Antonios Diogenes

Antonios Diogenes was the author of an ancient novel , which is known under the title Τὰ ὑπὲρ Θούλην ἄπιστα ( Ta hyper tulen apista “ miraculous things beyond Thule”). The novel is often quoted simply as Apista (from ἀπιστέω “not believe”, “doubt”). The novel comprised 24 books, of which nothing has survived apart from a table of contents in the "library" of Photios , a quote from Porphyrios and some papyrus fragments. The novel is dated to the 1st or 2nd century. Nothing more is known about the author.

Dating

Based on the framework narrative from the time of Alexander, Photios believed that he could date the novel and the unknown author to the early days of Hellenism. Erwin Rohde , who was the first to deal with the novel in detail in modern times, pointed out that, simply because of the name that identifies the author as a client or freedman of a Roman with the gentile name Antonius , the first century BC Chr. Come into question. Rhode itself assumed the most likely period of origin to be the 1st century AD. Based on the dating of two papyrus fragments, research today uses the end of the 2nd or the beginning of the 3rd century AD as the term ante quem . If the novel, as Photios already assumed, were to be regarded as one of the models of the " True Stories " of Lukian of Samosata , it could also be dated even more precisely to the 2nd century, according to Holzberg to before 150 AD, the dependency has been denied in recent Lucian research, or a dependency in the opposite direction has been considered as a possibility that cannot be ruled out, so that this does not result in a reliable reference point for the dating.

Summary of Apista at Photios

What is known today of the content of the novel, we know from the summary of Photios. Neither the two sections in Porphyrios , in which he uses the Apista as a historical source for his life of Pythagoras , nor the few surviving papyrus fragments significantly expand our knowledge of the structure and content of the novel.

Photios initially praised the work in high tones because of the purity of the style, the clarity and the credibility of the design. The summary of the content that he then gives, however, creates a confusing impression, especially because of the numerous nested narrative levels.

The novel begins on the most extreme level with the author writing to a certain Faustinus, reporting that he is in the process of writing a work for his sister Isidora - who loves books of this kind - on the marvelous things to be found beyond Thule; accordingly follows a dedication letter from the author to his sister.

The first actual frame is then a letter from Balakros , a historically attested somatophylax of Alexander the Great to his also historical wife Phila , the oldest daughter of Antipater . Balakros reports that after the conquest of Tire, a soldier came to Alexander who told the king about a strange find. Alexander, accompanied by Generals Hephaistion and Parmenion, went to a crypt in which there were several stone sarcophagi. The inscriptions on the sarcophagi read:

• "Lysilla, lived 35 years"
• "Mnason, son of Mantina, lived 66 years, then 71 years"
• "Aristion, son of Philocles, lived 47 years, then 52 years"
• "Mantinias, son of Mnason, lived 42 years and 706 nights"
• "Derkyllis, daughter of Mnason, lived 39 years and 760 nights"
• "Dinias the Arcadians, lived 125 years"

Some of the main characters of the novel have already been named. The key was a box made of cypress wood with the inscription: "Stranger, whoever you are, open it to learn from the miracles." Of course, Alexander and his companions do this and find the report of Dinias and Derkyllis in the box who then form the main narrative thread of the novel.

Dinias and his son Demochares are taken on a journey to the outermost edges of the Oikumene , the world known in antiquity. Beyond the Pontus , they come to the Riphean Mountains and the sources of the Tanais River . As there is too cold, they travel to the east, up to the outer sea, and land after a long journey through the Okeanos , in the course of three traveling companions called Karmanes, Meniskos and Azulis to them connect, finally on the legendary island of Thule .

There they find a woman named Derkyllis, who comes from a noble Tyrian family. Dinias falls in love with Derkyllis, who tells him about her and her brother's fate that has often been devoured. The old Dinias in Tire describes this and his own experiences to a certain Kymbas, an envoy of the "community of the Arcadians", who was supposed to bring him back home.

