Things are not what they are: Agathias mythistoricus and the last laugh of classical culture

The Classical Quarterly

Volumn 53, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 295-300

  Kaldellis, Anthony ^a  

^a OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 85007989139     PISSN: 00098388     EISSN: 14716844     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/cq/53.1.295     Document Type: Article

References (26)

1. Cf. the similar complaints of Cassiodorus’ in the preface of his Variae.
2. See A. Kaldellis, ‘The historical and religious views of Agathias: a reinterpretation’, Byzantion 69 (1999), 206-52, at 220-1. For the professional background, see G. Greatrex, ‘Lawyers and historians in late antiquity’, in R. W. Mathisen (ed.), Law, Society, and Authority in Late Antiquity (Oxford, 2001), 148-61. The standard text is R. Keydell, Agathiae Myrinaei Historiarum Libri Quinque (Berlin, 1967 = CFHB 2). Translated passages are quoted from J. D. Frendo, Agathias: The Histories (Berlin and New York, 1976 = CFHB 2A).
3. See A. Kaldellis, ‘Agathias on history and poetry’, GRBS 38 (1997), 295-305. His notion of history as non-metrical poetry in the service of philosophy may be influenced by Plato, Republic 380b-c, 392a-b (for Agathias and Plato, see below).
4. Cf. A. Cameron, Agathias (Oxford, 1970), c. 7.
5. Cf. Maximus of Tyre, Or. 4.6.
6. For Agathias and philosophy, see Kaldellis (n. 2), esp. 210, 233-4, 240-2, 246-8.
7. For a good discussion, see A. Cameron, ‘Agathias on the Sassanians’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 23-4 (1969-70), 67-183.
8. Kaldellis (n. 2), 211-21, argues the latter.
9. See Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.738-878.
10. Aietes receives a notice in the PLRE, with the provision that his ‘name is that of the mythical king of Colchis in the Argonaut legend and therefore perhaps not above suspicion’ (J. R. Martindale [ed.], The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire 3 [Cambridge, 1992], 32). Cf. D. Braund, Georgia in Antiquity: A History of Colchis and Transcaucasian Iberia, 550 B.C.-A.D. 562 (Oxford, 1994), 308, for scepticism about the speech and the name.
11. Procopius, Wars 8.24.6; Gregory of Tours, The History of the Franks 3.36.
12. Also the only passage outside of Agathias’ Histories where they occur together.
13. J. R. March, The Creative Poet: Studies on the Treatment of Myths in Greek Poetry (London, 1987 = BICS Suppl. 49), at 29, 39. Texts include Bacchylides, Ode 5; Apollodoros, Library 1.8.2-3; Pausanias 8.45; (see below for Ovid); cf. Apollonios, Argonautica 2.815-34. Art: S.Woodford and I. Krauskopf, LIMC 6.1 (Zurich and Munich, 1992), 414-35.
14. Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.281-91, trans. A. D. Melville (Oxford, 1986).
15. A. Cameron, ‘Agathias on the early Merovingians’, Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Classe di lettere e filosofia ser. 2, 37 (1968), 95-140, at 123.
16. P. Green, The Argonautika of Apollonios Rhodios (California, 1997), xii.
17. Cf. Cameron (n. 4), 9-10.
18. A. Cameron, ‘Images of authority: élites and icons in late sixth-century Byzantium’, in M. Mullett and R. Scott (edd.), Byzantium and the Classical Tradition (Birmingham, 1981), 204-34, citing previous works; at 206, also 225.
19. Cameron (n. 18), 225.
20. Cameron (n. 4), vii-viii, also 34, 56, 134-5.
21. 2.2 (Massilia), 1.10.2 (Cumae), 2.16.6 (Cos), 2.17.1 (Tralleis), 2.18.4-5 and 3.5.3-4 (Colchis), 5.12.2 (Sestos).
22. Examples from Cameron (n. 18), 232-3.
23. Phartazes alluding to Matt. 16.26.
24. Cf. Braund (n. 10), 306.
25. I have undertaken this in Kaldellis (n. 2).
26. D. R. MacDonald (ed.), Mimesis and Intertextuality in Antiquity and Christianity (Trinity Press International, 2001), citing previous works; J. Herrin, Women in Purple: Rulers of Medieval Byzantium (Princeton, 2001), 132-4. Many other examples could be cited.