Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/112

Rh 98 EUPHORION. Euphorion wrote numerous works, both in poetry and prose, relating chiefly to mythological history. The following were poems in heroic verse : — 1. 'Ho-ioSos, the subject of which can only be con- jectured from the title. Some suppose it to have been an agricultural poem. Euphorion is men- tioned among the agricultural writers by Varro (i. ]. § 9) and Columella (i. 1. § 10). (See Heyne, Eoccurs. iii. ad Virgil. Bucol. ; Harless, ad Fabric. Bibl. Graec. i. 594.) 2. Mo>//o7ria, so called from an old name of Attica, the legends of which coun- try seem to have been the chief subject of the poem. From the variety of its contents, which Suidas calls avfM/jLiyus laToplas, it was also called "Atuktu, a title which was frequently given to the writings of that period. 3. XiKidde^, a poem written against certain persons, who had defrauded Euphorion of money which he had entrusted to their care. It probably derived its title from each of its books consisting of a thousand verses. The fifth book, or X'^'"S was entitled Trepl xPVCI^^^i and contained an enumeration of oracles which had been fulfilled ; and it is probably of this book in particular that the statement of Suidas concern- ing the object of the poem should be understood, uamely, that the poet taught his defrauders that they would in the end suffer the penalty of their faithlessness. The above seems the best explana- tion of the passage in Suidas, which is, however, very corrupt, and has been very A^ariously explain- ed. (See especially Heyne and Harless, l. c, and Meineke, EiipJior. pp. 20 — 24.) To these epic poems must be added the following, which are not mentioned by Suidas : — 4. 'Ae|ai'5pos, which Meineke conjectures to have been addressed to Bome friend of that name. (Steph. Byz. s. v. 'S.vKoi.) 5. "Ai/ios, a mythological poem referring to Anius, the son and priest of the Delian Apollo. (Steph. Byz. Fragment, p. 744, c, ed. Pined.) 6. 'Ai'Tt7pa^ai irpos &ecaplSau (Clem. Alex. Strom, v. p. 243, ed. Sylb.), a work of which nothing further is known, unless we accept the not improbable conjecture. of Meursius and Schneider, who read SeoSapiSav for ©ewpiSau, and suppose that the poem was written in controversy with the grammarian Theodoridas, who afterwards wrote the epitaph on Euphorion, which is extant, with seventeen other epigrams by Theodoridas, in the Greek Anthology. (Brunck, A?ial. vol. ii. pp. 41 — 45.) [Theodoridas.] 7. ^ATToWdSwpos, which seems to have been a mytho- logical poem addressed to a friend of that name. (Tzetzes, Schol. ad Lycophr, 513; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 1063 ; Suid and Harpocrat. s. v. 'O nd- rcodeu p6fA.os ; Phot. s. v. 'O KctTudev yos.) 8. Schol. ad Theocrit. ii. 2), an attack on* some person who had stolen a cup from Euphorion, which Cal- limachus imitated in his Ibis^ and both were pro- bably followed by Ovid in his Ibis, and by Cato and Virgil in their Dirae. (Meineke, Euphor. pp. 30, 31.) 9. *ApT6AiiSwj[)oy, probably a poem like the Apollodorus. (Steph. Byz. s. v. ^Acrawpou.) 10. Ttpauos, the subject of which, as well as its genuineness, is very uncertain. (Athen. iii. p. 82, a.) 11. A-nixoaeh-ns, the title of which Meineke explains as he does the Alexander, Apollodorus, and Ariemidortis, and he conjectures that the person to whom the poem was addressed was Demosthenes of Bithynia. (Choeroboscus, ap. Beklcer. Anecd. Giaec. iii. p. 1383.) 