Peri Apiston (Heraclitus Paradoxographus)

Of two works known under the title "Peri Apiston" ("On Unbelievable Tales") that of Heraclitus Paradoxographus is the lesser-known. Palaephatus was the author of a better-known work with the same title, approved by Virgil: see Palaephatus.

Heraclitus' "Peri Apiston" is an epitome of a formerly longer work that treated Greek mythology in the rationalizing manner that appealed to Christian apologists, in simple language and thought. The text survives in a single thirteenth-century manuscript in the Vatican Library. [Vatican Ms 305. The manuscript contains a mixed repertory of works on Homeric and mythological subjects.] Of the author nothing is known, although he appears to belong to the late first or second century CE. The twelfth-century Byzantine scholar and commentator on Homer, Eustathius, is the only scholar who mentions him, as "the Heraclitus who proposes to render unbelievable tales believable." [Noted by Jacob Stern, "Heraclitus the Paradoxographer: Περὶ Ἀπίστων, 'On Unbelieveable Tales'" "Transactions of the American Philological Association" 133.1 (Spring, 2003), pp. 51-97. This article is indebted to Stern's translation and commentary.]

The text includes thirty-nine items in which familiar myths are briefly told and then interpreted in four ways that became prominent in late Hellenistic and Roman interpretations, through rationalism, euhemerism, allegory, or fanciful etymology. All these techniques of exegesis were adopted and developed by Christian theologians of Late Antiquity. Among extant mythographical collections this text is of particular interest precisely because it exemplifies in brief compass such a range of ancient strategies for the interpretation of myth.

Notes

References

*Jacob Stern, "Heraclitus the Paradoxographer: Περὶ Ἀπίστων, 'On Unbelieveable Tales'" "Transactions of the American Philological Association" 133.1 (Spring, 2003), pp. 51-97. Introduction and translation of the text, with commentary.
*George F. Osmun, "Palaephatus. Pragmatic Mythographer" "The Classical Journal" 52.3 (December 1956), pp. 131-137. The better-known "Peri Apiston".