Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)

The "Bibliotheca" (in English: "Library"), in three books, provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends, "the most valuable mythographical work that has come down from ancient times," Aubrey Diller observed, [Aubrey Diller, "The Text History of the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus" "Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association" 66 (1935:296-313) p. 296, 300.] whose "stultifying purpose" was neatly expressed in the epigram noted by Patriarch Photius I of Constantinople:

It has the following not ungraceful epigram: 'Draw your knowledge of the past from me and read the ancient tales of learned lore. Look neither at the page of Homer, nor of elegy, nor tragic muse, nor epic strain. Seek not the vaunted verse of the cycle; but look in me and you will find in me all that the world contains'. [Victim of its own suggestions, the epigraph, ironically, does not survive in the manuscripts. For the classic examples of epitomes and encyclopedias substituting in Christian hands for the literature of Antiquity itself, see Isidore of Seville's "Etymologiae" and Martianus Capella.]

The brief and plainly expressed accounts of myth in the "Bibliotheca" have led some commentators to suggest that even its complete sections are an epitome of a lost work.

Pseudo-Apollodorus

A certain "Apollodorus" is indicated as author on some surviving manuscripts (Diller 1983). This Apollodorus has been mistakenly identified with Apollodorus of Athens (born c. 180 BC), a student of Aristarchus of Samothrace, mainly as it is known—from references in the minor scholia on Homer—that Apollodorus of Athens did leave a similar comprehensive repertory on mythology, in the form of a verse chronicle. The text that we possess, however, cites a Roman author, Castor the Annalist, who was a contemporary of Cicero in the 1st century BC. The mistaken attribution was made by scholars from Photius onwards. Since for chronological reasons Apollodorus of Athens could not have written the book, the "Scriptor Bibliothecae" ("writer of the "Bibliotheca") is conventionally called the "Pseudo-Apollodorus" by those wishing to be completely correct. Traditional references simply instance "the "Library and Epitome".

Manuscript tradition

The first mention of the work, ignored as a popularised handbook by Classical authors, is by Photius. The work was almost lost in the thirteenth century, surviving in one now-incomplete manuscript, [Bibliothèque nationale, Paris.] which was copied for Cardinal Bessarion in the fifteenth century; from Bessarion's copy [Bessarion's copy, deposited in the Biblioteca Marciana, Venice, found its way into the Greek manuscripts of Archbishop Laud and came with them to the Bodleian Library in 1636 (Diller 1935:308, 310).] the other surviving manuscripts depend.

Unfortunately, the "Bibliotheca", undivided in the manuscripts but conventionally divided in three books, has not come down to us complete. Part of the third book, which breaks off abruptly in the story of Theseus, has been lost. The Patriarch Photius had the full work before him, as he mentions in his "account of books read" that it contained stories of the heroes of the Trojan War and the "nostoi", missing in surviving manuscripts. On the other hand, we have an "epitome" that was made by James George Frazer, who conflated two manuscript summaries of the text, [Frazer, "Apollodorus" Loeb Classical Library, 1913.] also including the lost part, leaving us a good summary of its contents.

Printed editions

The first printed edition of "Apollodorus" was published in Rome in 1555, edited by Benedetto Egio (Benedictus Aegius) of Spoleto, who divided the text in three books, [He based his division on attributions in the "scholia minora" on Homer to Apollodorus, in three books, as Diller noted in 1935 (p. 298 and 308f.] but made many unwarranted emendations in his very corrupted text. Hieronymus Commelinus published an improved text at Heidelberg, 1559. The first text based on comparative manuscripts was that of Christian Gottlob Heyne, Göttingen, 1782-83. [Diller 1935.]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Aabo%3Atlg%2C0548%2C001&query=1%3A1%3A1 Online Text: Apollodorus The Library translated by J. G. Frazer] segmented text with copious footnotes
* [http://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus1.html Online Text: Apollodorus The Library translated by J. G. Frazer] condensed text (4 pgs)
* [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0004&layout=&loc=apollodorus Apollodorus of Athens and the "Bibliotheca"]

Further reading

* Diller, Aubrey (1983). "Studies in Greek Manuscript Tradition", (Amsterdam) pp. 199-216. [http://abel.arts.kuleuven.ac.be/detail.php?id=118 Abstract.] Originally as "The Text History of the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus", in "Transactions of the American Philological Association" 66 (1935), pp. 296-313.
* Hard, Robin (1999). "The Library of Greek Mythology" (Oxford University Press).
* Smith, R.S. and S. Trzaskoma (2007). "Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology" (Hackett Publishing).