Dares Phrygius
Dares Phrygius (Ancient Greek: Δάρης), according to Homer,[1] was a Trojan priest of Hephaestus. He was later thought to have been the author of an account of the destruction of Troy.[2] A work in Latin, purporting to be a translation of this, and entitled Daretis Phrygii de excidio Troiae historia, was much read in the Middle Ages, and was then ascribed to Cornelius Nepos, who is made to dedicate it to Sallust; but the language better fits a period much later than the time of Nepos (probably the 5th century AD).
It is unknown whether the existing work is an abridgment of a larger Latin work or an adaptation of a Greek original. Together with the similar work of Dictys Cretensis (with which it is generally printed), the De excidio forms the chief source for the numerous medieval accounts of the Trojan legend, the so-called Matter of Troy. Dares claimed 866,000 Greeks and 676,000 Trojans were killed in this war, but archaeology has uncovered nothing that suggests a war this large was ever fought on that site.[3]
The work was a significant source for Joseph of Exeter's De bello Troiano.[4] It was also completely reworked in the 8th century in Merovingian Gaul into the work entitled Historia de origine Francorum ('History of the Origins of the Franks'), which purports to describe the descent of the Franks from the Trojans and is attributed to Dares.[5] The work is also translated into Norse, Trójumanna saga, which appears quite unique as it appears to deviate quite considerably from the Latin translation ascribed to Cornelius Nepos in the 5th ceuntury.. The 12th or 13th century Trójumanna saga (dating uncertain) begins with the story of Frey, the vanir-god, as a young poor man living on Crete at the time of the bibilical Josva. The saga begins with how he steals the secret of gold from the Gyðinga people - the People of Guðř, and becomes the riches man on earth and let his subject believe he is a god. The saga tells that the romans know Frey as Saturnus of Crete. One of his sons are Thor, which the saga explains the Romans know as Jupiter. It appears quite clear that the author of the Norse saga is aware that the Roman names are translations as well. The Norse saga can hardly be said to be a translation of the Latin version, but seems likely aware of the Dares Phrygius History of the Fall of Rome and appears even more in concord with the humanistic philosophy of Euhemerius in the Norse version than that of the Cornelius Nepos. Jupiter's son Mercurius is not explained as Oðin, although the names of the seven days reveals that the fourth day as Oðin's day, among Norse and Germanic languages. Mercurius is not the son of Juno, which indeed is identified as Sif, who in many other medieval Norse sources are explained as the mythical first oracular Sibyl. Mercurius is the son of the concubine Maya.. Mercurius is the father of Erkules in Trojumanna saga, with Ío, which Sif tries to let some snakes kill.. Trojumanna saga refers to Dares as Meistari Dares. It appears that the Icelandic author at least pretends to know, or know of a different source than the Latin translation of Master Dares.
References
- ^ Homer. Iliad, 5.9, 5.27.
- ^ Claudius Aelianus. Var. Hist. Xl, 2.
- ^ White, Matthew (2012). Atrocities: the 100 Deadliest Episodes in Human History. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 556. ISBN 978-0-393-34523-0.
- ^ Rigg, A. G. "Joseph of Exeter: Iliad". Centre for Medieval Studies. Retrieved 1 November 2013.
- ^ Nurgül Kıvılcım Yavuz, Transmission and Adaptation of the Trojan Narrative in Frankish History between the Sixth and Tenth Centuries, PhD diss. (University of Leeds, 2015), pp. 182–187.
Sources
[edit]- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Dares Phrygius". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 829.
- O.S. von Fleschenberg, Daresstudie, i, 1908.
- Gudeman, Alfred (1894). "Literary Frauds among the Romans". Transactions of the American Philological Association. 25: 140–164. doi:10.2307/2935663. ISSN 0271-4442. JSTOR 2935663.
- (fr) Louis Faivre d'Arcier, Histoire et géographie d’un mythe. La circulation des manuscrits du De excidio Troiae de Darès le Phrygien (VIIIe-XVe s.), Paris, 2006 (ISBN 2-900791-79-0).
- (de) Andreas Beschorner, Untersuchungen zu Dares Phrygius-Narr, Tübingen, 1992 (ISBN 3-8233-4863-9).
- History and Novel in Antiquity:https://www.academia.edu/89912738/HISTORY_AND_NOVEL_IN_ANTIQUITY_THE_CHRONICLES_OF_DICTYS_AND_DARES
External links
[edit]- Daretis phrygii de excidio Troiae historia, Ferdinand Meister (ed.), Lipsiae, in aedibus B. G. Teubneri, 1873.
- Full text at the Latin Library
- The History of the Trojan War by Dares Phrygius translated by Jason Colavito (2011)
- Jonathan Cornil, Dares Phrygius' de excidio Trojae historia: philological commentary and translation. Scriptie voorgedragen tot het bekomen van de graad van Master in de Taal- en letterkunde (Latijn-Engels), 2011–2012, Universiteit Gent.
- R. M. Frazer, The Trojan War. The Chronicles of Dictys of Crete and Dares the Phrygian, Indiana University Press, 1966.
