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Günther Zuntz (28 January 1902 – 3 April 1992), German-English classical
philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...
, professor of Hellenistic Greek and Bible scholar.


Life and career

He obtained a D.Phil. from the
University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg () is a public research university located in Marburg, Germany. It was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Prote ...
in 1928 and was later a professor at the
University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...
. Zuntz was born in
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
in 1902. In 1933 he emigrated to England, because of racial persecutions.


Scholarship

In 1971, Zuntz published his ''Persephone'', which contained an edition of the Gold Tablets with commentary. The initial set of tablets was discovered in the late 19th century by Domenico Comparetti, who believed they belonged to an " Orphic and Bacchic" mystery cult. Zuntz, whose work was published in a period of relative scepticism in Orphic studies, argued against Comparetti's interpretation, instead viewing the texts as
Pythagorean Pythagorean, meaning of or pertaining to the ancient Ionian mathematician, philosopher, and music theorist Pythagoras, may refer to: Philosophy * Pythagoreanism, the esoteric and metaphysical beliefs purported to have been held by Pythagoras * Ne ...
. His edition contained several new tablets which had been discovered since Comparetti's time: three from near
Eleutherna Eleutherna (), also called Apollonia (), was an ancient city-state in Crete, Greece, which lies 25 km southeast of Rethymno in Rethymno (regional unit), Rethymno regional unit. Archaeologists excavated the site, located on a narrow northern ...
in
Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...
, and one from
Pharsalos Farsala (), known in Antiquity as Pharsalos (, ), is a town in southern Thessaly, in Greece. Farsala is located in the southern part of Larissa regional unit, and is one of its largest settlements. Farsala is an economic and agricultural centre ...
in
Thessaly Thessaly ( ; ; ancient Aeolic Greek#Thessalian, Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic regions of Greece, geographic and modern administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient Thessaly, a ...
. Zuntz also introduced a division of the tablets into two groups, which he labelled A and B. The A tablets all derive from
Thurii Thurii (; ; ), called also by some Latin writers Thūrium (compare , in Ptolemy), and later in Roman times also Cōpia and Cōpiae, was an ancient Greek city situated on the Gulf of Taranto, near or on the site of the great renowned city of Syb ...
, Italy, and contain requests to gods of the
underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...
for release from repeated reincarnation, while the B group contains all of the remaining tablets. Zuntz examined the Greek text of the
Pauline epistles The Pauline epistles, also known as Epistles of Paul or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen books of the New Testament attributed to Paul the Apostle, although the authorship of some is in dispute. Among these epistles are some of the earliest ext ...
.


Publications

* * Zuntz, G. ''Persephone: Three Essays on Religion and Thought in Magna Graecia''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971
Internet Archive


Notes


References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zuntz, Gunther 1902 births 1992 deaths German biblical scholars Scholars of Greek language German emigrants to England Academics of the University of Manchester University of Marburg alumni Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom