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[German version] (Σῆμος/ Sêmos) of Delos. Greek antiquarian c. 200 AD. The Suda s. v. Σ. (where ὁ Ἠλεῖος is a corruption [1; 4]) mentions him as a 'scholar' (γραμματικός/ grammatikós) and the author of Δηλιακά/Dēliaká ( Delian history, 8 books; in other sources invariably called Δηλιάς sc. συγγραφή/ Dēliás sc. syngraphḗ) and a work On Delos (FGrH 396 F 1-22, for the most part from Athenaeus). It dealt with cultural and religious antiquities and curiosities on and near Delos, presumably in a periegetic structure. Of his work On Paeans a further fragment (FGrH 396 F 24 =  Ath. 14, 62…

[German version] (Παμπρέπιος/ Pamprépios) of Panopolis in Egypt. The sources on his biography [1. 7-9] are detailed but often tendentious: Suda s.v. Π. = vol. 4, 13,28-15,28 Adler, with excerpts from Malchus (also in Phot. cod. 242); Hesychius = Suda vol. 4,13,25-27 Adler; the horoscope of P. preserved in Rhetorius; Damascius, Vita Isidori (esp. antipathetic). Born in AD 440, P. studied at Alexandria, where he became acquainted with Hermias and came into contact with Neoplatonic circles. Around the…

(Ὀππιανός/ Oppianós). [German version] [1] From Corycus, Author of a didactic poem on fishing O. from Corycus in Cilicia, author, to be distinguished from O. [2], of a didactic poem entitled Ἁλιευτικά/ Halieutiká, 'On Fishing', 3506 verses in 5 books, which is dedicated to Marcus [1] Aurelius and Commodus (177-180 AD). Sources for his biography: vitae in a series of manuscripts; according to which O. was banished by Septimius Severus and received back into Rome by Caracalla (Suda s.v. Ὀ.; Athen. 1,13c). Content: books 1 and 2 …

[German version] (Κόλλουθος; Kóllouthos). A Greek native of Lycopolis in Egypt, who lived during the reign of Anastasius I (AD 491-518). Biography: Suda s.v. Κόλουθος, 3,1951, according to this Cod. Ambrosianus gr. 661; for the form of the name cf. [1, XI-XII]. Epic poet, author of a poem about the Calydonian Boar Hunt ( Kalydōniaká in six bks.), of encomia (hymns of praise) in hexameters and of an epic poem Persiká, which may have dealt with Anastasius's triumphs over the Persians in the year 505 (cf. [4]). His surviving work is a small epic poem in 392 verses, the ‘Rape of Helen…

[German version] (Φορωνίς/Phorōnís). Epic by an anonymous author, 7th/6th cent. BC. It received its name from a hero from Tiryns, Phoroneus, the 'father of all men' (fr. 1 PEG). The frequency of the word πρῶτος/ prȏtos, 'the first', in the fragments indicates the poet's interest in the first beginnings of human life. Fr. 2: the Daktyloi Idaioi discover the art of Hephaestus. Fr. 4: Callithoe [2] is the first to adorn the great statue of the 'Argive' Hera: the epithet is problematic (bibliography in [1. 120]). Paus. 2,15,5 and 2,1…

[German version] (Σωτήριχος/ Sōtḗrichos). Epic writer of the 3rd/4th cents. AD from Hyasis (in Libya), lived under Diocletianus (AD 284-305), and, according to Suda s. v. Σ., wrote an encomium to him. Further works: Bassariká or Dionysiaká (4 books), Pantheia of Babylon, Ariadne, Life of Apollonius of Tyana, Python or Alexandriacus (on the storming of Thebes by Alexander [4] the Great) and an epic on his own homeland; Schol. Lycoph. 486 [2. 64111] also mentions Kaledōniaká (on the myth of the Caledonian boar) [2]. Fornaro, Sotera (Sassari) Bibliography 1 FGrH 641 2 M. Ch. G. Müller,…

