.jpg)
Antoninus Liberalis (Greek:Ἀντωνῖνος Λιβεράλις) was anAncient Greekmythographer who probably flourished in the late 2nd or early 3rd century CE.[1] He is known as the author ofThe Metamorphoses, a collection of tales that offers new variants of already familiar myths as well as stories that are not attested in other ancient sources.[2]
Antoninus' only surviving work is theMetamorphoses (Greek:Μεταμορφώσεων Συναγωγή,Metamorphṓseōn Synagogḗ,lit. 'collection of transformations'), a collection of forty-one very briefly summarised tales aboutmythical metamorphoses, written in prose, not verse. The literary genre of myths of transformations of men, women, heroes, and nymphs into plants and animals, springs, rocks and mountains, and stars were widespread and popular in the classical world. This work has more polished parallels in the better-knownMetamorphoses ofOvid and in theMetamorphoses ofLucius Apuleius. Like them, its sources, where they can be traced, areHellenistic works, such asNicander'sHeteroeumena and theOrnithogonia ascribed toBoios.[3][4]
The work survives in a single manuscript of the late 9th century, now in thePalatine Library inHeidelberg.[5] The manuscript, a collection of several works on geography, mythography, and other topics, was brought from Constantinople toBasel byJohn of Ragusa about 1437; it was bequeathed to the Dominican monastery at Basel after John's death in 1443, and to the University of Basel after the dissolution of the monastery in 1529. In 1553 the printerHieronymus Froeben sold it toOtto Henry, Elector Palatine.[6] In 1623, with the rest of the Palatine Library, it was sent to Rome as a gift toPope Gregory IX, and in 1797, along with 500 other Vatican manuscripts, it was taken to Paris under the terms of theTreaty of Tolentino.[7] In 1816, it was restored to Heidelberg under the terms of theCongress of Vienna.[6]
The text of theMetamorphoses was first printed in Basel in 1568 byGuilielmus Xylander. Because three leaves have since disappeared from the manuscript, Xylander's edition is the only authority for the text of these passages.[8]
Many of the transformations in this compilation are found nowhere else, and some may simply be inventions of Antoninus. The manner of the narrative is a laconic and conversational prose: "this completely inartistic text," as Sarah Myers called it,[9] offers the briefest summaries of lost metamorphoses by more ambitious writers, such asNicander andBoios. Francis Celoria, who translated the work into English, regards the text as perfectly acceptablekoine Greek, though with numeroushapax legomena; it is "grimly simple" and mostly devoid ofgrammatical particles which would convey humor or a narratorial persona.[10]
.jpg)
