Palaephatus

For the moth genus, seePalaephatus (moth).

Palaephatus(Ancient Greek:Παλαίφατος) was the author of a rationalizing text onGreek mythology,theparadoxographicalworkOn Incredible Things(Περὶ ἀπίστων (ἱστοριῶν);Incredibilia), which survives in a (probably corrupt) Byzantine edition.

This work consists of an introduction and 52 brief sections on various Greek myths. The first 45 have a common format: a brief statement of a wonder tale from Greek mythology, usually followed by a claim of disbelief ( "This is absurd" or "This is not likely" or "The true version is..." ), and then a sequence of every-day occurrences which gave rise to the wonder-story through misunderstanding. The last seven are equally brief retellings of myth, without any rationalizing explanation.

Palaephatus's date and name are uncertain; many scholars have concluded that the name "Palaephatus" is a pseudonym. What little evidence is extant suggests that the author was likely active during the late fourth century BCE.

On Incredible Things

Palaephatus's introduction sets his approach between those who believe everything that is said to them and those more subtle minds who believe that none of Greek mythology ever happened. He sets up two premises: that every story derives from some past event, and aprinciple of uniformity,that "anything which existed in the past now exists and will exist hereafter"; this he derives from the philosophersMelissusandLamiscusofSamos.So there must be some probable series of events behind all myth; but the "poets and early historians" made them into wonderful tales to amaze their audience. Palaephatus then claims to base what follows on personal research, going to many places and asking older people what happened.

A typical, if short,example of Palaephatus's method and tone is his handling ofCallisto:

"The story about Callisto is that while she was out hunting she turned into a bear. What I maintain is that she too during a hunt found her way into a grove of trees where a bear happened to be and was devoured. Her hunting companions saw her going into the grove, but not coming out; they said that the girl turned into a bear." (§14, tr. Jacob Stern)

As is usual in Palaephatus, the miracle is told baldly and without context, and the action of the gods is not mentioned; in the traditional story,Artemistransforms Callisto because of Callisto's unfaithfulness as a priestess. Palaephatus rarely mentions the gods,and when he discussesActaeon,his statement of disbelief is: "Artemis can do whatever she wants, yet it is not true that a man became a deer or a deer a man" (§6, tr. Stern); his principle of uniformity applies to human beings. Jacob Stern distinguishes this from the more wide-ranging rationalism ofEuhemerus:Palaephatus retains Callisto and Actaeon as historic human beings; rationalism extended to the gods can make them deified human beings or personifications of natural forces or of the passions, but does not leave them gods.

Palaephatus uses four principal devices for explaining the wonders of myth, and a number of minor devices:

• The monster or animal was actually a man or thing bearing that name:Cadmusdidn't fight a dragon, but a King of Thebes named Draco, who had some ivory tusks; his followers scattered abroad with the tusks, and raised armed men against Thebes (§4).Scyllawas a pirate ship with an image (presumably of a dog) on her prow, which attacked Ulysses and inflicted casualties (§20). Hercules attacked a fort namedHydra.When Lernos learned about Hercules he called for reinforcements and troops were sent from Caria. Among these troops was a warrior by the name of Carcinos [ "crab" ].
• Other double meanings:Mēlonin Greek means both "sheep" and "apple"; so the real story was that Hercules raided a flock of sheep of especially fine, "golden", quality from the daughters of one Hesperus of Miletus; but the poets prefer the golden apples of theHesperides(§18).GeryonandCerberusdidn't have three heads, they came from Tricarenia, a city, whose name means "three-headed" and which Palaephatus has invented for the purpose. (§24, 39) Similarly,Bellerophonkilled, not the monstrousChimaera,but the lion and the serpent who lived by a fiery chasm onMount ChimaerainLycia(by burning down the surrounding forest). Mt. Chimaera is called that by other authors, and is not Palaephatus' invention. (§28)
• Metaphorical expressions which became widespread, and which the poets then took literally:Actaeonwasn't eaten by his dogs; he spent so much on them that "His dogs are devouring Actaeon" became proverbial (§6). A statue ofNiobewas put up over her children's grave; passersby began to speak of "the stone Niobe". (§8)Amphion and Zethuswould only play if their hearers would work on the walls of Thebes; only in that sense were the walls "built by a lyre", and the addition that the stones moved themselves is fiction. (§41)
• When things were first invented, people saw them as even more wonderful than they were: The Centaurs were not half-man, half-horse; they were the first to learn to ride. (§ 1)Lynceuscould see underground, because he was the first miner, and invented the miner's lamp. (§9)Daedaluswas the first to make statues with their feet apart, so men said his statues "walked". (§21) AndMedeadidn't boil old men to make them young; she invented hair-dye and the sauna. Poor feeblePeliasjust died in the steam-bath. (§ 43)

