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[German version] (Χερσίας; Chersías). From Orchomenus; Plutarch in his ‘Banquet of the Seven Sages has C. taking part in the conversations as a poet (Mor. 156f), contemporary and close friend of  Periander, tyrant of Corinth (end of the 7th/beginning 6th cent. BC). Two hexameters by the poet (Paus. 9,38,9), in which the city's hero Aspledon is described as the son of Poseidon and Midea, are supposed to attest to the accuracy of local tradition in the Boeotian city of the same name. Pausanias' expli…

[German version] Author of Ναξιακά ( Naxiaká) treating the childhood of Zeus. A. is perhaps the Agathosthenes named by the schol. Lycoph. 704 and 1021 as a paradoxographer. Selzer, Christoph (Frankfurt/Main) Bibliography FHG 4, 1868, 293-294 C. Robert (ed.), Eratosthenis Catasterismorum Reliquiae, 1878, 8, 26, 243.

[German version] (Χριστόδωρος; Christódōros) from Coptus. Son of Paniscus; lived at the time of Anastasius I (491-518). Author of Πάτρια ( Pátria), i.e. poems about the early histories of different cities (Thessalonica, Nakle, Miletus, Tralles, Aphrodisias and Constantinople). As well as Λυδιακά ( Lydiaká), C. wrote an epic Ἰσαυρικά ( Isauriká) about Anastasius' Isaurian wars. Extant is his ἔκφρασις ( Ekphrasis) of the 80 statues in the baths of Zeuxippus in Constantinople, destroyed by fire during the Nika revolt of AD 532 (Anth. Pal. 2,1-416)…

[German version] Daughter of Megacles (3rd cent. BC);she played on the trumpet at the first πομπή ( pompé) the πομπικὸν μέλος ( pompikòn mélos) held in Alexandria. Ath. 10,415ab mentions her greediness (see also Ael. VH 1,26). Selzer, Christoph (Frankfurt/Main)

[German version] Writer of an astrological didactic poem in elegiac form, of which only a paraphrase in prose and some verses in a work ascribed to  Manetho, namely the Ἀποτελεσματικά ( Apotelesmatiká) have survived. It is proven that  Firmicus Maternus has used this poem.  Didactic poem Selzer, Christoph (Frankfurt/Main) Bibliography CCAG II, 202-212 CCAG VIII 2, 57 und 62.

[German version] (Διδύμαρχος; Didýmarchos). Author of ‘Metamorphoses’ in at least three books, which seem to have included the  Battus myth. Rather than a heavenly origin for Pan he prefers the version with Pan as the son of  Gaia (Theoc. schol. 1, 3-4). Selzer, Christoph (Frankfurt/Main) Bibliography SH 20 & 175 U. v. Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Antigonos von Karystos, 1881, 172, n. 5.

[German version] (Ἐπικιχλίδες; Epikichlídes) is the title of an erotic poem attributed to Homer (Ath. 14,639a). Menaechmus associates it with the word for thrush (κίχλη, kíchlē), which suggests a travesty or parody, set in the animal kingdom, of the Homeric epics (cf.  Batrachomyomachia). The title may perhaps refer to kichlismoí, which denotes exuberant laughter. Selzer, Christoph (Frankfurt/Main) Bibliography U. v. Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Die Ilias und Homer, 1916, 18, n. 2.

[German version] (Βοιώ; Boiṓ) Paus. 10,5,8 quotes four verses from a hymn of the Delphic woman B. in which she names the Hyperboreans as the founders of the oracle and praises Olen as the first prophet of Apollo who wrote down his sayings in hexameters. Selzer, Christoph (Frankfurt/Main)

[German version] of Samos. Son of Amphiptolemus; author of genealogical epics from various legendary cycles in the style of the Hesiodic ‘Ehoiai’. In addition to several hexameter fragments, two distichs are extant (Ath. 3,125bd). A fragment (Ath. 12,525e) of roughly seven hexameters describes the luxury of the Samians and their tendency to τρυφή ( tryphḗ). Selzer, Christoph (Frankfurt/Main) Bibliography EpGF 88-91 IEG 2, 46.

[German version] (Εὐγάμ(μ)ων; Eugám(m)ōn). Epic poet of Cyrene to whom is attributed the two-volume  Telegonia. According to Eusebius (in Jer. Chron. 102,1 Helm), the epic was written during the period of the 53rd Olympiad = 568-565 BC and is supposed (Clem. Al. strom. 2,442,4f.) to have been identical to a book of  Musaeus about the Thesprotians: E. allegedly drew upon this without naming his source (Paus. 8,12,5 likewise mentions a Thesprotís). The Telegonia described the post-Odyssean journeys of Odysseus to Elis, to Thesprotia because of the prophecy of Tiresias…

[German version] (Εὐάνθης; Euánthēs). It is not known when he wrote his hymnos to Glaucus, in which he portrayed him as a son of Poseidon and the nymph Nais, and in which the god of the sea fell in love with  Ariadne, after Theseus had abandoned her (Ath. 7, 296c). Selzer, Christoph (Frankfurt/Main) Bibliography SH 194.

