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Epigrams
An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word derives from the Greek (, "inscription", from [], "to write on, to inscribe"). This literary device has been practiced for over two millennia. The presence of wit or sarcasm tends to distinguish non-poetic epigrams from aphorisms and adages, which typically do not show those qualities. Ancient Greek The Greek tradition of epigrams began as poems inscribed on votive offerings at sanctuariesincluding statues of athletesand on funerary monuments, for example "Go tell it to the Spartans, passersby...". These original epigrams did the same job as a short prose text might have done, but in verse. Epigram became a literary genre in the Hellenistic period, probably developing out of scholarly collections of inscriptional epigrams. Though modern epigrams are usually thought of as very short, Greek literary epigram was not always as short as later examples, and the divide between " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greek Anthology
The ''Greek Anthology'' () is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the Classical Greece, Classical and Byzantine periods of Greek literature. Most of the material of the ''Greek Anthology'' comes from two manuscripts, the ''Palatine Anthology'' of the 10th century and the ''Anthology of Planudes'' (or ''Planudean Anthology'') of the 14th century.: Explanatory text for the book of W. R. Paton entitled "The Greek Anthology with an English Translation" (1916), the same text is also at the introduction in page http://www.ancientlibrary.com/greek-anthology/ before the facsimile copy of the pages of the same book The earliest known anthology in Greek was compiled by Meleager of Gadara in the first century BC, under the title ''Anthologia'', or "Flower-gathering." It contained poems by the compiler himself and forty-six other poets, including Archilochus, Alcaeus of Mytilene, Alcaeus, Anacreon, and Simonides of Ceos, Simonides. In his preface to his collection, Meleag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martial
Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman and Celtiberian poet born in Bilbilis, Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of '' Epigrams'', published in Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan. In these poems he satirises city life and the scandalous activities of his acquaintances, and romanticises his provincial upbringing. He wrote a total of 1,561 epigrams, of which 1,235 are in elegiac couplets. Martial has been called the greatest Latin epigrammatist, and is considered the creator of the modern epigram. He also coined the term plagiarism. Early life Knowledge of his origins and early life are derived almost entirely from his works, which can be more or less dated according to the well-known events to which they refer. In Book X of his ''Epigrams'', composed between 95 and 98, he mentions celebrating his fifty-sevent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meleager Of Gadara
Meleager of Gadara ( ; fl. 1st century BC) was a poet and collector of epigrams. He wrote some satire, satirical prose, now lost, and some sensual poetry, of which 134 epigrams survive. Life Meleager was the son of Eucrates, born in the city of Gadara, now Umm Qais in Jordan, then part of the Hasmonian Kingdom, which was then a partially Hellenized community noted for its "remarkable contribution to Greek culture". He was educated in Tyre and spent his later life in Cos where he died at an advanced age, perhaps at 70. According to short autobiographical poems he wrote, Meleager was proud of his hometown and identified himself as cosmopolitan, being both "Attic" (i.e. Hellenistic) and Syrian, and also praised Tyre for having "made ima man" and Cos for taking "care of imin isold age". The scholiast to the Palatine manuscript of the ''Greek Anthology'' says he flourished in the reign of Seleucus VI Epiphanes (95 – 93 BC). The uppermost date of his compilation of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Milan Papyrus
The Milan Papyrus is a papyrus roll inscribed in Alexandria in the late 3rd or early 2nd century BC during the rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty. It is currently held by the University of Milan (inventory no. 1295 R), and it is also known in scholarship under its label P.Mil.Vogl. VIII 309. History Originally discovered by anonymous tomb raiders as part of a mummy wrapping, it was purchased in the papyrus "grey market" in Europe in 1992 by the University of Milan. As the earliest surviving example of a Greek poetry book as well as the largest addition to the corpus of classical Greek poetry in many years, the tale of the discovery made ''The New York Times'' and ''National Geographic.'' Labelled the "Milan Papyrus," it was published in a scholarly edition in 2001, edited by Guido Bastianini, Claudio Gallazzi, and Colin Austin, with contributions by other scholars. The edition included the complete transcription of the recto of the papyrus, with extensive commentary, and high-qua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philippus Of Thessalonica
Philippus of Thessalonica ( Greek: Φίλιππος ὁ Θεσσαλονικεύς) (1st century) or Philippus Epigrammaticus was the compiler of an Anthology of Epigrammatists subsequent to Meleager of Gadara and is himself the author of 72 epigrams in the Greek Anthology The ''Greek Anthology'' () is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the Classical Greece, Classical and Byzantine periods of Greek literature. Most of the material of the ''Greek Anthology'' comes from two manuscripts, the ''Palatine .... Philippus has one word which describes the epigram by a single quality; he calls his work an ''oligostikhia'' or collection of poems not exceeding a few lines in length. Philippus' own epigrams, of which over seventy are extant, are generally rather dull, chiefly school exercises, and, in the phrase of Jacobs, ''imitatione magis quam inventione conspicua'' (more like imitation than striking innovation). But we owe to him the preservation of a large mass of work be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicarchus
Nicarchus or Nicarch was a Greek poet and writer of the 1st century AD, best known for his epigrams, of which forty-two survive under his name in the ''Greek Anthology'', and his satirical poetry. He was a contemporary of, and influence on, the better-known Latin writer Martial. A large proportion of his epigrams are directed against doctors. Some of his writings have been found at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt. A fragment of Nicarchus: The Raven :The gloom of death is on the raven’s wing, :The song of death is in the raven’s cries: :But when Demophilus begins to sing, :The raven dies. Nicarchus is also the name of a character in a play of Aristophanes, ''The Acharnanians.'' Nicarchus was also the name of a Paeonian In antiquity, Paeonia or Paionia () was the land and kingdom of the Paeonians (or Paionians; ). The exact original boundaries of Paeonia, like the early history of its inhabitants, are obscure, but it is known that it roughly corresponds to m ... king, known only fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucillius
Lucillius (; fl. 60s CE) was the author of one hundred twenty three epigrams in Ancient Greek, Greek preserved in the ''Greek Anthology.'' He lived under the emperor Nero. Many of his poems describe stereotyped people, such as doctors or thin people; as such his works are in the tradition of the ''Characters'' of Theophrastus. He influenced the Latin epigrammatist Martial. Beyond his name no details of his life are known. Sometimes his name is (incorrectly) spelled "Lucilius", creating confusion with the Ancient Rome, Roman satirist Gaius Lucilius, Lucilius. External links Lucillius: translation of all surviving epigramsat ''attalus.org''; adapted from W.R.Paton (1916–18) * References {{Authority control Epigrammatists of the Greek Anthology 1st-century Greek poets Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adage
A proverb (from ) or an adage is a simple, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and are an example of formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phrase or a proverbial expression is a type of a conventional saying similar to proverbs and transmitted by oral tradition. The difference is that a proverb is a fixed expression, while a proverbial phrase permits alterations to fit the grammar of the context. Collectively, they form a folklore genre, genre of folklore. Some proverbs exist in more than one language because people borrow them from languages and cultures with which they are in contact. In the West, the Bible (including, but not limited to the Book of Proverbs) and medieval Latin (aided by the work of Erasmus) have played a considerable role in distributing proverbs. Not all Biblical proverbs, however, were distributed to the same extent: one scholar has gathered evidence to show th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Thermopylae
The Battle of Thermopylae ( ) was fought in 480 BC between the Achaemenid Empire, Achaemenid Persian Empire under Xerxes I and an alliance of Polis, Greek city-states led by Sparta under Leonidas I. Lasting over the course of three days, it was one of the most prominent battles of both the second Persian invasion of Greece and the wider Graeco-Persian Wars. The engagement at Thermopylae occurred simultaneously with the naval Battle of Artemisium: between July and September during 480 BC. The second Persians, Persian invasion under Xerxes I was a delayed response to the failure of the first Persian invasion of Greece, first Persian invasion, which had been initiated by Darius the Great, Darius I and ended in 490 BC by an Classical Athens, Athenian-led Ancient Greece, Greek victory at the Battle of Marathon. By 480 BC, a decade after the Persian defeat at Marathon, Greece, Marathon, Xerxes had amassed a massive land and naval force, and subsequently set out to conquer all of Gree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quodlibets Epigrams
Robert Hayman (14 August 1575 – November 1629) was a poet, colonist and Proprietary Governor of Bristol's Hope colony in Newfoundland. Early life and education Hayman was born in Wolborough near Newton Abbot, Devon, the eldest of nine children. His mother was Alice Gaverocke and his father, Nicholas Hayman, a prosperous citizen and later mayor and MP of both Totnes and Dartmouth. By 1579 the family was living in Totnes, where in the high street Hayman as a small boy met Sir Francis Drake, who presented him with an orange (Hayman records the incident in one of his poems). According to the 17th-century historian Anthony Wood Hayman was educated at Exeter College and the college register shows him matriculating on 15 October 1590 (the register wrongly shows his age as eleven whereas in fact he was fifteen). He then, according to Wood, "retired to Lincolns-inn, without the honour of a degree": but here Wood is incorrect, as Hayman commenced B.A. on 8 July 1596. He was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Concision
In common usage and linguistics, concision (also called conciseness, succinctness, terseness, brevity, or laconicism) is a communication principle of eliminating redundancy (linguistics), redundancy,UNT Writing Lab. "Concision, Clarity, and Cohesion." Accessed June 19, 2012Link./ref> generally achieved by using as few words as possible in a Sentence (linguistics), sentence while preserving its semantics, meaning. More generally, it is achieved through the omission of parts that impart information that was already given, that is obvious or that is irrelevant. Outside of linguistics, a message may be similarly "dense" in other forms of communication. For example, a sentence of "It is a fact that most arguments must try to convince readers, that is the audience, that the arguments are true." may be expressed more concisely as "Most arguments must demonstrate their truth to readers." the observations that the statement is a fact and that readers are its audience are redundant, and it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th centuryAD, it endured until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. The term 'Byzantine Empire' was coined only after its demise; its citizens used the term 'Roman Empire' and called themselves 'Romans'. During the early centuries of the Roman Empire, the western provinces were Romanization (cultural), Latinised, but the eastern parts kept their Hellenistic culture. Constantine the Great, Constantine I () legalised Christianity and moved the capital to Constantinople. Theodosius I, Theodosius I () made Christianity the state religion and Greek gradually replaced Latin for official use. The empire adopted a defensive strategy and, throughout its remaining history, expe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
