Adespota Papyracea Hexametra Graeca: Hexameters of Unknown or Uncertain Authorship from Graeco-Roman Egypt: Volume 1

557 Pages·2020·129.312 MB·English

by  Marco Perale

Marco Perale
Adespota Papyracea Hexametra Graeca (APHex I)
Sozomena
Studies in the Recovery of Ancient Texts
Edited
on behalf of the Herculaneum Society
by
Alessandro Barchiesi, Robert Fowler, Dirk Obbink
and Nigel Wilson
Volume 18
Marco Perale
Adespota Papyracea
Hexametra Graeca
(APHex I)
Hexameters of Unknown or Uncertain Authorship
from Graeco-Roman Egypt
This research was supported by a Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship within the 7th
European Community Framework Programme. Project Title: Adespota Papyracea Hexametrica
Graeca (APHG). Proposal Number: 302942. Grant Agreement Number: PIEF-GA-2011-302942.
ISBN 978-3-11-029503-0
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-029508-5
ISSN 1869-6368
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020943608
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Typesetting: Sandra Romano (http://semata.xyz)
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck
www.degruyter.com
To Peter Parsons
ϲώφρων, φιλέλλην, πραΰϲ, εὐπροϲήγοροϲ,
τὰ πανοῦργα μιϲῶν, τὴν δ’ ἀλήθειαν ϲέβων.
(P. Strasb. inv. 307ᵛ col. i 4–5)

