Diodorus' Mythistory and the Pagan Mission

Diodorus' Mythistory and the Pagan Mission
Author: Iris Sulimani
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 425
Release: 2011-04-11
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9004210105

The traditional Diodoran scholarship has been challenged in the last decades by a revisionist approach, which concentrates on Diodorus Siculus’ contribution rather than on his lost sources. Building on that approach, this book focuses on the Bibliotheke’s first pentad, which has usually been neglected as a subject of research, and explores the author’s depictions of journeys made by gods and culture-heroes. A thorough investigation of his historiographical methods and his representation of mythical figures demonstrates that the mythological narrative is not only an essential part of his universal history, but also an important supplement to our knowledge of Hellenistic civilization, especially its mentality and historical geography.

Diodorus' Mythistory and the Pagan Mission

Diodorus' Mythistory and the Pagan Mission
Author: Iris Sulimani
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 426
Release: 2011-04-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004194061

Examining Diodorus Siculus’ historiographical methods and his representation of mythical culture-heroes, this study demonstrates the significant contribution of the author’s first pentad to his universal history and its importance as a supplement to our perception of Hellenistic civilization.

Host or Parasite?

Host or Parasite?
Author: Allen J. Romano
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2019-10-21
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3110672820

Building upon the explosion of recent work on mythography, contributions to this volume direct attention to less frequently explored questions of how ancient poets, historians, and philosophers themselves adopted and adapted the work of mythographers. Study of the way that mythographers and their contemporaries take on positions of, alternately, “host” or “parasite” in relation to the other exposes the richness mythographic practice and the roles that mythographers played in the evolving Greco-Roman discourse of myth. From, among others, the seeds of mythographic discourse in Pindar and Plato, to the mythography of the Peripatics, the in-between mythography of Diodorus Siculus, and the “mythographic topography” of Pausanias, this volume invites a reappraisal of the role that mythography played at every stage of Greek thought about myth. Through contributions that explore both mythographers’ distinctive style of studying myth to other contributions that focus primarily on the how and why of non-mythographers’ use of mythographic techniques, what emerges is a picture of mythography that broadens our conception of mythography while at the same time inviting scholars to seek out more such echoes of mythographic discourse in the work of poets, historians, philosophers at large.

The History of the Diadochoi in Book XIX of Diodoros’ ›Bibliotheke‹

The History of the Diadochoi in Book XIX of Diodoros’ ›Bibliotheke‹
Author: Alexander Meeus
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 635
Release: 2022-02-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 3110743825

Diodoros of Sicily’s book XIX is the main source for the history of the Diadochoi, Alexander the Great’s Successors, from 317 to 311 BCE. With the first full-scale commentary on this text in any language Alexander Meeus offers a detailed and reliable guide to the complicated historical narrative and the fascinating ethnographic information transmitted by Diodoros, which includes the earliest accounts of Indian widow burning and Nabataean culture. Studying both history and historiography, this volume elucidates a crucial stage in the creation of the Hellenistic world in Greece and the Near East as well as the confusing source tradition. Diodoros, a long neglected author indispensable for much of our knowledge of Antiquity, is currently enjoying growing scholarly interest. An ample introduction discusses his historical methods and sheds light on his language and style and on the manuscript transmission of books XVII-XX. By negotiating between diametrically opposed scholarly opinions a new understanding of Diodoros’ place in the ancient historiographical tradition is offered. The volume is of interest to scholars of ancient historiography, Hellenistic history, Hellenistic prose and the textual transmission of the Bibliotheke.

Diodoros of Sicily: Bibliotheke Historike: Volume 1, Books 14–15: The Greek World in the Fourth Century BC from the End of the Peloponnesian War to the Death of Artaxerxes II (Mnemon)

Diodoros of Sicily: Bibliotheke Historike: Volume 1, Books 14–15: The Greek World in the Fourth Century BC from the End of the Peloponnesian War to the Death of Artaxerxes II (Mnemon)
Author:
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2021-09-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108600018

Diodoros of Sicily (c.90–c.30 BC) spent thirty years producing an encyclopedic compendium of world history from its mythical beginnings to his own day. His is the only surviving, connected account of Greek affairs from 480/79 to 302/1. The books translated in this volume cover the years from the end of the Peloponnesian War to the aftermath of the Battle of Mantineia in 362/1. These were crucial years in the struggle for supremacy in Greece amongst the Greek states, Sparta, Athens and Thebes, before they were overtaken by the unexpected rise of Macedon. Diodoros also provides the only extant account of the career of Dionysios I of Syracuse and the Cypriot war between Persia and Evagoras of Salamis. The translation is supported by extensive notes and the Introduction examines Diodoros' moral and educational purpose in writing, the plan of his work, his sources, and his qualities as a historian.

The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus

The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus
Author: Christian H. Bull
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 548
Release: 2018-09-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004370846

In The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus, Christian H. Bull argues that the treatises attributed to Hermes Trismegistus reflect the spiritual exercises and ritual practices of loosely organized brotherhoods in Egypt. These small groups were directed by Egyptian priests educated in the traditional lore of the temples, but also conversant with Greek philosophy. Such priests, who were increasingly dispossessed with the gradual demise of the Egyptian temples, could find eager adherents among a Greek-speaking audience seeking for the wisdom of the Egyptian Hermes, who was widely considered to be an important source for the philosophies of Pythagoras and Plato. The volume contains a comprehensive analysis of the myths of Hermes Trismegistus, a reevaluation of the Way of Hermes, and a contextualization of this ritual tradition.

Contested Pasts

Contested Pasts
Author: Jennifer Finn
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2022-04-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 0472133039

A fresh approach to the Roman imperial tradition on Alexander the Great

The Land of Fertility I

The Land of Fertility I
Author: Maciej Wacławik
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2016-02-08
Genre: Mediterranean Region
ISBN: 1443888680

In the south-east Mediterranean region, the so-called ‘Fertile Crescent’, the modern world began its development at the very beginning of human civilisation. People living there were among the first in the world to domesticate plants and animals, and many of the ideas and objects that are in common use today originated from that area. The papers collected in this volume are based on papers presented at an international conference titled “The Land of Fertility: The South-East Mediterranean from the Bronze Age to the Muslim Conquest”, which was focused on this very special region, and the processes prevalent there after the end of the Stone Age.

The Greek World in the 4th and 3rd Centuries BC

The Greek World in the 4th and 3rd Centuries BC
Author: Edward Dąbrowa
Publisher: Wydawnictwo UJ
Total Pages: 179
Release: 2013-01-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 8323334838

This volume contains eight studies written by scholars from Great Britain, Israel, Poland, and the United States. The contributors are all specialists in Greek history, and their essays deal with different aspects of the period's history, focusing on historiography, political evelopments, and military actions and events.