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ANNA JUDIT TÓTH almost completely neglected by modern scholarship. Its standard edition was published in 1898, replacing an earlier edition from 1837." A modern edition and translation, which will probably not be able to fulfil the same role,‘ an unofficial English translation on the web,° and a handful of articles have been published concerning Lydus’ book. This neglect can only partly be explained by the fact that the De mensibus survived only in a fragmentary form; the main cause paradoxically lies in the reliability of the author: his citations are usually correct and precise, he used the best sources and focused on his main effort: to preserve his Roman cultural heritage. The predictable consequence of this attitude is that most of his data are familiar from other— earlier and better—sources. Yet, among his lengthy argumentations crowded by dense Neopythagorean and Platonic terminology and veiled by obscure mysticism, we can find surprising information which begs some explanation. In Book IV, we read the following mysterious sentence about Dionysus: LepeAans dé avdtov TTOLODOLV VIOV, WG 10 yfv KPUTTÓHEVOV Kai 51a ToD Eppod, TovtéoTt TOD Aöyov, TPOLÖVTA- Kal TW uNP@ TOD ALög Evtpe~opevov, oiovel ev Tois àmopphTois Tod Kdopov AavOdvovta: Kal Auddpaußov Kal Auınropa tov dbo Mpoddouc Aaxdvta, Tv HÉV ÁVATOAIKT]JV TIpÖG VÓTOV ÉV XELHÖVI, TÍJV Őé Bopelav mpdc dvopdc év TH pet. kai tadta pév mepi Atovboov. (Lydus, De mensibus IV, 51)° Commentary and Indices, Philadelphia, The American Philosophical Society, 1983, with English translation; Michel Dubuisson (ed.), Joannes Lydus, Des magistratures de VÉtat romain, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2006, with French translation. Monographs and other publications on this work are Carney, Bureaucracy in Traditional Society; C. N. Tsirpanlis, John Lydus on the Imperial Administration, Byzantion 44 (1974), 479-501; Bandy, loannes Lydus on Powers; James Caimi, Burocrazia e diritto nel De magistratibus di Giovanni Lido, Milano, Dott. A. Giuffre Editore, 1984; Anna J. Töth, John Lydus as Pagan and Christian. In: Marianne Säghy — Edward M. Schoolman: Pagans and Christians in the Late Roman Empire: New Evidence, New Approaches (4th-8th centuries). Budapest, CEU Press, 2017. 59-68; Sviatoslav Dmitriev, John Lydus and his Contemporaries on Identities and Cultures of Sixth-century Byzantium, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 64 (2010), 27-42. Edition of the Liber de mensibus: R. Wuensch (ed.), Ioannis Lydi Liber de mensibus, Leipzig, Teubner, 1898; Immanuel Bekker, Joannes Lydus. Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae, Bonnae, Impensis ed. Weberi, 1837, 3-118. I do not know of a single article whose only theme would be the De mensibus, while there are publications dealing with all three works of our author like, e.g. Michael Maas, John Lydus and the Roman Past, London — New York, Routledge, 1992. Anthony Kaldellis, The Religion of John Lydus, Phoenix 57 (2003), 300-316. * Anastasius C. Bandy, Ioannes Lydos On the Months (De mensibus). Translated and edited by Anastasius C. Bandy with associate editors Anastasia Bandy, Demetrios J. Constantelos, Craig J. N. de Paulo, Lewiston — Queenston — Lampeter, The Edwin Mellen Press, 2013. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Lydus/de_Mensibus/home.html accessed on 25 February 2016. “They describe him as the son of Semele, as being hidden under earth and coming forth by virtue of Hermes, that is, the Logos; and being fostered in the thigh of Zeus, as lying hidden in the secret places of the cosmos; and they call him Dithyrambus and Dimétér [‘having two mothers’], the one who has two paths of procession, the one, from the east toward the south, in winter, and the other, from the north toward the west, in summer. So much regarding + 94 e Daróczi-Sepsi-Vassányi Initiation 155x240.indb 94 6 2020. 06.15. 11:04:15
