Article
Aeneas
Stephen J. Harrison
Article
Albunea
Stephen J. Harrison
Albunea, sulphurous spring and stream near *Tibur with a famous waterfall, and its homonymous nymph (cf. Hor. Carm. 1. 7. 12), classed as a *Sibyl by *Varro (Lactant. Div. Inst. 1. 6. 12) and fancifully identified by etymology with the sea-goddess *Ino-Leucothea (Servius on Verg. Aen.
Article
Apollonius (12), of Tyana
Herbert Jennings Rose and Antony Spawforth
Article
Ascanius
Stephen J. Harrison
Article
Dido
Cyril Bailey and Philip Hardie
Article
folktale
William Hansen
Folktales are traditional fictional stories. Unlike works of original literary fiction, they are normally anonymous narratives that have been transmitted from one teller to another over an uncertain period of time, and have been shaped by multiple narrators into the form and style that are characteristic of oral narratives. The transmission of traditional tales is predominantly oral, but in literate societies such as Greece and Rome, transmission also takes place via written works.
“Folktale” is an umbrella term for a number of subgenres: the wonder tale (commonly known as the fairytale), the religious tale, the novella, the humorous tale (with its subforms the joke and the tall tale), the animal tale, and the fable. Since there was no ancient notion of folktales as such, no compilation of folktales exists from antiquity—only compilations of particular genres of folktales such as the fable and the joke.
Unlike myths and legends, folktales are narrative fictions, make no serious claim to historicity, and are not ordinarily accorded credence. They differ from myths and especially from legends in their handling of the supernatural.
Article
ghosts
Esther Eidinow
Identifying a ghost in Greek literature and distinguishing it from what we might call a delusion or a supernatural entity can sometimes pose difficulties: *Homer tends to use the term psyche to describe his spirits, but we also find skia. In later writers, eidolon is used (Hdt. 5.92.η and Pl. Leg. 959b of the corpse), which can also mean a phantom of the mind, or even just a likeness. Later still, *daimōn, alone, or combined with other words to evoke particular forms of demon (see below) appears. Other terms (which will appear throughout the entry) evoked the particular ways in which individuals died and became ghosts. This entry will focus on appearances in the mortal realm of spirits connected to a death, indicating where there are any ambiguities of spectral terminology. As the move from psyche to daimōn might suggest, there seems to be a gradual development in the strength, substance and presence of ghosts in the ancient world; while living mortals seem, in turn, to find increasingly sophisticated ways to manipulate their spectral visitors and their needs for their own ends.
Article
Nisus (2), mythical Trojan hero
Stephen J. Harrison
Nisus (2), Trojan hero in Virgil's Aeneid, son of Hyrtacus, sympathetically presented as the devoted older lover of the young and headstrong Euryalus. He helps Euryalus to victory in the foot-race at Aen. 5. 286–361, and dies avenging him in the night-episode at Aen. 9. 176–502.
Article
Ovid, poet, 43 BCE–17 CE
Stephen Hinds
Article
Palinurus
Stephen J. Harrison
Article
Panthous
Stephen J. Harrison
Article
phallus
Richard Seaford
Article
Pyramus and Thisbe
Stephen J. Harrison
Article
Testamentum Porcelli
Leofranc Holford-Strevens
The purported will (4th cent.
Article
Turnus (1), Italian hero
Stephen J. Harrison
Turnus (1), Italian hero, in *Virgil son of Daunus and the *nymph Venilia and brother of the nymph Juturna; the Greek tradition calls him ‘Tyrrhenus’, suggesting an *Etruscan link (Dion. Hal. 1. 64. 2). His role as *Aeneas' rival in Italy is well established before Virgil (Cato frs. 9, 11 Peter; Dion. Hal. 1. 64. 2; Livy, 1. 2. 1–5). In the Aeneid he is king of *Ardea and the Rutulians and favoured suitor, not fiancé, of *Latinus' daughter Lavinia; rejected in favour of Aeneas and maddened by Juno's intervention, he rouses the Latins (see