So Dinias tells what happened to Derkyllis and her brother Mantinias after their parents took in an Egyptian priest named Paapis, who had to flee his homeland, into their home. At first this priest showed himself to be grateful to his benefactors, but soon he brought misfortune to the house and especially to the two siblings. They had given the parents an allegedly charitable magic drug with the best of intentions, but that let them sink into a death-like sleep. Since the siblings believed that they had murdered their parents, they had to flee, first to Rhodes and Crete, then to the Tyrrhenians and finally to the Kimmerern . Here one should think less of the Asiatic equestrian people and more of the Κιμμέριοι cave dwellers mentioned by Strabo who lived at Lacus Avernus , the volcanic lake near the Italian Cumae , which was considered the entrance to the underworld. There, deep in the land of the barbarians and on the edge of the known world, Derkyllis finds the entrance to Hades and meets a deceased servant named Myrto, who teaches her about the secrets of the lower worlds.

Returning from Hades, Derkyllis and her companions Keryllos and Astraios come to the "Tomb of the Siren", which according to Rohde means the tomb of the Siren Parthenope near Neapolis . Then follow those passages about the life of Pythagoras that are quoted by Porphyrios in his biography of Pythagoras. Astraios tells how Mnesarchus , the father of Pythagoras, once found a child lying under a white poplar while on a trip , who looked at the sun without blinking and took this child prodigy with him from a tube, dripping from the poplar and nourishing dew , was initially in care on Samos with a citizen named Androkles. Eventually he adopted the boy whom he called Astraios and raised him along with his biological sons Eunostus, Tyrrhenus and Pythagoras. Astraios now reports that Androkles took the education of Pythagoras in hand, and after he had trained him in lyre, wrestling and painting, he went to the philosopher Anaximander in Miletus and then to the Egyptians to learn the deepest wisdom, Sent to Arabs, Chaldeans and the Hebrews . He himself, Astraios, was given to Pythagoras, who accepted him as a student after a physiognomic test. So much for the report of Astraios, in which he also reproduces what he had heard about Pythagoras and his teachings from a woman named Philotis, which possibly corresponds to what is reported about the way of life of Pythagoras with reference to Diogenes by Porphyrios.

Then the group consisting of Derkyllis, Keryllos and Astraios arrives in Iberia , first to a city whose inhabitants are blind during the day and can see at night and whose enemies Astraios inflicts damage with the help of a flute, then to the bloodthirsty Celts , whom they encounter Horses of changing colors fled to Aquitaine , where Astraios was particularly valued, since the widening and widening of his eyes corresponded to the waxing and waning of the moon, but the change of the moon there regulated the change of rule of two kings, over which there was a dispute so far, then again back to Iberia to the Artabrians , where the women went to war while the men stayed at home and did the housework. With the Asturians , the Keryllos is punished for an old guilt and he dies.

Finally Derkyllis arrives again in Italy and Sicily, where she is captured near Mount Eryx and brought before Ainesidemos, the tyrant of Leontinoi . There, to her dismay, she finds Paapis, the Egyptian priest, at the court of the tyrant, but to her joy, she finally finds her brother Mantinias again, who has now experienced the strangest fates and has traveled to the edge of the world. Now he tells his sister about the trip to the realms of the moon and sun. This report in particular seems to have been parodied by Lukian in his “True Story”.

The reunited siblings flee from Paapis, not without stealing his magic books and the box with magic plants. They flee via Rhegion to Metapont , the center of the Pythagoreans , where they meet Astraios again and continue their flight with him until they come to the Getes and Thracians , where they meet the Pythagorean prophet Zalmoxis . Zalmoxis prophesies that the siblings will eventually get to Thule and atone for the crime unintentionally committed against their parents by suffering a similar fate. The prophecy then also comes true: the siblings reach Thule and are caught there by their persecutor Paapis. Paapis spits in their faces, whereupon they fall into a death-like sleep. Thruscanes, a resident of Thule who witnessed this alleged murder, then kills Paapis and then himself. The siblings are believed to be dead and are therefore buried. At night they wake up and it turns out that the paapi's curse is only to live at night but to be dead during the day.

Finally, while studying the Paapis' magical books, Azulis, the companion of Dinias and Demochares mentioned above, finds the means not only to redeem Derkyllis and Mantinias from their curse, but also to awaken their parents from the state of apparent death. For this purpose, the siblings and Azulis make their way home to Tire. Dinias, on the other hand, travels north with Karmanes and Meniscus, where they arrive in the area of ​​eternal night and finally on the moon, where the Sibyl gives each of the travelers a wish. Dinias wishes back to his beloved in Tire, which is granted to him. He falls asleep, wakes up in Tire and everyone is happily united.

interpretation

Since the work is quite extensive with 24 books and the content reproduced by Photios does not seem to correspond to this extent, it has been assumed that a considerable part of the content is paradoxographic material. The assumption is also supported by the fact that Photios expressly speaks of digressions and insertions.

