Overview
This is a complete edition, with prolegomena, translation, and commentary of the first, ""philosophical"" part of Philodemus' De Pietate, preserved in papyri. Introducing a new method for reconstructing the fragmented papyrus rolls recovered from Herculaneum, this is the first edition based on the papyri themselves (where they still exist), rather than on faulty reproductions, and the first edition to bring together fragments hitherto thought to be from different rolls. It will also be the first translation of the work into any language. An innovative format presents on facing pages the technical details of the papyrus, and a conventional, continuous text with interpretive notes. The work itself comprises a polemical treatise on the gods, mythography, and religion, presenting a defence of Epicurus's view of religion as an outgrowth of cultural history, and a philosophical rationale for participation in traditional cult practices in order to further social cohesion.
Full Product Details
Author: Philodemus ,
Dirk Obbink (Lecturer in Papyrology and Greek Literature, Lecturer in Papyrology and Greek Literature, University of Oxford)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 16.40cm
, Height: 4.40cm
, Length: 24.30cm
Weight: 1.268kg
ISBN: 9780198150084
ISBN 10: 0198150083
Pages: 696
Publication Date: 05 December 1996
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Language: English & Greek
Reviews
This commentary falls like a bomb on the playground of ordinary commentaries on the Herculaneum papyri....De Pietate represents one of only a handful of sources on Epicurean religion and, illuminated in Obbink's new edition by a brilliant new reconstruction of the order and sequence of the text, vastly enriches our understanding of the topic. --Religious Studies Review<br>
`This is a remarkable piece of scholarship.' Richard Wallace, Greece and Rome `Magisterial edition of the first part of Philodemus's On Piety.' Phronesis
<br> This commentary falls like a bomb on the playground of ordinary commentaries on the Herculaneum papyri....De Pietate represents one of only a handful of sources on Epicurean religion and, illuminated in Obbink's new edition by a brilliant new reconstruction of the order and sequence of the text, vastly enriches our understanding of the topic. --Religious Studies Review<br>
This is a remarkable piece of scholarship. Richard Wallace, Greece and Rome Magisterial edition of the first part of Philodemus's On Piety. Phronesis
