Antoninus Liberalis
Antoninus Liberalis (Greek: Ἀντωνῖνος Λιβεράλις) was an Ancient Greek grammarian who probably flourished between AD 100 and 300.[1]
Work
His only surviving work is the Metamorphoses (Μεταμορφώσεων Συναγωγή, Metamorphoseon Synagoge, literally "Collection of Transformations"), a collection of forty-one very briefly summarised tales about mythical metamorphoses effected by offended deities, unique in that they are couched in prose, not verse. The literary genre of myths of transformations of men and women, heroes and nymphs, into stars (see
The work survives in a single manuscript, of the later 9th century, now in the
Many of the transformations in this compilation are found nowhere else, and some may simply be inventions of Antoninus. The manner of the narrative is a laconic and conversational prose: "this completely inartistic text," as Sarah Myers called it,
Tales
- Ctesylla
- The Meleagrids
- Hierax
- Cragaleus
- Aegypius
- Periphas
- Anthus
- Lamia or Sybaris
- Emathides
- Minyades
- Nightingale
- Cycnus or Swan
- Aspalis
- Munichus
- Meropis
- Oenoe
- Leucippus
- Eeropus or Bee-eater
- The Thieves[a]
- Clinis
- Polyphonte
- Cerambus
- Battus
- Ascalabus
- Metioche and Menippe
- Hylas
- Iphigeneia
- Typhon
- Galinthias
- Byblis
- The Messapians
- Dryope
- Alcmene
- Smyrna
- The Herdsmen
- Pandareus
- The Dorians[b]
- Wolf
- Arceophon
- Britomartis
- The Fox
Footnotes
Notes
- ^ Celoria, p. 2: "His dates are a matter of nervous speculation: 'second to third century AD'.".
- ^ Timothy Renner, "A Papyrus Dictionary of Metamorphoses,", Harvard Studies in Classical Philology (1978:278); many of Antoninus Liberalis' transformations are also into birds.
- ^ Heidelberg al. gr. 398.
- ^ Myers, University of Michigan, reviewing Celoria's translation in Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 1994 (on-line text).
- ^ Celoria, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis, 2.
References
- Celoria, Francis, ed. and trans. The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis: A Translation With Commentary, trans. (London and New York: Routledge) 1992. English with comparative notes. ISBN 0-415-06896-7. This, not offering the Greek text, is the first English translation of this work.
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 148.
- Irving, Forbes. Metamorphosis in Greek Myth
- Papathomopoulos, Manolis. Antoninus Liberalis: Les Métamorphoses (Paris, Budé, 1968) First translation into French; extensive notes and indices, except on linguistic questions; probably at present the standard text.
- Trzaskoma, Stephen M.. Antoninus Liberalis: three sections from Metamorphoses: Hierax; Aigypios; The Dorians