Greek Anthology in the context of "Euenus"

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⭐ Core Definition: Greek Anthology

The Greek Anthology (Latin: Anthologia Graeca) is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the Classical and Byzantine periods of Greek literature. Most of the material of the Greek Anthology comes from two manuscripts, the Palatine Anthology of the 10th century and the Anthology of Planudes (or Planudean Anthology) of the 14th century.

The earliest known anthology in Greek was compiled by Meleager of Gadara in the first century BC, under the title Anthologia, or "Flower-gathering." It contained poems by the compiler himself and forty-six other poets, including Archilochus, Alcaeus, Anacreon, and Simonides. In his preface to his collection, Meleager describes his arrangement of poems as if it were a head-band or garland of flowers woven together. This metaphor gave rise to the word "Anthology", meaning a collection of short literary works.

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👉 Greek Anthology in the context of Euenus

Euenus (or Evenus) of Paros, (Greek: Εὔηνος ὁ Πάριος), was a 5th-century BC poet who was roughly contemporary with Socrates.

Euenus is mentioned several times in Plato's Phaedo, Phaedrus, and Apology of Socrates. According to Maximus Tyre, Evenus was the instructor of Socrates in poetry, a statement which derives some countenance from a passage in Plato from which it may also be inferred that Euenus was alive at the time of Socrates's death, but at such an advanced age that he was likely soon to follow him. Eusebius places him at the 30th Olympiad (B. C. 460) and onwards. His poetry was gnomic, that is, it formed the vehicle for expressing philosophic maxims and opinions. The first six of the epigrams in the Greek Anthology which bear the name "Euenus" are of this character, and may therefore be ascribed to him with tolerable certainty. Perhaps, too, the fifteenth should be assigned to him.

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Greek Anthology in the context of Leonidas of Tarentum

Leonidas of Tarentum (/lˈɒnɪdəs/; Doric Greek: Λεωνίδας ὁ Ταραντῖνος) was an epigrammatist and lyric poet. He lived in Italy in the third century B.C. at Tarentum, on the coast of Apulia (Magna Graecia). Over a hundred of his epigrams are present in the Greek Anthology compiled in the 10th and 14th centuries. Most of his poems are dedicatory or sepulchral.

The youth of Leonidas coincided with the first awakening of the Greek cities on the south coast of Italy to the danger threatening them from Rome and their first attempts to seek protection from the warlike kings of Epirus. One of Leonidas's earliest extant poems chronicles a journey which he himself took to the court of Neoptolemus, son of Aeacides, seeking promise of protection. Soon after the poet's arrival, Neoptolemus was assassinated by his more warlike cousin, Pyrrhus, who eagerly agreed to become the Greeks' champion, and Leonidas returned to Italy to rally his countrymen for war.

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Greek Anthology in the context of Simmias of Thebes

Simmias of Thebes (Ancient Greek: Σιμμίας Θηβαῖος; fl. 5th–4th century BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, disciple of Socrates, and a friend of Cebes. In his Memorabilia, Xenophon includes him in the inner circle of Socrates' followers. He appears in Plato's Phaedo as a main discussion partner of Socrates alongside Cebes, as well as Crito, Phaedrus, and Epistle XIII.

In addition to the references in Plato and Xenophon, Diogenes Laërtius mentions Simmias as the author of 23 brief dialogues, now lost, including On Philosophy and On Music. Simmias appears as a character in Plutarch's De Genio Socratis section of the Moralia. A pseudepigraphic letter from Xenophon to Simmias and Cebes is included in the Cynic epistles attributed to Socrates' followers. Two short works are also attributed to him in the Greek Anthology, a couplet on Sophocles and an epitaph on Plato.

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Greek Anthology in the context of Antipater of Sidon

Antipater of Sidon (Greek: Ἀντίπατρος ὁ Σιδώνιος, Antipatros ho Sidonios) was an ancient Greek poet of the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE.

Cicero mentions him living in Rome during the time of Quintus Lutatius Catulus, and calls him a brilliant epigrammist, sometimes too fond of imitation. His poems, about 75 of which are preserved in the Greek Anthology, are mostly epitaphs and ecphrastic poems. 96 poems in the Greek Anthology are attributed simply to "Antipater", without an indication of whether they are by Antipater of Sidon or the later Antipater of Thessalonica, and it is difficult to identify which are his.

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Greek Anthology in the context of Erinna

Erinna (/ɪˈrɪnə/; Ancient Greek: Ἤριννα) was an ancient Greek poet. She is best known for her long poem The Distaff, a 300-line hexameter lament for her childhood friend Baucis, who had died shortly after her marriage. A large fragment of this poem was discovered in 1928 at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt. Along with The Distaff, three epigrams ascribed to Erinna are known, preserved in the Greek Anthology. Biographical details about Erinna's life are uncertain. She is generally thought to have lived in the first half of the fourth century BC, though some ancient traditions have her as a contemporary of Sappho; Telos is generally considered to be her most likely birthplace, but Tenos, Teos, Rhodes, and Lesbos are all also mentioned by ancient sources as her home.

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Greek Anthology in the context of Palatine Anthology

The Palatine Anthology (or Anthologia Palatina), sometimes abbreviated AP, is a manuscript collection of Greek poems and epigrams discovered in 1606 in the Palatine Library in Heidelberg. It is based on the lost collection of Constantine Kephalas of the 10th century, which in turn is based on older anthologies. It contains material from the 7th century BC until 600 AD and later on was the main part of the Greek Anthology which also included the Anthology of Planudes and more material.

The manuscript of the Palatine Anthology was discovered by Saumaise (Salmasius) in 1606 in the Palatine library at Heidelberg (Codex Palatinus 23). In 1623, during the Thirty Years' War, it was sent with the rest of the Palatine Library to Rome as a present from Maximilian I of Bavaria to Pope Gregory XV and it was kept in the Vatican Library. In 1797 it was taken to Paris by order of the French Directory and in 1816 it was returned to Heidelberg when the war ended, but one (smaller) part of it remained in Paris (Parisinus Suppl. Gr. 384).

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