The Book of Marvels, a compilation of marvellous events of a grotesque, bizarre or sensational nature, was composed in the second century A.D. by Phlegon of Tralles, a Greek freedman of the Roman emperor Hadrian. This remarkable text is the earliest surviving work of pure sensationalism in Western literature.
The Book is arranged thematically: Ghosts; Sex-Changers and Hermaphrodites; Finds of Giant Bones; Monstrous Births; Births from Males; Amazing Multiple Births; Abnormally Rapid Development of Human Beings; Discoveries of Live Centaurs. This volume also contains and Introduction and commentary on the texts, as well as translations of fragments of two other works and a translation of Goethe's well-known vampire poem, The Bride of Corinth, which was inspired by Phlegon's Book of Marvels.
is Professor of Classical Studies and Folklore at Indiana University, Bloomington, USA. He is an expert on Greek and Roman folklore and the leading Phlegon specialist in the English-speaking world.
1. Introduction
PART I-TEXTS
2. Book of Marvels
3. Long-Lived Persons
4. Olympiads
PART II- COMMENTARIES
5. Book of Marvels
6. Long-Lived Persons
7. Olympiads
Appendices:
1. Proklos: Persons Who Died and Returned to Life
2. Goethe: The Bride of Corinth, trans. Breon Mitchell
3. Philostratos: Achilleus' Ghost and the Trojan Maiden
“Not only does this book contain a good translation of Phlegon’sBook of Marvels, but Hansen has also added translations of fragments of two other works by Phlegon,Olympiads(recounting the foundation of the Olympic Games), andLong-Lived Persons(which uses Roman census documents). As such we get a truly representative feel for the literary output of this Greek freedman which certainly seems to have hlck
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