Mythology in the Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius

Abstract

Scholia represent a significant heritage of the ancient critics’ philological activity. Their main aim was to contribute to correct understanding of the text while taking into account not only the linguistic and literary perspectives but also the regional and social context. Hence scholia to works dealing with mythology also contain interesting information on various versions of individual myths and their traditions; apart from that, they show the ways of how ancient critics viewed particular myths. On the scholia to the epic work by Apollonius Rhodius, whose epic is the only preserved representative from the Helllenistic period, it will be shown what paradigms of thoughts can be found in the approaches towards the ancient myth. Consequently, these paradigms will be subject to comparison with traditional ancient interpretation methods of myth.