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[German version] (Παλαίφατος/ Palaíphatos, 'the one who tells old stories'). Passed down to us under this pseudonym was the collection Περὶ ἀπίστων/ Perì apístōn ( On Incredible Things) containing 52 short chapters about the same number of myths. The Suda records under P. four people with this name. The first is an epic poet from Athens, author of a cosmogony; the second comes, according to Suda, from Paros or Priene (Πριηνεύς/ Priēneús probably incorrect instead of Παριανεύς/ Parianeús, i.e. 'from Parion': the encyclopaedia therefore fluctuates perhaps between the island…

Fornaro, Sotera (Sassari) [German version] A. From Monasteries to Humanism (CT) The Carolingian Period in Bavaria is distinguished by an effort to transmit and spread Latin culture. This is born out by the remains of the old libraries and scriptoria of the episcopal seats (e.g., St. Emmeram, Freising, Prüfening near Regensburg, Passau, Salzburg) and monasteries where pagan as well as Christian authors are documented: Vergil, Horace, Lucan, Sallust, Ovid, Persius, Statius, Terence, Cicero, and Cato [26. 116…

[German version] (Πεισῖνος; Peisînos). author of an Heracleia, allegedly ‘stolen’ by  Peisander [6] (Clem. Al. Strom. 6,2,25,2). Fornaro, Sotera (Sassari) Bibliography PEG I, 164.

[German version] (Νικαίνετος; Nikaínetos) of Samos or Abdera in Thrace (Ath. 13,590b; Steph. Byz. 6,7 s.v. Ἄβδηρα calls him an ‘Abderite’), 2nd half of 3rd cent. BC; he may indeed have come from Abdera, but lived on Samos, Menodotus of Samos describing him as an ‘epichoric poet, who often demonstrated his love for the history of this region’ (Ath. 15,673b = FGrH 541 F 1 preserves a sympotic epigram of N. on the Carian custom of wearing garlands of plaited lýgos, a kind of wicker, at banquets, cf. [2; 3]). We know of the following works of N.: 1) Lýrkos (in hexameters); the preserved fragment …

[German version] Epic poet from Argos, mentioned by Ath. 1,13b in a catalogue listing the authors of poems ‘On fishing (Ἁλιευτικά). The form of his name, given in the Athenaeus MSS as Καικλον and by the Suda (3,1596) as Κικίλιο, derives from a conjecture by Meineke. Fornaro, Sotera (Sassari) Bibliography 1 SH 237 2 G. Thiele, s.v. C., RE, 11, 1496-1497.

[German version] (Φιλίννη; Philínn ē). A papyrus fragment (PAmherst 11) contains three hexameters of a magical incantation (ἐπῳδή; epōidḗ) against headaches, attributed to a certain “P. of Thessaly”. This fragment is physically connected to another (PBerolinensis inv. 7504) from the same roll containing a magic spell by a Syrian woman from Gadara against burns of all sorts. Fornaro, Sotera (Sassari) Bibliography 1 SH 900 2 PGM II2, p. 145 3 Pack, No. 1871 (with bibliography) 4 A. Henrichs, Zum Text einiger Zauberpapyri, in: ZPE 6, 1970, 204-209.

[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] (Στασῖνος; Stasînos). Epic poet of unknown date, from Cyprus. According to a widespread tradition lasting until Proclus and Tzetzes, he wrote the Cypria supposedly named after his homeland. According to an anecdote which Pindar may already have known (Pind. fr. 265 Snell-Maehler; but cf. [3.33]), Homer (Homerus [1]) gave the epic to his daughter as a dowry for her marriage to S. (the legend shows that there were problems as to its authorship already in Antiquity). Epic cycle Fornaro, Sotera (Sassari) Bibliography 1 PEG I, 36-64 2 EpGF 28-29 3 M. Davies, The Epic Cyc…

[German version] (Περσῖνος; Persînos). Epic writer of the Hellenistic period, from Ephesus or Miletus. Author of the Orphic Sōtḗria ('Songs for the Rescue'; Orph. T 178, p. 52 Kern). Two sayings have been passed down to us, one about the tyrant Eubulus, the other as a response to the question who is the best poet ( according to the judgment of all poets, he himself is the best poet, according to the others, it is Homer). P. attributed the invention of the hexameter to Linus. Fornaro, Sotera (Sassari) Bibliography SH 666A-666D  U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Hellenische Dichtung, vol. 1…

[German version] (Εὐλόγιος; Eulógios). Perhaps the person to whom was dedicated the lexicon of Hesychius (6th cent. AD [4; 1. 358]; but [5] dates E. to the period between Theodosius of Alexandria ([4th cent. AD] and Choeroboscus [9th cent. AD]) and who is known through the citations in the Etymologicum Magnum and in the Etymologicum Gudianum. He is also the source of some Homeric epimerisms [2; 3]. E. was a grammarian and his nickname was Scholastikós; he was the author of a didactic book about morphology in ‘Questions and Answers’ (Ἀπορίαι καὶ λύσεις, ‘Difficulties …

[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…