APOLLONIUS OF TYRE

This article appears in Volume V02, Page 189 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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APOLLONIUS OF TYRE , a medieval tale supposed to be derived from a lost Greek original. The earliest mention of the story is in the Carmine (Bk. vi. 8, 11. 5-6) of Venantius Fortunatus, in the second half of the 6th century, and the romance may well date from three centuries earlier. It bears a marked resemblance to the Antheia and Habrokomes of Xenophon of Ephesus. The story relates that King Antiochus, maintaining incestuous relations with his daughter, kept off her suitors by asking them a riddle, which they must solve on pain of losing their heads. Apollonius of Tyre solved the riddle, which had to do with Antiochus's

secret

SECRET (Lat. secretum, hidden, concealed)

. He returned to Tyre, and, to escape the king's vengeance, set sail in search of a place of

refuge

REFUGE

. In Cyrene he married the daughter of King Archistrates, and presently, on receiving news of the death of Antiochus, departed to take possession of the kingdom of Antioch, of which he was, for no clear reason, the

heir

HEIR (Lat. heres, from a root meaning to grasp, seen in heres or erus, master of a house, Gr. xeip, hand, Sans. hat ana, hand)

. On the voyage his wife died, or rather seemed to die, in giving birth to a daughter, and the sailors demanded that she should be thrown overboard. Apollonius left his daughter, named Tarsia, at Tarsus in the care of guardians who proved false to their trust. Father, mother, and daughter were only reunited after fourteen years' separation and many vicissitudes. The earliest Latin MS. of this tale, preserved at Florence, dates from the 9th or loth century. The

pagan

PAGAN
PAGAN (Lat. paganus, of or belonging to a pagus, a canton, county district,
village
- VILLAGE
, commune)

features of the supposed original are by no means all destroyed. The ceremonies observed by Tarsia at her nurse's grave, and the preparations for the, burning of the body of Apollonius's wife, are purely

pagan

PAGAN
PAGAN (Lat. paganus, of or belonging to a pagus, a canton, county district,
village
- VILLAGE
, commune)

. The riddles which Tarsia propounds to her father are obviously interpolated. They are taken from the Enigmata of Caelius Firmianus Symposius. The many inconsistencies of the story seem to be best explained by the supposition (E. Rohde, Der griechische Roman, and ed., 1900, pp. 435 et seq.) that the Antiochus story was originally entirely separate from the story of Apollonius's wanderings, and was clumsily tacked on by the Latin author. The romance kept its form through a vast number of medieval re-arrangements, and there is little change in its outlines as set forth in the Shakespearian play of Pericles.
The Latin tale is preserved in about Too MSS., and was printed by M.Velser (Augsburg, 1595), by J. Lapaume in Script. Erot. (Didot, Paris, 1856), and by A. Riese in the Bibl. Teubneriana (1871, new ed. 1893). The most widespread versions in the middle ages were those of Godfrey of Viterbo in his Pantheon (1185), where it is related as authentic history, and in the Gesta Romanorum (cap. 153), which formed the basis of the German folk-tale by H. Steinhowel (Augsburg, 1471), the Dutch version (Delft, 1493), the French in Le Violiers des histoires romaines (Paris, 1521), the English, by Laurence Twine (London, 1576, new ed. 1607), also of the Scandinavian, Czech, and Hungarian tales.
In England a translation was made as early as the Trth century (ed. B. Thorpe, 1834, and J. Zupitza in Archie fur neuere Sprachen, 1896); there is a Middle English metrical version (J. O. Halliwell; A New Bake about Shakespeare, 185o), by a poet who says he was vicar of Wimborne; John Gower uses the tale as an example of the seventh deadly sin in the eighth book of his Confessio Amantis; Robert Copland translated a prose romance of Kynge Apollyne of Thyre (Wynkyn de Worde, 1510) from the French; Pericles was entered at Stationers'

