Palaephatus
Palaephatus (Ancient Greek: ) was the author of a rationalizing text on Greek mythology, the paradoxographical work On Incredible Things (; ), which survives in a (probably corrupt) Byzantine edition.
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34 objects attributed to Palaephatus, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana
Article
14 sectionsContents
- ''On Incredible Things''
- The author's identity and the ''Suda'' entries
- "Palaephatus of Athens"
- "Palaephatus of Paros"
- "Palaephatus of Abydos"
- "Palaephatus the Egyptian"
- One author behind these traditions
- References in ancient literature
- Transmission of the text
- Modern editions
- See also
- Notes
- References
- External links
Palaephatus (Ancient Greek: ) was the author of a rationalizing text on Greek mythology, the paradoxographical work On Incredible Things (; ), which survives in a (probably corrupt) Byzantine edition.
This work consists of an introduction and 52 brief sections on various Greek myths. The first 45 have a common format: a brief statement of a wonder tale from Greek mythology, usually followed by a claim of disbelief ("This is absurd" or "This is not likely" or "The true version is..."), and then a sequence of every-day occurrences which gave rise to the wonder-story through misunderstanding. The last seven are equally brief retellings of myth, without any rationalizing explanation.
