SAPERE XXI: Egyptian Tales or On Providence

Egyptian Narratives or On Providence, introduced, translated and provided with interpretative essays by Martin Hose / Wolfgang Bernard / Frank Feder / Monika Schuol, Tübingen 2012.

Synesius of Cyrene (ca. 370 -413 AD) may be regarded as a representative of the late antique Greek upper class in the Imperium Romanum. He studied philosophy in Athens and Alexandria and held important offices in Cyrene, including bishop, as was customary for members of the landowning elite. As an intellectual, he stood in the field of tension between Christianity on the one hand and pagan literary tradition (one could call it "cultural Hellenism") and (neo-Platonic) philosophy on the other. His literary oeuvre, letters, hymns and treatises, shows his productive engagement with this tension. This volume presents the "Egyptian Tales", a text by Synesius in German translation (first published since 1835) and opened up by essays on contemporary history, the form of allegory and Egyptian elements, in which the author relates his experiences during a legation to Constantinople at the imperial court, which was intended to provide his homeland with relief from its tax burden. The form chosen is that of an allegorical narrative, which shows Synesios as a masterly man of letters and communicates the philosophically reworked (Egyptian) Osiris myth, at the centre of which is the overthrow of the good regent Osiris by his sinister brother Typhos. Neoplatonism and "Egyptian wisdom" merge in the enigmatic form of the allegory of late antique contemporary history.

Reviews:

• F. Schleicher, H-soz-u-Kult, (02/2013).
• J. Stenger, Gymnasium 121 (2014), S. 410-411.

Hose, Martin; Bernard, Wolfgang; Feder, Frank; Schuol, Monika
Composite volume; German, Ancient Greek
Published: 2012
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck Verlag: Tübingen