The author's identity and theSudaentries

Palaephatus is a very rare name, and many scholars have concluded that it is a pseudonym; as an adjective in epic poetry, it meantof ancient fame;it could also meanspeaker of old tales.If Palaephatus wrote (as is perhaps most likely) in Athens in the fourth century BC, rationalizing Greek mythology could be dangerous;Anaxagorashad been sent into exile in the previous century for no more.

The only accounts of the life of any Palaephatus are four entries in theSuda(pi69,70,71,72), a Byzantine biographical dictionary, compiled about 1000 AD:

"Palaephatus of Athens"

Palaephatus ofAthens,an epic poet, to whom a mythical origin was assigned. According to some he was a son ofActaeusandBoeo,according to others of Iocles andMetaneira,and according to a third statement ofHermes.The time at which he lived is uncertain, but he appears to have been usually placed afterPhemonoe,though some writers assigned him even an earlier date. He is represented byChristodorus(Anth. Graec.,i. p. 27, ed.Tauchnitz) as an old bard crowned with laurel. TheSudahas preserved the titles of the following poems of Palaephatus:

• Κοσμοποιΐα εἰς ἔπη ͵εʹ( "The Making of the World", 5000 lines)
• Ἀπόλλωνος καὶ Ἀρτέμιδος γοναί, ἔπη ͵γʹ( "The Births of Apollo and Artemis", 3000 lines)
• Ἀφροδίτης καὶ Ἔρωτος λόγοι καὶ φωναὶ ἔπη ͵εʹ( "Speeches and Sayings of Aphrodite andEros",5000 lines)
• Ἀθηνᾶς ἔρις καὶ Ποσειδῶνος ἔπη ͵αʹ( "Contest of Athena and Poseidon", 1000 lines)
• Λητοῦς πλόκαμος( "Leto's Lock ")

"Palaephatus of Paros"

Palaephatus ofParos,orPriene,attested to have lived in the time ofArtaxerxes,however it is unknown which specific ruler this was. Suidas attributes to him the five books ofIncredible Things(also five books ofOn Troy), but adds that many persons assigned this work to Palaephatus of Athens.

"Palaephatus of Abydos"

Palaephatus ofAbydos,anhistorianwho lived in the time ofAlexander the Great,and is stated to have been loved (παιδικά) by the philosopherAristotle,for which theSudaquotes the authority of Philo,Peri paradoxou historias,and ofTheodorus of Ilium,Troica,Book 2. Suidas gives the titles of the following works of Palaephatus:Cypriaca,Deliaca,Attica,Arabica.

(Smith explains that some writers believe that this Palaephatus of Abydos wrote the fragment onAssyrianhistory, which is preserved byEusebius of Caesarea,and which is quoted by him as the work ofAbydenus;butAbydenusis that author's name, not the adjective meaning "from Abydos".)

"Palaephatus the Egyptian"

Palaephatus, an Egyptian or Athenian, and a grammarian, as he is described by Suidas, who assigns to him the following works:

• Αἰγυπτιακὴ θεολογία( "Egyptian Theology" )
• Μυθικῶν βιβλίον αʹ( "On Myths", one book)
• Λύσεις τῶν μυθικῶς εἰρημένων( "Solutions to Problems with Myths" )
• Ὑποθέσεις εἰς Σιμωνίδην( "Introductions toSimonides")
• Τρωϊκά( "On Troy" ), which some however attributed to the Athenian (No. 1), and others to the Parian (No. 2).
• He also wrote a history of himself.

One author behind these traditions

Of these, the first Palaephatus is, like Phemonoe, entirely legendary; modern scholars regard the other three as different literary traditions relating to the author ofOn Incredible Things.TheTroicadid once exist, and was cited in antiquity for geographical information on the people of the Trojan War, theTroaditself, and the surrounding area of Asia Minor; ancient authors cited the work's seventh and ninth books, so it must have been fairly long.

If the Artaxerxes mentioned by theSudaisArtaxerxes III Ochus,these data are all compatible with a student of Aristotle about 340 BCE, who came from the area around the Hellespont to Athens, and is called the Egyptian, sometimes, because he wrote on Egypt. The only internal evidence in the surviving book are citations of the two philosophers in the introduction and two literary references; if Melissus isMelissus of Samos,he lived in the previous century, and one possible Lamiscus is a Pythagorean contemporary of Plato.The literary references are one citation ofHesiodand the presentation ofAlcestis,which is quite similar toEuripides'Alcestis.

