Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Or.Li.N.E. (Orphic Lithika : A New Edition)
Período documentado: 2021-09-01 hasta 2023-08-31
This project concerns the “Orphic” Lithica, an anonymous Greek poem, probably composed in the 4th century A.D. and transmitted by some fifteen manuscripts scattered in libraries throughout Europe. It is a text dedicated to the magical and therapeutic virtues of 29 stones that has been relatively little studied, especially in terms of its philological, literary, cultural, and religious aspects.
The aim of this project is to provide a new critical edition of the text based on a new examination of the manuscripts; a new (French) translation that is also accessible to non-specialists; and a commentary that allows the Lithica to be placed in its historical and cultural context. This is probably the milieu of the emperor who went down in history as Julian the Apostate (361-363), also an author and Neo-Platonic philosopher. He was a nephew of Constantine the Great and wanted to restore the pagan religion in an empire where Christianity was becoming increasingly widespread and was on its way to becoming the state religion.
This project is important for society in several respects. First, it enables the library heritage of various European countries (Italy, France, Spain among the main ones) to be put to good use. Secondly, it allows for greater dissemination of a text that is still little known. Thirdly, it will provide a better understanding of a period such as the 4th century marked by an interreligious dialogue, if not conflict, between Pagans and Christians, an issue that is all the more topical in today's world and therefore of interest to a wider audience than just specialists.
The aim of this project is to provide a new critical edition of the text based on a new examination of the manuscripts; a new (French) translation that is also accessible to non-specialists; and a commentary that allows the Lithica to be placed in its historical and cultural context. This is probably the milieu of the emperor who went down in history as Julian the Apostate (361-363), also an author and Neo-Platonic philosopher. He was a nephew of Constantine the Great and wanted to restore the pagan religion in an empire where Christianity was becoming increasingly widespread and was on its way to becoming the state religion.
This project is important for society in several respects. First, it enables the library heritage of various European countries (Italy, France, Spain among the main ones) to be put to good use. Secondly, it allows for greater dissemination of a text that is still little known. Thirdly, it will provide a better understanding of a period such as the 4th century marked by an interreligious dialogue, if not conflict, between Pagans and Christians, an issue that is all the more topical in today's world and therefore of interest to a wider audience than just specialists.
The work carried out since the beginning of the project has made it possible to compare the various manuscripts that have transmitted the Lithica with the aim of proposing a critically established text, i.e. a text as close as possible to the one that the anonymous poet composed and that was necessarily corrupted in the various manuscript transcription phases of the poem.
The data collected were studied from a philological and literary point of view, which allowed us to better understand the poet's style and to have 'access' to his ideal library: an assiduous reader of Homer, he seeks to reproduce in his text a deliberately archaising style that is perfectly in line with the programme of religious and cultural restoration promoted by Julian. At the same time, he betrays his belonging to Late Antiquity through lexical choices that are in line with those of other contemporary poets, primarily Quintus of Smyrna and Gregory of Nazianzus. Other aspects of the text, such as the valorisation of the most marvellous aspects of the minerals described, seen as keys to access the divine, show how much the poet is influenced by Neo-Platonic philosophy, the same philosophy that Julian professed with enthusiasm.
More generally, the project and its research issues have enabled the organisation of four international and/or interdisciplinary scientific events, which are important to better understand the Lithica and place them in their context, and to start disseminating the results obtained:
- an international conference in collaboration with the Sorbonne (Paris, September 2022) studied the relationship between Greek poetry, history, and society in imperial and late antique times, showing how the poetry of this era mirrored the times in which it was written
- an international workshop dedicated to didactic poetry (Frankfurt, March 2023) made it possible to consider the Lithica from the point of view of their genre, that of texts that convey and teach scientific or pseudo-scientific notions by cloaking them in poetic form
- a second international workshop (Frankfurt, April 2003), this time devoted to bucolic (i.e. pastoral) poetry, made it possible to question the literary and ideological aims of the pastoral context in which the Lithica take place, since the poem reproduces a meeting in the countryside between the narrator and the theurgist Theiodamas, who reveals to him the virtues of the stones
- an international conference, which also benefited from a generous contribution from the Thyssen foundation (Frankfurt, July 2023) brought together scholars from various disciplines (literature historians, philosophical historians, historians, archaeologists, etc.), specialists in Julian, who reconstructed the era of this emperor in its various historical and cultural aspects, and thus that of which the Lithica are the product.
All these events were attended by a wide audience not only from the University of Frankfurt but also from other universities. In particular, the workshop in March 2023, dedicated to didactic poetry, concluded with a guided excursion to the “Deutsches Mineralienmuseum” in Idar-Obserstein, where the minerals in the collection were commented on in front of the public in the light of the text of the Lithica, thus confronting ancient beliefs and modern knowledge.
