A Note On Euhemerism 142a5m

Medieval Academy of America

A Note on Euhemerism Author(s): Millett Henshaw Source: Speculum, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Jan., 1929), pp. 90-91 Published by: Medieval Academy of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2847130 Accessed: 17/02/2010 15:30 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/.jsp. JSTOR's and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=medacad. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please [email protected].

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90

Notes ALFODHOL DE MERENGI AGAIN

IN a previous note in SPECULUNI (II, 1927, 326-331),

I was mistaken

in

representing the geomancy or book of lot-casting, ascribed in a manuscript at Florence to Alfodhol de Merengi, as 'hitherto unnoted,' since the treatise has been discussed by both Moritz Steinschneider 1and Heinrich Suter,2 not to mention Guidi and Wiistenfeld. Its author was probably Fadl b. Sahl al Sarahsi, who died about A.D. 818, and the Latin translation appears to be by Gerard of Cremona, in the list of whose works as drawn up by his associates there is a Liber Alfadhol. But the words 'de Merengi' are hard to explain. There are other manuscripts of the work than that in the Laurentian library at Florence - manuscripts in Arabic, and in German as well as Latin translation. But the Berlin Latin manuscript from which Steinschneider gave some extracts differs from the Laurentian codex even more than he indicated on the basis of Bandini's description of it. 1 Recently, on referring again to the Index of Steinschneider's 'Die europaischer Uebersetzungen aus dem Arabischen,' Vienna Academy, Sitzungsberichte,philos.-hist. Klasse, CLI (1906), 89; see also Vol. CXLIX (1905), 21-22, I was horrified to see the word, 'Alfadhol,' staring me in the face. Almost immediately thereafter I received a letter from Professor Alexander Marx, librarian of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, very kindly calling my attention to Steinschneider's discussion of Fadl b. Sahl al Sarahsi and Alfodhol in his 'Arabische Mathematiker und Astronomen,' OrientalistischeLitteratur-Zeitung,IV (1901), 345-354. 2 See especially his 'Ueber einige noch nicht sicher gestellte Autornamen in den Uebersetzungen des Gerhard von Cremona,' Bibliotheca Mathematica IV (1903), 25-26. LYNN THORNDIKE, Columbia University.

A NOTE ON EUHEMERISM Mr J. D. COOKE,in his study of Euhemerism

(SPECULUM,II [1927], 396-

410), cites the use made by early Christian fathers of the euhemeristic mode of interpretation in their polemics against pagan worship. It may be of interest to note how euhemerism is used as a motif in lives of the early martyrs and saints.1 In the Acta Disputationis Acacii, the Roman consul, Marcianus, before whom Acacius is being tried, says (Acta Sanctorum, Mart. III, 899D) 'Christianorum consuetudoest multa in deos nostros maledicta confingere,propterea te ueuire mecum ad lunonem Iouemque praecipio, ut simul celebrantesdulce conuiuium numinibus quae sunt digna reddamus.' Acacius answers: 'Quomodo hie sacrificabo illi, cuius sepulchrum constat esse in Creta? Numquid surrexit a mortuis?' In the Acta Sancti Apollonii, 1 The motif is borrowed from the writings of the fathers. Cf. H. Delehaye, Les ions des Martyrs et les Genres Litteraires (Brussels, 1921), pp. 344-364, im.

Notes

91_

when Perennius, before whom the trial is being held, commands Apollonius to sacrifice to the gods, Apollonius replies (Analecta Bollandia XIV, 290, 22): ai1robs

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In the Martyrium Sancti Ignatii, when making his defence, 7rapacLLrOaLL. Jgnatius says (J. B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, London: Macmillan, iA'CvWs Ov?yrol,O9K 9-y4pO joca 6E. 1890, II, 499): o' 6b V'1A4TEpOL OEOl cLa7rEOavCov 9 9 Kvvo6E KEpCaVPof36XI7OE'S rEa7rrat a -r Ka yoi3v PZEvs Iv Ak7oL,1 Kp-7AUk?VYriWLOS r 1-EOcaTcrL, IHpaKX?7s7vp' aX7rXWCrat. aotrvpf, 'A4po51LT4 e9P Hcia'o /LIETal Kwvirpov &o`s Finally, when ordered to sacrifice, he asks (Lightfoot, 503): IoIoLoLs OcXELS06,O-&;...

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MILLETT HENSHAW, St Louis University.

AN UNWORKED VEIN IN MIDDLE-ENGLISH LEXICOGRAPHY? WHILEexcerpting for quite another purpose Thurot's masterly article in Notices et Extraits des MSS de la Bibliothe'queImperiale (XXII, ii, 1868), ' 'Notices et extraits pour servir l'histoire des doctrines grammaticales du Moyen Age,' I was much interested to find that some of the mediaeval grammars there quoted contain English glosses. I made a note of a few which struck me as remarkably early occurrences and on consulting the NED., found that in some cases the glosses were considerably older than the earliest recorded occurrence of the usage. As examples I would quote the following, from pp. 531 if.: tidy is found in a thirteenth-century MS. as a gloss of saluber; of the same date is ykel (icicle), while in a MS. of about 1430 one is somewhat surprised to come across the word pancake (I am sorry I did not note the Latin for it!). Though I am not in a position to consult Thurot's article again, I hardly think there is a great deal of material there. But considering the very large number of English students at Paris and elsewhere in in the thirteenth century, it seems reasonable to suspect that there must exist other manuscripts of mediaeval textbooks containing similar English glosses. As these books are largely of a lexicographical nature, such glosses

I

Celsus complains of the Christians' jesting references to the tomb of Zeus. Cf. Origen, Contra Celsum, iii, 43. 2 Cf. Diodorus Siculus, iii, 61. See also J. Rendel-Harris, The Apology of Aristides (Cambridge, 1891), p. 106.