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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] 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] Author of a treatise ‘On comic and tragic Attic idioms’ (Περὶ λέξεων Ἀττικῶν καὶ κωμικῶν καὶ τραγικών (Steph. Byz. s.v. Νίκαια), probably mentioned in Erotian, Vocum Hippocraticarum coll. 24,3 Nachmanson (the MS Text Θέρσις was corrected by Meineke as Ἐπιθέρσης; Nachmanson suggests the abbreviation Θέρσης). If he was indeed identical with the grammarian from Nicaea, he would be the father of the orator Aemilianus (cf. Sen. Controv. 10,5,25); because he is mentioned in Plut. De def…

[German version] (Θεόλυτος; Theólytos) from Methymna (on Lesbos). Undatable author of Bakchikà épē ('Bacchic Songs') on the love of the sea god Glaucus [1] for Ariadne (three hexameters in Ath. 7,296a-b). Perhaps identical with the author of the Hôroi ('Annals'; cf. schol. Apoll. Rhod. 1,623-626) mentioned in Ath. 11,470b. Fornaro, Sotera (Sassari) Bibliography 1 CollAlex fr. 1 2 FHG 4, 515 3 E. Diehl, s. v. T., RE 5 A, 2033 4 M. Fantuzzi, Epici ellenistici, in: K. Ziegler, L'epos ellenistico, 1988, LXXXVIf.

[German version] (Λεσχίδης; Leschídēs). Hellenistic epic poet who participated in the campaigns of king Eumenes [3] II Soter (197-159 BC) and may have praised his Galatian war. L. was a ‘very well-known’ poet and a contemporary of the painter Pythias and the physician Menander (Suda III, 254, 4-5 = SH 503). Fornaro, Sotera (Sassari) Bibliography K. Ziegler, Das hell. Epos, 21966, 17-18.

[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 …

[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 ( …

[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.).