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A recepção da cultura grega em Flávio Josefo: Literatura, Mitologia e Religião

2003; University of Lisbon; Volume: 31; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1484/j.euphr.5.124172

2736-3082

Nuno Simões Rodrigues,

Social and Cultural Studies

This essay’s aim is to demonstrate Josephus’ erudition, as the Greek Authors’ quotations through his work prove. Introducing exemples of those quotations, some of them detected in late XIXth century by Drüner and in the 30’s by Thackeray, the author concludes that Josephus knew not only Thucydides and Sophocles, but also the Homeric Poems, Hesiod, Euripides, Herodotus and Plato, among others. More, he used them with ambivalence: they allow him to depict Israel’s History characters and situations and at the same time to criticize the Greek Religion. This method and its specific use in the Contra Apionem make us believe that the Greek Literature’s knowledge belonged to Josephus himself and not to the Assistants, to whom he recured for the Greek’s sake.