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(Σαπφώ/ Sapphṓ; in her self-designation, fr. 1: Ψάπφω/ Psápphō). Greek poet c. 600 BC. [German version] A. Life Lyric poet, born at Mytilene or Eresus on Lesbos. Was regularly synchronized in Antiquity with the poet Alcaeus [4] and the statesman Pittacus (e.g., Str. 13,617). The date recorded in the Suda s.v. Σ. - the 42nd Olympiad = 612-609 BC - could refer either to her birth or to her akme. The latter is the more likely and accords with the notice in the Marmor Parium that she went into exile in Sicily between 603/02 and 596/95 (FGrH 239,36), when she s…

[German version] (Καστόρειον, sc. μέλος; Kastóreion mélos). A melody, named after Castor, sung by the Spartans, accompanied on the aulos, as they went off to battle. At the same time, the king started to sing the Embaterion (Plut. De musica 26,1140c; Plut. Lycurgus 22; Polyaenus, Strat. 1,10). The meter of these two martial airs was undoubtedly anapestic (Val. Max. 2,6,2). The association of Castor with horses (cf. Hom. Il. 3,237) establishes a connection between the kastoreion and the epinikion, especially on the occasion of horse competitions (Pind. Pyth. 2,69; Hyp…

[German version] (Λυκοφρονίδης; Lykophronídēs). Lyric poet, date and origin unknown. Two fragments are extant in Athenaeus, both come from the ‘Erotica’ of Clearchus [6]. Ath. 13,564a-b deals with modesty that is the basis of beauty; Ath. 15,670d-f is a poem of dedication by a shepherd who is in love; it has a slightly Doric coloration that is reminiscent of epideictic epigrams in which hunters offer up their hunting equipment (GA I 2, 34f.). The metre is idiosyncratic in both cases but is close to Ionic ( Metre). Robbins, Emmet (Toronto)

[German version] (Μεσομήδης; Mesomḗdēs). Cithara player and lyric poet from Crete, freedman of Hadrian (according to the Suda), main period of production AD 144 (according to Eusebius). Besides two poems in the Anthologia Palatina (14,63) and the Anthologia Planudea (16,323), 13 poems are transmitted by the manuscripts, four of which are provided with musical notation. They include hymns, animal fables, the description of a sponge and of a clock, as well as a poem on the manufacture of glass. There is a variety of metres, in particu…

[German version] (Ἀνακρεόντεια; Anakreónteia). A collection of poems, handed down in that manuscript of the 10th cent. AD which contains the  Anthologia Palatina. The poems were published for the first time in 1554 by Stephanus (Henri Estienne), who had seen the manuscript three years earlier in Louvain and had copied out the texts from it [1.178]. The copy made by Stephanus, today kept in Leiden, follows exactly the text of the poems in the MSS; however, his edition suppresses details which allow …

[German version] (Κλεόμαχος; Kleómachos). Kinaidographos, born in Magnesia, dates uncertain. According to Str. 14,1,41 he was a boxer who after falling in love with a kínaidos and a prostitute, whom he supported, began to write in the obscene language of the kínaidoi. Heph. Enchiridion 11,2 (= Consbruch 392,10-15) states that the Ionian acatalectic dimeter a maiore was called the Kleomacheion and that this verse form contained Molossian metre and choriambs. Hephaestion cites (as does Trichas ad loc. Consbruch 395,10) an example but neither is definitely…

[German version] (Ἀρίων; Aríōn). Lyric poet from Methymna on Lesbos. According to statements in the Suda, his akme was in Olympiad 38 (628-624 BC), and it is said there that he had been a pupil of  Alcman. Hdt. 1,23 reports that he had been the first person to compose a  dithyramb, and given it a name and performed it in Corinth. The mention in the Suda awards him the merit of being ‘the first to have put together a chorus, sung a dithyramb and to have given a name to that which the chorus sang, and to be the fi…

[German version] (Ὑβρίας; Hybrías). At the end of a collection of scholia, Ath. 695f adds a poem by H. of Crete, which ‘many consider to be a scholion ’ [1]. H. boasts of being the master of the public slaves (δεσπότας μνοΐας) and of earning a living as a soldier. The poem was formerly assumed to be a war song by a Doric nobleman, now is commonly regarded as the boasting of a man who comes from the class that he now rules [2]. A reference to the Persian Great King suggests the middle of the 6th cent. BC as terminus post quem. The two stanzas consist primarily of trochees, choriambs,and glyconics…

