Ancient Greek poets

Aristeas was a semi-legendary Greek poet and miracle-worker, a native of Proconnesus in Asia Minor, active ca. 7th century BC. In book IV of The History, Herodotus reports that Aristeas appeared to drop down dead in a shop, but before his relatives could collect the body, he had left on a seven-year long trip. Aristeas was supposed to have authored a poem called the Arimaspea, giving an account of travels in the far North. There he encountered a tribe called the Issedonians, who told him of still more fantastic and northerly peoples: the one-eyed Arimaspi who battle gold-guarding gryphons, and the Hyperbor ...

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Bacchylides, Ancient Greek lyric poet, was born at Iulis, in the island of Ceos. His father’s name was probably Meidon; his mother was a sister of Simonides, himself a native of Iulis. Eusebius says that Bacchylides "flourished" in 467 BC. As the term used by him refers to the physical prime, and was commonly placed at about the fortieth year, we may suppose that Bacchylides was born circa 507 BC. Among his Odes the earliest that can be approximately dated to 481 or 479 BC; the latest date is fixed by the recently found fragm ...

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Callimachus (ca. 305 BC- ca. 240 BC) was a Greek poet and grammarian, a native of Cyrene and a descendant of the illustrious house of the Battiadae, whence he was sometimes called Battiades (e.g., in Catullus's 65th poem). He opened a school in the suburbs of Alexandria, and some of the most distinguished grammarians and poets were his pupils, among them Apollonius of Rhodes. He was subsequently appointed by Ptolemy Philadelphus as chief librarian of the Alexandrian library, which office he held till his death (about 240). His ...

Including:

• Callimachus - Bibliography

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Arctinus of Miletus was one of the earliest poets of Greece and contributors to the Epic Cycle. He flourished probably about 650 BC. His poems are lost, but an idea of them can be obtained from the Chrestomathy written by Proclus the Neo-Platonist of the 5th century AD or by a grammarian of the same name who lived in the time of the Antonines. The Aethiopis (Αιθιοπις), in five books, is so called from the Aethiopian Memnon, who became the ally of the Trojans after the death of Hector. According to P ...

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Antimachus, of Colophon or Claros, Greek poet and grammarian, flourished about 400 BC. Scarcely anything is known of his life. His poetical efforts were not generally appreciated, although he received encouragement from his younger contemporary Plato (Plutarch, Lysander, 18). His chief works were: a long-winded epic Thebais, an account of the expedition of the Seven against Thebes and the war of the Epigoni; and an elegiac poem Lyde, so called from the poet's mistress, for whose death he endea ...

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Alcman (7th cent. BC) was an Ancient Greek choral lyric poet from Sparta. He is the earliest representative of the Alexandrinian canon of the nine lyric poets (the others being Sappho, Alcaeus, Anacreon, Stesichorus, Ibycus, Pindar and Bacchylides). Alcman - Biography. According to the ancient tradition (which was perhaps a construction of Aristotle), Alcman was originally a Lydian of Sardis, who came as a slave to Sparta, where he lived in the family of Agesidas (= Hagesidamus?), by whom he was eventually ...

Including:

• Alcman - Biography
• Alcman - Transmission
• Alcman - The poetry. Lesbian love
• Alcman - Dialect
• Alcman - Literature

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Most of the fragments come from partheneions, i.e. hymns, which were song by choruses of unmarried women (Greek παρθένος 'maiden'). This genre has been described exhaustively by the French scholar Claude Calame (1977). The songs were performed during festivals in connection with the initiation rites of the girls. Alcman has probably composed choral songs for the boys as well, but the Hellenistic philologists seem to ha ...

See also:

Alcman, Alcman - Biography, Alcman - Transmission, Alcman - The poetry. Lesbian love, Alcman - Dialect, Alcman - Literature

Read more here: » Alcman: Encyclopedia II - Alcman - The poetry. Lesbian love

The transmitted fragments are characterised by the Doric dialect of Sparta (the so-called Laconian dialect). It is seen especially in the orthographic peculiarities of the fragments like α = η, ω = ου, η = ει, σ = θ, σδ = ζ, -οισα = -ουσα (the last two of which are not attested in Laconian itself, though) and the use of the Doric accentuation. On the other hand, the fragments also have many prosodic, morphological and phraseological features in common with the Homeric. The British philologist Denys Page comes to the following conclusion about Alcman's dialect in ...

See also:

Alcman, Alcman - Biography, Alcman - Transmission, Alcman - The poetry. Lesbian love, Alcman - Dialect, Alcman - Literature

Read more here: » Alcman: Encyclopedia II - Alcman - Dialect

According to the ancient tradition (which was perhaps a construction of Aristotle), Alcman was originally a Lydian of Sardis, who came as a slave to Sparta, where he lived in the family of Agesidas (= Hagesidamus?), by whom he was eventually emancipated because of his good skills. However, the vitae of the ancient authors were most often deduced from biographistic readings of their poetry, and the details are seldom trustworthy. [1] (mosaic with a portrait of Alcman, ...

See also:

Alcman, Alcman - Biography, Alcman - Transmission, Alcman - The poetry. Lesbian love, Alcman - Dialect, Alcman - Literature

Read more here: » Alcman: Encyclopedia II - Alcman - Biography