Claudius Aelianus - Wikipedia Claudius Aelianus From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Not to be confused with Aelianus Tacticus. Claudius Aelianus (Ancient Greek: Κλαύδιος Αἰλιανός, modern Greek transliteration Klávdios Elianós;[1] c. 175 – c. 235 AD), commonly Aelian (/ˈiːliən/), born at Praeneste, was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus and probably outlived Elagabalus, who died in 222. He spoke Greek so fluently that he was called "honey-tongued" (μελίγλωσσος meliglossos); Roman-born, he preferred Greek authors, and wrote in a slightly archaizing Greek himself.[2] His two chief works are valuable for the numerous quotations from the works of earlier authors, which are otherwise lost, and for the surprising lore, which offers unexpected glimpses into the Greco-Roman world-view. It is also the only Greco-Roman work to mention Gilgamesh. Contents 1 De Natura Animalium 2 Varia Historia 3 Other works 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links 7.1 Aelian's Characteristics of Animals 7.1.1 Greek with English translation 7.1.2 Latin translation 7.1.3 Greek De Natura Animalium[edit] On the Nature of Animals ("On the Characteristics of Animals" is an alternative title; Ancient Greek: Περὶ ζῴων ἰδιότητος, Perì zṓōn idiótētos; usually cited, though, by its Latin title: De Natura Animalium) is a curious collection,[2] in seventeen books, of brief stories of natural history, sometimes selected with an eye to conveying allegorical moral lessons, sometimes because they are just so astonishing: "The Beaver is an amphibious creature: by day it lives hidden in rivers, but at night it roams the land, feeding itself with anything that it can find. Now it understands the reason why hunters come after it with such eagerness and impetuosity, and it puts down its head and with its teeth cuts off its testicles and throws them in their path, as a prudent man who, falling into the hands of robbers, sacrifices all that he is carrying, to save his life, and forfeits his possessions by way of ransom. If however it has already saved its life by self-castration and is again pursued, then it stands up and reveals that it offers no ground for their eager pursuit, and releases the hunters from all further exertions, for they esteem its flesh less. Often however Beavers with testicles intact, after escaping as far away as possible, have drawn in the coveted part, and with great skill and ingenuity tricked their pursuers, pretending that they no longer possessed what they were keeping in concealment." The Loeb Classical Library introduction characterizes the book as "an appealing collection of facts and fables about the animal kingdom that invites the reader to ponder contrasts between human and animal behavior." Aelian's anecdotes on animals rarely depend on direct observation: they are almost entirely taken from written sources, often Pliny the Elder, but also other authors and works now lost, to whom he is thus a valuable witness.[3] He is more attentive to marine life than might be expected,[according to whom?] though, and this seems to reflect first-hand personal interest; he often quotes "fishermen". At times he strikes the modern reader as thoroughly credulous, but at others he specifically states that he is merely reporting what is told by others, and even that he does not believe them. Aelian's work is one of the sources of medieval natural history and of the bestiaries of the Middle Ages.[4] The portions of the text that are still extant are badly mangled and garbled and replete with later interpolations.[5] Conrad Gessner (or Gesner), the Swiss scientist and natural historian of the Renaissance, made a Latin translation of Aelian's work, to give it a wider European audience. An English translation by A. F. Scholfield has been published in the Loeb Classical Library, 3 vols. (1958-59). Varia Historia[edit] Title page of Varia Historia, from the 1668 edition by Tanaquil Faber Various History (Ποικίλη ἱστορία, Poikílē historía)—for the most part preserved only in an abridged form[2]—is Aelian's other well-known work, a miscellany of anecdotes and biographical sketches, lists, pithy maxims, and descriptions of natural wonders and strange local customs, in 14 books, with many surprises for the cultural historian and the mythographer, anecdotes about the famous Greek philosophers, poets, historians, and playwrights and myths instructively retold. The emphasis is on various moralizing tales about heroes and rulers, athletes and wise men; reports about food and drink, different styles in dress or lovers, local habits in giving gifts or entertainments, or in religious beliefs and death customs; and comments on Greek painting. Aelian gives an account of fly fishing, using lures of red wool and feathers, of lacquerwork, serpent worship — Essentially the Various History