As for the interpretation and classification of the work, research is mainly concerned with two interrelated questions. On the one hand, regarding the nature of the novel: It is obvious that the teachings of the Pythagoreans play a certain role in the novel. But how is it to be read? Is it a matter of entertainment literature in which, in order to arouse the interest of the educated public, something learned and religious have been woven into it, or is it, conversely, a mystery novel that only appears on the surface as a trivial travel and love story?

The reading as a mystery novel was represented early on by Karl Bürger and more recently by Reinhold Merkelbach. Rohde points out various references to the Pythagorean religion without interpreting the novel as a book of mysteries. In connection with this, the other question arises: It is undisputed that there is a connection between the “true story” of Lucian and Apista. But how strong is it, and what exactly is the parody of the “True Story”? Is the parody directed against the genre of the fraudulent story - or is a very specific religious trend to be ridiculed? And if Lukian criticizes sects here, which sect is he talking about?

In his dissertation, Klaus Reyhl assumed a very strong dependency that would have made it possible, at least in part, to reconstruct the Apista on the basis of the “true story”. This view did not find general acceptance; Morgan in particular flatly rejected Reyhl's theses in his study on “True History” and Apista.

Another problem, of course, is the lack of text. Comparisons of traditional texts (e.g. the Aithiopika of Heliodoros of Emesa ) with the corresponding content information in Photios urges caution. To base far-reaching conclusions on the rather short, sometimes difficult to understand and sometimes confused summary in relation to the scope of the work could prove to be too speculative.

Lore

• Photios, Bibliotheca cod. 166, 109a5-112a12
• Porphyrios, Life of Pythagoras 10-14 and 32-36
• Eusebius, Contra Hieroclem 17
• PSI 1177
• Oxyrhynchus Papyri :

• POxy XLII 3012
• POxy LXX 4760
• POxy LXX 4761 (unsafe)

• P. Dubl. C. 3 (unsure)
• P. Gen. inv. 187 (uncertain)
• P. Me. Inv. 5 (unsure)