[German version] (Ἤριννα; Ḗrinna). Poet and author of a work known in antiquity as the ‘Distaff’ (Ἠλακάτη; Ēlakátē), a poem of 300 hexameters (Anon. Anth. Pal. 9,190,3). Eusebius indicates that her creative time was between 353 and 352 BC (= Ol. 106.4 or 107.1). The Suda, which erroneously made her into Sappho's contemporary, names several possible places of origin; the most probable being the island of Telos since she writes in Doric with the occasional Aeolism. The literary similarities with the works of  Ascl…

[German version] (Πράξιλλα/ Práxilla). Lyric poetess from Sicyon, chief date c. 451 BC. (Eusebius, Jer. Chron. Ol. 82,2). Author of hymns (747 PMG), dithyrambs (748 PMG) and skólia (749, 750 PMG). Two verses about a girl seen at a window (754 PMG) are written in the praxilleion metre, named after her; the beginning syllables can be found as inscriptions on a Boeotian vase from the middle of the 5th cent. Her treatment of myth was innovative: Dionysus was the son of Aphrodite and not Semele (752 PMG); Zeus, not Laius, kidnapped Chrysippus (7…

[German version] (θρῆνος/ thrênos, pl. thrênoi), dirge, lament. Homer apparently differentiated between a more spontaneous γόος ( góos, ‘weeping’, ‘wailing’) by relatives or friends (cf. Hom. Il. 18,316; 24,723; 24,747) and the threnos sung by outsiders: Hector's body, laid out on a bed, is surrounded by singers (Hom. Il. 24,719-722), the leaders of the threnos (ἔξαρχος/ éxarchos: Hom. Il. 24,721; ἐξάρχειν/ exárchein: 18,316) and the women who accompany the song with lamentations. In the lament for Patroclus (Hom. Il. 18,28-31 and 339-342), the captured T…

[German version] (Λαμύνθιος; Lamýnthios). Lyric poet from Miletus, dating uncertain. Phot. s.v. calls him a ‘poet of erotic poetry’ (ποιητὴς ἐρωτικῶν μελῶν; poiētḕs erōtikôn melôn); Ath. 13,596f-597a mentions two poets who write about hetaerae named Lyde: Antimachus [3] of Colophon, who composed his Lýdē in elegiac meter, and L., who according to Clearchus composed lyrical verse about a foreign (βαρβάρου/ barbárou) girl of the same name in his Erōtiká. He is named by Epicrates [4] in the Antilaḯs (PCG v 4) as the author of love songs. Fragments have not been preserved. Robbins, Emmet (…

[German version] (Κόριννα; Kórinna). Lyric Greek poet of the 5th cent. BC (?), probably from Tanagra in Boeotia (Paus. 9,22,3). The Suda gives various birthplaces, and has her a pupil of Myrtis and contemporary of  Pindarus, whom she is said to have defeated. Other, rather improbable, biographical anecdotes link her with Pindar. Although the Suda speaks of five bks., and many sources assign C. to the canon of nine lyric poets, her work was not published by the Alexandrians. There is also no survivi…

[German version] (Μελανιππίδης; Melanippídēs). Dithyrambic poet from Melos, whose main period of creativity was in the second half of the 5th century BC. A grandfather of the same name, also a poet, is mentioned in the Suda: there are no surviving fragments from this M. the Elder, who, according to information from the Marmor Parium , won a victory in Athens in 494/93. In Pherecrates' Cheírōn (PCG VII 155), M. the Younger, who exercised considerable influence on the new musical style, is reprimanded by Music personified, because he was the first to misuse it.…

(Ὑμέναιος; Hyménaios). Wedding song (cf.  Hymenaeus) Robbins, Emmet (Toronto) I. Greek [German version] A. Etymology The meaning of hyménaios is shared by ὑμήν ( hymḗn), as it is usually found in the cry Ὑμὴν ὦ Ὑμέναιε [1. vol. 2,361]. The origin of the word ὑμήν is disputed: some claim its origin is pre-Greek and not Indo-European [2]; others maintain it is Greek, and synonymous with hymḗn = membrane, i.e. the hymen, although this meaning first appears in later authors [3. 964-965]. Diehl, who assumes a connection with the Latin suo, sees a further link with ὕμνος ( hýmnos,  Hymn), which…

