Interpreters of Interpreters

: Seppänen Minna, Lampinen Antti

Publisher: Brill

: 2019

: Mnemosyne

: MNEMOSYNE

: 72

: 6

: 883

: 907

: 25

: 0026-7074

: 1568-525X

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/1568525X-12342602

We discuss analogies between oracular and grammatical interpretation, as reflected in our Greek and Latin sources from the Classical era to the High Empire. The two hermeneutical professions of mu alpha nu iota i zeta and gamma rho alpha mu mu alpha iota i chi o zeta both aim at elucidating the thought (delta i alpha nu oi alpha) involved in the interpretandum. This is a notion quite frequently made at one level or another in ancient literature, as evidenced for example in writings by Plato, Crates of Mallus, Aristarchus, Cicero, Nigidius Figulus, and Sextus Empiricus.