Athenaeus
Athenaeus (Greek: Ἀθήναιος), commonly known as Athenaeus of Naucratis, was an ancient Greek rhetorician and writer who flourished around the end of the second and beginning of the third centuries AD. He was born in Naucratis, a Greek city in Egypt, and is best known for his Deipnosophistae (The Learned Banqueters), an extensive literary work composed in the form of conversations among educated men at a banquet in Rome.[1]
The Deipnosophistae is an important source for the study of ancient Greek literature, history, philosophy, customs, and daily life. Athenaeus quotes and discusses numerous earlier writers, including many whose original works have not survived. His compilation therefore preserves otherwise lost material from Greek poets, dramatists, historians, philosophers, physicians, and other authors.[2]
Life
Little is known with certainty about Athenaeus's personal life. The Byzantine encyclopedia known as the Suda places him in the time of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 161–180). However, the Deipnosophistae refers to the emperor Commodus as apparently already deceased, indicating that at least the surviving form of the work dates from after AD 192. Modern scholarship generally places its composition or completion in the early reign of Septimius Severus (AD 193–211).[1]
Athenaeus appears to have lived in Rome, where the main action of his best-known work is set. Beyond the information preserved in his writings and ancient biographical tradition, the details of his education, family, and public career remain uncertain.
Works
The Deipnosophistae
Athenaeus's principal surviving work is the Deipnosophistae, a Greek title commonly translated as The Learned Banqueters or The Sophists at Dinner. It consists of fifteen books presented as a series of discussions among learned guests at a banquet. The host is identified as Larensius, and the participants include men associated with literature, philosophy, medicine, and other branches of learning.
The conversations range across a remarkable variety of subjects, including food and drink, banqueting customs, music, poetry, drama, philosophy, history, religion, and the lives and sayings of notable people. Discussions of expensive meals and luxury give the work its reputation as an important source for ancient gastronomy, but its subject matter extends far beyond cooking and dining.[2]
Athenaeus draws upon a wide range of earlier literary authorities. His quotations preserve passages from ancient Greek writers whose works have otherwise been lost, making the Deipnosophistae especially valuable to modern scholars studying Greek literature and intellectual life.
The work is also a source of information about social customs, entertainments, material culture, and literary tastes during the Roman Empire. Its accounts can provide evidence about earlier periods as well, although the date and reliability of the source being quoted must be considered in each case.
Other works
Athenaeus refers to other writings of his own that have not survived. These include a history of the kings of Syria and a work connected with the comedy The Fishes, written by the Athenian comic poet Archippus. The loss of these writings means that Athenaeus's literary reputation rests principally upon the Deipnosophistae.[2]
Historical importance
The Deipnosophistae is particularly important because it preserves extracts from a large number of earlier authors. Its evidence is used in the study of Greek poetry, comedy, history, philosophy, medicine, and natural history. It also preserves references to works and individuals otherwise known only by name.
Athenaeus's method was that of a learned literary compilation rather than a modern history arranged according to a single chronological narrative. His discussions frequently move between subjects and authors, and his accounts may depend on earlier sources rather than personal observation. Consequently, individual statements should be evaluated with attention to their literary context and the sources on which they depend.[1]
Despite these limitations, the work is an invaluable resource for reconstructing aspects of the ancient Greek literary tradition. Without Athenaeus, much information about lost authors and their writings would be unavailable.
See also
- Deipnosophistae
- Naucratis
- Ancient Greece
- Ancient Egypt
- Greek literature
- Greek comedy
- Septimius Severus
- Commodus
- Galen
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 S. Douglas Olson, "Athenaeus of Naukratis," The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, 2012.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 C. B. Gulick, "Introduction," in Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists, vol. I, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1927. Online text.