is a Classical "magazine" in the original senses of that word. He is not perfectly trustworthy in details, and his agenda was heavily influenced by Stoic opinions,[6] perhaps so that his readers will not feel guilty, but Jane Ellen Harrison found survivals of archaic rites mentioned by Aelian very illuminating in her Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (1903, 1922). The first printing was in 1545. The standard modern text is Mervin R. Dilts's, of 1974. Two English translations of the Various History, by Fleming (1576) and Stanley (1665) made Aelian's miscellany available to English readers, but after 1665 no English translation appeared, until three English translations appeared almost simultaneously: James G. DeVoto, Claudius Aelianus: Ποικίλης Ἱστορίας (Varia Historia) Chicago, 1995; Diane Ostrom Johnson, An English Translation of Claudius Aelianus' "Varia Historia", 1997; and N. G. Wilson, Aelian: Historical Miscellany in the Loeb Classical Library. Other works[edit] Considerable fragments of two other works, On Providence and Divine Manifestations, are preserved in the early medieval encyclopedia, the Suda. Twenty "letters from a farmer" after the manner of Alciphron are also attributed to him.[2] The letters are invented compositions to a fictitious correspondent, which are a device for vignettes of agricultural and rural life, set in Attica, though mellifluous Aelian once boasted that he had never been outside Italy, never been aboard a ship (which is at variance, though, with his own statement, de Natura Animalium XI.40, that he had seen the bull Serapis with his own eyes). Thus conclusions about actual agriculture in the Letters are as likely to evoke Latium as Attica. The fragments have been edited in 1998 by D. Domingo-Foraste, but are not available in English. The Letters are available in the Loeb Classical Library, translated by Allen Rogers Benner and Francis H. Fobes (1949). See also[edit] Historiae animalium by Gessner References[edit] ^ Η φυσιογνωμία ενός λαού θεμελιών. Μύθοι για την Ελιά. Retrieved June 5, 2011, from http://www.etwinning.gr/projects/elia/muthoi.htm ^ a b c d  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Aelian". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 256. This cites: Editio princeps of complete works by Gesner, 1556; Hercher, 1864-1866. English translation of the Various History only by Fleming, 1576, and Stanley, 1665 Translation of the Letters by Quillard (French), 1895 ^ The third volume of the Loeb Classical Library translation gives a gazetteer of authors cited by Aelian. ^ Cohen, Simona (2008). Animals as Disguised Symbols in Renaissance Art. Brill. pp. 38–39. ISBN 978-90-04-17101-5. ^ "Aelian's text, riddled as it is with corrupt passages and packed with interpretations,provides ample scope for reckless emendation", D. E. Eichholz observed, reviewing Sholfield's Loeb Library translation in The Classical Review 1960:219, and praising the translator for restraint in this direction. ^ Zeyl, Donald (2013). Encyclopedia of Classical Philosophy. Routledge. ISBN 9781134270781. Retrieved 30 November 2013. Further reading[edit] Aelian, On Animals. 3 volumes. Translated by A. F. Scholfield. 1958-9. Loeb Classical Library. ISBN 978-0-674-99491-1, ISBN 978-0-674-99493-5, and ISBN 978-0-674-99494-2 Aelian, Historical Miscellany. Translated by Nigel G. Wilson. 1997. Loeb Classical Library. ISBN 978-0-674-99535-2 Alciphron, Aelian, and Philostratus, The Letters. Translated by A. R. Benner, F. H. Fobes. 1949. Loeb Classical Library. ISBN 978-0-674-99421-8 Aelian, On the Nature of Animals. Translated by Gregory McNamee. 2011. Trinity University Press. ISBN 978-1-59534-075-7 Ailianos, Vermischte Forschung. Greek and German by Kai Brodersen. 2018. Sammlung Tusculum. De Gruyter Berlin & Boston ISBN 978-3-11-057638-2 Ailianos, Tierleben. Greek and German by Kai Brodersen. 2018. Sammlung Tusculum. De Gruyter Berlin & Boston 2018, ISBN ISBN 978-3-11-060932-5 Claudius Aelianus, Vom Wesen der Tiere - De natura animalium. German and Commentary by Paul-Gerhard Veh, Philipp Stahlhut. 2020. Bibliothek der Griechischen Literaur. Anton Hiersemann Verlag Stuttgart 2020, ISBN ISBN 978-3-7772-1904-2 External links[edit] Wikisource has original works written by or about: Claudius Aelianus Works by or about Claudius Aelianus at Internet Archive Works by Claudius Aelianus at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Ποικίλη ἱστορία – bibliotheca Augustana Raw Greek OCR of Hercher's 1864 Teubner edition of Aelian's works at the Lace repository of Mount Allison University: vol. I, vol. 2 Various History at James Eason's site (excerpts in English translation) English translation of Aelian's fragments at attalus.org Some quotes from Aelian's natural history (English) Aelian from the fly-fisherman's point-of-view The Evidence for Aelian's