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

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 99.
  3. ^ Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 99; Demoen, p. 231.
  4. ^ Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 99; Paton, p. 149.
  5. ^ Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 99.
  6. ^ Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 100; Paton, p. 149.
  7. ^ 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

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