List of anthologies of Greek epigrams

Last updated January 20, 2024

Modern knowledge of ancient Greek epigrams is largely based on works surviving in multi-author anthologies. The earliest known dateable anthology of epigrams is the Attic Epigrams collected by Philochorus in the late fourth century BC. This, and the second-century collection of Theban epigrams collected by Aristodemus of Thebes, were collected on a geographical basis, and were perhaps largely or entirely made up of epigrams found in local inscriptions;^[1] later collections were instead arranged by author or subject.^[2]

Known anthologies include:

Attic Epigrams by Philochorus, late fourth century BC^[3]
Soros, 3rd century BC, collection in which there were epigrams of Posidippus of Pella ^[4]
On the inscriptions to be found in cities, of Polemon of Athens, 2nd century BC^[3]
Theban Epigrams (Θηβαϊκὰ ἐπιγράμματα) of Aristodemus of Thebes: second century BC; contained multiple books and included commentary^[3]
Peri epigrammaton (Περὶ ἐπιγραμμάτων, "About epigrams") of Neoptolemus of Paros ^[5]
Garland of Meleagros (Στέφανος τοῦ Μελεάγρου), of Meleager of Gadara, about 90–80 BC. Meleager's introductory poem names 47 poets; works by other authors are known to have been included. About 4,000 lines from this collection are included in the Palatine Anthology.^[6]
Garland of Philippus (Στέφανος τοῦ Φιλίππου τοῦ Θεσσαλονικέως), by Philippus of Thessalonica, mid-1st century AD.^[7]
Diogenianus, ἐπιγραμμάτωνἈνθολόγιον mentioned by the Suda. Diogenianus worked during the reign of Hadrian, and the collection perhaps contained epigrams from the first and second centuries AD.^[8]
Musa Puerilis (Μοῦσα Παιδική), anthology of Straton of Sardis, 2nd century, with pederastic content^[9]
The Sylloge of Palladas, 6th century collection of epigrams and epic fragments^[10]
Cycle of Agathias, second half of sixth century AD. Seven books of epigrams by Agathias and his contemporaries.^[11]
Sylloge Parisina: 13th century manuscript of 114 epigrams, derived from Cephalas' anthology.^[12] The source of this manuscript may be an early abridgement of Cephalas' anthology, predating the Palatine Anthology.^[13]
Sylloge Euphemiana (about 890)^[14]
Syllogae minores, a series of smaller collections from various sources, among which are Sylloge Parisina and Sylloge Euphemiana already mentioned above
Anthology of Cephalas – compiled by Constantine Cephalas in the last decades of the ninth century; most important sources include the Garlands of Meleager and Philip, the Anthology of Diogenian, the Sylloge of Pallada and the Cycle of Agathias^[15]
Palatine Anthology (Anthologia Palatina) – Byzantine anthology completed after 944, mostly a copy of Cephalas' anthology alongside other collections of epigrams and some longer poems.^[16]
Anthology of Planudes (Anthologia Graeca Planudea) Maximus Planudes, completed between 1299 and 1301, based on two manuscript copies of the anthology of Cephalas.^[17]
Greek Anthology (Anthologia Graeca): Term currently used for the collection of epigrams and poems of the Palatine and the Planudean Anthologies,^[18] as well as from other sources^[19]

Related Research Articles

An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word derives from the Greek ἐπίγραμμα. This literary device has been practiced for over two millennia.

Palladas was a Greek poet, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt.

Maximus Planudes was a Byzantine Greek monk, scholar, anthologist, translator, mathematician, grammarian and theologian at Constantinople. Through his translations from Latin into Greek and from Greek into Latin, he brought the Greek East and the Latin West into closer contact with one another. He is now best known as a compiler of the Greek Anthology.

The Greek Anthology 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 of the 14th century.

Anyte of Tegea was a Hellenistic poet from Tegea in Arcadia. Little is known of her life, but twenty-four epigrams attributed to her are preserved in the Greek Anthology, and one is quoted by Julius Pollux; nineteen of these are generally accepted as authentic. She introduced rural themes to the genre, which became a standard theme in Hellenistic epigrams. She is one of the nine outstanding ancient women poets listed by Antipater of Thessalonica in the Palatine Anthology. Her pastoral poetry may have influenced Theocritus, and her works were adapted by several later poets, including Ovid.

Straton of Sardis was a Greek poet and anthologist from the Lydian city of Sardis.

