship is another area of study that has shaped the interpretation of the work throughout history.^[1]

References

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Notes

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^Bessarion's copy, deposited in theBiblioteca Marciana, Venice, found its way into the Greek manuscripts ofArchbishop Laud and came with them to theBodleian Library in 1636. (Diller 1935:308, 310).
^He based his division on attributions in thescholia minora on Homer to Apollodorus, in three books. (Diller (1935, pp. 298, 308–9)).
^Victim of its own suggestions, theepigraph, ironically, does not survive in the manuscripts. For the classic examples ofepitomes andencyclopedias substituting in Christian hands for the literature ofClassical Antiquity itself, seeIsidore of Seville'sEtymologiae andMartianus Capella.

Citations

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^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^mAldrich (1975, pp. 1–4).
^Fletcher, K. F. B. 2008. "Systematic Genealogies in Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca and the Exclusion of Rome from Greek Myth."Classical Antiquity 27:59–91.JSTOR 10.1525/ca.2008.27.1.59.
^^a ^b ^cKenens, Ulrike. 2011. "The Sources of Ps.-Apollodorus' Library: A Case Study."Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica 97:129–46.JSTOR 23048902.
^Huys, Marc. 1997. "Euripides and the Tales from Euripides: Sources of Apollodoros' Bibliotheca?"Rheinisches Museum 140 308–27.
^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^jDiller, Aubrey. 1983. "The Text History of the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus." Pp. 199–216 inStudies in Greek Manuscript Tradition, edited by A. Diller. Amsterdam: A. M. Hakkert.
^Hard (2004,p. 3);Perseus Encyclopedia,"Apollodorus (4)";Simpson (1976,p. 1).
^Bibliothèque nationale, Paris.
^Wagner, Richard (1894).Mythographi Graeci: Apollodorus .Bibliotheca; Pediasimi Libellus De Duodecim Herculis Labores [Greek mythology: Bibliotheca of Apollodorus, a small book of the twelve labors of Hercules] (in Ancient Greek and German). Nabu Press (published 2010).ISBN 978-1142820275.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^Frazer, James G. 1913.Apollodorus.Loeb Classical Library.
^Diller (1935, pp.296,300).

Works cited

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Aldrich, Keith (1975),The Library of Greek Mythology, Lawrence, Kansas: Coronado Press,ISBN 0872910725
Diller, Aubrey (1935), "The Text History of the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus",Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association,66:296–313,doi:10.2307/283301,JSTOR 283301
Diller, Aubrey. 1983. "The Text History of the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus." Pp. 199–216 inStudies in Greek Manuscript Tradition, edited by A. Diller. Amsterdam: A. M. Hakkert.ISBN 902560837X.
Dowden, Ken. 1992.The Uses of Greek Mythology. London:Routledge.ISBN 978-0-415-06135-3.Internet Archive.
Fletcher, K. F. B. 2008. "Systematic Genealogies in Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca and the Exclusion of Rome from Greek Myth."Classical Antiquity 27:59–91.JSTOR 10.1525/ca.2008.27.1.59.
Hard, Robin. 1997.Apollodorus: The Library of Greek Mythology. Oxford:Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-199-53632-0.
Hard, Robin (2004),The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology" (7th ed.), London: Routledge,ISBN 978-0-415-18636-0
Higbie, Carolyn. 2007. "Hellenistic Mythographers." Pp. 237–54 inThe Cambridge Companion to Greek Mythology, edited by R. D. Woodard. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.ISBN 9780521845205.
Huys, Marc. 1997. "Euripides and the Tales from Euripides: Sources of Apollodoros' Bibliotheca?"Rheinisches Museum 140 308–27.JSTOR 41234289.
Kenens, Ulrike. 2013. "Text and Transmission of Ps.-Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca: Avenues for Future Research." Pp. 95–114 inWriting Myth: Mythography in the Ancient World, edited by S. M. Trzaskoma and R. S. Smith. Leuven, Belgium:Peeters.ISBN 9789042929111.
Kenens, Ulrike. 2011. "The Sources of Ps.-Apollodorus' Library: A Case Study."Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica 97:129–46.JSTOR 23048902.
Scully, Stephen. 2015. "Echoes of the Theogony in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods." InHesiod's 'Theogony', From Near Eastern Creation Myths to 'Paradise Lost'. New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN 9780190253967.
Simpson, Michael, ed. (1976),Gods and Heroes of the Greeks: The "Library" of Apollodorus, Amherst:University of Massachusetts Press,ISBN 978-0-870-23206-0
Smith, R. Scott; Trzaskoma, Stephen M., eds. (2007),Apollodorus'Library and Hyginus'Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Indianapolis, Indiana: Hackett Publishing,ISBN 978-0-87220-820-9
Trzaskoma, Stephen. 2013. "Citation, Organization and Authorial Presence in Ps.-Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca." Pp. 75–94 inWriting Myth: Mythography in the Ancient World, edited by S. M. Trzaskoma and R. S. Smith. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters.ISBN 9789042929111.
Trzaskoma, Stephen M. and R. Scott Smith. 2008. "Hellas in the Bibliotheke of Apollodorus."Philologus 152(1):90–6.doi:10.1524/phil.2008.0016.