The project also gave me the opportunity to write a long chapter on the Lithica that will be published in the Brill’s Companion to Didactic Poetry. This work, edited by Prof. Athanassios Vergados, will be published in 2025: since this work is addressed not only to specialists but also to students and PhD students, its dissemination will help to broaden the knowledge of the Lithica among a wider audience.
The data collected were studied from a philological and literary point of view, which allowed us to better understand the poet's style and to have 'access' to his ideal library: an assiduous reader of Homer, he seeks to reproduce in his text a deliberately archaising style that is perfectly in line with the programme of religious and cultural restoration promoted by Julian. At the same time, he betrays his belonging to Late Antiquity through lexical choices that are in line with those of other contemporary poets, primarily Quintus of Smyrna and Gregory of Nazianzus. Other aspects of the text, such as the valorisation of the most marvellous aspects of the minerals described, seen as keys to access the divine, show how much the poet is influenced by Neo-Platonic philosophy, the same philosophy that Julian professed with enthusiasm.
More generally, the project and its research issues have enabled the organisation of four international and/or interdisciplinary scientific events, which are important to better understand the Lithica and place them in their context, and to start disseminating the results obtained:
- an international conference in collaboration with the Sorbonne (Paris, September 2022) studied the relationship between Greek poetry, history, and society in imperial and late antique times, showing how the poetry of this era mirrored the times in which it was written
- an international workshop dedicated to didactic poetry (Frankfurt, March 2023) made it possible to consider the Lithica from the point of view of their genre, that of texts that convey and teach scientific or pseudo-scientific notions by cloaking them in poetic form
- a second international workshop (Frankfurt, April 2003), this time devoted to bucolic (i.e. pastoral) poetry, made it possible to question the literary and ideological aims of the pastoral context in which the Lithica take place, since the poem reproduces a meeting in the countryside between the narrator and the theurgist Theiodamas, who reveals to him the virtues of the stones
- an international conference, which also benefited from a generous contribution from the Thyssen foundation (Frankfurt, July 2023) brought together scholars from various disciplines (literature historians, philosophical historians, historians, archaeologists, etc.), specialists in Julian, who reconstructed the era of this emperor in its various historical and cultural aspects, and thus that of which the Lithica are the product.
All these events were attended by a wide audience not only from the University of Frankfurt but also from other universities. In particular, the workshop in March 2023, dedicated to didactic poetry, concluded with a guided excursion to the “Deutsches Mineralienmuseum” in Idar-Obserstein, where the minerals in the collection were commented on in front of the public in the light of the text of the Lithica, thus confronting ancient beliefs and modern knowledge.
The project also gave me the opportunity to write a long chapter on the Lithica that will be published in the Brill’s Companion to Didactic Poetry. This work, edited by Prof. Athanassios Vergados, will be published in 2025: since this work is addressed not only to specialists but also to students and PhD students, its dissemination will help to broaden the knowledge of the Lithica among a wider audience.
The progress achieved at the conclusion of the work will be:
- a new critical text established in the light of a new analysis of the manuscript material and the principles of modern philology; in particular, there is an advantageous return to tradition with the revalorisation of variants transmitted by the manuscripts and hitherto deemed corrupt by the editors of previous centuries
- a translation that makes the text accessible also to non-specialists who are unable to read the Greek original
- a commentary that gives an account of the editorial choices, the literary culture of the poet and the most important aspects of the Lithica from a religious, philosophical, historical, and cultural point of view.
The volume, which will present all these features, plus an extensive general introduction on the poem, will be published in 2026 by the French publishing house Les Belles Lettres, a point of reference in the field of classical studies, thus giving undoubted visibility to this edition of a little-known text that bears witness to an important era for European culture, the 4th century A.D. in which the process of Christianisation of the Roman empire was gradually coming to fruition.
- a new critical text established in the light of a new analysis of the manuscript material and the principles of modern philology; in particular, there is an advantageous return to tradition with the revalorisation of variants transmitted by the manuscripts and hitherto deemed corrupt by the editors of previous centuries
- a translation that makes the text accessible also to non-specialists who are unable to read the Greek original
- a commentary that gives an account of the editorial choices, the literary culture of the poet and the most important aspects of the Lithica from a religious, philosophical, historical, and cultural point of view.
The volume, which will present all these features, plus an extensive general introduction on the poem, will be published in 2026 by the French publishing house Les Belles Lettres, a point of reference in the field of classical studies, thus giving undoubted visibility to this edition of a little-known text that bears witness to an important era for European culture, the 4th century A.D. in which the process of Christianisation of the Roman empire was gradually coming to fruition.