Antiquity Studies

A Forgotten Piece of the Theban Saga?

Reassessing Hec. fr. 33 EGM

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Abstract

This paper offers a fresh discussion of Hecataeus of Miletus’ fr. 33 EGM, usually dismissed for its opaqueness. The reference to the seer Amphiaraus, who, according to Aelian, slept away his watch and nearly suffered the consequence of his negligence, is obscure, but has sometimes been interpreted as being a lost piece of the Theban saga. This reconstruction, however, is not the only one possible: as the story of the seer Evenius in Herodotus shows, this fragment might come from an account about Amphiaraus’ initiation to the prophetic art.


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Submitted: May 17, 2021 | Accepted: June 23, 2021 | Published Dec. 16, 2021 | Language: en

Keywords Theban saga • Amphiaraus • Hecataeus of Miletus • Aelian • Evenius

Copyright © 2021 Ilaria Andolfi. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-548-3/022


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