Dares Phrygius ( grc, Δάρης), according to
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
, was a
Trojan
Trojan or Trojans may refer to:
* Of or from the ancient city of Troy
* Trojan language, the language of the historical Trojans
Arts and entertainment Music
* ''Les Troyens'' ('The Trojans'), an opera by Berlioz, premiered part 1863, part 189 ...
priest of
Hephaestus
Hephaestus (; eight spellings; grc-gre, Ἥφαιστος, Hḗphaistos) is the Greek god of blacksmiths, metalworking, carpenters, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metallurgy, fire (compare, however, with Hestia), and volcanoes.Walter B ...
. He was supposed to have been the author of an account of the destruction of Troy, and to have lived before Homer. A work in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, purporting to be a translation of this, and entitled ''Daretis Phrygii de excidio Troiae historia'', was much read in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
, and was then ascribed to
Cornelius Nepos
Cornelius Nepos (; c. 110 BC – c. 25 BC) was a Roman biographer. He was born at Hostilia, a village in Cisalpine Gaul not far from Verona.
Biography
Nepos's Cisalpine birth is attested by Ausonius, and Pliny the Elder calls him ''Pad ...
, who is made to dedicate it to
Sallust
Gaius Sallustius Crispus, usually anglicised as Sallust (; 86 – ), was a Roman historian and politician from an Italian plebeian family. Probably born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines, Sallust became during the 50s BC a partisan ...
; but the language better fits a period much later than the time of Nepos (probably the 5th century AD).
It is doubtful whether the existing work is an abridgment of a larger Latin work or an adaptation of a
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
original. Together with the similar work of
Dictys Cretensis
Dictys Cretensis, i.e. Dictys of Crete (, ; grc, Δίκτυς ὁ Κρής) of Knossos was a legendary companion of Idomeneus during the Trojan War, and the purported author of a diary of its events, that deployed some of the same materials worke ...
(with which it is generally printed), the ''De excidio'' forms the chief source for the numerous medieval accounts of the Trojan legend, the so-called
Matter of Troy
According to the medieval poet Jean Bodel, the Matter of Rome is the literary cycle of Greek and Roman mythology, together with episodes from the history of classical antiquity, focusing on military heroes like Alexander the Great and Julius Cae ...
. Dares has claimed 866,000 Greeks and 676,000 Trojans were killed in this war, but archaeology has uncovered nothing that suggests a war this large was ever fought on that site.
The work was a significant source for
Joseph of Exeter
Joseph of Exeter was a twelfth-century Latin poet from Exeter, England. Around 1180, he left to study at Gueldres, where he began his lifelong friendship with Guibert, who later became Abbot of Florennes. Some of their correspondence still survi ...
's ''
De bello Troiano
''Daretis Phrygii Ilias De bello Troiano'' ("The Iliad of Dares the Phrygian: On the Trojan War") is an epic poem in Latin, written around 1183 by the English poet Joseph of Exeter.Mortimer ''Angevin England'' p. 210 It tells the story of the ten ...
''. It was also completely reworked in the 8th century in
Merovingian Gaul
The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gauli ...
into the work entitled ''Historia de origine Francorum'' ('History of the Origins of the Franks'). It purports to describe the descent of the
Franks
The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...
from the Trojans and is attributed to Dares.
[Nurgül Kıvılcım Yavuz, ''Transmission and Adaptation of the Trojan Narrative in Frankish History between the Sixth and Tenth Centuries'', PhD diss. (University of Leeds, 2015), pp. 182–187.]
References
Sources
*
*O.S. von Fleschenberg, ''Daresstudie'', i, 1908.
*
*(fr) Louis Faivre d'Arcier, ''Histoire et géographie d’un mythe. La circulation des manuscrits du De excidio Troiae de Darès le Phrygien (VIIIe-XVe s.)'', Paris, 2006 ().
*(de) Andreas Beschorner, ''Untersuchungen zu Dares Phrygius-Narr,'' Tübingen, 1992 ().
External links
*
Daretis phrygii de excidio Troiae historia', Ferdinand Meister (ed.), Lipsiae, in aedibus B. G. Teubneri, 1873.
translated by Jason Colavito (2011)
*Jonathan Cornil
''Dares Phrygius' de excidio Trojae historia: philological commentary and translation''
Scriptie voorgedragen tot het bekomen van de graad van Master in de Taal- en letterkunde (Latijn-Engels), 2011–2012, Universiteit Gent.
*R. M. Frazer
Indiana University Press, 1966.
{{Authority control
Trojan War literature
Characters in the Aeneid
Trojans
Phrygian characters in Greek mythology