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Faculty Publication: Professor of Classical Studies Radcliffe Edmonds

April 21, 2023

The Many Faces of Dionysus in the Hexameters of the Sinai Palimpsest (Sin. Ar. NF 66)

Author: Radcliffe G. Edmonds III

Source: Classical Quarterly, DOI: 10.1017/S0009838822000556, March 2023

Type of Publication: Article

Abstract: The fragments of a hexameter poem about Dionysus recently discovered in a palimpsest (Sin. Ar. NF 66) reveal some different faces of Dionysus, including an Adonis-figure at the heart of a dispute between two goddesses (Persephone and Aphrodite), and a personified wine-god, Oinos, threatened by the machinations of his enemies in the court of Zeus. These palimpsest texts help to illuminate some of the allusions to the early life of the god that have long puzzled scholars, especially in some of the early Christian apologists and the collection of Orphic Hymns.

 

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