Listed 13 sub titles with search on: Biographies Poets for wider area of: "SAMOS Island NORTH AEGEAN" .
MYTILINII (Small town) PYTHAGORIO
1900 - 1976
SAMOS (Ancient city) SAMOS
Choerilus. A Greek epic poet, born in Samos about B.C. 470, a friend of
Herodotus and afterwards of the Spartan Lysander. He lived first at Athens and
afterwards at the court of King Archelaus of Macedonia, where he was treated with
great consideration, and died about B.C. 400. He was the first epic poet who,
feeling that the old mythology was exhausted, ventured to treat an historical
subject of immediate interest, the Persian wars, in an epic entitled Perseis.
According to one account, the poem was read in the schools with Homer. The few
fragments that remain show that it did not lack talent and merit; but little regard
was paid to it by posterity.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Choerilus of Samos, the author of an epic poem on the wars of the Greeks with
Xerxes and Dareius. Suidas (s. v.) says, that he was a contemporary of Panyasis
and a young man (neaniskon) at the time of the Persian war, in the 75th Olympiad.
But this is next to impossible, for Plutarch (Lys. 18) tells us that, when Lysander
was at Samos (B. C. 404), Choerilus was residing there, and was highly honoured
by Lysander, who hoped that the poet would celebrate his exploits. This was 75
years later than the 75th Olympiad: and therefore, if this date has anythlig to
do with Choerilus, it must be the date of his birth (B. C. 479); and this agrees
with another statement of Suidas, which implies that Choerilus was younger than
Herodotus (houtinos auton kai paridika psepso nenai phasin). We have here perhaps
the explanation of the error of Suidas, who, from the connexion of both Panyasis
and Choerilus with Herodotus, and from the fact that both were epic poets, may
have confounded them, and have said of Choerilus that which can very well be true
of Panyasis. Perhaps Choerilus was even younger. Suidas also says, that Choerilus
was a slave at Samos, and was distingaished for his beauty; that he ran away and
resided with Herodotus, from whom he acquired a taste for literature; and that
he turned his attention to poetry: afterwards he went to the court of Archelaus,
king of Macedonia, where he died. His death must therefore have been not later
than B. C. 399, which was the last year of Archelaus. Athenaeus (viii.) states,
that Choerilus received from Archelaus four minae a-day, and spent it all upon
good living (opsophagian). There are other statements of Suidas, which evidently
refer to a later poet (see ancient
Iasos), who was contemporary with Alexander There is some doubt whether the
accounts which made him a native either of Iasos or of Halicarnassus belong to
this class. Either of them is perfectly consistent with the statement that he
was a slave at Samos (Conpare Steph. Byz. s. v. Iassos; Hesych. Miles.; Phot.
Lex. s. v. Samiakon tropon.)
His great work was on the Persian wars, but its exact title is not
known: it may have been Persika. It is remarkable as the earliest attempt to celebrate
in epic poetry events which were nearly contemporary with the poet's life. Of
its character we may form some conjecture from the connexion between the poet
and Herodotus. There are also fragments preserved by Aristotle from the Prooemium
(Rhet. iii. 14, and Schol.); by Ephorus from the description of Dareius's bridge
of boats, in which the Scythians are mentioned (Strab. vii.); by Josephus from
the catalogue of the nations in the army of Xerxes, among whom were the Jews (c.
Apion. i. 22. vol. ii., iii.; compare Euseb. Praup. Evang. ix. 9); and other fragments,
the place of which is uncertain. The chief action of the poem appears to have
been the battle of Salamis. The high estimation in which Choerilus was held is
proved by his reception into the epic canon (Suid. s. v.), from which, however,
he was again expelled by the Alexandrian grammarians, and Antimachus was substituted
in his place, on account of a statement, which was made on the authority of Heracleides
Ponticus, that Plato very much preferred Antimachus to Choerilus (Proclus, Comm.
in Plat. Tim.).The great inferiority of Choerilus to Homer in his similes is noticed
by Aristotle (Topic. viii. 1.24).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Persona (prosopon and prosopeion). A mask; an artificial covering for the face
worn among many peoples in all ages of history and for different purposes, but
more frequently in Greece and Italy
(1) for covering the faces of the dead and
(2) by actors in theatrical performances.
Death-masks of gold have been found in tombs at Mycenae and elsewhere;
at Carthage masks of clay were also similarly used. In Egypt they were placed
upon the case containing the mummy. See also Imagines.
For theatrical purposes, masks were made of linen, of bark, of leather,
and sometimes of wood. Their introduction in dramatic performances is
ascribed to Choerilus of Samos about B.C. 500, and to Aeschylus; but
their use really goes back to the mummery in honour of Dionysus, at whose festivals
in early Greece the face was painted with the lees of wine or covered with leaves.
