2nd century BCE · Jewish author
The author of the Letter of Aristeas
Known · ProbableWorked in Alexandria.
In Alexandria: 2nd century BCE
An Alexandrian Jew who wrote in the person of Aristeas, a Greek courtier of Ptolemy II, the story of how the Torah was translated for the king's library. The author is real; the courtier is a literary mask.
Our device: Their emblem is a sealed letter. No likeness of any of these people is drawn. The emblems are our devices.
On the shelves
- Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates · c. 200–100 BCE (most date it to the mid-2nd century BCE) · Survives whole
Moments
- c. 280–250 BCE · The Torah translated into Greek Known: probable
In the show
The show has not yet spoken of The author of the Letter of Aristeas.
Sources (2)
- S. Honigman, The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas (London: Routledge, 2003)
- B. G. Wright III, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015)