[German version] (Βοιός; Boiós). Mentioned by both Ath. 9,393e and Antoninus Liberalis as the author of an Ὀρνιθογονία ( Ornithogonía), a didactic poem in at least two books from the 3rd cent. BC about men being transformed into birds. The work was used by Ovid and imitated, or translated into Latin, by his older contemporary, Aemilius Macer (two books). Selzer, Christoph (Frankfurt/Main) Bibliography A. S. Hollis (ed.), Ovid, Metamorphoses Book VIII, 1970, xvii, 33 G. Lafaye, Les Métamorphoses d'Ovide et leurs modèles Grecs, 1904, 51-53 CollAlex 23-25.

[German version] From Miletus, poet of the epic cycle. An Aithiopis in five books, which takes up the action from the end of the Iliad, is ascribed to him. This epic deals with the last deeds of Achilles, his victory over the Amazon Penthesilea and the leader of the Aethiopians, Memnon, his death by the hands of Paris and Apollo and his burial. In the two books of the epic Ἰλίου πέρσις ( Ilíou pérsis) A. describes, episodically, the events which lead to the destruction of Troy. He is also regarded as the author of a  Titanomachy. Selzer, Christoph (Frankfurt/Main) Bibliography EpGF 61-66, 80, 165 M…

[German version] (Εὔβοιος; Eúboios). Poet of parodies from Paros. According to Ath. 15,698a, he was a contemporary of Philippus and particularly despised the Athenians. Alexander of Pleuron praised him together with  Boeotus of Syracuse in an elegy (Ath. 15,699c). From preserved fragments it appears that E. parodied the elevated tone of the epic in Homeric hexameters while making craftsmen his subject (Ath. 15, 699a). The influence of this type of epic  parody on the poesis ludibunda may be traced through to Horace. Selzer, Christoph (Frankfurt/Main) Bibliography SH 410-412 A. Mein…

[German version] (Δαναίς; Danaís) or Danaídes (Δαναίδες; Danaides). The title of a 6,500 hexameter epic dealing with the fate of the  Danaids and their flight from the sons of Aigyptos to Argus. Selzer, Christoph (Frankfurt/Main) Bibliography EpGF 141.

[German version] (Ἀνταγόρας; Antagóras) of Rhodes. Writer of a Thebais; like his contemporary  Aratus [4], he was summoned to the Macedonian court by Antigonus Gonatas. Diog. Laert. (4,26 and 2,133) connected him with the philosopher Crantor and mentioned his friendship with Menedemus. The epitaph for Crates, and Polemon, who died c. 270 or 266/265 BC (Anth. Pal. 7,103), suggest an interest of A. in the Academy. The two distichs of an inscription which were written for a bridge built in 321/320 on the road between Athens and Eleusis (Anth. Pal. 9,147; Syll.3 1048), need not have been …

[German version] Preserved on the POxy. 20, 2258C fr. 1 in addition to the fragments of the Plokamós Bereníkēs by Callimachus are nine hexameters of an astrological poem which have thematic and linguistic links to Aratus and Callimachus. An exact identification of the author's name (Diophilos/Diophila) is not possible. The verses were quoted on the papyrus as they also concern the ‘Lock of Berenice’. Selzer, Christoph (Frankfurt/Main) Bibliography R. Pfeiffer, Callimachus 1, 1949, 118-120 SH 179-181

(Διόσκορος; Dióskoros). [German version] [1] Patriarch of Alexandria Patriarch of Alexandria (444-451). In terms of ecclesiastical politics, he aimed to achieve the highest standing for his patriarchy and in terms of theology he promoted the teaching of the pre-eminence of the divine nature of Christ (moderate  Monophysitism). When the radical Monophysite  Eutyches was sentenced in 448, D. took his side and, with the help of the Emperor Theodosius II, asserted his will at the ‘Robber Synod’ of Ephesus (…

[German version] [1] Epic poet of the island of Proconnesus in the Propontis. The Suda places him in the period of Croesus and Cyrus. In his epic Ἀριμάσπεια ( Arimáspeia), A. tells of his travels into the land of the Scythes and of the Issedones, who lived further north. According to Hdt. 4,13-15, it was the Issedones who told A. about the one-eyed Arimaspeans, about the griffins who guarded the gold, and about the Hyperboreans. A. added to this description of mythical and historical peoples and places an explanation for th…

(Ἀρχύτας, Archỳtas) [1] of Tarentum Pythagoraean philosopher [German version] A. Life Important Pythagorean philosopher of the ‘mathematical’ orientation, politician of Tarentum, a friend of Plato's. His life and his teachings are known in little more than outline because of insufficient records; his true works, with the exception of a few fragments, are lost, as is Aristoxenus' biography, Aristotle's treatise on A.'s philosophy and his comparison of Plato's Timaeus and A. (no. 94 in Diog. Laert. 5,25 = no. 85 in Hesychius' catalogue). A. is described as the so…