The Cyzicene epigrams are a collection of nineteen numbered Greek epigrams,[1] each accompanied by a short prose preamble, which, together with a one-sentence introduction, constitute the third and shortest book of the Palatine Anthology.[2] The epigrams are supposed to have been inscribed somewhere on the columns of the Temple of Apollonis at Cyzicus, a monument which no longer exists.[3] Apollonis was the wife and queen of Attalus I, first king of Pergamon. When she died in the mid-second century BC, two of her sons, Eumenes and Attalus, built a temple in Apollonis' home town of Cyzicus, and dedicated it to her.[4]
According to the one-sentence introduction, each epigram was, apparently, a kind of subtitle for a relief decorating each column of the temple, illustrating a scene from Greek mythology. The prose preamble, taking the place of the carved image, provides a description of it.[5] As befitting a temple built by sons to honor their mother, the preambles describe scenes of love between mothers and sons.[6]
The author and date of the collection is unknown.[7]
Notes
edit- ^ Only eighteen are complete, epigram seventeen is almost completely lost, with only the fragment "fire and earth" preserved, see Paton, pp. 166, 167. For a short introduction and a translation of the Cyzicene epigrams see Paton, pp. 149–169. For discussions of the epigrams see Livingstone and Nisbet, pp. 99–101, and Demoen, pp. 231–248.
- ^ Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 99.
- ^ Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 99; Demoen, p. 231.
- ^ Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 99; Paton, p. 149.
- ^ Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 99.
- ^ Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 100; Paton, p. 149.
- ^ If we are to believe the introduction, the epigrams would apparently have been composed shortly after Apollonis' death in the early-second century BC. However, although some scholars accept the epigrams as authentic (see Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 99 n. 2), Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 101, describes a Hellenistic date for the epigrams as "extremely unlikely", while Demoen, p. 248, dates the collection as no earlier than the 6th century AD.
References
edit- Demoen, Kristoffel, "The Date of the Cyzicene Epigrams. An Analysis of the Vocabulary and Metrical Technique of AP III", L'Antiquité Classique, 1988, T. 57 (1988), pp. 231-248. JSTOR 41658027.
- Paton, W. R. (ed.), Greek Anthology, Volume I: Book 1: Christian Epigrams, Book 2: Description of the Statues in the Gymnasium of Zeuxippus, Book 3: Epigrams in the Temple of Apollonis at Cyzicus, Book 4: Prefaces to the Various Anthologies, Book 5: Erotic Epigrams, translated by W. R. Paton. Revised by Michael A. Tueller, Loeb Classical Library No. 67, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0-674-99688-5. Online version at Harvard University Press.
- Livingstone, Niall, and Gidean Nisbet, Epigram, Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN 9780521145701.