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Article

Archippus  

Kenneth Dover

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Athenian comic poet. We have six titles, and four other plays were variously attributed to Archippus or *Aristophanes (1). Archippus may have been the man of that name denounced in 415 bce for profanation of the *mysteries (see andocides; aristomenes). In Fishes (after 403, as the reference to the archon Euclides (2) in fr. 27 shows) he exploited an idea similar to that of Aristophanes' Birds; fr.

Article

Arctinus  

Martin Litchfield West

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

Arctinus, of Miletus, shadowy poet to whom several poems of the *Epic Cycle were sometimes ascribed. Chronographers give the worthless datings 775 and 744/1 bce.

Article

Aretaeus  

William David Ross

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
  2. Science, Technology, and Medicine
Aretaeus, of *Cappadocia, medical author, a contemporary of *Galen (c. 150–200 ce), wrote in Ionic in imitation of Hippocrates (2). Works (extant but incomplete): On the Causes and Symptoms of Acute and Chronic Diseases; On the Cure of Acute and Chronic Diseases; (lost) On Fevers; On Female Disorders; On Preservatives; Operations.

Article

Argas  

Bernhard Zimmermann

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

(first half of the 4th cent. bce), citharode and poet. According to the Peripatetic *Phaenias (fr. 10 Wehrli) he could not achieve the quality of *Terpander or Phrynis (cf. Alexis fr. 19; Anaxandrides fr. 16. 4 and 42. 17 KA).

Article

Argentarius  

Alan Douglas Edward Cameron

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

Argentarius, witty Greek rhetor in Augustan Rome (Sen. Controv. 9. 3. 12–13), disciple of L. *Cestius Pius. Perhaps identical with the next.

Article

Argentarius, Marcus  

Alan Douglas Edward Cameron

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

Argentarius, Marcus (?Augustan), author of 36 elegant, witty epigrams included in the Garland of *Philippus (2), influenced by the best Hellenistic epigrammatists (*Leonidas (2), *Callimachus (3), *Asclepiades (2), and especially *Meleager (2)), but no slavish imitator. The most versatile and graceful of Philippus' contributors.

Article

Argonauts, mythical hero group from Greek epic  

Richard Hunter

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
  2. Greek Myth and Religion
Argonauts, one of the earliest (cf. Hom. Od. 12. 69–72) and most important Greek sagas, set in the generation before the Trojan War and involving heroes particularly associated with *Thessaly, central Greece, and the *Peloponnese. The main Greek literary sources are *Pindar's Fourth Pythian, the Argonautica of *Apollonius (1), and *Apollodorus (6) 1. 9. 16–26 (largely based on *Pherecydes (2) and Apollonius); certain incidents were treated by *Callimachus (3) in the Aitia.King *Pelias of Iolcus sought to rid himself of the threat to his kingship posed by the legitimate heir, *Jason (1), by sending the young man off to recover the fleece of a golden ram upon which Phrixus had fled to the fabulous kingdom of the sun, Aia, ruled over by King Aeëtes. At least as early as the *Epic Cycle Aia was identified with the kingdom of *Colchis at the eastern end of the Black Sea.

Article

Arion (2)  

Richard Seaford

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

Arion (2), a citharode from *Methymna in Lesbos, spent most of his life at the court of the Corinthian tyrant *Periander, who ruled from about 625 to 585 bce. He was said to have been thrown overboard while returning from a profitable visit to Italy and Sicily, but to have returned to *Corinth after being taken by a dolphin to *Taenarum (1) (Hdt. 1. 23–4). He seems to have transformed the *dithyramb from an improvised processional song into a formal stationary one (Suda, entry under Ἀρίων; Hdt. 1. 23). This may have been regarded, perhaps rightly, as a step towards the creation of tragedy, which was itself attributed to Arion in the Suda and perhaps even by *Solon (fr. 30a West). Nothing survives of his work, and a piece attributed to him by Aelian (NA 12. 45) is spurious.

