Dares Phrygius according to
HomerIn the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
, was a
TrojanTroy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...
priest of
HephaestusHephaestus was a Greek god whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan. He is the son of Zeus and Hera, the King and Queen of the Gods - or else, according to some accounts, of Hera alone. He was the god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes...
. He was supposed to have been the author of an account of the destruction of Troy, and to have lived before Homer. A work in
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, purporting to be a translation of this, and entitled
Daretis Phrygii de excidio Trojae historia, was much read in the Middle Ages, and was then ascribed to
Cornelius NeposCornelius Nepos was a Roman biographer. He was born at Hostilia, a village in Cisalpine Gaul not far from Verona. His Gallic origin is attested by Ausonius, and Pliny the Elder calls him Padi accola...
, who is made to dedicate it to
SallustGaius Sallustius Crispus, generally known simply as Sallust , a Roman historian, belonged to a well-known plebeian family, and was born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines...
; but the language is extremely corrupt, and the work belongs to a period much later than the time of Nepos (probably the 5th century AD).
It is doubtful whether the existing work is an abridgment of a larger Latin work or an adaptation of a
GreekGreek literature refers to writings composed in areas of Greek influence, typically though not necessarily in one of the Greek dialects, throughout the whole period in which the Greek-speaking people have existed.-Ancient Greek literature :...
original. Together with the similar work of
Dictys CretensisDictys Cretensis of Knossus was the legendary companion of Idomeneus during the Trojan War, and the purported author of a diary of its events, that deployed some of the same materials worked up by Homer for the Iliad...
(with which it is generally printed), the
De excidio forms the chief source for the numerous medieval accounts of the Trojan legend.
Sources
- O.S. von Fleschenberg, Daresstudie, i, 1908.
- (fr) Louis Faivre d'Arcier, Histoire et géographie d’un mythe. La circulation des manuscrits du De excidio Troiae de Darès le Phrygien (VIIIe-XVe s.), Paris, 2006 (ISBN 2-900791-79-0).
- (de) Andreas Beschorner, Untersuchungen zu Dares Phrygius-Narr, Tübingen, 1992 (ISBN 3-8233-4863-9).
External links