Athenaios
Athenaios ( Greek Ἀθήναιος Ναυκράτιος Athḗnaios Naukrátios , Latin Athenaeus Naucratita , rarely Naucratitus ) was a Greek poikilographer from Naukratis in Egypt . Athenaios worked during the rule of the Severan emperors (193 to 235) and initially lived in Alexandria , later in the capital Rome .
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Athenaios is said to have written a work On the Syrian kings that has not survived ( The Fragments of Greek Historians No. 166), as well as other now lost treatises to which he himself repeatedly refers. His main work, however, are the Deipnosophistai (Greek Δειπνοσοφισταί ; German Banquet of the Scholars ) in originally 30 books, which are shortened to 15 in the tradition, of which the first three have only survived in excerpts. Following the literary model of Plato's symposium , Athenaios reports to his friend Timocrates about his participation in a meal that lasted several days in Rome. The host Publius Livius Larensis and his total of 29 guests discuss ancient Greek manners and customs, everyday life , political history, contemporary art (including Attic comedy) and science, but less philosophy , which Athenaios is not very fond of was. More than 700 ancient authors are cited, most of them would otherwise be unknown without the citation from Athenaeus. It is not always clear, however, whether Athenaeus read the relevant works himself or whether he partly drew from intermediate sources. In any case, the collection of quotations is of great value precisely because of the loss of many of these works.
Some of the participants in the banquet are based on real personalities, such as the host. Fictional elements play a role in other people. The criticism of Emperor Commodus (180 to 192) expressed in the work suggests that the work was written soon after 193.
The tradition is based primarily on a codex brought to Italy from Constantinople in 1423. In 1514 Aldus Manutius published an edition edited by Marcus Musurus, which in 2012 achieved a sales price of 45,000 Swiss francs.
The standard edition of the text is that published by Georg Kaibel . When citing, the page numbering going back to the edition of Isaac Casaubon is mostly used, which is supplemented by a section counting using lowercase letters. The full text is preserved in only one manuscript (A), the excerpts are preserved in two manuscripts (C and E).
expenditure
- Georg Kaibel (Ed.): Athenaei Naucratitae Dipnosophistarum libri 15. 3 Vols. Teubner, Leipzig 1887–1890, Teubner, Stuttgart 1985–1992, Vol. 1 (Book IV) , Vol. 2 (Book VI-X) , Vol. 3 (Book XI-XV and appendices) .
- Ursula and Kurt Treu (selection and translation): The scholarly meal. 2nd edition, Dieterich, Leipzig 1987, ISBN 3-7350-0029-0
- Claus Friedrich (introduction and translation): Athenaios. The scholarly meal. Commented by Thomas Nothers. Published by Peter Wirth . Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 978-3-7772-9813-9 .
- Charles Burton Gulick : The Deipnosophists. 7 vols. Loeb Classical Library . Heinemann, London 1927–1941 (Greek text and English translation). (This older edition by Charles Burton Gulick has now been replaced by that of S. Douglas Olson under the title The Learned Banqueters in 8 volumes.)
- Charles Duke Yonge (translation): The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the learned, of Athenaeus. With an appendix of poetical fragments, rendered into English verse by various authors, and a general index. 3 Vol. Bohn, London 1854, Vol. 1 (Book I-VI) , Vol. 2 (Book VII-XI) , Vol. 3 (Book XII-XV) (English translation without page counting).
literature
- David C. Braund, John Wilkins (Eds.): Athenaeus and his World. Reading Greek Culture in the Roman Empire. University of Exeter Press, Exeter 2000, ISBN 0-85989-661-7 .
- Françoise Caujolle-Zaslawsky: Athénaios de Naucratis (Athénée). In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 1, CNRS, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-222-04042-6 , pp. 644-648
- Georg Wentzel : Athenaios 22 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II, 2, Stuttgart 1896, Sp. 2026-2033.
Web links
- Literature by and about Athenaios in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by and about Athenaios in the German Digital Library
- The Deipnosophists - English translation by Yonge with page numbers and annotations
- Banquet des savans - Greek text and French translation by de Villebrune
- Digital Athenaeus Project
- Casaubon-Kaibel-References-Converter
Remarks
- ↑ Cf. introductory Ewen Bowie: Athenaios [3]. In: The New Pauly . Vol. 2 (1997), col. 196-199.
- ^ Antiquariat Hellmut Schumann Zurich: Fine and rare books catalog 600, pp. 8–9.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Athenaios |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Athenaeus |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Greek rhetorician and grammarian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 2nd century |
| DATE OF DEATH | 2nd century or 3rd century |