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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…

(Σιμωνίδης/ Simōnídēs). [German version] [1] Iambographic poet (the iambographic poet) see Semonides Robbins, Emmet (Toronto) …

[German version] [1] Cyclades island (Μῆλος/ Mêlos, Doric Μᾶλος/ Mâlos; Latin Melos, modern Milos). Name of the westernmost of the Cyclades islands, the fifth largest at 161 km2. Included in the archipelago of M. are Kimolos off the northeastern point, Polaegus (modern Polivo) to the east, and Erimomilos to the west of M., plus a number of very small islands and rocks. …

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[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…

(Φιλόξενος; Philóxenos). [German version] [1] Name of several officers under Alexander the Great Several officers with the name P. are mentioned in the sources about Alexander  [4] the Great. They cannot always be distinguished with certainty. One P. was appointed by Alexander in 331 BC (incorrect [1]) ' to collect tribute on this side of the Taurus'(i.e. in Asia Minor) (Arr. An. 3,6,4). This cannot be correct. Arrian must, as often, have expressed himself imprecisely, as this duty had already been entrusted to somebody else. It can also hardly be th…

[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 manus…

[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 …

[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…

(Διαγόρας; …

[German version] [1] The Elder Lyric poet, 6th cent. BC (Ἀνακρέων [ Anakréōn], or for metrical reasons also Ἀνακρείων [ Anakreíōn]). Robbins, Emmet (Toronto) [German version] A. Life …

[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 Sem…

I. Greek [German version] A. Definition, characteristics The term lyric poetry (LP) encompasses the entirety of Greek poetry from the 7th to the mid-5th cent. BC with the exception of stichic hexameter poetry and drama. The word lyrikós (λυρικός) is related to lýra (λύρα), lyre, and initially refers to poetry that is sung to the accompaniment of a string instrument or, in a broader sense, to all poetry sung to musical accompaniment. This also includes elegiac distichs, which were usually or even without exception accompanied by an aulós ( Elegy, Music), epinician poetry, accompanied by a l…

[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…

(Εὔρυτος; Eúrytos). [German version] [1] Hom. character Ruler of Oechalia, mentioned in Hom. Il. 2,596; 730. The location of Oechalia is unclear (…

[German version] [1] Chariot race victor M. of Thebes, son of Telesiades, addressee of Pind. I., 3 and 4 ( Pindarus). Two victories are mentioned, one in the horse or chariot race at Nemea (ibid. 3,9-13), the other in the pankration (ibid. 4,44). The two metrically identical poems are not treated separately in all MSS. The race victory was probably later, I. 3 being appended to the longer poem I. 4 in regard to a single celebration [1. 202-203]. M.'s father belonged to the family of the Cleonymidae, h…

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[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…

(Ξάνθος/ Xánthos). [German version] [1] Name of several figures in Greek mythology Name of several male figures in Greek mythology: 1) Son of Phaenops [2], who was killed by Diomedes [1] at the gates of Troy (Hom. Il. 5,152-158). 2) Son of Triopas and Oreasis. X. received a part of Lycia; from there, he settled the deserted island of Lesbos (Diod. Sic. 5,81,2; Hyg. Fab. 145). 3) One of the sons of Aegyptus, who is killed by Arcadia, daughter of Danaus (Hyg. Fab. 170). 4) A son of Niobe (Pherecydes FGrH 3 F 126). 5) King of Crete, who, according to a rare transmission, abducts …

(Τιμόθεος; Timótheos). [German version] [1] T. of Metapontum Greek physician, c. 400 BC …

(Πίνδαρος/ Píndaros). [German version] [1] Tyrant of Ephesus (c. 560 BC) Tyrant of Ephesus ( c. 560 BC), nephew of Croesus. When Croesus laid siege to Ephesus, P. is said to have advised fastening the gates and walls of the town to the columns of the Artemisium (Ephesus with map) with ropes. Croesus, bound by a vow to the shrine, spared the town and promised safety and freedom but forced P. to leave; his son was spared and his fortune left untouched (Hdt. 1,26; Polyaenus, Strat. 6,50; Ael. VH 3,26). Högemann, Peter (Tübingen) Biblio…

[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, al…

(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 p…

[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 ba…

[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)

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[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…

[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 so…

(Λικύμνιος; Likýmnios). [German version] [1] Son of Electryon Son of Electryon, half-brother of Alcmene, husband of Perimede, father of Argeius [1], Melas and Oeonus or, according to a new source [2], of Perimedes, Oeonus and Pero. After first seeking refuge together with the Heraclidae, with Ceyx in Trachis, he is killed by Tlepolemus in Argus (Hom. Il. 2,661-663; Pind. Ol. 7,27-31). As eponym of Licymna, the acropolis of Tiryns (Str. 8,6,11) - his name, like that…

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[German version] [1] Nomos, nomoi (ὁ νόμος/ ho nómos, pl. οἱ νόμοι/ hoi nómoi). Siewert, Peter (Vienna) [German version] A. General In Greek, nómos (pl. nómoi) refers to customary conduct or a behavioural norm observed by members of a community; depending on the context it can be translated with ‘custom’, ‘habit’, ‘practice’, ‘rule’, ‘order’, ‘institution’, ‘constitution’, ‘law’ etc. (cf. [1. 20-54; 2. 14-19]). The size of the communities where a nómos applied could vary considerably: from married couples and families to cult and settlement communities, from cit…

[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 …

[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 o…

[German version] (Μελιννώ; Melinnṓ). Greek female poet who composed a hymn in five Sapphic stanza…

[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…

(Ἀρτέμων; Artémōn). [German version] [1] Greek grammarian From Cassandreia. Greek  grammarian. As he makes mention of  Dionysius Scytobrachion, he is dated to the 2nd half of the 2nd cent. BC. Of his works Athenaeus cites: Περὶ βιβλίων συναγωγῆς, Περὶ βιβλίων χρήσεως, Περὶ τοῦ Διονυσιακοῦ συστήματος as being his. An almost contemporary namesake from Pergamum, the commentator on Pindar (FGrH 569), possibly is the same person; A. from Clazomenae (FGrH 443), on the other hand, is older. A., the editor of the Aristotelian letters (Demetrius, elocutiones 223), is difficult to identify. …

(Γλύκων; Glýkōn). [German version] [1] Poet Named by Heph. 10,2 Consbruch as the inventor of Glyconic verse ( Metre). His existence is disputed and the three verses ascribed to him (= 1029 PMG) are generally viewed as alexandrine in terms of metre: G. could hardly have lived before Sappho (late 7th cent. BC), who used this meter. Choeroboscus names G. (in his Comm. on St. In Heph. Consbruch) as a comedic poet, but probably mistook him for Leucon (PCG V 612). Anth. Pal. 10,124, a two-liner on the futil…

(Ἡράκλειτος; Hērákleitos). [German version] [1] H. of Ephesus Ionian philosopher, c. 500 BC Son of Bloson, outstanding personality within Ionian philosophy. Betegh, Gábor (Budapest) [German version] A. The person H.'s main period of activity is estimated to have been about 503-500 BC (Diog. Laert. 9,1). He belonged to a leading family in the public life of Ephesus. The doxographic tradition records several anecdotes of H.'s arrogance and contempt for his fellow citizens and humanity in general, which are mostly based on fragments of H. Betegh, Gábor (Budapest) [German version] B. La…

[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] [1] Aunt of C. Iulius Caesar, wife of C. Marius, 2nd/1st cent. BC Paternal aunt of C. Iulius  Caesar; between 115 and 109 BC, she married C. Marius, with whom she had a son named C. Marius ( cos. 82; Plut. Marius 6,3; Plut. Caesar 1,1; Sall. Hist. 1,35 Maur). There is almost no information regarding I.'s life. On the occasion of her death in 68, Caesar held a large funeral ceremony (Suet. Iul. 6,1; Plut. Caesar 5,1). Stegmann, Helena (Bonn) [German version] [2] Daughter of L. Iunius [I 5] Caesar, mother of triumvir M. Antonius Daughter of L. Iulius [I 5] Caesar and Fulvia (d…