Basilius, Hexaëmeron 7, 2 in den Übertragungen von Ambrosius und Eustathius*

Abstract

Basilius from Caesarea had tried in succession of Origenes to connect the short biblical text of Genesis with the huge scientific heritage of antiquity (first of all Aristoteles and Theophrast). Ambrose of Milan has transposed these homilies written in Greek into Latin sermons, which transformed and extended his main-source in order to adapt the material found in Basilius to Roman thought and to the postulates of western culture and audience in such a manner that he rhetorically uses the principles of the so-called Second Sophistic. This transformation will be explained by an analysis of a passage in the seventh homily concerning the creation of the animals in the sea. The Ambrosian translation or better the Bishop's free adaptation will be compared with the literal translation of Eustathius, a translator approximately contemporaneous.