literature

• Hans Bernsdorff: Antonios Diogenes interpretations . In: Academy of Sciences in Göttingen (ed.), Studies in Philology and Musicology , Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2009 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class, New Series, Volume 7, Anthology I ), Pp. 1-52.
• Karl Bürger: Studies on the history of the Greek novel. Part II: The position of Antonius Diogenes and the Historia Apollonii in the history of literature. Blankenburg 1903 program.
• Dan Dana: Zalmoxis in Antonius Diogenes' Wonders beyond Thule. In: Studii clasice. (Bucharest: Societatea Româna de Studii Clasice) Vol. 34-36, 1998-2000, pp. 79-119.
• Wolfgang Fauth : Astraios and Zamolxis. About traces of Pythagorean aretalogy in the Thule novel by Antonius Diogenes. In: Hermes . Volume 106, No. 1, 1978, pp. 220-241.
• Wolfgang Fauth: On the compositional structure and the type of Apista of Antonios Diogenes. In: Würzburg Yearbooks for Classical Studies. New Series, Volume 4, 1978, pp. 57-68.
• Massimo Fusillo: Antonios Diogenes. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 1, Metzler, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-476-01471-1 , column 806 f.
• Reinhold Merkelbach : Roman and Mystery in Antiquity. Beck, Munich 1962, pp. 225-233.
• Erwin Rohde: The Greek novel and its predecessors. 3rd edition Leipzig 1914. pp. 269-309 (1st edition: pp. 250-287).
• Klaus Reyhl: Antonios Diogenes: Investigations into the novel fragments of the "Miracles beyond Thule". Dissertation, Tübingen 1969.
• Helena Schmedt: Antonius Diogenes: “The unbelievable things beyond Thule”: Edition, translation, commentary. De Gruyter, Berlin 2020, ISBN 978-3-11-060014-8 .
• Susan A. Stephens / John J. Winkler: Ancient Greek Novels: The Fragments. Text, Translation and Commentary , Princeton University Press, Princeton (NJ) 1995.
• W. Schmid: Antonius (49) Diogenes. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 2, Stuttgart 1894, Col. 2615 f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Erwin Rohde: The Greek novel and its precursors. Pp. 271f, 277 (1st edition pp. 252f, 258)
2. ↑ Niklas Holzberg, The Ancient Roman: An Introduction , Artemis, Munich 1986, p. 69
3. ↑ Heinz-Günther Nesselrath , Utopia-Parody in Lukians True Stories, in: Wolfram Ax / Reinhold F. Glei, literary parody in antiquity and the Middle Ages , WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, Trier 1993, pp. 41–56, pp. 44ff .; JR Morgan, Lucian's True Histories and the Wonders Beyond Thule of Antonius Diogenes , in: Classical Quarterly, New Series, 35,2 (1985), pp. 475-490
4. ↑ Peter von Möllendorff , In Search of the False Truth: Lukians 'True Stories' , Narr, Tübingen 2000 (= Classica Monacensia, 21), p. 102ff.
5. ↑ koinon ton Arkadon : Whether including that of 370 BC Until the 2nd century BC The Arcadian League or any other amalgamation of Arcadian communities is to be understood, remains unclear.
6. ^ Strabo: Geography. 5.4.5
7. ↑ Erwin Rohde: The Greek novel and its precursors. P. 281 (1st edition p. 262)
8. ↑ Lukian: True story. I.10-12
9. ↑ In Photios in the spelling Zamolxis .
10. ^ So Morgan: Lucian's "True Histories" and the "Wonders beyond Thule" of Antonius Diogenes. P. 475f
11. ^ Photius: Bibliothèque. Ed. and translated by René Henry. French and Greek text. Les Belles Lettres, Paris 2003, ISBN 2-251-32221-3 , 2nd volume. Codices 84-185, pp. 140-149. English translation online: Photios cod. 166
12. ↑ Dan Dana, Undiscussed Testimonium of ΤΑ ΥΠΕΡ ΘΟΥΛΗΝ ΑΠΙΣΤΑ (Eusebius, c. Hier. 17) , in: Studii Clasice 34-36 (1998-2000), pp. 141-143
13. ↑ Stephens / Winkler, pp. 150–153; First edition in: Girolamo Vitelli u. a. (Ed.), Pubblicazioni della Società Italiana per la ricerca dei papiri greci e latini in Egitto: Papiri Greci e Latini , Volume 10, Florence 1932, pp. 156-161; on this Franz Zimmermann, Die ΑΠΙΣΤΑ des Antonios Diogenes in the light of the new find , in: Hermes. Journal of Classical Philology 71 (1936), pp. 312-319
14. ↑ Stephens / Winkler, pp. 156–157; First edition by PJ Parsons, 3012 (Romance, Antonius Diogenes?) , In: The Oxyrhynchus Papyri 42 (1974), pp. 43-46; Digital copy : Oxyrhynchus Online, P.Oxy.XLII 3012 . See also: Michael Gronewald, P. Oxy. 3012 (Antonios Diogenes?) , In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 22 (1976), pp. 17-18
15. ^ First edition by PJ Parsons, 4760. Antonius Diogenes , in: The Oxyrhynchus Papyri 70 (2006), pp. 9-14; Digital copy : Oxyrhynchus Online, P.Oxy.LXX 4760
16. ^ First edition by PJ Parsons, 4761. Novel (Antonius Diogenes?) , In: The Oxyrhynchus Papyri 70 (2006), pp. 15-22; Digital copy : P.Oxy.LXX 4761 . Evidence for the attribution in Hans Bernsdorff, On the action of P. Oxy. 4761 (Antonios Diogenes?) , In: Göttingen Forum for Classical Studies 9 (2006), pp. 7–12 ( PDF; 132 kB )
17. ↑ Stephens / Winkler, pp. 158–172
18. ^ Not yet published, indications for the attribution in Rolf Kussl, Papyrusfragmente Greek Romane , Narr, Tübingen 1991 (= Classica Monacensia, 2), pp. 173–175; Digitized in: Musinfo - Papyrus de la Bibliothèque de Genève, Catalog : P.Gen. 187 recto  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , P.Gen. No. 187 verso  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
19. ↑ Stephens / Winkler, pp. 176–178