[German version] (Ἀρχέβουλος; Archéboulos). Poet from Thera (Suda s. v. Euphorion 3801 Eagle) or possibly from Thebes (Θηβαίου erroneously for Θηραίου?). Teacher of  Euphorion, therefore can be dated to early 3rd cent. BC. The only verse ascribed to him, which possibly is not genuine, (SH 124), is quoted in order to explain the metre named after him. This metre, the archebuleum, consists of four anapests followed by one bacchaeus:           . A. had allegedly used it ‘exces…

[German version] (Μεγάκλεια; Megákleia). According to the Vita Ambrosiana (1,3,3-4 Drachmann), wife of Pindar ( Pindarus), daughter of Lysitheus and Calline. In Eustathius's verse biography, which is preserved in the proem of his lost Pindarus commentary, Timoxeine is given as the name of Pindar's wife (Τιμοξείνη, 3,302,1 Drachmann). In both sources the children are called Protomache, Eumetis and Daephantus. Pindar composed a Daphnephorikon for him (fr. 94c Snell-Maehler). Robbins, Emmet (Toronto)

[German version] (προπεμπτικόν, sc. μέλος/ mélos, ᾆσμα/ â isma). A poem that wishes a departing friend or relative all the best for a prosperous trip overseas (εὔπλοια/ eúploia). In Late Antiquity there was also the προπεμπτικὸς λόγος ( propemptikòs lógos), a speech written in prose whose topoi were stipulated by the rhetors and listed (e.g. Menander Rhetor 3,395-99 Spengel); these included the prayer for a safe journey and return, the dangers of sea travel, praise of the destination, lamentation because of abandonment by the departi…

[German version] (Τελέσιλλα; Telésilla). Greek poet from Argos, c. 451/450 BC (Eus. Chronicon Ol. 82.2, p. 112 Helm). She is supposed to have armed the women of her home city and prevented a victory by Cleomenes [3] (Paus. 2,20,8-10; Plut. Mor. 245c-f; but not in Hdt. 6,77,2). The few preserved fragments make frequent mention of Apollo and Artemis in a mythological context. It appears that fragment 726 PMG represents a poem on the wedding of Zeus and Hera and that fragment 717 PMG is meant for a chorus o…

[German version] (Αἰσχρίων; Aischríōn). The Suda (s. v. 354 Adler) mentions an epic writer from Mytilene, companion of Alexander the Great and pupil of Aristotle (no quotations extant); Ath. 7,296f and 8,335c-d quotes choliambic verses of an A. of Samos. Tzetz. Chil. 8,398 ff. names -- perhaps rightly so -- only A. of Mytilene, an author of both genres. Authentic iambic verses of his are a) an epitaph for Philaenis, who repudiates the calumnies of someone called Polycrates, b) discusses the food th…

[German version] (Πύθερμος; Pýthermos). Lyric poet from Teos, perhaps 6th century BC; known from a mention in Ath. 14,625c, in a discussion of the three books of Heraclides Ponticus' Perì Mousikês: P. is supposed to have written skólia in the Ionian mode and iambic verses and to have been mentioned by Ananius or Hipponax. The only recorded verse (metre: phalaeceus) claims that apart from gold everything is nothing (910 PMG); it became proverbial and can also be found cited in Diogenianus, Plutarch and the Suda. Robbins, Emmet (Toronto)

[German version] (Τέρπανδρος/ Térpandros, Lat. Terpander). Early 7th cent. BC kithara player from Lesbos or Cyme [3] (Suda s. v. T.). His life was closely tied to Sparta where he was the first victor at the Carnea (Hellanicus FGrH 4 F 85a) of the 26th Olympiad (676/673 BC). He achieved four sequential further victories at the Pythia (Plut. Mor. 1132e) which took place every eight years at that time - his career must therefore have spanned 25 years. He died in 640 BC ay the latest (Euseb. Chron. Olymp…

[German version] (αἴλινος; aílinos). A cry, usually in the refrain of a dirge αἴλινον αἴλινον ( aílinon aílinon; Aesch. Ag. 121; Soph. Aj. 627; Eur. Or. 1395), but also used as the term for a spinning song (Ath. 14,618d) or a song of joy (Eur. Her. 348-9). These opposite meanings lead to the common basic meaning ‘song’ (cf. λίνος; línos, Hom. Il. 18,570) [3. II, 84 ff.]. In spite of its uncertain origin (Frisk s. v.), the Greeks associated it with the dying god Linus because of the sounds αἴ and λίνος (Hdt. 2,79; Pind. fr. 128c,6 Snell-Maehler). Some saw the ailinos as an adaptation of a cult…

