There are at least two ways to inquire about a possible specificity of the Orphic poetic tradition in Greece. The first way consists in analyzing the structure of the Orphic authorship : what does to be composed by Orpheus mean for the ancient Greeks and for us ? Is the… Read more
My last post should have been sufficient to neutralize arguments that the Tebtunis priests’ engagement with Greek was driven by administrative requirements, by the demands of the State. (This has been argued by, e.g., Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes, Cambridge 1986, p. 16). The question of language preference,… Read more
In my last entry I quoted Lucian’s character Lycinus who claims that Proteus was really just a skilled dancer. If his transformations seem miraculous, it is because the myth neglects to tell this little detail… By contrast, the representation of the myth in dance is uniquely faithful to the myth’s… Read more
Since I spent part of the past week working on a new (Greek) literary fragment from the dossier of the priests of Soknebtunis, I thought that I would devote this post to some brief remarks concerning the Greek reading interests of the Tebtunis clerics. Even a cursory examination of the… Read more
Philip of Thessalonike not only collected the epigrams of other authors, but, like Meleager, he also wrote poems of his own. One that never fails to make me laugh tells the story of ants searching for honey: Βωλοτόμοι μύρμηκες, ὁ γῆς στρατός, ἡνίκ’ ἔτενδε γειομόρου μελιχρὴν σμηνοδόκου χάριτα, μηνίσας ὁ… Read more
