Die Griechischen Götter

Lucius Annaeus Cornutus, who hailed from Leptis Magna in Libya, was a Stoic philosopher living in Rome during the reign of the Emperor Nero. Of his works (writings on rhetoric and philosophy; commentaries on works of the poet Virgil) only the Epidromê tôn kata tên Hellênikên theologian paradedomenôn ('Outline of what has been handed down about the Greek Science of the Divine') has been preserved and is here presented together with a German translation for the first time. This treatise represents a unique (and at the same time rather peculiar) compendium of Stoic allegorical interpretation of the Greek gods. It provides etymological and allegorical analyses of names, epithets and attributes of each Greek deity, extending from Uranus to Hades and referring to various aspects of their myths, rites and imagery in a remarkable attempt to interpret classic ancient polytheism by means of a sophisticated philosophy.