[German version] (Εὐδαίμων; Eudaímōn). Correspondent of  Libanius (Ep. 167; 255; 633) and his ‘fraternal’ friend for over thirty years (cf. Ep. 108; 132; 164; 315; 632; 826; 1057), from Pelusium in Egypt, born before AD 337 (probably c. 314/24: [2. 279]), died before AD 392. According to the Suda (ε 3407) a ‘grammarian’ (but he may also have taught rhetoric), author of a Τέχνη γραμματική/ Téchnē grammatikḗ (‘Grammar’) and an Ὀνοματικὴ ὀρθογραφία/ Onomatikḕ orthographía (‘Orthography of Names’) (cf. Lib. Ep. 255,7, regarding E.'s opinion on the vocative of Ἡρακλῆς/ Heraklês), which …

[German version] ἐπιμερισμοί ( epimerismoí) are ‘subdivisions’ (Apollonius Dyscolus, Syntaxis 491,13 Schneider-Uhlig; Lat. partitiones,  Priscianus) ‘of verses or sentences into words’ (this is the sense, in which Sext. Emp. Adv. Math. 1,159-168 in the 2nd cent. AD used μερισμός; merismós): each word was analyzed grammatically and prosodically, and sometimes also semantically. It is a teaching aid of the Byzantine School (Tzetzes on Hes. Op. 285); in the 11th-12th cents., it was referred to as schedographia (‘writing of didactic pieces’, σχέδη ( schédē), of uncertain etymolo…

[German version] (Μαϊίστας; Maïístas). Author (his name perhaps Egyptian) of the hexametric aretalogy of Sarapis. This forms the second part (l. 29-84) of an inscription (3rd cent. BC) on a column in the Serapeum of Delos, which tells the history of the cult of the god from its inception to the construction of the first temple [1]. The beginning of the inscription (l. 1-28) comprises the prose chronicle of the priest Apollonius II. M.'s text following may be a Greek aretalogy intended for Greeks, o…

[German version] A. Person H. was an antiquarian and grammarian in the second half of the 1st cent. AD (main source for the biography: Suda s.v. Φίλων Βύβλιος, φ 447, where the text, however, is problematic). His original name was Phílōn, the ethnicon Býblios (after the town Byblos in Phoenicia), the praenomen H. perhaps taken over from Herennius Severus Plin. Ep. 4,28 [4]. He was the teacher of  Hermippus of Berytus. Fornaro, Sotera (Sassari) [German version] B. Works (FGrH 790): Historical and antiquarian works: 1) The ‘Phoenician History’ (Φοινικικὴ ἱστορία or Φοινικικ…

[German version] of Damascus, known only from 15 hexameters cited by Stobaeus from his poem ‘Tresses (Πλοκαμῖδες/ Plokamîdes), a song on the beauty of his beloved's hair. Fornaro, Sotera (Sassari) Bibliography SH 558.

[German version] (Κάλλιστος; Kállistos). Author of an epic about the Persian Wars of Emperor  Iulianus, whom he accompanied on his campaigns in his role as domesticus (Socr. 3,21,14-17). He reports how the emperor died having been slain by a daimon. Possibly he is identical with Callistion, the epic poet and assessor of the praefectus praetorio Orientis Sallustius Secundus, to whom Libanius addressed his letters no. 1233 and 1251. Fornaro, Sotera (Sassari) Bibliography O. Seeck, RE Suppl. 4, 864.

[German version] (Νόννος; Nónnos) from Panopolis (the modern Aḫmīm) in Egypt. There are no biographical records, with the exception of Anth. Pal. 9,198 (possibly a dedication written by the poet himself for his own work [33. 166-168; 23]). It is assumed that the origin of the name, found in Egypt from the 4th cent. AD, was Syrian or Egyptian (‘pure’), but a connection to the Greek familiar diminutive nénnos (‘uncle’ or ‘grandfather’) cannot be excluded. The dating is uncertain: the terminus post quem is taken to be a work by Claudianus [3] (394-397), which was known to N., and the terminus an…

