# Sosates

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{{Short description|Ancient Jewish poet from Alexandria}}
[[File:Sosates.png|thumb|upright=1.5|The singular notice of Sosates in the ''Excerpta'' manuscript in the middle two lines, using [long s](/source/long_s) and [insular g](/source/insular_g)]]
'''Sosates'''<ref>{{harvnb|Burgess|2013|p=212n}}, considers and rejects the possibility that "Sosates" is a corruption of "Sotades". {{harvnb|Fraser|1972|p=987}}, expresses doubt about the authenticity of the name.</ref> was an [Alexandrian Jew](/source/History_of_the_Jews_in_Alexandria) who wrote [epic poetry](/source/epic_poetry) in [Greek](/source/Ancient_Greek_language) and flourished during the 2nd or 1st century BC.

== Dating ==
Sosates is known from a single line in the ''[Excerpta Latina Barbari](/source/Excerpta_Latina_Barbari)'', an 8th-century AD [Latin](/source/Latin) translation of a lost Greek chronograph of the 6th century. It is preserved in a single manuscript also of the 8th century.{{sfn|Burgess|2013|p=196}} It reads, "At this same time Sosates, the Jewish Homer, flourished in Alexandria" (''Hisdem temporibus Sosates cognoscebatur ille Ebraicus Omirus in Alexandria'').<ref>{{harvnb|Cohen|1981|p=391}}. The translation of {{harvnb|Garstad|2012|p=225}}, is "In these times Sosates, the Hebrew Homer, was renowned in Alexandria." {{harvnb|Burgess|2013|p=195}}, gives a hypothetical reconstruction the original Greek text as Τοῖς αὐτοῖς χρόνοις Σωσάτης ἐγνωρίζετο ὁ Ἑβραϊκὸς Ὅμιρος ἐν Ἀλεξανδρείᾳ, using the same spelling for "Sosates" as found in the work of Athanasius (p. 211).</ref> It is one of five literary historical notices placed within a [list of pharaohs](/source/list_of_pharaohs) that is correlated with a [list of Jewish high priests](/source/List_of_High_Priests_of_Israel).{{sfn|Burgess|2013|p=198}} The correlation, however, is erroneous, the dates of the pharaohs not lining up with those of the priests.{{sfn|Burgess|2013|p=200}}{{sfn|Cohen|1981|p=392}} Sosates thus lived either during the time of the high priests [Simon Thassi](/source/Simon_Thassi) (142–135 BC) and [John Hyrcanus](/source/John_Hyrcanus) (135–104) or during the reign of the Pharaoh [Ptolemy XII](/source/Ptolemy_XII) (80–51). [Shaye Cohen](/source/Shaye_J._D._Cohen) leans towards the former.{{sfn|Cohen|1981|p=395–396}} Richard Burgess, on the other hand, argues that the literary notices were originally added to the list of pharaohs and places Sosates in the reign of Ptolemy XII.{{sfn|Burgess|2013|p=208}}

== Writings ==
No identifiable fragment of Sosates' poetry is preserved.{{sfn|Cohen|1981|p=392}} The works of his near contemporaries, the 2nd-century BC Jewish poets [Philo](/source/Philo_(poet)), [Theodotus](/source/Theodotus_(poet)) and [Ezekiel](/source/Ezekiel_the_Tragedian), are only slightly better preserved. Fragments of their works are known only through quotation in the ''[Praeparatio evangelica](/source/Praeparatio_evangelica)'' of [Eusebius](/source/Eusebius), which cites a lost work of [Alexander Polyhistor](/source/Alexander_Polyhistor).{{sfn|Cohen|1981|p=392}} The dating of Sosates to the reign of Ptolemy XII precludes his mention by Polyhistor and thus explains his extreme obscurity.{{sfn|Burgess|2013|p=208}} There is evidence that Bishop [Athanasius of Alexandria](/source/Athanasius_of_Alexandria) ({{reign|328|373}} AD) may have read Sosates. He cites the work of the European [Sotades](/source/Sotades) in critiquing the ''Thalia'' of [Arius](/source/Arius), but erroneously calls him "the Egyptian Sosates", which may indicate a confusion with the similarly named Jewish poet, whose works may still have been read in 4th-century Alexandria.{{sfn|Burgess|2013|pp=211–212}}

The only clue to the nature of Sosates' writings is his nickname, the "Jewish Homer". It implies that he wrote about Jewish history in [Homeric Greek](/source/Homeric_Greek), in epic style and [dactylic hexameter](/source/dactylic_hexameter)s. He probably reworked some of the [historical books](/source/historical_books) of the [Hebrew Bible](/source/Hebrew_Bible), such as the [Pentateuch](/source/Pentateuch), [Heptateuch](/source/Heptateuch) or [Octateuch](/source/Octateuch). There was a long tradition in both Greek and [Latin](/source/Latin), active down to the 6th century AD, of adapting biblical content to epic and [tragic](/source/Greek_tragedy) verse.<ref>{{harvnb|Burgess|2013|pp=208–210}}, who notes that "even though Sosates is otherwise unknown, his work fits without difficulty into an existing genre as we understand it".</ref> Possibly, he wrote about the more recent [Maccabean Revolt](/source/Maccabean_Revolt).{{sfn|Cohen|1981|p=396}} The suggestion of {{ill|Alfred Schöne|de}} that he wrote the ''[Pseudo-Phocylidea](/source/Pseudo-Phocylidea)'' can be dismissed, because the work is not Homeric.{{sfn|Cohen|1981|p=396}}{{sfn|Fraser|1972|pp=986–987}}

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite journal |first=R. W. |last=Burgess |year=2013 |title=Another Look at Sosates, The 'Jewish Homer' |journal=Journal for the Study of Judaism |volume=44 |issue=2 |pages=195–217 |doi=10.1163/15700631-12340371}}
*{{cite journal |first=Shaye J. D. |last=Cohen |author-link=Shaye J. D. Cohen |year=1981 |title=Sosates the Jewish Homer |journal=Harvard Theological Review |volume=74 |issue=4 |pages=391–396 |doi=10.1017/S0017816000030145|s2cid=162405178 }}
*{{cite book |editor-first=Benjamin |editor-last=Garstad |title=Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius: An Alexandrian World Chronicle |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2012}}
*{{cite book |author-link=Peter Fraser (classicist) |first=Peter M. |last=Fraser |title=Ptolemaic Alexandria, II: Notes |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1972 |isbn=978-0-19-814278-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/ptolemaicalexand0002fras}}
{{refend}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sosates}}
Category:1st-century BCE Jews
Category:Jews of Ptolemaic Alexandria
Category:Hellenistic Jewish writers
Category:Hellenistic poets
Category:Jewish poets
Category:Ancient Greek epic poets

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Sosates](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sosates) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sosates?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.