Katêgoria tou gunnidos regarding Aelian's presumed invective against Elagabalus Aelian's Characteristics of Animals[edit] Greek with English translation[edit] Aelian on the Characteristics of Animals, Books I-V (Greek with English translation by A.F. Scholfield, 1950) Aelian on the Characteristics of Animals, Books VI-XI (Greek with English translation by A.F. Scholfield, 1950) Aelian on the Characteristics of Animals, Books XII-XVII (Greek with English translation by A.F. Scholfield, 1950) HTML version of Scholfield's English translation at attalus.org Latin translation[edit] De natura animalium at LacusCurtius (complete Latin translation) Greek[edit] De natura animalium libri XVII, Varia historia, Epistolae fragmenta, ex recognitione Rudolphi Hercheri, Lipsiae, in aedibus B. G. Teubneri, 1864: vol. 1, vol. 2. v t e Natural history Pioneering naturalists Classical antiquity Aristotle (History of Animals) Theophrastus (Historia Plantarum) Aelian (De Natura Animalium) Pliny the Elder (Natural History) Dioscorides (De Materia Medica) Renaissance Gaspard Bauhin (Pinax theatri botanici) Otto Brunfels Hieronymus Bock Andrea Cesalpino Valerius Cordus Leonhart Fuchs Conrad Gessner (Historia animalium) Frederik Ruysch William Turner (Avium Praecipuarum, New Herball) John Gerard (Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes) Enlightenment Robert Hooke (Micrographia) Marcello Malpighi Antonie van Leeuwenhoek William Derham Hans Sloane Jan Swammerdam Carl Linnaeus (Systema Naturae) Georg Steller Joseph Banks Johan Christian Fabricius James Hutton John Ray (Historia Plantarum) Comte de Buffon (Histoire Naturelle) Bernard Germain de Lacépède Gilbert White (The Natural History of Selborne) Thomas Bewick (A History of British Birds) Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (Philosophie zoologique) 19th century George Montagu (Ornithological Dictionary) Georges Cuvier (Le Règne Animal) William Smith Charles Darwin (On the Origin of Species) Alfred Russel Wallace (The Malay Archipelago) Henry Walter Bates (The Naturalist on the River Amazons) Alexander von Humboldt John James Audubon (The Birds of America) William Buckland Charles Lyell Mary Anning Jean-Henri Fabre Louis Agassiz Philip Henry Gosse Asa Gray William Jackson Hooker Joseph Dalton Hooker William Jardine (The Naturalist's Library) Ernst Haeckel (Kunstformen der Natur) Richard Lydekker (The Royal Natural History) 20th century Abbott Thayer (Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom) Hugh B. Cott (Adaptive Coloration in Animals) Niko Tinbergen (The Study of Instinct) Konrad Lorenz (On Aggression) Karl von Frisch (The Dancing Bees) Ronald Lockley (Shearwaters) Topics Natural history museums (List) Parson-naturalists (List) Natural History Societies List of natural history dealers Authority control BIBSYS: 90607007 BNE: XX963905 BNF: cb13092007b (data) CANTIC: a11084984 CiNii: DA01428499 GND: 119160285 ISNI: 0000 0000 7980 209X LCCN: n82032651 NDL: 00462084 NLA: 35816447 NLG: 113320 NLI: 004088438 NLP: A18570094 NSK: 000329740 NTA: 069365504 RERO: 02-A000003928 SELIBR: 175772 SUDOC: 030060087 Trove: 288029 VcBA: 495/44540 VIAF: 100219416 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n82032651 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Claudius_Aelianus&oldid=996213532" Categories: 175 births 235 deaths People from Palestrina Claudii Ancient Roman rhetoricians Ancient Greek writers 2nd-century Romans 3rd-century Romans 3rd-century writers 2nd-century Greek people 3rd-century Greek people Hidden categories: Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from February 2016 Articles with Internet Archive links Articles with LibriVox links Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNE identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers Wikipedia articles with CINII identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with NDL identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLA identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLG identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLI identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLP identifiers Wikipedia articles with NSK identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with RERO identifiers Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers Wikipedia articles with VcBA identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikisource Languages বাংলা Български Brezhoneg Català Čeština Deutsch Ελληνικά Español Esperanto فارسی Français Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית Latina Magyar Nederlands 日本語 Norsk bokmål Polski Português Русский Simple English Slovenčina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Türkçe Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 25 December 2020, at 05:22 (UTC). 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