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This webpage reproduces the Introduction to Colluthus published in the Loeb Classical Library, 1928 The text is in the public domain. This page has been carefully proofread and I believe it to be free of errors. If you find a mistake though, please let me know! next: Text

 p535  Introduction

I. The Life of Colluthus

For the life of Colluthus we have the following authorities:

1. Suidas s.v. Κόλουθος "of Lycopolis in the Thebais [in Egypt: Ptolemy IV.5.62, Strabo 812] epic poet, who lived [or 'flourished,' γεγονώς] in the times of the emperor Anastasius [i.e. Anastasius I, emperor 491‑518], wrote Calydoniaca in six books, and Encomia in epic verse, and Persica." So Eudocia (Villoisin, Anecd. Gr. I p271).

2. A life of Colluthus in cod. Ambrosianus Q 5 sup.: "Coluthus of Lycopolis in the Thebais, epic poet, lived, according to Suidas, in the time of Anastasius, surnamed Brachinûs, who succeeded Zeno as emperor in Constantinople, and after whom reigned Justinus the Thracian, after whom again the emperor was divus (ὁ θεῖος) Justinianus, who delivered Italy from the servitude of the Goths through Belisarius — Justinian being the nephew of Justinus — a little over a thousand years ago. He wrote Calydoniaca in epic verse in six books and Encomia and Persica. To him is also ascribed the present poem, the Rape of Helen, a poem familiar and well known in Apulia, where also the poetry of the Homeric Quintus [the Post-Homerica — τῶν μέθ’ Ὅμηρον λόγοι of Q. Smyrnaeus or Calaber] was first discovered in the temple  p536 of St. Nicolas of Cassuli [Casoli] outside Hydrumtumº [Otranto] and which its recoverer, the sainted Bessarion, archbishop of Nicaea, cardinal-bishop of Tusculum [Frascati], communicated to all concerned. And this also which was hidden, shall now be public property."

 p537  II. The Text

The best MS. of Colluthus is —

M = codex Mutinensis, now Parisinus suppl. graec. 388. Hall, Companion to Classical Texts, p278, saysº it "was never at Modena but was brought by the French in the Napoleonic wars at the beginning of the 19th century from somewhere in North Italy."

It is dated Xth or Xith century.

This MS. was first used by J. Bekker in his edition of Colluthus, impensis G. Reimeri, Berlin 1816.

The only critical edition before that of Bekker was that of John Daniel van Lennep, Leovardiae 1747, which was founded on collations (given him by D'Orville, Ruhnken, Valckenaer) of six MSS.

V = Vossianus, a collation of which is in the library at Leyden; probably to be identified with Palatinus 319.

P = Parisinus 2764.

Q = Parisinus 2600.

A = Ambrosianus Q 5 sup.

L = Laurentianus xxxi.27.

R = Hauniensis 60 (once belonging to Elias Putsch, then to J. A. Fabricius, then to H. S. Reimar).

All these are probably derived from Bessarion's MS.

Other late MSS. are:

Neapolitanus ii. F 17.

Paris. suppl. 109.

Marcianus viiii.1.º

 p538  Bibliography

Editions

Editio Princeps: — Aldine, Venice, no date (probably about 1521), along with Quintus Calaber and Tryphiodorus.

Coluthi Lycopolitae Thebani de Raptu Helenae ac Judicio Paridis Poema nunc primum ab Helio Eobano Hesso [1488‑1540] latino carmine redditum. Erphurdiae (Erfurt), 1533.

Coluthi Theb. Rapt. Hel., Iodoco Velaraeo interprete [Latin prose], Antuerpiae ap. Jo. Steelsium, 1539. Brodaei [Io.] Annotationes in Col. Theb. de Rapt. Hel. librum, Basel, 1552.

Col. Rapt. Hel. per Renatum Perdrierium ad verbum translatus, c. brevibus Bernardi Bertrandi annotationibus. Ex off. I. Oporini, Basel 1555. H. Stephanus (in Poet. Graec. principes her. carm.), Paris 1566. Col. Rapt. Hel. Graece, per Sixtum Henricpetri, Basel, 1569 (along with Q. Calaber and Tryphiod. "Saepius autem mendas, quae Aldinae inerant, fideliter exhibet non tantum, sed ubique fere prioribus novas accumulat" van Lennep). Michael Neander in Opus Aureum Part II, Basel 1559 (preff. to Coluthus and Tryph. are dated March 5th 1559).

