Paradoxography

The primary purpose of the site is to provide English versions of the paradoxographical texts in one place, for the benefit of readers without access to academic libraries and resources. 

When this project was started, only three of these texts had been published in English translations: the pseudo-Aristotelian περὶ θαυμασίων ὰκουσμάτων (De mirabilius auscultationibus – On Marvellous Things Heard), in the Loeb Classical Library; Phlegon’s περὶ θαυμασὶων (On Marvels) and περὶ μακροβίων (On Long-lived Persons), made accessible through a translation with commentary by William Hansen; and the compilation of the anonymous Paradoxographus Vaticanus, with translation and commentary by Jacob Stern, which is not at all easy of access. Antigonus' ἱστοριῶν παραδόξων συναγωγή (Collection of Marvellous Accounts) seems to have been translated with commentary as a PhD thesis by I.R. Ciuca, but this has not been made public. 

Since then, a major volume edited by Stefan Schorn has provided translations and commentary on paradoxographical writing of the Roman Imperial period and the works of undated authors. This book is, however, very expensive and thus unlikely to find its way to the curious lay reader at whom this site is aimed.

My translations are based primarily on earlier public-domain critical editions of the texts, emended on occasion in the light of more recent scholarship. It should be stated at the outset that these translations fill the gaps in the literature in the manner of sand-bags rather than dressed stone: they have their origin in reference versions put together as an aid to private study. Nonetheless, in the continuing absence of scholarly English translations of the complete corpus in open-access form, it seems useful to release them into the wild as they are. 

The first work translated was that of Antigonus, since it is the most substantial of the paradoxographical texts that has not yet been published in English. The remaining texts are being translated in turn, leaving till last the work of Phlegon, whose translation by Hansen is available in an affordable print edition, and the bulk of which is also available online at the ToposText website. 

Hett's Loeb translation of Ps-Aristotle On Marvellous Things Heard is already in the public domain, and this will be reproduced pretty much as it stands, with occasional emendation to reflect decisions relating to the Greek text.

This site can make no claim to be an authoritative resource; however, I hope that it will prove to be of some use, particularly to readers with little or no Greek—at least, until something better comes along.