[German version] (Οἰνιάδης; Oiniádēs). Aulos player and dithyrambic poet from Thebes. IG II2 3064 records his victory in the aulos competition at Athens in 384/3. His father, Pronomus, was probably the famous aulētḗs in Paus. 4,27,7; 9,12,5; Anth. Plan. 16,28,2. Didymus [1] mentions O. as one of three poets to compose a dithyramb entitled Cyclops (840 PMG). Robbins, Emmet (Toronto) Bibliography D.A. Campbell, Greek Lyric 5, 1993, 208  H. Reimann, s.v. O., RE Suppl. 8, 369  D.F. Sutton, Dithyrambographi Graeci, 1989, 38F1.

(ἐπινίκιον; epiníkion, sc. μέλος; mélos, ᾆσμα; âisma), ‘victory song’. [German version] A. Term The adjective epiníkios is used for the closer definition of ἀοιδή ( aoidḗ; song) in Pind. Nem. 4,78, whereas in Aesch. Ag. 174 the neutr. pl. epiníkia represents a shout of victory. In prose, the term, in conjunction with θύειν ( thýein) or ἑστιᾶν ( hestiân), generally refers to the sacrifices (sc. ἱερά; hierá), which followed a victory in battle (Dem. Or. 19,128) or took place as part of festival celebrations ([Dem. or.] 59,33; cf. Pl. Symp. 173a). The neutr. sing. epiníkion was first used b…

[German version] I. Greek A genethliakón (γενεθλιακόν, sc. μέλος, ᾷ̓σμα) is a poem in honour of a birthday (γενέθλιος ἡμέρα, γενέθλιον ἦμαρ), in association with a gift or standing alone. Callim. Fr. 202 is a iamb to a friend in celebration of the seventh day after the birth of his daughter. There is an isopsephic epigram written by Leonides of Alexandria (Anth. Pal. 6,321) as a birthday present to Caesar γενεθλιακαῖσιν ἐν ὥραις. Other epigrams, particularly by  Crinagoras, accompanied birthday gifts…

[German version] (σκόλιον; skólion). A Greek song at a symposium (Banquet). Unlike elegy, also sung at the symposium, it was accompanied by the lyre and was in lyric metre. The origin of the term is most likely the practice of holding a myrtle branch, which singers passed to each other in haphazard fashion (cf. Aristoph. fr. 444 PCG vol.3.2), though other far-fetched derivations were advanced, in particular from dýskolon ('difficult'), because inferior or drunken singers could not manage them (cf. Schol. Pl. Grg. 451e, Ath. 15,693f.-694c). First mention is in Pi…

[German version] (Μελιννώ; Melinnṓ). Greek female poet who composed a hymn in five Sapphic stanzas to the goddess Roma. Stobaeus (ecl. 3,7,12), who cites her, gives Lesbos as her place of origin, probably on account of the metre because there are only hints of an Aeolian dialect in het poetry. Her date is much disputed: most scholars propose the Republican period because - despite some similarities in images and ideas - there is no reason to suppose that she was influenced by Latin poetry and because she made no mention of the princeps [1]; others assign her to the 2nd cent. AD by poin…

[German version] Although songs were generally part of the leisure sphere in Greece, there is some evidence that music also accompanied work. On the Reaper Vase Rhyton from Hagia Triada ( c. 1500 BC) a group of peasants, returning from work in the fields, are carrying their tools on their shoulders; the procession is accompanied by singing musicians, of which the first is shaking a sistrum. Homer mentions the λίνος( línos; Ailinos), a song played on the lyre by a boy to accompany dancing and singing at the grape harvest (Il. 18,569-572), as well as a song played …

[German version] (Δωσιάδας; Dosiádas). Author handed down by Anth. Pal. 15,26, also in the Codex of the bucolic poets under the Τεχνοπαίγνια ( Technopaígnia). The poem is a γρῖφος ( gríphos) or riddle, in the way of the Alexandra of  Lycophron, with dark references and allusions to known mythological figures which are explained by the scholia in some MSS. Its subject is a literary dedication of an altar that Jason erected on Lemnos and at which  Philoctetes was injured. The language is a mixture of Doric and epic forms (e.g. Τεύκροι…

