The article deals with some aspects of the transmission and circulation of Euripides’ so-called ‘alphabetic’ plays, i.e. his nine surviving works preserved without ancient scholia and bearing titles starting with E (of Ἑλένη) to K (of Κύκλωψ). At its core (§ 3), it challenges the assumption of a wider availability of this corpus in Comnenian Constantinople (12th c.), reassessing some of the proofs adduced for this theory from the writings of the learned Eustathius, future archbishop of Thessalonike – a notoriously thorny issue (F. Mori). Against the dominant opinion (G. Zuntz, A. Turyn), and prompted by a reconsideration of Eustathius’ multilayered scholarly discourse, the suggestion is put forward that he might have gained direct access – if at all – to the nine long-forgotten texts only after moving to Thessalonike to hold his bishopric (that is, after 1175/8; while serving as a professor of rhetoric in Constantinople in his earlier years he was still unaware of them). This would provide a more convenient, local ancestor for Demetrius Triclinius’ copy of them in manuscript L (Laur. Plut. 32.2). To (dis)prove this contention (§ 4), a comprehensive survey of the evidence related to Euripides’ ‘alphabetic’ plays in the work of another prolific Comnenian scholar, John Tzetze, is announced (Tzetzes’ knowledge of the Corpus Euripideum has already been the subject of a series of articles by the present author published in three former issues of this journal, 2021-2023). To set the scene, and the standard, for this research (§ 1), two 14th-century quotations from Euripides’ ‘alphabetic’ plays Ion and Heraclidae are exemplarily analyzed. After that (§ 2), the ealier stage of the transmission of the nine ‘alphabetic’ plays in the imperial and late-antique age is sketched, with a focus on the material conditions which might have facilitated their detachment and thus, eventually, survival from a full Euripidean Papyrusausgabe (B. Snell).
Ancora sul Fortleben di Euripide a Bisanzio. Giovanni Tzetze lettore dell’Euripide “alfabetico”? Prima parte: pentole di papiri, valigie di patriarchi e indizi dall’Elena
Laura Carrara
Primo
2025-01-01
Abstract
The article deals with some aspects of the transmission and circulation of Euripides’ so-called ‘alphabetic’ plays, i.e. his nine surviving works preserved without ancient scholia and bearing titles starting with E (of Ἑλένη) to K (of Κύκλωψ). At its core (§ 3), it challenges the assumption of a wider availability of this corpus in Comnenian Constantinople (12th c.), reassessing some of the proofs adduced for this theory from the writings of the learned Eustathius, future archbishop of Thessalonike – a notoriously thorny issue (F. Mori). Against the dominant opinion (G. Zuntz, A. Turyn), and prompted by a reconsideration of Eustathius’ multilayered scholarly discourse, the suggestion is put forward that he might have gained direct access – if at all – to the nine long-forgotten texts only after moving to Thessalonike to hold his bishopric (that is, after 1175/8; while serving as a professor of rhetoric in Constantinople in his earlier years he was still unaware of them). This would provide a more convenient, local ancestor for Demetrius Triclinius’ copy of them in manuscript L (Laur. Plut. 32.2). To (dis)prove this contention (§ 4), a comprehensive survey of the evidence related to Euripides’ ‘alphabetic’ plays in the work of another prolific Comnenian scholar, John Tzetze, is announced (Tzetzes’ knowledge of the Corpus Euripideum has already been the subject of a series of articles by the present author published in three former issues of this journal, 2021-2023). To set the scene, and the standard, for this research (§ 1), two 14th-century quotations from Euripides’ ‘alphabetic’ plays Ion and Heraclidae are exemplarily analyzed. After that (§ 2), the ealier stage of the transmission of the nine ‘alphabetic’ plays in the imperial and late-antique age is sketched, with a focus on the material conditions which might have facilitated their detachment and thus, eventually, survival from a full Euripidean Papyrusausgabe (B. Snell).I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