Founded on Neander was the edition with short notes of Stephanus Ubelus, Franequerae (Franeker), ap. Aegid. Radaeum, 1600. Col. Rapt. Hel. in the Corpus Poet. Graec. of Jacobus Lectius, Collon. Allobr. (Cologne), 1606, founded on Stephanus. Col. Rapt. Hel., Aemil. Portus, Geneva, 1609, with short extracts from Neander's notes. Claud. Dausqueii  p539 Annot. in Col., Frankfort, 1614. V. E. Loescheri Lect. Coluth. Liber singularis, Wittenberg, 1724. Col. Hel. Rapt. Graece, ap. Janss. Waesbergios, Amsterdam, 1735. Col. Rapt. Hel. recens. ad fidem codd. MSS. ac variantes lectiones et notas adjecit Io. Dan. a Lennep, Leovardiae (Leeuwarden), 1747.

Col. Rapt. Hel. gr. et lat. Accedit metrica interpretatio italica Aut. Mar. Salvini, nunc primum edita. Recens. var. codd., MSS. lect. et select. annotat. adjec. Ang. Mar. Bandinius, Florence 1765. Apart from the translation in Italian this is simply van Lennep. Bandinius not merely reprints Lennep's text, but, without acknowledgment, reproduces his Latin version, his notes, and even his preface (translated into Italian). Cf. Buhle's remarks on Bandini's Aratus.

Another ed. entirely founded on Lennep is Col. Lycop. Theb. de Rapt. Hel. libellus: ex graec. in latina carmina conversus, versionibus, variantibus, et animadversionibus illustratus opera et studio Philippi Scio a Sto Michaele. Madrid 1770, which however, contains, besides a trans. in Latin verse, a rendering in Spanish verse by Antonio Garcia (see below — Translations).

Col. Rapt. Hel., curante Theoph. Christ. Harles, Nuremberg, 1776, likewise entirely founded on Lennep.

In 1816 appeared Col. Rapt. Hel. ex recensione Immanuel. Bekkeri, Berlin 1816. In addition to the MSS. of Lennep, Bekker had a collation of the Mutinensis (containing seven hitherto unpublished lines) and cod. Gothanus.

In 1823 appeared the elaborate edition of A. Stanislas Julien, Paris 1823. This handsome volume contains a revised text, translation in French prose, a new Latin prose trans., a commentary, index verborum, etc., translations in English verse, Italian verse, Spanish verse, and German prose (see below Translations) and facsimiles of two MSS., Parisinus 2764 and Parisinus 2600.

New ed. of Lennep by G. H. Schaefer, Leipzig 1825.  p540 

Lehrs, Didot, Paris 1839. Crit. ed. E. Abel, Berlin 1880.

W. Weinberger, Leipzig, 1896 (with Tryphiod.), crit. notes and ind. verb.

Translations

French: — Charles Dumolard, Paris 1747. Simon de Troyes, London, 1790. Cournand, Paris, 1807 (verse). The author describes his work as an imitation, not a translation.

German: — K. A. Kütner, Mietau und Leipzig, 1772, reprinted in Julien; Alzinger, Weimar, 1785 (verse) — superior, according to Julien, to that of Kütner.

Spanish: — Phil. Scio a Sto Michaele, Madrid, 1770 (verse).

Italian: — Corradino dall' Aglio, Venice, 1741; Ang. Teodoro Villa, Milan, 1753; Ant. Maria Salvini in Bandini's edition, Florence, 1765, reprinted in Julien. C. Lanza, Naples, 1881. P. Ambrogio Curti, Milan, 1882. E. R. Tur, Leghorn, 1886. A. G. Danesi, Corleone, 1893.

English: — The Rape of Helen by Edward Sherburne, London, 1651 (rhymed verse), reprinted in Julien.

Other Literature

A. Ludwich, Rh. Mus. XLII (1887). M. Schneider, Philologus XLIX (1890). W. Weinberger, Wiener Studien XVIII (1896).

---

The Author's Note:

1 Cf. Ecthesis Chronica ed. Lambros, London 1902, p6 ἦλθον ἅπαντες ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει . . . ὁ Νικαίας Βησσαρίων . . . ὁ φιλόσοφος Γεμιστὸς καὶ ἄλλοι ἐκ τῶν ἀρχιέρεων οὐκ ὀλίγοι. Ibid. p7 ὁ γὰρ Βησσαρίων ἦν πολὺς ἑνὶ τῷ λέγειν καὶ ἄκρος φιλόσοφος· γέγονε γὰρ καὶ γαρδινάλιος, ἔχων τιμὴν καὶ δόξαν οὐ τὴν τυχοῦσαν· ἠγάπησε γὰρ τὴν δόξαν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἢ τοῦ θεοῦ.

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