Single session on Greek mythography and Byzantine manuscripts

Papiros imperiais e manuscritos bizantinos: a (des)continuidade da mitografia grega

Nereida Villagra (Centro de Estudos Clássicos, FLUL)

In the nineteenth century, Panzer proposed that part of the mythographical narratives preserved in the minor scholia to Homer came from a mythographical commentary, the so-called Mythographus Homericus. In the 20th century, the discovery and publication of several papyri from the Imperial period, with texts parallel to the ones in the scholia, showed that his hypothesis was correct. Therefore, the Mythographus Homericus provides a good case study of the evolution of the material support of the same text from the Imperial period down to Byzantine times.

In this seminar, we will study the way in which the mythographical historiae of two papyri were incoroporated into the scholia, marginal or independent, of some manuscripts of Homer. We will focus on P. Hamb. 199, a papyrus from the 2nd century which preserves three historiae on the Iliad; and on the PSI 1173, from the 3rd century, which preserves 16 historiae on the Odyssey. These examples will allow us to reflect upon some formal changes of the disposition of the historiae, such as the form of the lemmata. It will also provide an example of the reutilisation of this narrative material. Last, we will use the case to discuss the status of mythography itself in Imperial and Byzantine times.

The seminar will be delivered in Portuguese.

Nereida Villagra has been a FCT postdoctoral researcher at the Centro de Estudos Clássicos of the University of Lisbon since 2013. Her individual project deals with mythographical texts preserved in the scholia to Homer, to Pindar and to Apollonius Rhodius. She obtained her PhD at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2012 with a dissertation which consisted of an edition, translation and commentary of the fragments of Asclepiades of Tragilos. She has published several papers on mythography and textual criticism, such as “Plato on the Thessalian trick. New interpretation of Gorgias 513b” Greek Roman Byzantine Studies 57/2 and “Time and Space in the myth of Byblis”, in A, Bierl et al. (eds.) Time and Space in Ancient Myth, Religion and Culture, Berlin: De Gruyter. She has participated in several International Conferences and in 2014 she organised the international seminar “O mito grego: da épica arcaica aos escólios homéricos e a sua recepção” at the University of Lisbon, in collaboration with the Autonomous University of Barcelona. In 2017 she organised the International workshop “Mythographus Homericus 125 years after Panzer: From scholia to papyri and to the digital era”, also at the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon. She is currently editing a book with the results of the workshop and also preparing a commentary on the Mythographus Homericus.

Second series of Interdisciplinary Research Seminars

Manuscritos em Diálogo

The interdisciplinary research seminars Manuscritos em Diálogo are jointly organized by the CESEM and the IEM. These seminars are envisioned as didactic events devoted to spread useful information on how to tackle the study and description of different kinds of medieval manuscripts, mainly Iberian. The seminars aim to create bridges among scholars from different areas and promote dialogue between them.

Scholars gathered together for the first series of seminars Manuscritos em Diálogo in the 2018 spring semester at the FCSH-NOVA University of Lisbon. Papers dealt with issues related to plainchant and manuscript copy, Eastern and Western liturgies, conservation and restoration of medieval manuscripts, and musical iconography.

The new series of seminars will be held monthly from September 2018 to January 2019. Papers will be delivered in Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and English. All events are free and open to the public.

The research seminars Manuscritos em Diálogo are organized by Elsa De Luca and Alicia Miguelez.

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