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The so-called Alcestis Barcinonensis is a mythological poem of at least 124 Latin hexameters on the story of Alcestis dying for the sake of her husband Admetus, following by and large the play by Euripides. The poem has been written on four papyrus leaves (papyri Barcinonenses inv. no. 158ab, 159ab, 160ab and 161a) dated to the second half of the fourth century on account of the handwriting, an early half-uncial with cursive elements, and inserted into a codex mixtus at some later point in time. The editio princeps has been published by the Catalan priest and papyrologist Ramon Roca-Puig on 18 October 1982. The papyrus leaves are now in the possession of the foundation Sant Lluc Evangelista founded by Roca-Puig and located in Barcelona (in Latin: Barcino, hence the specifying adjective).

Discovery and publication

The Alcestis occupies folia 33–36 of the codex mixtus. It is preceded by Cicero’s Catilinarians 1 and 2 (folia 1–24a), a Latin psalmus responsorius (folia 24b–28a) and a Greek liturgical text (folia 29b–32).^[1] The dating goes back to E. A. Lowe,^[2] who dates the psalmus responsorius to the second half of the fourth century and, copied by the same hand, the Alcestis as well.

The decipherment and interpretation of the papyrus has been pushed ahead at four places simultaneously: by Wolfgang Dieter Lebek at the University of Cologne, by Peter J. Parsons, Robin G. M. Nisbet, and G. O. Hutchinson at the University of Oxford, by Miroslav Marcovich at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and by Vincenzo Tandoi at the University of Foggia.

Contents and structure

The poem falls into five parts, each comprising two or three sections. In lines 1–20 Admetus, husband of Alcestis, learns from Apollo that he shall die soon, unless he finds somebody willing to die in his place. Therefore, Admetus turns to his father (21–42) and to his mother (42–70), but both deny his request. Only Alcestis is ready to swap her life for his, but asks him not to remarry after her death (71–103). The end of the poem describes the death of Alcestis (104–124).

Part	Lines	Contents	Number of sections
1	1–20	Dialogue between Admetus and Apollo	2
2	21–42	Dialogue between Admetus and Pheres	2
		The agon between Clymene and Alcestis:
3	42–70	Clymene’s rhesis	3
4	71–103	Alcestis' antirhesis	3
5	104–124	The last day and the death of the heroine	2

Literary history

The Alcestis Barcinonensis belongs to the late Latin genre of poetical exercises in verified mythological ethopoeia. A parallel is to be found in the poem Alcesta of the Anthologia Latina (I, no. 15 Riese) comprising 162 hexameters. Comparable pieces of this kind of late Latin poetry connected to the imperial court are the mythological exercises of Dracontius such as Hylas and in particular Claudian’s mythological epic De raptu Proserpinae.

References

^ The psalm and the Catilinarians have been published earlier by Ramón Roca-Puig: Barcelona Psalm (Barcelona 1965); Catilinarians 1 and 2 (Barcelona 1977).
^ E. A. Lowe: No. 1782 of the Supplement to his Codices Latini Antiquiores. Oxford 1971, 32.

Editions and further reading

In chronological order.

Editions and commentaries

Roca-Puig, Ramon (1982). Alcestis. Hexamètres Llatins. Papyri Barcinonenses Inv. no 158–161. Barcelona: Grafos. – Editio princeps.
Lebek, Wolfgang Dieter (1983). "Das neue Alcestis-Gedicht der Papyri Barcinonenses". Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. 52: 1–29. JSTOR 20183849. – Critical edition with commentary and German translation.
Marcovich, Miroslav (1984). "Alcestis Barcinonensis". Illinois Classical Studies. 9: 111–134. – Critical edition with introduction and English translation.
Tandoi, Vincenzo (1984). "Anonymi Carmen de Alcestide nuper repertum". Quaderni dell'Associazione Italiana di Cultura Classica di Foggia. 4: 3–12. – Critical edition.
- Reprint: Tandoi, Vincenzo (2018). "Anonymi Carmen de Alcestide nuper repertum". Studi Classici e Orientali. 64: 545–556. JSTOR 26495477 – via JSTOR.
Marcovich, Miroslav, ed. (1988). Alcestis Barcinonensis. Text and Commentary. Mnemosyne Suppl. 103. Leiden: E. J. Brill. ISBN 90-04-08600-5. – Critical edition with introduction, commentary, and English translation.
Gärtner, Hans Armin (1988). "Alcestis Barcinoensis". In von Albrecht, Michael (ed.). Die römische Literatur in Text und Darstellung. Vol. 5. Kaiserzeit II. Von Tertullian bis Boethius. Stuttgart: Reclam. pp. 170–178. – Partial edition without apparatus, but with short introduction and German translation.
Anonimo (1992). Nosarti, Lorenzo (ed.). L'Alcesti di Barcellona. Edizione e Saggi Universitari di Filologia Classica 51. Bologna: Pàtron. – Critical edition with introduction, commentary, and Italian translation.
- Review by Harry M. Hine, in: The Classical Review (New Series) 49, 1999, 269-270.
Nocchi Macedo, Gabriel, ed. (2014). L'Alceste de Barcelone (P.Monts. Roca inv. 158–161). Édition, traduction et analyse contextuelle d'un poème latin conservé sur papyrus. Papyrologica Leodiensia 3. Liège: Presses Universitaires de Liège.
- Review by Hubert Zehnacker, in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2014.10.61.

Studies

Peter J. Parsons, R. G. M. Nisbet, G. O. Hutchinson: Alcestis in Barcelona. In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 52, 1983, 31-36.
Jacques Schwartz: Le papyrus latin d’Alceste et l’oeuvre de Claudien. In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 52, 1983, 37-.
Vincenzo Tandoi: La nuova Alcesti di Barcellona. In: Disiecti membra poetae. Studi di poesia latina in frammenti. Band 1, Foggia 1984, 233-45.
Christoph Schäublin: Zur Alcestis Barcinonensis. In: Museum Helveticum 41, 1984, 174-81.
Geoffrey Harrison, Dirk Obbink: Vergil, Georgics I 36–39 and the Barcelona Alcestis. In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 63, 1986, 75-81.
Miroslav Marcovich: The Alcestis Papyrus Revisited. In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 65, 1986, 39-57.
Wolfgang Dieter Lebek: Die Alcestis Barcinonensis: Neue Konjekturen und Interpretationen. In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 70, 1987, 39-48.
Nicholas Horsfall: Alcestis Barcinonensis 67: Some metrical problems. In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 77, 1989, 25–26, online (PDF).
Wolfgang Dieter Lebek: Postmortale Erotik und andere Probleme der Alcestis Barcinonensis. In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 76, 1989, 19–26, online (PDF).
Kurt Smolak: § 549. Alcestis. In: Restauration und Erneuerung. Die lateinische Literatur von 284 bis 374 n. Chr. Hg. v. Reinhart Herzog (Handbuch der lateinischen Literatur der Antike, hg. v. Reinhart Herzog und Peter Lebrecht Schmidt, Fünfter Band). C. H. Beck, München 1989.
Dimitrios Mantzilas: Reception and Genre Cross–Reference in Alcestis Barcinonensis. In: Graeco–Latina Brunensia 16, 2011, 2, 61-90, (online) (PDF).
Anna Maria Wasyl, "Alcestis" barcelońska oraz centon "Alcesta". Późnoantyczne spojrzenie na mit i gatunek. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Kraków 2018.