[German version] (ἐγκώμιον/ enkṓmion, sc. μέλος/ mélos, ᾆσμα/ âisma). A song of praise. Praise (ἔπαινος, épainos) and reproach (ψόγος, psógos) are two important functions in oral poetry widely used and documented in early Greece [1. 141-151]. Reproach is largely the subject of the iambographers while praise is, for example, found in the poem addressed by  Alcaeus to his brother (350 Voigt [2]), the poems of  Sappho to her female friends, in the Partheneia of  Alcman, in the erotic poetry dedicated by  Anacreon and…

(Στησίχορος; Stēsíchoros). [German version] [1] Lyric poet, 6th cent. BC Greek lyric poet, one of the nine of the Alexandrian canon. Robbins, Emmet (Toronto) [German version] A. Life S. originated from Himera (Sicily) and was called 'the Himeraean' (Ἱμεραῖος/ Himeraîos), or he may have come from Mataurus in south Italy; he died in Catania (Catane). The dates in the Suda (σ 1095) are suspect: his birth in the 37th (632-629 BC) and death in the 56th Olympiad (556-553 BC) seem based on synchronisation with other poets, with the first giving an akme of a conventional 40 years after the Su…

[German version] (ἐμβατήριον/ embatḗrion, sc. μέλος/ mélos, ᾆσμα/ âisma). Military march, often sung, usually played by an auletes (flute-player), although Phillis of Delos speaks of κινήσεις ἐμβατηρίους ( kinḗseis embateríous) in connection with ἀρχαίους κιθαρῳδούς ( archaíous kitharōidoús; Ath. 1,21f-22a). The proto-Corinthian Chigi vase of c. 630 BC (Rome, VG 22679) shows warriors marching with a flute-player (cf. Thuc. 5,70). The rhythm was undoubtedly anapaestic: Dion Chrys. 2,59 (PMG 856; cf. PMG 857) quotes one such song, supposedly…

[German version] (παλινῳδία/ palinōidía). Poem by Stesichorus in which he withdrew the vituperation of Helen [1] because of which he had lost his eyesight (192 PMGF). This 'revocation' is said to have restored his vision. Stesichorus withdrew his report that Helen had travelled to Troy and appears instead to have introduced the story that she had spent the war years in Egypt. There were apparently two palinodies (193 PMGF). Later the term was used for any type of revocation (cf. for instance Cic. Att. 4,5,1). Chiastically arranged songs (a b : b a) are also called 'palinodic' (H…

[German version] (Ἴβυκος; Íbykos), born in Rhegium in the 6th cent. BC, the second important poet of Magna Graecia after  Stesichorus. He came to Samos in the 54th Olympiad (564-561 BC) (Suda: ‘when Polycrates, the tyrant's father, ruled there’, should probably be corrected to Πολυκράτους, which would result in more common Greek, and would then say - in accordance with Hdt. 3,39, who names Aeaces as the father: ‘when the father of the tyrant Polycrates ruled there’). Eusebius' dating differs from t…

[German version] (ὑπόρχημα; hypórchēma). Old Greek choral lyric that was originally associated with the weapon dance. The word hyporchema is first documented in Pl. Ion 534c, where it is cited along with forms of poetry.  Thaletas of Gortyn (7th cent. BC) was the first to compose hyporchḗmata to accompany the weapon dances of the  Curetes (schol. Pind. Pyth. 2,127). As warrior dances were more elaborate and mimetic than other choral dances, a soloist probably sang (Ath. 1,15d-e). Thaletas probably brought the hyporchema to Sparta, where, together with Xenodamus of Cythera, h…

[German version] (ἐπικήδειον; epikḗdeion, sc. μέλος; mélos, ᾆσμα; âisma). Ceremonial song at mourning (κῆδος, kḗdos) or during burial (cf. Pind. Pyth. 4,112). The chorus in Eur. Tro. 514 sings an epicedium (ᾠδὰν ἐπικήδειον; ōidàn epikḗdeion) over the fall of Troy; similarly, Plato speaks of the women who are ἐπικήδειοι ᾠδαί ( epikḗdeioi ōidai), professional mourners at a burial. As a substantive, however, epicedium is used rarely and only quite late. Ancient authors tried to distinguish it from other words for ‘lament’: Proclus (Phot. 321a 30-32) calls epicedium a song ‘before t…