References in ancient literature

The comic poet Athenion has a scenein which an interlocutor praises a cook as a new Palaephatus, to which the cook replies by explaining the benefits bestowed on mankind by the first inventor of cooking, who replaced cannibalism by animal sacrifice and roast meat; this alludes to the "first inventor" theories still reflected in our text of Palaephatus. (Unfortunately, Athenion's date is uncertain, but if he wrote, as it appears,New Comedy,he should be 3rd or 2nd century BCE.)

Aelius Theon,the rhetorician, spends a chapter discussing Palaephatus' rationalism, using several of the examples in our text of Palaephatus; other, later, authors cite Palaephatus for instances not in our text:Pseudo-Nonnus,the author of some commentaries onGregory Nazianzen,attributes to Palaephatus the explanation that Cyclopes were so called because they lived in a round island;Eustathius of Thessalonicaascribes to him the explanation thatLaomedonsecured the help of Poseidon and Apollo in building the walls of Troy because he seized their temple treasuries to pay his workmen.

Some of the references in theSudasay that Palaephatus' work on myths was in five books, some that it was one book;Eusebius,Jerome,andOrosiusall write of thefirstbook of Palaephatus, implying that there were more. Jacob Stern, the modern editor, concludes from this, and the missing references, that Palaephatus was originally in five books, and was condensed down to one sometime before the publication of theSuda,although a fuller copy survived so Eustathius could see it in the twelfth century.

Transmission of the text

There are a dozen manuscripts of the present text, differing in length and in order, dating from the thirteenth through sixteenth century. How much of it derives from Palaephatus himself is open to question, although there is general agreement that the seven chapters of straight unrationalized mythology at the end are not. Festa, who edited the text in 1902, believed that Palaephatian texts became agenre,and our present text is a congeries of texts in that genre, most not by Palaephatus himself; Jacob Stern believes that this is a selection from all five books of the original.

Modern editions

Palaephatus's book was first printed byAldus Manutiusin his 1505 edition ofAesop.It became popular as a school text because of its relatively simple Attic Greek, and because the Renaissance approved its approach to classical mythology; it was edited by six more editors before the nineteenth century, due to its popularity. Although Aldus did not include a Latin translation, later editors included one; many reprintedCornelius Tollius's Latin version, included with his Greek text (Amsterdam, 1649). The first German-language edition was published in the 17th century.

More recent editions include:

• Ernesti, J.H.M.Paläphatus, Von unglaublichen Begebenheiten, griechisch: mit erklärendem Wörterbuche nach den Kapiteln des Paläphatus: sowohl zum Schulgebrauche als zum Selbstunterricht,Leipzig, 1816.
• Westermann, A. InΜυθογράφοι: Scriptores Poeticae Historiae Graeci,Braunschweig, 1843, pp.268-312.
• Festa, N.Palaephati Περὶ ἀπίστων(Mythographi Graeci,vol. 3, fasc. 2), Leipzig:Bibliotheca Teubneriana,1902.
• Stern, Joseph.Palaephatus: On Unbelievable Tales.Wauconda, Ill.: Bolchazy-Carducci, 1996 (photoreprint of Festa's Greek text and textual notes, with a translation into English and extensive critical notes).
• Brodersen, K.Die Wahrheit über die griechischen Mythen. Palaiphatos "Unglaubliche Geschichten". Griechisch/Deutsch.Stuttgart, 2002, 3rd ed. 2017,ISBN978-3-15-019458-4(Ancient Greek text with German translation).

See also

• Heraclitus the paradoxographer

References

• ^[1]William Smith,ed. (1873).Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.London: John Murray.
• Stern, Jacob.Palaephatus: On Unbelievable Tales.Wauconda, Ill.: Bolchazy-Carducci, 1996,ISBN0-86516-310-3.Statements of opinion and of scholarly consensus above are from Stern's introduction and notes, except as noted.
• Hawes, G.Rationalizing myth in antiquity.Oxford: OUP, 2013,ISBN9780199672776- contains an important chapter on Palaephatus, and an appendix setting out the problems of Palaephatus’ identity and the authenticity of the extant text.

External links

• Palaiphatos in the Bibliotheca Augustana(original Greek text)
• French translationby Ugo Bratelli