Dares Phrygius

Dares Phrygius (Ancient Greek: Δάρης), according to Homer,[1] was a Trojan priest of Hephaestus. He was supposed to have been the author of an account of the destruction of Troy, and to have lived before Homer.[2] A work in Latin, purporting to be a translation of this, and entitled Daretis Phrygii de excidio Trojae 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 doubtful 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.

The work was a significant source for Joseph of Exeter's De bello Troiano.[3]

See also

References
  1. Homer. Iliad, 5.9, 5.27.
  2. Claudius Aelianus. Var. Hist. Xl, 2.
  3. Rigg, A.G. "Joseph of Exeter: Iliad". Centre for Medieval Studies. Retrieved 1 November 2013.

Sources
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Dares Phrygius". Encyclopædia Britannica. 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).

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