Article

Aristaenetus  

Anna Tiziana Drago

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
15 August 2022
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
  2. Greek Literature
The collection of fifty fictitious love letters (epistulae amatoriae) subdivided into two books contained in a single Greek manuscript (codex unicus) copied in the south of Italy around 1200 ce and now housed in Vienna (V = Cod. Vindobonensis phil. Graec. 310) has had a curious history. This manuscript identifies its epistolographer as a certain Aristaenetus, but in fact the author’s name is as uncertain as his birthplace and the dates of his career. The corpus might have been composed between the end of the 5th and the beginning of the 6th centuries ce, and its author could be an epistolographer belonging to the literary humanist circles formed in the imperial atmosphere of Constantinople under Justinian I (including Procopius, Agathias, and Paulus Silentiarius). The letters are written from a variety of senders to diverse addressees, including historical or literary figures (often professional epistolographers: Alciphron, Aelian, Philostratus, but also Lucian, Stesichorus, Eratosthenes, Archilochus, and Terpander). Aristaenetus’ epistolary collection has a dominant thematic nucleus: the description, conquest, and defence of love. This thematic nucleus gathers around itself conventional amatory topics: the flame of love; love at first sight; servitium amoris (“love slavery”); love-sickness; the erōtodidaskalos (teacher of love); the paraclausithyron (lover’s lament by a locked door).

Article

Aristagoras (2), Greek comic poet  

Geoffrey Arnott

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

Aristagoras (2), comic writer of uncertain date. His Μαμμάκυθος (‘Simpleton’) was possibly a revision of *Metagenes' Αὖραι (‘Breezes’).

Article

Aristarchus (2) of Samothrace, librarian of Alexandria (1), c. 216–144 BCE  

Francesca Schironi

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Aristarchus of Samothrace is the most important Hellenistic philologist. He was head librarian of Alexandria, and produced editions of many Greek authors. Among his most important achievments (the one we have most information) is his edition with commentary of Homer, which had a great impact on the history of the Homeric text.Aristarchus (c. 216–144bce) was born in Samothrace but spent most of his life in Alexandria, where he was a pupil of Aristophanes of Byzantium. Ptolemy VI Philometor (king from 180 to 145bce) appointed him as a tutor to his sons (Sudaα 3892 and POxy. 1241, a papyrus dating to the 2nd centuryce), probably around 155bce. At Alexandria royal tutors often were also the head librarians in the Royal Library. Aristarchus occupied this role as a successor of other important scholars (Zenodotus, Apollonius Rhodius, Eratosthenes, and his own teacher Aristophanes of Byzantium) in the first half of the 2nd century .

Article

Aristarchus (3), of Tegea, Greek tragic poet, mid-5th cent. BCE  

Andrew Brown

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Aristarchus (3), of *Tegea, tragic poet, dated by *Eusebius to 454/3 bce (date of first victory?) and called a contemporary of *Euripides by the *Suda, which says that he wrote 70 plays and won two victories. His plays included Tantalus, Achilles (adapted by *Ennius), Asclepius (said by the Suda to have been a thank-offering for recovery from illness).

Article

Aristides (2), Greek writer  

Ewen Bowie

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Greek writer (origin unknown) of Milesian Tales (Μιλησιακά). A copy was allegedly found in a Roman officer's kit after the battle of *Carrhae (Plut. Crass. 32. 4–6). This story, and the translation of Aristides into Latin by *Sisenna (Ov. Tr. 2. 443–4, cf. 413–14: ten fragments in F. Buecheler, Petronii Saturae4 (1862), 239 f.), probably the historian, praetor in 78 bce, gives Aristides a conjectural date of c.100 bce. Only one fragment survives (Harpocration, p. 88 Dindorf) but Ovid and Plutarch (as cited above) and *Apuleius, Met. 1. 1 (cf. Arr. Epict. Diss. 4. 9. 6; ps.-Lucian, Amores 1; SHA Clod. 11. 8, 12. 12), show that Milesiaca were short and lewd erotic tales, probably so named after their conventional setting (*Miletus). They presumably influence inset tales in the Lucianic Ὄνος (Ass) and Apuleius' Metamorphoses; also *Petronius Arbiter's Ephesian Widow (Satyrica111–12) and Pergamene Boy (ibid.

Article

Aristides, Publius Aelius, 117–after 181 CE  

Erik Robertson Dodds and M. B. Trapp

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Publius Aelius Aristides (117–after 181 ce), sophist (see second sophistic) and man of letters. Born at Hadrianotherae in Mysia, he was a pupil of Alexander of Cotiaeum and studied in Athens and *Pergamum. At the age of 26, he suffered the first of a long series of illnesses, which ended his hopes of a great public career and drove him to spend much of his time as a patient at the Asclepieum (see asclepius) of Pergamum. The rest of his life was passed mainly in Asia Minor, where he made his home in *Smyrna and in the intervals of illness occupied himself in writing and lecturing.His many-sided literary output (built on an intimate knowledge of the Classical literary heritage) made him a giant in his own day and, through its subsequent popularity, a ‘pivotal figure in the transmission of Hellenism’ (Bowersock). It includes addresses delivered on public and private occasions, declamations on historical themes, polemical essays, prose hymns to various gods, and six books of Sacred Discourses (Ἱεροὶ λόγοι).

Article

Aristomenes (2), Athenian comic poet, late 5th cent. BCE  

Kenneth Dover

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Aristomenes (2), Athenian comic poet, competed c.440 bce (IG 22. 2325. 120), and probably the poet whose plays span the period 440–390 in IG 14. 1097. 10 ff. He may also be the man of that name denounced for profanation of the *mysteries in 415 (see andocides; archippus).

Article

Aristonicus (2)  

Peter Barr Reid Forbes and Robert Browning

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Aristonicus (2), son of Ptolemaeus, an Alexandrian grammarian (see alexandria (1)) of the Augustan age (Strabo 1. 2. 31). Much of his chief work—on the Aristarchan recensions of *Homer (see aristarchus (2))—is preserved in our scholia (cf. nicanor (2)). He also wrote On Ungrammatical Words, commentaries on *Hesiod and *Pindar, and On the Museum at Alexandria.

Article

Aristonous  

Bernhard Zimmermann

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Corinthian citharode. On a stele found at Delphi (BCH 1894, 563 ff.) the Delphians (see delphi) give to him and his descendants privileges because of his *hymns. Two hymns are preserved in inscriptions: a *paean to Apollo written in regular eight-lined stanzas of glyconics and pherecrateans and a hymn to Hestia written in dactylo-epitrites. The style and language of the hymns show characteristics of the new *dithyramb.

Article

Aristonymus, comic writer and contemporary of Aristophanes (1)  

Geoffrey Arnott

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

Aristonymus comic writer and contemporary of *Aristophanes (1), whom he ridicules (fr. 3).

Article

Aristophanes (1), Athenian poet of Old Comedy, 2nd half of 5th cent. BCE  

Kenneth Dover and Christopher Pelling

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Aristophanes (1), the greatest poet of the Old Attic Comedy (see comedy (greek) old), was a native of *Athens and a member of the Athenian deme (see demes, demoi). He was the son of Philippus and he himself had at least two sons, of whom at least one (*Araros) and possibly both were themselves composers of minor comedies. It has been inferred from Ach. 652 ff. that he lived, or owned property, on the island *Aegina. Since he seems not to have produced his first two plays himself, and since he considered himself too young in 427bce (Ar. Nub. 530 f. with schol.) to produce a play himself, he is unlikely to have been born earlier than 460 and may have been born as late as 450. He died in or shortly before 386. Eleven of his plays survive; we have in addition 32 titles (some of them alternative titles, and some certainly attributed to other authors) and nearly a thousand fragments and citations. Many of these are fragments in the literal sense of the word: phrases or single words. The surviving plays, and the datable lost plays (°) are:427: °Banqueters, produced by *Callistratus (1).

Article

Aristophanes (2), of Byzantium, librarian of Alexandria, c. 257–180 BCE  

John Francis Lockwood and Nigel Wilson

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Aristophanes of Byzantium (probably c. 257–180 bce) succeeded *Eratosthenes as head of the Alexandrian Library (c.194 bce). He was a scholar of wide learning, famous for his linguistic, literary, textual, and scientific researches, and he is credited with the innovation of writing Greek accents.His edition of *Homer's Iliad and Odyssey made a distinct advance on the work of *Zenodotus and *Rhianus. Despite some capriciousness and boldness of treatment, due to a subjective method of criticism, his work showed much critical acumen; e.g. he was the first to put the end of the Odyssey at 23. 296. In his textual criticism he used symbols to show his doubts of the genuineness or satisfactoriness of verses (see scholarship, ancient).Besides editions of *Hesiod's Theogony, *Alcaeus, and *Alcman, he produced the first properly ordered edition of *Pindar, in seventeen books; in his texts of the lyric poets Aristophanes used signs to mark the ends of metrical cola; but PLille 76a and 73 of *Stesichorus prove that his predecessors had recognized the importance of cola.