Meleager of Gadara was a poet and collector of epigrams. He wrote some satirical prose, now lost, and some sensual poetry, of which 134 epigrams survive.

Asclepiades of Samos (Sicelidas) was an ancient Greek epigrammatist and lyric poet who flourished around 270 BC. He was a friend of Hedylus and possibly of Theocritus. He may have been honoured by the city of Histiaea in about 263 BC.

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Nossis was a Hellenistic poet from Epizephyrian Locris in Magna Graecia. Probably well-educated and from a noble family, Nossis was influenced by and claimed to rival Sappho. Eleven or twelve of her epigrams, mostly religious dedications and epitaphs, survive in the Greek Anthology, making her one of the best-preserved ancient Greek women poets, though her work does not seem to have entered the Greek literary canon. In the twentieth century, the imagist poet H. D. was influenced by Nossis, as was Renée Vivien in her French translation of the ancient Greek women poets.

The Palatine Anthology, sometimes abbreviated AP, is the collection of Greek poems and epigrams discovered in 1606 in the Palatine Library in Heidelberg. It is based on the lost collection of Constantinus Cephalas 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.

Philippus of Thessalonica or Philippus Epigrammaticus was the compiler of an Anthology of Epigrammatists subsequent to Meleager of Gadara and is himself the author of 72 epigrams in the Greek Anthology. Philippus has one word which describes the epigram by a single quality; he calls his work an oligostikhia or collection of poems not exceeding a few lines in length. Philippus' own epigrams, of which over seventy are extant, are generally rather dull, chiefly school exercises, and, in the phrase of Jacobs, imitatione magis quam inventione conspicua. But we owe to him the preservation of a large mass of work belonging to the Roman period.

Byzantine rhetoric refers to rhetorical theorizing and production during the time of the Byzantine Empire. Byzantine rhetoric is significant in part because of the sheer volume of rhetorical works produced during this period. Rhetoric was the most important and difficult topic studied in the Byzantine education system, beginning at the Pandidakterion in early fifth century Constantinople, where the school emphasized the study of rhetoric with eight teaching chairs, five in Greek and three in Latin. The hard training of Byzantine rhetoric provided skills and credentials for citizens to attain public office in the imperial service, or posts of authority within the Church.

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The Anthology of Planudes, is an anthology of Greek epigrams and poems compiled by Maximus Planudes, a Byzantine grammarian and theologian, based on the Anthology of Cephalas. It comprises 2,400 epigrams.

Syllogae minores is a term used in literature to describe small collections of Greek epigrams, which are part of the so-called Greek Anthology, the collection of Greek epigrams. The term "Syllogae" comes from the Greek word "Συλλογαί" (collections), while the term "minores" (minor) is used to distinguish them from the large and important collections of Palatine Anthology and the Anthology of Planudes. Some of these collections are important because of the epigrams which contain some not found in any of the other collections, while others are highly dependent on known sources, mainly of the Anthology of Planudes.

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References

↑ Maltomini, Francesca (2019). "Greek Anthologies from the Hellenistic Age to the Byzantine Era: A Survey". A Companion to Ancient Epigram. pp. 211–212.
↑ Maltomini, Francesca (2019). "Greek Anthologies from the Hellenistic Age to the Byzantine Era: A Survey". A Companion to Ancient Epigram. p. 224.
1 2 3 Maltomini, Francesca (2019). "Greek Anthologies from the Hellenistic Age to the Byzantine Era: A Survey". A Companion to Ancient Epigram. p. 212.
↑ Gutzwiller, Kathryn J. (2005). The New Posidippus: A Hellenistic Poetry Book. Oxford University Press. p. 7. ISBN 0199267812.
↑ Harper, Charles Anthon (1853). A manual of Greek literature:from the earliest authentic periods to the close of the Byzantine era. p. 81.
↑ Maltomini, Francesca (2019). "Greek Anthologies from the Hellenistic Age to the Byzantine Era: A Survey". A Companion to Ancient Epigram. p. 216.
↑ Maltomini, Francesca (2019). "Greek Anthologies from the Hellenistic Age to the Byzantine Era: A Survey". A Companion to Ancient Epigram. p. 217.
↑ Maltomini, Francesca (2019). "Greek Anthologies from the Hellenistic Age to the Byzantine Era: A Survey". A Companion to Ancient Epigram. p. 218.
↑ Hine, Daryl (2001). Puerilities: Erotic Epigrams of the Greek Anthology. Princeton University Press. p. ix.
↑ Lauxtermann, Marc D. (2003). Byzantine Poetry from Pisides to Geometres: Texts and Contexts. p. 100.
↑ Maltomini, Francesca (2019). "Greek Anthologies from the Hellenistic Age to the Byzantine Era: A Survey". A Companion to Ancient Epigram. p. 219.
↑ The Greek anthology : from Meleager to Planudes. Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press. 1993. p. 217.
↑ The Greek anthology : from Meleager to Planudes. Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press. 1993. p. 253.
↑ Lauxtermann, Marc D. (2003). Byzantine Poetry from Pisides to Geometres (PDF). VÖAW. p. 83. ISBN 3-7001-3150-X . Retrieved September 10, 2011.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
↑ Lauxtermann, Marc D. (2003). Byzantine Poetry from Pisides to Geometres: Texts and Contexts. pp. 86–88.
↑ Lauxtermann, Marc D. (2003). Byzantine Poetry from Pisides to Geometres: Texts and Contexts. pp. 83–84.
↑ Maltomini, Francesca (2019). "Greek Anthologies from the Hellenistic Age to the Byzantine Era: A Survey". A Companion to Ancient Epigram. p. 222.
↑ Anthony Grafton; Glenn W. Most; Salvatore Settis (2010). The Classical Tradition. Harvard University Press. p. 410. ISBN 9780674035720 . Retrieved September 2, 2011.
↑ The Greek anthology : from Meleager to Planudes / Alan Cameron, Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-19-814023-1