[German version] (ἀναβολή; anabolḗ). A musical introduction that precedes the singing, as with Pind. Pyth. 1,4 f. addressed to the lyre, ὅταν προοιμίων ἀμβολὰς τεύχηις: dancers and singers receive their cue from the first notes. It is clear from e.g. Hom. Od. 1,155 (= 8,266) φορμίζων ἀνεβάλλετο καλὸν ἀείδειν, that the singer, who underscores his singing voice with music, previously plays an instrumental part. No doubt he also used his instrument during the pauses in the singing. Flute-players also played ἀναβολαί ( anabolaí; Eupolis, PCG V 81). Aristot. Rh. 3,9,1409b 25 ment…

[German version] (δαφνηφορικόν; daphnēphorikón). A song sung by maidens at the  Daphnephoria, a festival for Apollo Ismenios in Thebes (Paus. 9,10,4). Proclus (Phot. 321a34) reports daphnēphoriká as part of Pindar's Partheneia; the Suda s.v. Πίνδαρος counts daphnēphoriká amongst the 17 books (in addition to the Partheneia). POxy. 4,659 (1904) = Pind. fr. 94b Snell-Maehler provides us with a substantial fragment of a daphnēphorikón. The poem was written in honour of Agasicles, the grandson of an Aeoladas (l. 9), to whom fr. 94a is obviously addressed. Pagon…

(ἐπιτάφιος; epitáphios). [German version] [1] Funerary epigram see  Funerary epigram Robbins, Emmet (Toronto) [German version] [2] Funeral games or funeral oration (sc. ἀγών or λόγος; agṓn or lógos: funeral games or funeral oration). Funeral games are known since Hom. Il. 23; for Athens, Aristot. Ath. Pol. 58 mentions an epitáphios agṓn (for Sparta cf. Paus. 3,14,1). The term ‘funeral oration’ (ἐπιτάφιος λόγος; first in Pl. Menex. 236b) is only confirmed for Athens; it refers to the laudatio for a well-respected citizen in accordance with the πάτριος νόμος; pátrios nómos, ‘the inhe…

[German version] (Κινησίας; Kinēsías). Athenian dithyrambic poet, whose creative period ranged from c. 425 to 390 BC. His father Meles (Pl. Grg. 501e-502a) is referred to in Pherecrates' Ágrioi (PCG VII 6, cf. Aristoph. Av. 766) as the worst kitharode imaginable. IG II2 3028 of the early 4th cent. BC preserves fragments of a dedication by a victorious choregos of a choir under C.'s direction. In 394/3 BC, in his function as   bouleutḗs , C. succeeded in his proposition to the people's assembly (IG II2 18) of honouring Dionysius I of Syracuse. Lysias (Ath. 551d-552f) attacked h…

[German version] (Λαμπροκλῆς; Lamproklês). Musician and poet of Athens, early 5th cent. BC. Among his pupils were Damon, the teacher of Pericles (Diels/Kranz 1, 382), and possibly Sophocles (Ath. 1,20e states that the latter's teacher was Lamprus; perhaps a confusion with L. [1. 315]). Ath. 11,491c cites a dithyramb fragment. The only other preserved fragment comes from a hymn to Athena (schol. Aristoph. Nub. 967). To L. is attributed the observation that the Mixolydian mode does not relate to the other keys in the manner assumed until that time [2. 223-224]. Robbins, Emmet (Toronto) Bib…

[German version] (Τιμοκρέων/ Timokréōn). Lyricist and elegist from Ialysus in Rhodes, early 5th cent. BC, according to the Suda also a writer of the Old Comedy (for which no evidence survives, however). In Mesopotamian Susa, T. entertained the Persian king as a pentathlete and a jester (Ath. 415f-416a). It is well known that there was a feud between him and Themistocles, whom he attacks for his failure to return him to Rhodes and his lack of success at the Isthmian Games (fr. 727 PMG). This twelve-…

[German version] (Βακχυλίδης; Bakchylídēs). Author of choral lyric whose productive period was in the 5th cent. BC. B. was born in Iulis on Ceos, but the exact year of his birth remains contested. He was the grandson of an athlete by the same name, the son of a man called Meidon (Suda) or Meidylus (EM), and nephew of  Simonides [1. 130-132]. Eusebius of Caesarea stated the time of B.'s akmḗ as the 2nd year of the 78th Olympiad, doubtlessly due to B.'s most important assignment -- to praise Hieron of Syracuse's victory in the chariot race of 468 BC. In Chron. pasch., his akmḗ is set 13 years earl…

