The Ancient Critic at Work

Abstract

The large but underrated corpus of Greek scholia, the marginal and interlinear notes found in manuscripts, is a very important source for ancient literary criticism. The evidence of the scholia significantly adds to and enhances the picture that can be gained from studying the relevant treatises (such as Aristotle's Poetics): scholia also contain concepts that are not found in the treatises, and they are indicative of how the concepts are actually put to use in the progressive interpretation of texts. This book also demonstrates that it is vital to study both ancient terminology and the cases where a particular phenomenon is simply paraphrased. Nineteen thematic chapters provide a repertoire of the various terms and concepts of ancient literary criticism. The relevant witnesses are extensively quoted in Greek and English translation. A glossary of Greek terms (with translation) and several indices enable the book also to be used for reference.

THEHIPPIAS MINORAND THE TRADITIONS OF HOMERIC CRITICISM

“…Van der Valk's edition of Eustathius, vol. ii p. lx n. 6; Nünlist (2009) 212–13 on ‘rhetorical irony’; Nünlist however perhaps underplays the range of effects which the scholia identify by this term.…”

Preliminary Material

“…Turner,Greek Papyri,107,113 the Qumran collection has yielded scientific and astronomical works, which attest to the transmission of scientific knowledge across the Mediterranean. 81 The Qumran collection therefore testifies to the thriving of Jewish intellectual life in Hellenistic-Roman Palestine, and its compilers belonged to the Jewish intelligentsia of this time and place.82…”

“…Scholars have rightly pointed to a Mesopotamian background for the astronomical aspects of the Enochic Astronomical Book (1 En. [72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82]. Qumran calendar texts that use elements of a Babylonian lunar system further strengthen the supposition that the transmission of scientific ideas into Second Temple period Judaism had a Babylonian origin.…”

“…It underlies the reference in CD 1:11, a later layer in the Damascus Document, to "a Teacher of Righteousness" as a founding figure, and it informs the mention of "the voice of the Teacher" in CD 20:28, 32 (// 4Q267 3 7; 4Q270 2 i 2).82 The Pesharim, in their turn, take up traditions from the Damascus Document in how they present the Teacher of Righteousness. So, when Pesher Psalms A speaks of the Teacher as a founding figure,83 the commentator does not derive this image only from his base text, but he develops aspects of the collective memory of the Teacher in the Damascus Document.84 Similarly, the reference in CD 20 to the voice of the Teacher carrying authority even after his death is closely related to how the Qumran commentaries present themselves as continuations of the work of the Teacher: the Pesharim, we are led to 81 Chazon, Betsy Halpern-Amaru, and Ruth A. Clements, STDJ 88 (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 23-49 (36-37).…”

“…In a later study, Popović accounts for the transmission of knowledge between Greek, Mesopotamian, and Jewish scientists in network terms. 81 He shows that scholars from different backgrounds interacted with each other and constituted networks of knowledge exchange. Thus, they effectively worked in a globalised context, where they were increasingly interconnected and interdependent.…”