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[1] Maltomini, Francesca (2019). "Greek Anthologies from the Hellenistic Age to the Byzantine Era: A Survey". A Companion to Ancient Epigram. pp. 211–212.

[2] Maltomini, Francesca (2019). "Greek Anthologies from the Hellenistic Age to the Byzantine Era: A Survey". A Companion to Ancient Epigram. p. 224.

[Maltomini212-3] 1 2 3 Maltomini, Francesca (2019). "Greek Anthologies from the Hellenistic Age to the Byzantine Era: A Survey". A Companion to Ancient Epigram. p. 212.

[KG-4] Gutzwiller, Kathryn J. (2005). The New Posidippus: A Hellenistic Poetry Book. Oxford University Press. p. 7. ISBN 0199267812.

[Harper81-5] Harper, Charles Anthon (1853). A manual of Greek literature:from the earliest authentic periods to the close of the Byzantine era. p. 81.

[6] Maltomini, Francesca (2019). "Greek Anthologies from the Hellenistic Age to the Byzantine Era: A Survey". A Companion to Ancient Epigram. p. 216.

[7] Maltomini, Francesca (2019). "Greek Anthologies from the Hellenistic Age to the Byzantine Era: A Survey". A Companion to Ancient Epigram. p. 217.

[8] Maltomini, Francesca (2019). "Greek Anthologies from the Hellenistic Age to the Byzantine Era: A Survey". A Companion to Ancient Epigram. p. 218.

[9] Hine, Daryl (2001). Puerilities: Erotic Epigrams of the Greek Anthology. Princeton University Press. p. ix.

[10] Lauxtermann, Marc D. (2003). Byzantine Poetry from Pisides to Geometres: Texts and Contexts. p. 100.

[11] Maltomini, Francesca (2019). "Greek Anthologies from the Hellenistic Age to the Byzantine Era: A Survey". A Companion to Ancient Epigram. p. 219.

[12] The Greek anthology : from Meleager to Planudes. Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press. 1993. p. 217.

[13] The Greek anthology : from Meleager to Planudes. Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press. 1993. p. 253.

[14] Lauxtermann, Marc D. (2003). Byzantine Poetry from Pisides to Geometres (PDF). VÖAW. p. 83. ISBN 3-7001-3150-X . Retrieved September 10, 2011.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)

[15] Lauxtermann, Marc D. (2003). Byzantine Poetry from Pisides to Geometres: Texts and Contexts. pp. 86–88.

[16] Lauxtermann, Marc D. (2003). Byzantine Poetry from Pisides to Geometres: Texts and Contexts. pp. 83–84.

[17] Maltomini, Francesca (2019). "Greek Anthologies from the Hellenistic Age to the Byzantine Era: A Survey". A Companion to Ancient Epigram. p. 222.

[18] Anthony Grafton; Glenn W. Most; Salvatore Settis (2010). The Classical Tradition. Harvard University Press. p. 410. ISBN 9780674035720 . Retrieved September 2, 2011.

[19] The Greek anthology : from Meleager to Planudes / Alan Cameron, Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-19-814023-1

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