[German version] (Ἀργᾶς; Argâs). Poet and kitharist (first half of 4th cent. BC), from whom no fragments have remained. We know his name only from sources which allow one to assume a proverbially poor-quality poet: Plutarch mentions as a nickname of Demosthenes Ἀργᾶς, a poet of ‘poor and disgusting songs’ (νόμων πονηρῶν καὶ ἀργαλέων) and makes ἀργᾶς synonymous with ὄφις, serpent (Demosth. 4,8; cf. Hsch. s. v. ἀργᾶς 7013 Latte). There are some uncomplimentary references in Phaenias of Ephesus (FHG I…

[German version] (Ἑρμόλοχος; Hermólochos). Author of several lines regarding the imponderables and hopes of life. In Stob. 4,34,66 (also in Phot. Bibl. 167) he is called H. in two MSS, and Hermolaus in one MS. [1. 637] attributes this fragment to a Hermodotus and rearranges two verses; [2] maintains the attribution to H. but slightly changes the colometry. The dactyloepitritic verses show traces of the Doric in Stobaeus. Modern editors have made further conjectures with regard to the Doric elements. Robbins, Emmet (Toronto) Bibliography 1 Th. Bergk, Poetae Lyrici Graeci III, 41882 2 …

[English version] (Πύθερμος). Lyrischer Dichter aus Teos, vielleicht 6. Jh. v. Chr.; bekannt durch die Erwähnung bei Athen. 14,625c, in einer Erörterung des 3. B. von Herakleides Pontikos' Perí musikḗs: P. habe skólia in ion. Tonart gedichtet; auch habe er iambische Verse verfaßt und sei von Ananios oder Hipponax erwähnt worden. Der einzige überl. Vers (Metrum: Phalaeceus) behauptet, daß außer Gold alles nichts sei (910 PMG); er wurde zum Sprichwort und findet sich auch bei Diogenianos, Plutarchos und in der Suda zitiert. Robbins, Emmet (Toronto)

[English version] (Λαμύνθιος). Lyrischer Dichter aus Milet, Datier. unsicher. Phot. s.v. nennt ihn einen ‘Dichter von erotischen Gedichten’ (ποιητὴς ἐρωτικῶν μελῶν); Athen. 13,596f-597a erwähnt zwei Dichter, die über Hetären namens Lyde schrieben: Antimachos [3] aus Kolophon, der seine Lýdē im elegischen Versmaß, und L., der laut Klearchos in seinen Erōtiká lyrische Verse über ein ausländisches (βαρβάρου) Mädchen des gleichen Namens verfaßte. Er wird von Epikrates [4] in der Antilaḯs (PCG V 4) als Verf. von Liebesliedern genannt. Fr. sind nicht erhalten. Robbins, Emmet (Toro…

[English version] (Βακχυλίδης). Dichter von Chorlyrik, der im 5.Jh. v.Chr. wirkte. B. ist in Iulis auf Keos geboren, doch das genaue Jahr seiner Geburt bleibt umstritten; er war Enkel eines gleichnamigen Athleten, Sohn eines Mannes namens Meidon (Suda) oder Meidylos (Etym. m.) und Neffe des Simonides [1. 130-132]. Seine akmḗ wird von Eusebios von Caesarea mit dem 2.J. der 78. Ol. angegeben, ohne Zweifel seines wichtigsten Auftrags wegen, den Sieg des Hieron von Syrakus im Wagenrennen vom J. 468 v.Chr. zu preisen. In Chr. pasch. wird seine akmḗ dreizehn Jahre früher angesetzt [2. …

[English version] (προπεμπτικόν, sc. μέλος/ mélos, ᾆσμα/ áisma). Ein Gedicht, das einem abreisenden Freund oder Verwandten die besten Wünsche für eine glückliche Fahrt übers Meer (εὔπλοια, eúploia) überbringt. In der Spätant. gibt es auch den προπεμπτικὸς λόγος ( propemptikós lógos), eine in Prosa abgefaßte Rede, deren Topoi von den Rhetoren festgelegt und aufgelistet wurden (z. B. Menandros Rhetor 3,395-99 Spengel); zu ihnen gehören das Gebet für eine sichere Reise und Rückkehr, die Gefahren der Seereise, das Lob des Zielorts, die K…