A LIBRARY OF GREEK MYTH
APOLLODORUS; Benedetto EGIO, translator.
Απολλοδωρου του Αθηναιου γραμματικου βιβλιοθηκης, η περι θεων, βιβλια γ. Apollodori Atheniensis grammatici bibliotheces, sive de deorum origine, libri III. Benedicto Aegio Spoletino interprete. Hanc editionem Hieronymus Commelinus recensuit; plerisque in locis, mm.ss. ope, emendatiorem reddidit; ac notis variis, ex collatione veterum exemplarium, sed praecipue Palat. illustravit ...
[Heidelberg,] ex officina Commeliniana, 1599.
8vo, pp. [16], 207, [1 (blank)], [35 (index)], [1 (blank)]; woodcut device to title, initials and headpieces; Greek and Latin text in parallel columns; occasional slight worming to upper and gutter margins, some very light foxing; nevertheless a beautiful copy in early seventeenth-century French vellum, covers filleted in gilt to a panel design with central gilt wreath, flat spine gilt in compartments lettered ‘Apollodorus’ at head; small hole to upper cover, a few small marks.
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Απολλοδωρου του Αθηναιου γραμματικου βιβλιοθηκης, η περι θεων, βιβλια γ. Apollodori Atheniensis grammatici bibliotheces, sive de deorum origine, libri III. Benedicto Aegio Spoletino interprete. Hanc editionem Hieronymus Commelinus recensuit; plerisque in locis, mm.ss. ope, emendatiorem reddidit; ac notis variis, ex collatione veterum exemplarium, sed praecipue Palat. illustravit ...
Second edition (first 1555) of this classic compendium of Greek myths and legends by Apollodorus, edited by Hieronymus Commelinus (1550–1597) and published posthumously by his heirs. The Greek text is accompanied by the Latin translation of Benedetto Egio, and is prefixed with Commelinus’ readings from various manuscripts.
Of Apollodorus we known next to nothing; he was long confused, as here, with the Athenian scholar of the same name. ‘Compiled faithfully, if uncritically, from the best literary sources open to him, the Library of Apollodorus presents us with a history of the world, as it was conceived by the Greeks, from the dark beginning down to a time when the mists of fable began to lift ... Apollodorus conducts us from the purely mythical ages, which lie far beyond the reach of human memory, down to the borderland of history’ (Loeb ed.). Tentatively dated to the second century AD, the Library is ‘a tour de force of organization – a mass of proper names and genealogical information subordinated to an essentially narrative principle – and is highly readable’ (OCD).
The stories to be enjoyed herein include, among many others, the birth of Zeus and the gods; Persephone and Hades; Prometheus stealing fire from Olympus; the hunting of the Calydonian boar; Jason and the Argonauts; Perseus and Medusa; the labours of Hercules; the Seven against Thebes; Theseus and the Minotaur; the Trojan War; and the wanderings of Odysseus.
USTC 612360; VD16 A 3122; Adams A1306.