[German version] (Φιλόγελως/ Philógelōs, 'the Lover of Laughter'). The only collection passed down from antiquity of 265 individual Greek jokes (in different recensions; with regard to the MS tradition see [1. 129-146; 8]), compiled between the 3rd [11] and 5th cent. AD. In the MSS, it is attributed to Hierocles and the grammarian Philagrius (not identifiable; hypotheses in [2. IV-V]). Dating indications are the allusion in § 62 to the festival of AD 248 celebrating the foundation of Rome and the m…

[German version] (Τριφιόδωρος/ Triphiódōros, from the theonym Triphys, Graecized as T.; MSS and Byzantine sources: Tryphiódōros). Greek epic poet, 2nd half of 3rd cent. AD (only biographical testimony: Suda s. v. T.), Egyptian by name, probably from Panopolis [1. 4-7]. Author of works including (cf. [1. 15]) the epic Μαραθωνιακά ( Marathoniaka, 'Marathonic Histories' [1. 11 f.]), the mythical epic Hippodámeia and a lipogrammatic (i.e. written with the constraint of the regular omission of selected letters) Odyssey (Ὀδύσσεια λειπογράμματος/ Odýsseia leipográmmatos, cf. …

[German version] (Μενάλκας; Menálkas). Bucolic poet, protagonist of Theoc. 8 alongside Daphnis. Both Hermesianax (fr. 2 and 3 Powell) and Sositheus (fr. 1a-3 Snell) mention his unrequited love for Daphnis. In Vergilius' Bucolica his name appears frequently as the poet's alter ego and as a figure associated with a tragic love story. M. is probably not a historical person. Fornaro, Sotera (Sassari) Bibliography F. Michelazzo, s.v. Menalca, Enciclopedia Virgiliana, 3, 1987, 477-480 (with bibl.).

[German version] (Ἅβρων; Hábrōn). Greek grammarian, a slave of Phrygian origin, taught (and perhaps also studied) first on Rhodes, then in Rome in the 1st half of the 1st cent. AD (Suda α 97 Adler). He was a student of the Aristarchian  Tryphon and dealt with the same topics as the former although he took another position and also criticized the teaching of Aristarchus [4] of Samothrace in regard to pronouns (cf. [1. 1520; 7. 91]). Nine quotations from his work Περὶ ἀντωνυμίας (‘On the pronoun’) ar…

[German version] (Εὐτέκνιος; Eutéknios). The famous Cod. Vindobonensis med. gr. 1 (late 5th cent. AD) with the herbal of Pedanius Dioscorides also contains prose paraphrases on  Nicander's Thēriaká and Alexiphármaka [4; 2; 5]. A remark in a manuscript attributes them to a ‘rhetor’ (σοφιστής; sophistḗs) by the name of E., who is to be dated sometime between the 3rd and 5th cents. AD [3. 34-37]; without any solid proof, the following anonymous paraphrases are also attributed to the same E.: on  Oppianus' [4; 6] Halieutiká (from 3,605) and, from as early as C. Gesner in 1555, on…

[German version] (Λυκέας; Lykéas). Undatable author of épē on the historical and mythical history of his home town of Argus, only known from four quotations in Pausanias (1,13,8; 2,19,5; 2,22,2; 2,23,7) who describes him as ὁ τῶν ἐπιχωρίων ἐξηγητής; ho tôn epichōríōn exēgētḗs (‘The one who explains local traditions’) and uses him as a written source which he compares with oral sources. The poem also told of the death of Pyrrhus (in 272 BC, terminus post quem for the dating.). Fornaro, Sotera (Sassari) Bibliography 1SH 527-530 2FGrH 312 3 C. Bearzot, Storia e storiografia ellenistica …

[German version] of Alexandria (Troad). Lived under Antiochus III of Antioch (222-187 BC) and became the king's ‘friend’ ( phílos, SH 464) when he gave him his poetry. In 197 and 193 he was the Seleucid ambassador at the Roman Senate and in 196 with T. Quinctius Flamininus in Corinth. Grammarian, author of the work ‘On the Style of Democritus’ and ‘On the Poetic Style’ as well as astronomical-mythological poetry ( Phainómena, SH fr. 465-467; in total five hexameters have been passed down, but the allocation is uncertain; cf. [7. 73470], with bibliography). H. is the oldest known aut…