Parthenius of Nicaea facts for kids
Parthenius of Nicaea (Greek: Παρθένιος ὁ Νικαεύς) or Myrlea (Greek: ὁ Μυρλεανός) in Bithynia was a Greek grammarian and poet. According to the Suda, he was the son of Heraclides and Eudora, or according to Hermippus of Berytus, his mother's name was Tetha. He was taken prisoner by Helvius Cinna in the Mithridatic Wars and carried to Rome in 66 BC. He subsequently visited Neapolis, where he taught Greek to Virgil, according to Macrobius. Parthenius is said to have lived until the accession of Tiberius in 14 AD.
Parthenius was a writer of elegies, especially dirges, and of short epic poems.
He is sometimes called "the last of the Alexandrians".
Other works
In Parthenius' own time, he was not famous for his prose but his poems. These are listed below:
- Arete
- Dirge on Archelais
- Aphrodite
- Bias
- Delos
- Krinagoras
- Leucadiai
- Anthippe
- Dirge on Auxithemis
- Idolophanes
- Herakles
- Iphiklos
- Metamorphoses
- Propemptikon
- A Greek original of Moretum
The surviving manuscript
Parthenius is one of the few ancient writers whose work survives in only one manuscript. The only surviving manuscript of Parthenius was called Palatinus Heidelbergensis graecus 398 (P), probably written in the mid-9th century AD. It contains a diverse mixture of geography, excerpts from Hesychius of Alexandria, paradoxography, epistolography and mythology.
Selected editions of Parthenius
- 1531: Editio princeps, edited by Janus Cornarius. Basle, Froben.
- 1675: Historiae poeticae scriptores antiqui, edited by Thomas Gale, Paris.
- 1798: Legrand and Heyne, Göttingen.
- 1843: Analecta alexandrina, Augustus Meineke (ed.), Berolini sumptibus Th. chr. Fr. Enslini.
- 1843: Mythographoi. Scriptores poetiace historiae graeci, Antonius Westermann (ed.), Brunsvigae sumptum fecit Georgius Westermann, pagg. 152-81.
- 1896: Mythographi graeci, Paulus Sakolowski (ed.), vol. II, fasc. I, Lipsiae in aedibus B. G. Teubneri.
- 1902: Mythographi graeci, Edgar Martini (ed.), vol. II, fasc. I suppl., Lipsiae in aedibus B. G. Teubneri.
- 1916: S. Gaselee, Longus: Daphnis and Chloe and the love romances of Parthenius and other fragments, with English translation.
- 2000: J.L. Lightfoot, Parthenius of Nicaea: the poetical fragments and the Erōtika pathēmata. ISBN: 0-19-815253-1. Reviewed by Christopher Francese at The Bryn Mawr Classical Review
- 2008: Michèle Biraud, Dominique Voisin, and Arnaud Zucker (trans. and comm.), Parthénios de Nicée. Passions d'amour. Grenoble: Éditions Jérôme Millon. Reviewed by Simone Viarre at The Bryn Mawr Classical Review
See also
- Lyrcus