Preface
This book aims to bring some order to chaos. After fourteen decades of discoveries
and publications in the field, we seem to have lost track of the innumerable ‘or-
phan’ works in hexameters recovered in Egypt since the late nineteenth century.
To this day, a corpus or a comprehensive study of anonymous hexameter poetry
of historical and mythological character has been unavailable to scholars investi-
gating lost epic (in the broader sense of the term), from non-Homeric epics on the
war of Troy or the Theban saga, to non-Hesiodic Greek didactic poetry, postclas-
sical Theseids, non-Antimachean Thebaids, non-Apollonian Argonautica, pre- or
post-Theocritean Heracleids. Not to mention the innumerable attempts by local
amateur poets that never made it to the modern canon of Greek literature. Whilst
the sands of Egypt have generously yielded over two hundred fragments of this
kind, only a fraction were included in edited corpora, with many publications
scattered in journals and collections frequently inaccessible to scholars. The dawn
of Papyrology as a discipline brought with it gems often published in perfunctory
fashion; it is not unusual to come across old editiones principes with no accents
and breathing marks, little or no philological and paleographical commentary,
and no translation (let alone in English, which imposed itself as the lingua franca
only relatively recently). Adespota Papyracea Hexametra Graeca (APHex) obviates
this gap in research by retrieving, cataloguing and re-editing hexameter poems
of unknown or uncertain authorship circulating in Egypt from the Hellenistic age
to the Late Antiquity. This volume offers new critical editions with translation
and commentary of a first, substantial portion of fragments, arranged by genre or
content, providing straightforward access to the texts and high quality images of
papyri still unavailable online. Given the fluid and ever-perfectible nature of pa-
py ro lo gi cal work, APHex does not pretend to provide the ultimate reference work
on these texts, but intends to serve as a starting point for, and a catalyst of, future
investigation into anonymous poetry.
The project grew from a doctoral dissertation from the University ‘Ca’ Foscari’
of Venice, written under the advisorship of Ettore Cingano, containing re-editions
of texts no. 05, 09, 17, 28, 29, and 204. It was then significantly expanded under
the mentorship of Dirk Obbink and reached its current form thanks to the gener-
ous support of a Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship, hosted by the Faculty of
Classics of the University of Oxford. APHex encompasses material from numerous
collections worldwide and has been conceived and written in numerous places
over a long period of time, during which I have had the good fortune and privilege
of sharing ideas and receiving invaluable feedback from many specialists in the
fields of Classics and Papyrology. My debt of gratitude goes first and foremost to my
Oxford friend Daniela Colomo, who provided me with the necessary foundational
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110295085-201
viii   Preface
knowledge in this discipline and offered unwavering guidance during my doctoral
and post-doctoral years. I am extremely grateful to her, Robert Fowler, William
Furley, Nick Gonis, Alexander Jones, Jan Kwapisz, Enrico Magnelli, Claudio Me-
liadò, Ivanoe Privitera, Giuseppe Ucciardello, and Francesco Valerio for pruning
and dissecting my doctoral dissertation and/or the final version of this typescript,
adding important insights and often saving me from embarrassing errors. Grati-
tude is also due to Sandra Romano, who kindly made available her expertise in
typography and e-publishing, and colleagues at papyrological ins ti tu tions, who
have facilitated my visits to their collections and made my research stays most
pleasurable and rewarding experiences; I am thinking especially of Cor nelia Römer
and Bernhard Palme in Vienna; Rosario Pintaudi and Guido Bastianini in Florence;
Andrea Jördens and Julia Lougovaya in Heidelberg; Kim Ryholt in Copenhagen.
My heartfelt thanks to Christopher Ashill, Sue Willets, and the per sonnel of the
Roman and Hellenic Library in London for everyday assistance in retrieving and
reshelving an often outrageous amount of books in these past years. I would like
to extend my thanks to current and former research mentors Bruce Gibson and
Nita Krevans; their words of encouragement have often been heart-warming and
reinvigorating in good times and bad. This project could not have been brought
to completion without the support of my family and friends, whose caring and
selfless nature has accompanied me during the long gestation of this volume; my
parents Marino and Daniela; older and wiser ‘brother’ Dario Nappo; and tu, mihi
sola domus, Violeta.
The book is dedicated to Peter Parsons, who followed my work as an informal
supervisor in my doctoral years and has never ceased to be a source of inspiration
and encouragement since then. My gratitude to him, which goes beyond what I can
express in this note, is encapsulated in the words preceding this preface.
London, March 2020
Contents
Preface   vii
Abbreviations   xiii
Publication Plan   xvii
Introduction
Structure and Content of the Work   3
Anonymized Authorities?   5
Doing Adespota in the Age of Technology   12
When Attribution Fails   16
Limits to Interpretation and the Challenges of Attribution   22
Some Concluding Remarks   28
Fragments of Cosmogonic Content and Foundation Poems
01 P.Strasb. 481 · Hermes Founder of the Cosmos (and Hermoupolis
Magna?)   33
02 (a, b) P.Lond. Lit. 178 = P.Oxy. II 221 · Achelous, Origin of the Sea   84
03 P.Oxy. XXXVII 2816 · Invocation to the Muses/Cosmogony   91
04 P.Berol. inv. 9564 · Aphrodite Urania and the Birth of the Cosmos   102
05 P.Oxy. XXX 2515 · Anger of Poseidon, Turmoil of the Elements   111
06 P.Vindob. G 29805 · Poseidon’s Trident: the Foundation of Thasos?   119
Didactic and Technical Poetry: Astronomical and Astrological
07 P.Oxy. XV 1822 · On Comets   125
08 P.Oxy. XX 2258 C fr. 1 (‘back’) marg. 29–33 · Coma Berenices   134
09 P.Oxy. XXX 2521 · Fabricating Constellations   140
10 P.Oxy. LXXXIII 5349 · The Arrival of Autumn   148
11 P.Ryl. III 488 · Astrological Poem   153
12 PSI III 157 · The Lot of Fortune?   157
x   Contents
Didactic and Technical Poetry: Other
13 P.Köln VI 244 · Viperids   171
14 P.Oxy. XV 1796 · The Sycamore and the Persea during the Nile Flood   177
15 P.Oxy. L 3536 · The Glassblower   194
16 P.Berol. inv. 9734.5–6, 8–10 · Hexametrical Treatise on Metre   200
Hymns
17 P.Köln I 6 · Hymn to a Universal God (Sarapis?)   207
18 P.Berol. inv. 9779 = P.Schubart 12.1–11 · Hymn to Sarapis   213
19 PSI VII 844 · Hymn to Isis   218
20 PSI XV 1482 · Hymn to Eirene   224
21 P.Ross. Georg. I 11 · The Punishment of Lycurgus: Hymn to Dionysus   233
22 P.Oxy. IV 670 · Hera Enchained on Her Throne: Hymn to Dionysus?   253
23 P. Berol. inv. 21167 · (Hymn to?) Bacchus (and Persephone?)   262
24 P.Ryl. III 494 · The Return of Persephone? Hymn to Demeter   266
25 P.Amh. II 16 · Triptolemus: Hymn to Demeter?   268
26 P.Ant. II 59 · The Barren Land (Hymn to Demeter?)   273
27 P.Harr. I 6 · Hymn (?) to Demeter or the Mother of the Gods   276
28 P.Mich. III 139 · Hymn to Gaia or the Mother of the Gods?   280
29 P. Köln VI 242 · Hymn to Aphrodite. Seafaring   290
30 P.Lond. Lit. 37 · Hermes, Zeus (and Athena?)   305
31 P.Berol. inv. 5227 · Apollo Setting Foot on Delos: Hymn to Apollo?   308
32 P.Berol. inv. 21139 · Leto and Asteria: Hymn to Apollo?   311
Erotic Poetry: Hero and Leander
33 P.Ryl. III 486 · Speech of Hero   317
34 P.Berol. inv. 21249 · Leander at Sea   323
Erotic Poetry: Other
35 PSI XIV 1389 · The Unsuccessful Wooer   335
36 P.Köln II 63 · The Sorrowful Woman (Medea to Jason?)   343
37 PSI XV 1468 · Seduction Scene (Theseus and Ariadne?)   352
38 P.Ant. III 117 · The Malady of Love   357