Xenophanes of Colophon: Documentation and examination of the testimonies (5 BC-13 AD) in their context (new edition and commentary)

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Benedikt Strobel; Professor Dr. Georg Wöhrle
• Subject Area: Greek and Latin Philology
• Term: from 2012 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 227422494

Our only sources for Xenophanes are later authors who ascribe to him certain things: e.g., to have used these or those words (as in the case of literal quotations), to have held these or those beliefs (as in the case of paraphrases and doxographical reports), to have done or undergone this or that during his life (as in the case of biographical information). While modern scholarship on Xenophanes has been primarily concerned with making its own ascriptions to Xenophanes based on the ancient ones, our project aims to provide an exhaustive documentation of the latter and to explain from their context why they are made in just the way they are. The documentation will be given in a new collection of all the testimonies on Xenophanes from the 5th century BC to the 13th century AD, the explanation in an accompanying commentary. This will not only be a major contribution to the historiography of the reception of Xenophanes but will also sharpen our sense of the context dependence of the ascriptions. While recognition of this dependence does not lead by itself to a certain assessment of the truth of the ascriptions, it is a necessary condition for a justified assessment and thus far more than a mere matter of the reception history of Xenophanes.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants