Oppian

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oppian ( Greek  Ὀππιανός Oppianos ; Latin Oppianus ) was a Greek grammarian living in the 2nd century and the author of a didactic poem . Because of its not entirely certain origin, it is also called Oppian from Korykos , Oppian from Anarzabos or Oppian from Cilicia . He is not to be confused with a poet of the same name who wrote around AD 200, Oppian of Apamea .

According to the Suda , written in the late 10th century, Oppian came from Korykos in Cilicia , while the Viten preceding his only surviving work - in one case next to Korykos - indicate the Cilician Anazarbos as the place of birth. According to these two slightly different lives, his parents were a certain Agesilaos and Zenodote. When his father was banished by Septimius Severus for disregarding the imperial maiestas during his visit to Anazarbos on the island of Melite in the Adriatic, the twenty-year-old Oppian followed him. There he wrote his didactic poem Ἁλιευτικά ( Halieutika , "About fishing"), which Caracalla - son and successor of Septimius Severus - liked so much that he not only gave his father freedom, but also the son with a stater rewarded per verse. Soon afterwards Oppian died of the plague in his homeland at the age of thirty and was honored by his roommates through a statue foundation.

However, this biographical information contradicts the life data that can be found in the work itself. Therefore they are now mostly discarded or assigned to the Oppian of Apamea. He is also regarded as the author of the other works associated with the name Oppian Κυνηγετικά ( Kynegetika , "About hunting") and Ἰξευτικά ( Ixeutika , "About catching birds"). Only the place of birth Anazarbos and the work title are now mostly adopted as authentic for Oppian, but the Cilician Seleukia on Kalykadnos was also proposed as a text-based home.

The Halieutika , written in five books, is dedicated to the Emperor Antoninus and his co-ruling son and was therefore written during the joint reign of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Commodus from 177 to 180. The poem, written in hexameters , of which around 3500 verses have been preserved and of which there is also a prose paraphrase, deals with the species and ways of life of fish (books 1 and 2) as well as the requirements and techniques of fishing (books 3 and 4) and the Sea Monster (Book 5). From the sources on which his explanations are based, only Leonidas of Byzantium , in the 1st century BC, can be identified. Chr. Author of a prose work about fish, as likely to be determined, since he can be shown to fall back on the same source as Aelian in his "animal stories" ( De natura animalium ). Leonidas in turn named Leonidas several times as his source for questions about fish.

As a mixture of poetic work and textbook, as is characteristic of all didactic poems, Oppian's halieutika was included in the canon of school literature in Byzantine times and has therefore come down to us in numerous manuscripts. Lorenzo Lippi da Colle translated the Halieutika into Latin verse in 1478 and dedicated the work to Lorenzo de 'Medici . In 1515 the editio princeps appeared in Florence , which was soon followed by further editions in 1517 in Venice by Aldus Manutius , in 1555 by Adrianus Turnebus in Paris, and finally the influential edition by Konrad Rittershausen published in 1597 in Leiden . The Leyden edition offered as a separate attachment, the editio princeps probably by John Tzetzes originating Scholien to Oppian. Giovanni Battista Marino counted Oppian in his La Galeria , published in 1619, among the nine most important authors of ancient Greece .

Expenses (selection)

  • Oppiani de natura seu venatione piscium libri quinque. Ph. Junta, Florence 1515 ( digitized version ).
  • Oppiani de piscibus Laurentio Lippio interprete libri V. Aldus, Venice 1517 ( digitized version ).
  • Oppiani Anazerbei de Piscatu Libri V., de Venatione libri IV. A. Turnebus, Paris 1555 ( digitized version ).
  • Oppiani Poetae Cilicis de Venatione lib. IV., De Piscatu lib. V., cum interpretatione latina, commentariis et indice rerum in utroque memorabilium locupletissimo. Confectis studio et opera Conradi Rittershusii . Franciscus Raphelengius, Leiden 1597.
  • Oppiani poetae Cilicis De venatione libri IV et De piscatione libri V. cum paraphrasi graeca librorum de aucupio, graece et latine, curavit Joh. Gottlob Schneider. A. König, Argentorati (= Strasbourg) 1776.
  • Oppianus Halieutica - Oppian the fishing. Introduction, text, translation in German by Fritz Fajen. BG Teubner, Stuttgart / Leipzig 1999.

literature

  • Fritz Fajen: Studies on the history of tradition on the Halieutika of Oppian (= contributions to classical philology. Issue 32). Hain, Meisenheim am Glan 1969.
  • Fritz Fajen: Notes on the handwritten transmission of the Halieutika of Oppian. F. Steiner, Stuttgart 1995.
  • Fritz Fajen: Oppianus Halieutica - Oppian the fishing. Introduction, text, translation in German. BG Teubner, Stuttgart / Leipzig 1999.
  • Fritz Fajen, Manfred Wacht: Concordantia Oppianea = Concordance to the Halieutika of Oppian from Cilicia. Olms-Weidmann, Hildesheim / New York 2002.
  • Pierre Hamblenne: La légende d'Oppien. In: L'antiquité classique. Volume 37, 1968, pp. 589-619 ( digitized version ).
  • Rudolf Keydell : Oppianos 1. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XVIII, 1, Stuttgart 1939, Sp. 698-703.
  • Rudolf Keydell : Oppianos 1. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 4, Stuttgart 1972, Col. 315.
  • Enrico Rebuffat: Il proemio al terzo libro degli Halieutica e la biografia di Oppiano. In: Studi classici e orientali. Volume 46, 1997-1998, pp. 559-584 ( online ).

Remarks

  1. ↑ Suda , keyword Ὀππιανός , Adler number: omicron 452 , Suda-Online .
  2. ↑ Vita and Suda sv Ὀππιανός .
  3. ↑ Pierre Hamblenne: La légende d'Oppien. In: L'Antiquité classique . Volume 37, 1968, pp. 589-619 ( digitized version ); Peter Toohey: Epic Lessons. An Introduction to Ancient Didactic Poetry. Routledge, London / New York 1996, pp. 199f .; Enrico Rebuffat: Il proemio al terzo libro degli Halieutica e la biografia di Oppiano. In: Studi classici e orientali. Volume 46, 1997-1998, pp. 559-584, here: pp. 579-584.
  4. ↑ So also Suda sv Ὀππιανός ; There is a prose paraphrase of the Ixeutika by Euteknios.
  5. ↑ See Fritz Fajen: Oppianus Halieutica - Oppian the fishing. Introduction, text, translation in German. BG Teubner, Stuttgart / Leipzig 1999, p. IX.
  6. ↑ To summarize Enrico Rebuffat: Il proemio al terzo libro degli Halieutica e la biografia di Oppiano. In: Studi classici e orientali. Volume 46, 1997-1998, p. 583.
  7. ↑ Max Wellmann : Leonidas of Byzantium and Demostratos. In: Hermes . Volume 30, 1895, pp. 161-176 ( digitized version ).
  8. ↑ Oppiani de piscatu libri quinque è Graeco in versus Latinos translati per Laurentium Lippium Collensem, accedunt ejusdem Lippii Distica. Bonus Gallus, Colle di Valdelsa September 12, 1478 ( digitized version ); see also Paola De Capua: Lorenzo Lippi e la traduzione degli Halieutica di Oppiano. In: Studi umanistici. Volume 3, 1992, pp. 59-109.
personal data
SURNAME Oppian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Oppianos; Oppianus anarbazensis; Oppianos of Korykos; Oppianos of Anarzabos; Oppianos of Cilicia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek grammarian and author of a didactic poem
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century
DATE OF DEATH 2nd century or 3rd century