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Thursday, July 21, 2011

F. Naether, Die Sortes Astrampsychi

FRANZISKA NAETHER

Die Sortes Astrampsychi

Problemlösungsstrategien durch Orakel im römischen Ägypten

"Du wirst deine Geliebte heiraten, aber es wird dir leid tun"; "Du wirst von deiner Frau erben, aber nicht als Alleinerbe". So spricht ein dem Pythagoras zugeschriebenes Orakel, das schon Alexander zur Weltherrschaft verholfen haben soll. Das Losbuch "Sortes Astrampsychi" ist auf römerzeitlichen Papyri und mittelalterlichen Handschriften in griechischer Sprache überliefert. Mit 92 vorformulierten Fragen und 1030 Antworten aus fast allen Lebensbereichen liegt eine ergiebige Quelle zur Sozialgeschichte Ägyptens vor - vom Überleben von Krankheiten über Geschäftsbeteiligungen hin zu Verhandlungstaktiken vor Gericht. Wichtige Fragestellungen dieses Kommentars zu den Sortes Astrampsychi zielen auf den Anwendungskontext und die Einordnung des Werks innerhalb der religiösen, divinatorischen und magischen Praktiken Ägyptens unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der "Ticket-Orakel" in demotischer, griechischer und koptischer Sprache.

NAETHER, FRANZISKA  Die Sortes Astrampsychi. Problemlösungsstrategien durch Orakel im römischen Ägypten
2010. XVIII, 491 pages.
ORA 3
ISBN 978-3-16-150250-7
cloth € 109.00
English blurb
"You will marry your girlfriend, but you will be sorry." "You will inherit from your wife, but you will not be the sole heir." These are the words of an oracle attributed to Pythagoras which supposedly also helped Alexander gain world supremacy. The "Sortes Astrampsychi" were transmitted on papyri from the Roman period and medieval manuscripts in Greek. Consisting of 92 pre-formulated questions and 1030 matching answers from nearly all areas of daily life, the oracle represents an important source for the social history of Egypt, for example its demography, economy and jurisdiction. In this commentary on the "Sortes Astrampsychi," the author focuses on the background of its use in antiquity and the contextualization among the religious, divinatory and magical practices of Egypt, in particular the "ticket" oracles in Demotic, Greek and Coptic.


BMCR review
Franziska Naether, Die Sortes Astrampsychi: Problemlosungsstrategien durch Orakel im römischen Ägypten. Orientalische Religionen in der Antike 3.   Tübingen:  Mohr Siebeck, 2010.  Pp. 550.  ISBN 9783161502507.  $195.00.   



Reviewed by Pieter W. van der Horst, Utrecht, The Netherlands (pwvdh@xs4all.nl)

Even though the text of the ancient lot oracle known as Sortes Astrampsychi is not one of central concern to classical scholarship, it has had its share of attention in recent years. The Teubner edition of the shorter version by G. M. Browne appeared in 1983, and in 2001 R. Stewart’s Teubner text of the longer version (the so-called ‘ecdosis altera’) came out;1 both scholars also published a series of valuable articles on this document. Stewart’s English translation of the text appeared in W. Hansen (ed.), Anthology of Ancient Greek Popular Literature (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998) 285-324. In 2006 an edition of the Greek text with a German translation was published by K. Brodersen, Astrampsychos: Das Pythagoras-Orakel (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft). And now we have the monumental and exhaustive study of the Sortes Astrampsychi by Franziska Naether, an immensely learned work that the author completed when she was only 29 years. The book is so densely packed with information on all possible aspects of the study of the Sortes Astrampsychi (and many related documents) that it is impossible to do justice to its contents in this short review. The book can best be characterized as a comprehensive contextualization of the Sortes Astrampsychi.