The opening for the eyes was not larger than the pupil of the actor's eyes behind
the mask. The masks themselves sometimes merely covered the face, like masks in
modern times; but sometimes, also, they covered the whole head down to the shoulders.
The wig worn by the tragic actors was usually if not always a part of the mask.
Phrynichus is said by Suidas to have first made comic masks. The varieties of
masks were very numerous, representing every possible sort of character, age,
sex, and condition. Pollux (iv. 133, etc.) enumerates twenty-eight typical kinds
of mask, six for old men, eight for young men, eleven for women, and three for
slaves. Gellius thinks that the mouth of the mask was arranged so as to intensify
the sound of the actor's voice (v. 7); but this is doubtful.
At Rome masks were not used in early times, but only wigs. They were
probably first introduced in B.C. 110 by Roscius, who was homely and had a squint.
When the audiences hissed an actor he was obliged to remove his mask, except when
acting in the Atellanae fabulae (Macrob. Sat.ii. 7). See the articles Drama
and Satyrica Fabula.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Son of Amphiptolemus, Samian epic poet, 6th century BC.
Asius (Asios), one of the earliest Greek poets, who lived, in all probability, about
B. C. 700, though some critics would place him at an earlier and others at a later
period. He was a native of Samos, and Athenaeus (iii.) calls him the old Samian
poet. According to Pausanias (vii. 4.2), his father's name was Amphiptolemus.
Asius wrote epic and elegiac poems. The subject or subjects of his epic poetry
are not known; and the few fragments which we now possess, consist of genealogical
statements or remarks about the Samians, whose luxurious habits he describes with
great naivete and humour. The fragments are preserved in Athenaeus, Pausanias,
Strabo, Apollodorus, and a few others. His elegies were written in the regular
elegiac metre, but all have perished with the exception of a very brief one which
is preserved in Athenaeus.
Of Amorgos, the second, both in time and in reputation, of the three principal iambic poets of the early period of Greek literature--namely, Archilochus, Simonides, and Hipponax. He was a native of Samos, whence he led a colony to the neighbouring island of Amorgos, where he founded three cities--Minoa, Aegialus, and Arcesine--in the first of which he fixed his own abode. He flourished about B.C. 664. Simonides was most celebrated for his iambic poems, which were of two species, gnomic and satirical. The most important of his extant fragments is a satire upon women, in which he derives the various, though generally bad, qualities of women from the variety of their origin: thus, the uncleanly woman is formed from the swine; the cunning woman, from the fox; the talkative woman, from the dog, and so on.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Aeschrion (Aischrion), an iambic poet, a native of Samos. He is mentioned by Athenacus (vii. p. 296, f. viii. p. 335, c.), who has preserved some choliambic verses of his, in which he defends the Samian Philaenis against Polycrates, the Athenian rhetorician and sophist. Some of his verses are also quoted by Tzetzes (ad Lycophr. 638). There was an epic poet of the same name, who was a native of Mitylene and a pupil of Aristotle, and who is said to have accompanied Alexander on some of his expeditions. He is mentioned by Suidas (s. v.) and Tzetzes (Chil. viii. 406). As he was also a writer of iambics and choliambies, many scholars have supposed him to be identical with the Samian Aeschrion, and to have been called a Mitylenaean in coasequence of having resided for some time in that city.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A Greek poet, a native of Samos, and a younger contemporary of Theocritus. He was the author of thirty-nine epigrams, mostly erotic, in the Greek Anthology. The well-known Asclepiadean metre was perhaps named after him.
Cleophylus. One of the earliest epic poets, and said to have been the friend or son-in-law of Homer. An epic poem has been ascribed to him, entitled Oichalias halosis or Oichalia, relating the contest of Heracles with Eurytus for the sake of Iole, and the capture of Oechalia.
Hedylus, (Hedulos), the son of Melicertus, was a native of Samos or of Athens, and an epigrammatic poet. According to Athenaeus, he killed himself for love of a certain Glaucus. His epigrams were included in the Garland of Meleager. (Prooem. 45.) Eleven of them are in the Greek Anthology (Brunck, Anal. vol. i. , vol. ii.; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. i. ), but the genuineness of two of these (ix. and x.) is very doubtful. Most of his epigrams are in praise of wine, and all of them are sportive. In some he describes the dedicatory offerings in the temple of Arsinoe, among which he mentions the hydraulic organ of Ctesibius. Besides this indication of his time, we know that he was the contemporary and rival of Callimachus. He lived therefore in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, about the middle of the third century of our era, and is to be classed with the Alexandrian school of poets. (Athen. vii., viii.; Casaub. ad Athen. xi.; Pierson, ad Moerid.; Etym. Mag. s. v. alutarches; Callim. Epig. xxxi. in Anthol. Graec. ; Strab. xiv.; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv.; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. xiii.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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