Hall

in 1607, and was followed in the next year by George Wilkins's novel, The Painful/ Adventures of Pericles, Prynce of Tyre (ed. Tycho Mommsen, Oldenburg, 1857), and George Lillo drew his play Marina (1738) from the piece associated with Shakespeare; Orendel, by a Middle High German minnesinger, contains some of the episodes of Apollonius; Heinrich von Neustadt wrote a poem of 20,000 lines on Apollonius von Tyrland (c. 1400); the story was well known in Spanish, Libre de Apolonio (verse, c, 1200), and in J. de Timoneda's Patrafruelo (1576) ; in French Much
of it was embodied in Jourdain de Blaives (13th cent.), and it also religion. Yet the purpose may be defence even then. And appears in Italian and medieval Greek. See A. H. Smyth, Shake- there is perhaps a reason of a deeper kind for holding Apologetics to the defensive. Christianity is a prophetic religion. Now a prophet does not argue; he declares what he feels to be God's will. For himself, he rests, like the mystic, upon an immediate vision of truth; but he differs from most mystics in having a

message

MESSAGE (a word occurring in slightly different forms in several languages, e.g. Fr. message, Span. mensaje, Ital. messagio; adapted from the Low Lat. missaticum, from mittere)

for others; andagain unlike most mysticshe addresses the hearer's conscience, which we might call (in one sense) the mystic element in every manor better, perhaps, the prophetic. Can the positive grounds for a prophet's

message

MESSAGE (a word occurring in slightly different forms in several languages, e.g. Fr. message, Span. mensaje, Ital. messagio; adapted from the Low Lat. missaticum, from mittere)

be analysed and stated in terms of argument? If so, apologetics is literally a science, and it is pedantry to claim the defensive and pretend to throw the onus probandi upon objectors. But, if not, then apologetics is a mere

auxiliary

AUXILIARY (from Lat. auxilium, help)

, and is only " a science" in so far as it presents a conscious and systematic plea. Bruce's title, and his programme of "succouring distressed faith," imply the latter alternative; the moral appeal of Christianity, primary and essential; its confirmation by argument, secondary. The view has its difficulties; but it is hignly suggestive.
The word &rroXoryia is used by Origen (Contra Cel. ii. 65, v. 19) of the general Christian defence. But the introduction of the adjective " apologetic " and of the substantive " apologetics " is

recent

RECENT

. They are serviceable as bracketing together (1) Natural Theology or Theism, (2) Christian Evidenceschiefly "miracles" and " prophecy "; or, on a more modern view, chiefly the character and personality of Christ. The lower usage of Apology (as expression of regret for a fault) has tipped many a sarcasm besides George III.'s on the occasion of Bishop Watson's book, " I did not know that the Bible needed an apology!"
II. Apologetics in the Bible.The Old Testament does not argue in support of its beliefs, unless when (chiefly in parts of the Wisdom literature) it seeks to rebut moral difficulties (cf. T. K.

Cheyne

CHEYNE, THOMAS KELLY (1841— )

, Job and Solomon; A. S. Peake, Problem of Suffering in the Old Testament, 1904). The New Testament reflects chiefly controversy with Jews. Great emphasis is laid upon alleged fulfilmentsstriking or fanciful, but very generally striking to that ageof Old Testament prophecy (Matt. especially; rather differently Ep. to Heb.). The miracles of Jesus are also canvassed. Jews do not deny their wonderful character, but attribute them to black art (Mark iii. 22 &c., &c.). On the other hand, Christians and Jews are pretty well agreed on natural theology; so the New Testament tends to take its theism for granted. However, Rom. i. 20 has had great influence oil Christian theology (e.g. Thomas Aquinas) in leading it to base theism upon reason or argument. One apologetic contention, aimed at Gentile readers, is found among the motives of Acts. Christianity is not a lawless but an excellent law-abiding faith. So (it is alleged) rulers, both Jewish and Gentile, have often admitted (xviii. 14; xix. 37; xxiii. 9; xxvi. 32).
speare's Pericles and A pollonius of Tyre (Philadelphia, 1898) ; Elimar Klebs, Die Erzahlung von A. aus Tyrus (Berlin, 1899) ; S. Singer, Apollonius von Tyrus (Halle,1895).

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