Corrections, dated
On the Pinakes
Callimachus of Cyrene listed the Greek authors and their works in his Pinakes, 120 books long. Some decades later Aristophanes of Byzantium wrote a book On the Pinakes of Callimachus, correcting and supplementing it (Athenaeus 8.336d–e; 9.408f). A catalogue is corrected by the people who use it, and this one is no different: we keep our own corrections here, each dated, in Aristophanes's spirit.
Corrected on air
The show corrects itself as it goes. In Episode 21, as the hosts talk about Plato, one of them stops to say that Hermes Trismegistus is later than Plato:
“it's anacronistic to think that Plato Plato learned from Hermes Trish Migistus because Hermes Hermes Trish Megistus did not really evolve until probably like 300 years after” ⟨Trismegistus⟩
Hear the passage · 36:14Hermes Trismegistus Anachronism Clarified · 36:47
Changes to the catalogue
Written in Alexandria no longer means held by the Library. Works written or translated in the city by people not attested as Library scholars, or written after 30 BCE, now lie on the table of the city; works of the Egyptian milieu and witnesses to the city lie on the ledge. 88 works stay in the cupboards.
Ammonius Saccas's teaching leaves the shelves. He wrote nothing, and an empty hole must only ever mean a lost work. He keeps his person page, his door in the street and his doorways into the show.
The Secret Gospel of Mark moves from the cupboards to the table of the city, and its card opens with its doubt: some scholars judge the letter that quotes it a modern forgery.
Letter to Theodore, quoting a 'Secret Gospel of Mark' ›The Greek Pentateuch and Ben Sira's Greek lie on the table: translated in the city is not held by the Library. That the Torah was placed in the Library is the Letter of Aristeas's story, now on the back of the Pentateuch's tag.
The Greek Pentateuch ›The Roman age now ends in 272 CE, when Aurelian's war ruined the palace quarter, not in 270; late works are split at the Serapeum's fall in 392.
Under review
Every Greek string in the catalogue awaits a specialist's review.
The 31 told stories on the backs of the tags await a specialist's review.
The list of Library scholars and court writers that decides which works stand in the cupboards awaits confirmation, entry by entry, against its sources.
The dating of the Hermetica and the alchemical texts, the fragment numbers, the book of Pseudo-Manetho that holds the chart of 80 CE, and the Malalas passage on Theon are under review.
Reading links that could not be reached when the catalogue was checked are to be checked again.
Suggest a correction
Every roll's page ends with “Suggest a correction”. A correction we accept is entered in the catalogue with its date, and appears here. Write to us ›