12. Ai6vv(ros, which, douht- less contained a full account of the myths relating EUPHORION. to Dionysus. (Schol. (p. ad Odyss. iv. p. 13G, ed. Buttmann ; Steph. Byz. s. v. ^ripyxtov, 'Aftrrr), Aw- Kaif/os ; Schol. ad Aral. Phaenom. 172 ; Tzetzes, Schol. ad Lycophr. 320 ; Etym. Mag. p. 687. 26.) 1 3. 'ETTtKyfSetos ets Upwrayopav, an elegy on an astrologer named Protagoras. (Diog. Laert. ix. 56.) This poem was doubtless in the elegiac, and not in the heroic verse. 14. ®p5.^. (Steph. Byz. s. V. "Act^wtos, 'OyKoiai ; Parthen. Erot. xiii. p. 35, xxvi. p. 61.) 15. 'Iinro/jLeSccv. (Tzetzes, Schol. ad Lycophr. 451.) 16. Biviov. {Schol. ad Apollon. Bhod. ii. 354.) 1 7. TloXyxapris. {Etym. Mag. p. 223. 16 ; Choeroboscus, ap. Bekher. Anecd. Graec. iii. p. 1381.) 18. "tdKivQos. (Schol. Theocr. x. 28 ; Eustath. ad Horn. p. 285.) 19. ^jAokttj'ttjs. (Stobaeus, Serm. Iviii., Tii. lix. ; Tzetzes, Schol. ad Lycophr. 911.) Euphorion was an epigrammatist as well as an epic poet. He had a place in the Garland of Meleager {Prooem, 23), and the Greek Anthology contains two epigrams by him. (Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. 256; Jacobs, Anih. Graec. vol. i. p. 189.) They are both erotic ; and that such was the cha- racter of most of his epigrams, is clear from the manner in which he is mentioned by Meleager, as well as from the fact that he was among the poets who were imitated by Propertius, Tibullus, and Gallus. (Diomed. iii. p. 482. 3 ; Probus, ad Virgil. Eel. X. 50.) It was probably this seductive ele- giac poetry of Euphorion, the popularity of which at Rome, to the neglect of Ennius, moved the in- dignation of Cicero. {Tusc. Disp. iii. 19.) It was therefore quite natural that Euphorion should be a great favourite with the emperor Tiberius, who wrote Greek poems in imitation of him (Sueton. Tiber. 70; see Casaubon's note.) Some writers have supposed that Euphorion was also a dramatic poet. Ernesti {Clav. Ciceron. s. v.) and C. G. Miiller {ad Tzetz. Schol. p. 651) say, that he composed tragedies ; but they give no rea- sons for the assertion, and none are known. Fabricius {Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 304) places him in his list of comic poets, mentioning as his plays the 'ATToAAoScopos, which was an epic poem {vid. sup.), and the ^AiroSiSovaa, respecting which there can be no doubt that for Eu(/)opiwi/ we should read Ev(ppuv in the passage of Athenaeus (xi. p. 503). Euphorion's writings in prose were chiefly his- torical and grammatical. They were : 1. 'laTopiKct vTToixvriixara. (Athen. iv. p. 154, c, xv. p. 700, d.) 2. TlepX ToSu 'AXevaSdJv (Clem. Alex. Strom, i. p. 389, Sylb.; Schol. T/teocr. ad Idyll, xvi. 34 ; Quintil. X. 2 ), which Suidas (s. v. "Ecpopos) attributes to the younger Ephorus. (See Meineke, Euphor. pp. 39, 40.) 3. Tlepl Tuu 'la-Qfiioop. (Athen. iv. p. 182, e. ei alib.) 4. Tlepl MeKoirouav. (Athen. i v. p. 184, a.) 5. A grammatical work of great cele-' brity, which related chiefly to the language of Hippocrates, and appears to have been entitled Ae|is 'ImroKpaTovs. The character of Euphorion as a poet may be pretty clearly understood from the statements of the ancient writers, and from his extant fragments, as well as from the general literary character of his age. He lived at the time when the literature of the Alexandrian school had become thoroughly established, when originality of thought and vigour of expression were all but extinct, and, though the ancient writers were most highly valued, their spirit was lost, and the chief use made of them was to heap together their materials in elaborate compilations
 * Apai rj TTOTTjpto/cAeTTTTjs (Steph. Byz. s. v. 'Ai€r} ;