Paradoxography

Template:Short description Paradoxography is a genre of classical literature which deals with the occurrence of abnormal or inexplicable phenomena of the natural or human worlds (Latin mirabilia, 'marvels, miracles'). The term paradoxographos (paradoxographer) was coined by Tzetzes.

Early surviving examples of the genre include:

• Palaephatus's ("On Incredible Things") (Template:Circa 4th century BCE)
• The ("Collection of Extraordinary Tales") composed by Antigonus of Carystus (fl. 3rd century BCE), partly on the basis of a paradoxographical work of Callimachus
• Apollonius Paradoxographus's (2nd century BCE)

It is believed that the content of the pseudo-Aristotelian On Marvellous Things Heard (De mirabilibus auscultationibus) originated in the Hellenistic period, while the final form reflects centuries of expansion at least as recent as the second century of the Christian era.

Phlegon of Tralles's , (, On Marvels), which dates from the 2nd century CE, is perhaps the most famous example of the genre, including various stories of human abnormalities. Phlegon's brief accounts of prodigies and wonders include ghost stories, accounts of monstrous births, strange animals like centaurs, hermaphrodites, giant skeletons and prophesying heads. Phlegon's writing is characterised by brief and forthright description, as well as a tongue-in-cheek insistence on the veracity of his claims.

Other works of this genre in Greek include Heraclitus the Paradoxographer's ("On Incredible Things", Template:Circa 1st or 2nd century CE) and Claudius Aelianus's On the Nature of Animals (3rd century CE).

In Latin literature, both Marcus Terentius Varro and Cicero wrote works on ("marvelous things"), which do not survive.

See also

• Bestiary
• Cryptozoology

Further reading

• Westermann, Anton. Paradoxographoi, Braunschweig and London, 1839.
• Wenskus, Otta, Lorraine Daston. "Paradoxographoi," in Der neue Pauly, vol. 9, Stuttgart, 2000, cols. 309–314.
• Hansen, William (ed. & tr.). Phlegon of Tralles' Book of Marvels. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1996
• Leyra, Irene Pajón. "". . Zaragoza: Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza, 2011. 368. Template:ISBN
• Stern, Jacob. "Heraclitus the Paradoxographer: Περὶ Ἀπίστων, 'On Unbelievable Tales'". Transactions of the American Philological Association 133.1 (Spring, 2003), pp. 51–97. Introduction, translation, and commentary on the text.
• Yu, Kenneth. "Paradoxography". Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2022.