Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/415

Rh ATIIANASIUS. Tlio earliest edition of tlic collected works of Atlianasiiis appeared, in two volumes, folio, at Heidelberg, ex officina Comnieliniana, A. D. IGOO. Tiie Greek text was accompanied by the Latin version of Peter Nanning (Nannius) ; and in the following year an appendix issued from the same press, contiiining notes, various readings, indices, &c., by Peter Felckmann. Those who purchase this edition should take care that their copies contain the appendix. The Paris edition of 1627, and the Leipzig of 1686 (which professes, but un- tmly, to have been published at Cologne), are not held in much estimation ; and the latter is very inaccurately printed. The valuable Benedictine edition of Athanasius was published at Paris, a. d. 1698, in three vohmies, folio. The learned editor, Montfaucon, was at first assisted in preparing it by James Loppinus ; but his coadjutor dying when no more than half of the first volume was finished, the honour of completing the edition devolved upon Montfaucon. Many of the opuscula of Athanasius were printed, for the first time, in the second volume of IMontfaucon's " Collectio Nova Patrum ct Scriptorum Graecorum," Paris, A. d. 1706. The most complete edition of the works of Atha- nasius is that published at Padua, A. D. 1777, in four volumes, folio. The first three volumes con- tjiin all that is comprised in the valuable Benedic- tine edition of 1698; the last includes the sup- plementary collections of Montfaucon, Wolf, Maffei, and Antonelli. The following list includes the principal English translations from the works of Athanasius : — " St. Athanasius's Four Orations against the Arians ; and his Oration against the Gentiles. Translated from the original Greek by Mr. Sam. Parker." Oxford, 1713. Athanasius's intire Treatise of the Incarnation of the Word, and of his bodily ap- pearance to us, translated into English by W. Whiston, in his " Collection of ancient Monu- ments relating to the Trinity and Incarnation," London, 171. '3, The same collection also contains a translation of Athanasius's Life of Antony the Monk, which was first published in 1687. The Epistles of Athanasius in defence of the Nicene definition, and on the Councils of Ariminum and Sclcuceia, together with his first Oration against the Arians, liave been recently translated, with notes, by the Rev. J, H. Newman, Oxford, 1842. The other three Orations, translated by the same writer, are shortly to appear ; and other works of Athanasius on the Arian controversy are advertised as preparing for publication. For a complete list of the genuine, doubtful, and. supposititious works of Athanasius, see Fabricius, Bibt. Graeca^o. viii. pp. 184 — 215, ed. Harles. The most important of his genuine writings are those (both historical and doctrinal) which relate to the Arian controversy. It is hardly necessarj' to observe that the creed Commonly called Athanasian was not composed by the archbishop of Alexandria. (See Gerardi Vossii, Dksertaiin de Spnbolo Athanasiano, 0pp. vol. vi. pp. 516—522 ; W. E. Tentzelii, Ju- dk-ia criiditnrum de Si/mUdo Athanasiano.^ It has been ascribed to Vigilius of Tapsus, Vincent of Lerins, Hilary of Poictiers, and others ; but its real author is unknown. The *' Synopsis Sacrae Scripturae," which is included in the writings of this eminent father, has no claim to be considered Ins ; though, in itself, it is a valuable relic of an- tiquity. ATHENA. 397 The chief sources of information respecting the life of Athanasius are found in his own writings ; next to these, in the ecclesiastical histories of So- crates, Sozomen, and Theodoret. The materials afforded by these and other writers have been col- lected, examined, and digested with great learning and fidelity by Montfaucon, in his " Vita Sancti Athanasii," prefixed to the Benedictine edition of the works of this father, and by Tillemont, in his Mtmoires pour servir h Vllistoire EcclesiaMique^ vol. viii., Paris edition of 1713. [J. M. M.] ATHANA'SIUS {'keavAxncs), of Alexandria, a presbyter of the church in that city, was a son of Isidora, the sister of Cyril of Alexandria. He was deprived of his office and driven out of Alex- andria and Egypt by the bishop, Dioscurus, from whom he suffered much persecution. There is ex- tant a small work of his, in Greek, against Dios- curus, which he presented to the council of Chal- cedon, a. d. 451. {Condi, vol. iv. p. 405.) There were various other ecclesiastical writers of the name of Athanasius, of whom a list is given in Fabric. Bild. Grace, vol. viii. p. 174. ATHANA'SIUS SCHOLASTICUS. 1. A Graeco-Roman jurist, who practised as an advo- cate at Emesa, and was contemporary with find survived Justinian. He published in Greek an epitome of Justinian's Novellas ; and this work, long known to the learned to exist in manuscript in the royal libraries of Vienna and Paris, was first given to the world by G. E. Heimba^, in the first volume of his 'Aj/eftrSora, Leipz. 18H8. It was pro- bably the same Athanasius who wrote a book de Crimi7iibus, of which there was a manuscript in the library of Ant. Augustinus. (G. E. Heimbach, Be Basilicorum Origine Fonlibus Scholiis, ^'c, Leipz. 1825, p. 44.) 2. A Graeco-Roman jurist, who wrote scholia on Eustathius after the publication of the Basilica. (Leunclav. Jus Gr. Rom. vol. ii. p. 207 ; Heim- bach, de Basilic. Orig. &c. p. 44.) [J. T. G.] ATHE'NA {'KQ-nvy) or 'hQr.va), one of the great divinities of the Greeks. Homer {II. v. 880) calls her a daughter of Zeus, without any allusion to her mother or to the manner in which she was called into existence, while most of the later traditions agree in stating that she was born from the head of Zeus. According to Hesiod {Theog. 886, &c.). Metis, the first wife of Zeus, was the mother of Athena, but when Metis was pregnant with her, Zeus, on the advice of Gaea and Uranus, swallowed Metis up, and afterwards gave birth himself to Athena, who sprang from his head. (Hesiod, I. c. 924.) Pindar {01. vii. 35, &c.) adds, that Hephaestus split the head of Zeus with his axe, and that Athena sprang forth with a mighty war-shout. Others relate, that Prometheus or Hermes or Palamaon assisted Zeus in giving birth to Athena, and mentioned the river Triton as the place where the event took place. (ApoUod. i. 4. § 6 ; Schol. ad Find. 01. vii. ^^.) Other traditions again relate, that Athena sprang from the head of Zeus in full armour, a statement for which Stesichorus is said to have been the most ancient authority. (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 355 ; Phi- lostr. Icon. . '21', Schol. ad Apollon. iv. 1310.) All these traditions, however, agree in making Athena a daughter of Zeus ; but a second set re- gjird her as the daughter of Pallas, the winged giant, whom she afterwards killed on account of his attempting to violate her chastity, whose skin