Hieros Logos to Philosophic Mythos:
Text and Authority in the Ancient Greco-Roman World
In the absence of a fixed text, how did certain accounts become authoritative? What effect did the development of writing and fixed, reviewable texts have on traditional authority? What new forms of authoritative discourse arose with the development and spread of writing and books in the ancient Greek world? How has the modern understanding of ancient Greco-Roman culture (e.g., the Orphic "hubbub of books" or the Sibylline books) been skewed by modern bookishness and the Judaeo-Christian idea of Sacred Scripture?
Week I Hieros Logos to Philosophic Mythos: Introduction
From Oral Tradition to the Written Text
Mythos to Logos or Logos to Mythos
Hieros Logos or Sacred Scripture
Text and Authority
Case Study: "Orphic" Gold Tablets
Choice of Case Studies
Week II Sacred Writings in Greece and Rome
Case Studies & Presentations - introduce your text and the issues involved with its textuality
Derveni Papyrus - Laks, A Provisional Translation of the Derveni Papyrus
Lex Sacra from Selinous
Week III Transition from Orality to Literacy
Questions on Case Studies
Plato on Word and Text
Paper: 4-6 pages comparing your case study with at least two others. How does this text ground its religious authority? How does its written form affect its reception and transmission? How has this text been received - both by its contemporary audience and by modern scholars?
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Betz, Hans Dieter, "PGM XIII," in The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Chicago, 1986, pp. 172-195.
Brisson, Luc, Plato the Myth Maker, trans., ed., and intro. Gerard Naddaf, Chicago, 1998.
Daniel, Robert, Two Greek Magical Papyri in the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Papyrological Coloniensia vol. XIX, Westdeutcher Verlag, 1991.
Foley, Helene, "Interpretive Essay: Appendix," in The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, ed. Foley, Princeton, 1994, pp.169-178.
Foley, Helene, "Text, Translation, Commentary," in The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, ed. Foley, Princeton, 1994, pp.2-27.
Gordon, Richard, "From Republic to Principate: priesthood, religion and ideology," in Pagan Priests: Religion and Power in the Ancient World, ed. Beard & North, Cornell: 1990, pp. 179-198.
Griffith, Mark, "Contest and Contradiction in Early Greek Poetry," in Cabinet of the Muses: Essays on Classical and Comparative Literature in Honor of Thomas G. Rosenmeyer, ed. Mark Griffith and Donald Mastronarde, 1990, pp. 188-9.
Hansen, William, trans. Phlegon of Tralles' Book of Marvels, Exeter, 1996, pp. 40-42.
Havelock, Eric, Preface to Plato, Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1963.
Havelock, Eric, "The Preliteracy of the Greeks," New Literary History, vol. 8.3 (Spring 1977), pp. 369-391.
Havelock, Eric, "Thoughtful Hesiod," in The Literate Revolution in Greece and Its Cultural Consequences, Princeton, 1982, pp. 208-219.
Henrichs, Albert, "Hieroi Logoi and Hierai Bibloi: The (Un)written Margins of the Sacred in Ancient Greece," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 101 (2002), pp. 205-266.
Henrichs, Albert, "Writing Religion, Inscribed Texts, Ritual Authority, and the Religious Discourse of the Polis," in Written Texts and the Rise of Literate Culture in Ancient Greece, ed. Yunis, Cambridge, 2003, pp. 38-58.
Jameson, M., Jordan, D., Kotansky, R., A Lex Sacra from Selinous, Duke, 1993, pp. 3-7, 14-17, 50-60
Janko, Richard, "The Derveni Papyrus (Diagoras of Melos, Apopyrgizontes Logoi?): A New Translation," Classical Philology 96 (2001), pp. 1-32.
Laks, André and Most, Glenn, "A Provisional Translation of the Derveni Papyrus," in Studies in the Derveni Papyrus, Laks & Most, Oxford, 1997, pp. 9-22.
Lincoln, Bruce, Theorizing Myth: Narrative, Ideology, and Scholarship, University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1999.
Manetti, Giovanni, "The Language of the Sibyls," Euphrosyne 25 1997, pp. 242 -3.
Morgan, Kathryn, "Plato: myth and the soul," in Myth & Philosophy from the Presocratics to Plato, Cambridge, 2000, pp. 185-241.
Morgan, Kathryn, "Theoretical Issues," in Myth & Philosophy from the Presocratics to Plato, Cambridge, 2000, pp. 15-45.
Most, Glenn, "The Fire Next Time: Cosmology, Allegoresis, and Salvation in the Derveni Papyrus," Journal of Hellenic Studies 117 (1997), pp. 117-135.
Orlin, Eric, "Appendix 2 & 3" in Temples, Religion and Politics in the Roman Republic, Brill, 1997, pp. 203-210.
Rusten, Jeffrey, "Interim Notes on the Papyrus from Derveni," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 89 (1985), pp. 121-140.
Smith, Morton, "P. Leid J 395 (PGM XIII) and Its Creation Legend," in Studies in the Cult of Yahweh vol. 2, ed. Cohen, Brill, 1996, pp. 227-234.
Smith, Morton, "The 8th Book of Moses and How It Grew (P. Leid. J 395)," in Studies in the Cult of Yahweh vol. 2, ed. Cohen, Brill, 1996, pp. 217-226.
Smith, Nicholas, "Diviners and Divination in Aristophanic Comedy." Classical Antiquity 8 (1989), pp. 140-58.
Vernant, Jean-Pierre, "The Reason of Myth," in Myth & Society in Ancient Greece, trans. Lloyd, Harvester Press, 1980, pp. 203-226.
Yunis, Harvey, "Introduction: Why Written Texts?" in Written Texts and the Rise of Literate Culture in Ancient Greece, ed. Yunis, Cambridge, 2003, pp. 1-14.