Die Rhesis des Sisyphos über den Ursprung der Religion (Kritias, Fr. 19 Sn.-K.)

Sisyphus’ speech about the origin of religion is attributed to Euripides by Pseudo-Plutarch, while Sextus Empiricus (Adv. math. 9.54), the main source of the fragment, ascribes it to Critias the tyrant. Concerning the highly debated question of authorship, the author thinks that Wilamowitz’s hypothesis about Critias’ authorship of the tetralogy Pirithous, Rhadamanthys, Tennes and Sisyphus is the only hypothesis which allows us to explain satisfyingly the little information that has survived. Concerning the constitutio textus of Critias, fr. 19 Sn.-K., the author proposes to fill the gap at the beginning of v. 12 with νόον, and she claims, based on new evidence which she provides, that at v. 13 the manuscript Mon. gr. 79 has ἐξευρών, not ἐξευρεῖν as all editors write, and she argues that at v. 13 the transmitted text can be defended.