La Magnésie du Méandre de Strabon, une capitale du mauvais goût ? Sur I. Magnesia 129 dans la Géographie, XIV, 1, 41 C648
Résumé
Strabo’s account of Magnesia, a city he knew, and of its illustrious men is unusually long and negative (XIV, 1, 39-41 C647-648). Concerning honorific portraits of Anaxenor, a contemporary kitharode hired by Mark Antony, Strabo dwells on the spelling of the Homeric dative in the inscription (Od. IX, 3-4 ap. I. Magnesia 129) accompanying a new statue (probably replacing the one of I. Magnesia 92a) in the epiphanestatos topos of the theatre. Because of the carelessness of a letter-cutter, Magnesia was exposed to a criticism rooted in analogist thought, which Strabo had studied in Nysa. This is at odds with the accusative given by the manuscripts of Homer and by Eustathius, Strabo’s commentator, as well as with the common use of the iota mutum at the time: this grammatical purism definitely turns the neighbouring city into a capital of poor taste
