Prologue

Palaephatus lays out his theory of myth, which rests upon two principles. First, if something exists today, it always existed and will continue to exist. Because of this, any myth that speaks of things that do not exist today (like monsters or supernatural deeds) must not be accepted as true. Second, all mythological stories derive to some extent from real-world actions or events. This means that, even if a myth contains many impossibilities, it cannot be entirely disregarded. Instead, an effort must be made to recuperate the real and plausible deed from which the story originally sprang.

1

τάδε: “the following things.”

περὶ τῶν ἀπίστων: supply λόγων.

2

οἱ μὲν … οἱ δὲ: “some … others.” Articles combined with the particles μέν and δέ express a contrast between individuals or groups.

εὐπειθέστεροι … πυκνότεροι: “rather gullible … rather shrewd.”

ὡς: conjunction with a causal force, “because (they are).”

τὴν φύσιν: accusative of respect.

ἀπιστοῦσι … μηδὲ γενέσθαι τι τούτων: “they disbelieve entirely that any of these things even happened.” The negative μηδέ is used with the infinitive to strengthen the denial, “not even.”

3

πάντα τὰ λεγόμενα: refers to the stories people tell.

(οὐ γὰρ ὀνόματα … ὁ περὶ αὐτῶν): in this parenthetical remark, P. introduces his principle that every tale (λόγος) has its basis in a verbal expression (ὀνόματα) that has its basis in an actual deed (τὸ ἔργον).

            οὐ γὰρ ὀνόματα μόνον ἐγένοντο: “for words did not occur on their own.”

            μόνον: adverbial, “on their own.”

ὁ λόγος δὲ περὶ αὐτῶν οὐδεὶς ὑπῆρξεν: “and no story about them (i.e., the words) came about.”

εἶθ’ οὕτως ὁ λόγος ὁ περὶ αὐτῶν: supply ἐγένετο, “then accordingly the tale about them occurred.”

ὅσα δὲ εἴδη καὶ μορφαί: “however many forms and shapes.” P. is likely using these words in a philosophical sense. For Aristotle, εἶδος and μορφή are used synonymously to refer to the “form of a thing” rather than its “physical embodiment” (ὕλη). On this reading, P.’s project is to determine which mythical forms correspond to actual things and which do not.

εἰσι λεγόμεναι καὶ γενόμεναι τότε: “are said to have also occurred back then” (LSJ λέγω Α.ΙΙΙ.2).

καὶ: adverbial.

αἳ νῦν οὐκ εἰσί: “that do not exist now.” This relative clause places a further restriction on what ὅσα encompasses. It refers not only to the εἴδη and μορφαί that are said to have occurred in the past but also to those which do not exist today.

τὰ τοιαῦτα: the antecedent to ὅσα above. P. uses the qualitative adjective, τοιαῦτα (“such things as these”), rather than the quantitative, τοσαῦτα, because ὅσα is qualified by αἳ νῦν οὐκ εἰσί. See previous note.

4

εἰ … ἐγένετο … γίνεται … ἔσται: a mixed conditional statement; the protasis uses the aorist indicative (ἐγένετο), while the apodosis combines present indicative (γίνεται) and simple future (ἔσται).

<τί>: from τι (indefinite). It receives an accent because it is followed by another enclitic, ποτε. Angled brackets within the Greek text indicate that the word has been added by the editor.

ποτε καὶ ἄλλοτε: “at one time or another.”

καὶ: adverbial.

τε … καὶ: “both … and.”

γίνεται: = γίγνεται. The subject is τι.

5

ἔγωγε: (ἐγώ + γε) “I for one,” or “I (italicized).”

Μέλισσον καὶ Λαμίσκον τὸν Σάμιον: Melissus was an Eleatic philosopher who largely denies the possibility of change. Nothing is known about Lamiscus. He may be the (possibly Pythagorean) philosopher and associate of Archytas of Tarentum whom Plato had met in Italy (Ep. 350b see Diogenes Laertius 3.22).

ἐν ἀρχῇ: “at the beginning of their works.” The editor of our Greek text, Festa, places quotation marks around ἐν ἀρχῇ. We follow the punctuation of Diels and Kranz (DK 30 B11), who read the prepositional phrase as a reference to the opening of the works that P. is paraphrasing.

ἔστιν ἃ ἐγένετο, καὶ νῦν ἔσται: “things exist which existed (in the past) and will exist in the future” (LSJ νῦν A.III). Although Palaephatus attributes this principle to Melissus and Lamiscus, most scholars suspect that Palaephatus is cribbing from Aristotle’s theory that species of living things remain unchanged throughout time. It is, in any case, a misrepresentation of Melissus’s formulation, “What always was, was, and always will be” (ἀεὶ ἦν ὅ τι ἦν καὶ ἀεὶ ἔσται). Melissus would not have approved of P.’s use of the verb ἐγένετο, which suggests that things can come into being.

ἔστιν: when ἐστι is used to express existence or possibility it takes a recessive accent, and is often placed at the beginning of the sentence.

6

εἰς τὸ ἀπιστότερον καὶ θαυμασιώτερον: the article (τὸ) turns both adjectives into nouns, “into what is more unbelievable and marvelous.”

τοῦ θαυμάζειν: the articular infinitive is modified by ἕνεκα and takes τοὺς ἀνθρώπους as its direct object, “for the sake of astonishing.”

7

τὰ τοιαῦτα … οἷα: “such things … as.”

            δύναται: singular verb with neuter plural subject τοιαῦτα.

            λέγεται: singular verb with neuter plural subject οἷα.

            καὶ: adverbial.

τοῦτο δὲ καὶ διείληφα, ὅτι: “but I have also accepted this (principle), namely that.”

            καὶ: adverbial.

διείληφα: 1st sing. pf. indic. act. > διαλαμβάνω.

εἰ μὴ ἐγένετο, οὐκ ἂν ἐλέγετο: a mixed condition, with a past counterfactual protasis (aor.) and a present counterfactual apodosis (impf.), “if something had not happened, it would not be talked about.”

8

καὶ: adverbial.

ἐπελθὼν: ptc. sing. aor. act. masc. nom. > ἐπέρχομαι.

ὡς ἀκούοιεν: oblique optative in secondary sequence, “what they happened to hear.”

περὶ ἑκάστου αὐτῶν: refers to the myths.

ἃ ἐπυθόμην παρ’ αὐτῶν: “what I learned of these (myths).”

9

ὡς ἔστιν ἕκαστον ἔχον: “what each was like” (LSJ ἔχω B.II.2).

ἔστιν: recessive accent when following ὡς.

ταῦτα: “these things,” i.e., P’s version of the mythologized events.

οὐχ οἷα ἦν λεγόμενα: “not as they were generally told.” Here, P. is hearkening back to his earlier statements that some believe everything said and others deny everything said about mythical tales. P. takes a middle path by accepting a true portion of what is said.

ἦν λεγόμενα: periphrastic use of the participle. Translate as if it were ἐλέγοντο, in the passive voice.