Dictys Cretensis
Dictys of Crete, a man from Knossos, claimed to be the companion of Idomeneus during the Trojan War. He wrote a diary that used some of the same materials Homer worked up for the Iliad. This story was an amusing fiction addressed to a knowledgeable Alexandrian audience in ancient times. Later generations took this fiction literally and treated it as historical fact. The name Dictys means fisherman, fitting for a Cretan who might have been near the sea. His identity remained fictional even as his account became real history for many readers.
An elaborate prologue details how Phoenician tablets survived through centuries of silence. These tablets were made of limewood or tree bark and enclosed in a leaden box. The author buried them with himself according to his own wishes. An earthquake burst open the sepulchre in the thirteenth year of Nero's reign. Shepherds found the coffer but discovered no treasure inside. They gave it to their master Eupraxis, whose name means right actions. Eupraxis presented both the casket and himself to Rutilius Rufus, the Roman governor. Rufus sent everything to Emperor Nero, who summoned men skilled in Phoenician language. The whole text was translated into Greek and deposited in one of the public libraries. Eupraxis received rewards for his discovery and delivery of the tablets.
Q. Septimius brought out the Latin version called Ephemeris belli Trojani in six books during the 4th century AD. This work professed to be a translation from an original Greek version. Knowledge of Greek waned and disappeared in Western Europe over time. Dictys and Dares Phrygius became the main sources for Homeric legends transmitted to Romance literature. A letter by Q. Septimius Romanus appears in another manuscript tradition instead of the prologue. He wrote this letter to Q. Arcadius Rufus about converting the volume into Latin. Modern editor Werner Eisenhut suggests these two groups represent published editions in Late Antiquity. Neither group is consistently preferred over the other by scholars today. Petrarch owned a copy now known as Codex Parisinus Lat. 5690 in the Bibliothèque nationale. The first printed edition appeared no later than 1471 according to historical records.
Modern scholars debated whether any Greek original really existed before the late 19th century. Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt found a fragment in Greek among the Tebtunis papyri between 1899 and 1900. This papyrus had been reused for revenue returns in 206 CE. The discovery removed all doubt about the existence of an underlying Greek text. It revealed that the Latin version was indeed a close translation of the original. Another surprise came from the library of conte Aurelio Guglielmo Balleani at Jesi. There researchers found a manuscript dating to the latter part of the ninth century. C. Annibaldi described and collated this manuscript called Codex Aesinus in 1907. The Codex Aesinus also contained works by Tacitus including Germania and Agricola. These findings confirmed what earlier generations had only suspected about the Dictys tradition.
Up Next
Common questions
Who was Dictys of Crete and what did he claim to be?
Dictys of Crete, a man from Knossos, claimed to be the companion of Idomeneus during the Trojan War. He wrote a diary that used some of the same materials Homer worked up for the Iliad.
How were Phoenician tablets containing the Dictys story discovered and translated?
An earthquake burst open the sepulchre in the thirteenth year of Nero's reign where Shepherds found the coffer but discovered no treasure inside. They gave it to their master Eupraxis who presented both the casket and himself to Rutilius Rufus, the Roman governor. Rufus sent everything to Emperor Nero, who summoned men skilled in Phoenician language so the whole text was translated into Greek and deposited in one of the public libraries.
When did Septimius bring out the Latin version called Ephemeris belli Trojani?
Septimius brought out the Latin version called Ephemeris belli Trojani in six books during the 4th century AD. This work professed to be a translation from an original Greek version before knowledge of Greek waned and disappeared in Western Europe over time.
Why did Byzantine historians treat Dictys as an unquestionable primary source for Homeric legends?
Byzantine historians treated Dictys as an unquestionable primary source for Homeric legends throughout the Middle Ages because they considered him an author of the highest authority during their era. Writers like Joannes Malelas, Constantinus Porphyrogenitus, Georgius Cedrenus, and others quoted largely from this Dictys while Medieval readers accepted the fictional diary as genuine historical record without question.
What evidence confirmed the existence of an underlying Greek text for Dictys Cretensis?
Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt found a fragment in Greek among the Tebtunis papyri between 1899 and 1900 which had been reused for revenue returns in 206 CE. The discovery removed all doubt about the existence of an underlying Greek text by revealing that the Latin version was indeed a close translation of the original.