Antimachus of Colophon (), or of Claros, was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and

grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...

ian, who flourished about 400 BC.

Life

Scarcely anything is known of his life. The

Suda The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; ; ) is a large 10th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine encyclopedia of the History of the Mediterranean region, ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas () or Souidas (). It is an ...

claims that he was a pupil of the poets

Panyassis Panyassis of Halicarnassus, sometimes known as Panyasis (), was a 5th-century BC Greek epic poet from Halicarnassus in the Persian Empire (modern-day Bodrum, Turkey). Life Panyassis was the son of Polyarchus () from Halicarnassus, but the his ...

and Stesimbrotus.

Work

His poetical efforts were not generally appreciated, although he received encouragement from his younger contemporary

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

(

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

, ''Lysander'', 18). The emperor

Hadrian Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia '' ...

, however, would later consider him superior to

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

.Cassius Dio, 69.4.6. His chief works were: an epic ''Thebaid'', an account of the expedition of the

Seven against Thebes ''Seven Against Thebes'' (, ''Hepta epi Thēbas''; ) is the third play in an Oedipus-themed trilogy produced by Aeschylus in 467 BC. The trilogy is sometimes referred to as the ''Oedipodea''. It concerns the battle between an Argive army, led by ...

and the war of the

Epigoni In Greek mythology, the Epigoni or Epigonoi (; from , meaning "offspring") are the sons of the Argive heroes, the Seven against Thebes, who had fought and been killed in the first Theban war, the subject of the ''Thebaid'', in which Polynices an ...

; and an elegiac poem ''Lyde'', so called from the poet's mistress, for whose death he endeavoured to find consolation telling stories from

mythology Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

of heroic disasters (Plutarch, ''Consul, ad Apoll.'' 9;

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (, or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; ) was an ancient Greek rhetorician and Grammarian (Greco-Roman), grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century ...

xiii. 597). Antimachus was the founder of "learned"

epic poetry In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard t ...

, and the forerunner of the

Alexandrian school The Alexandrian school is a collective designation for certain tendencies in literature, philosophy, medicine, and the sciences that developed in the Hellenistic cultural center of Alexandria, Egypt during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Alex ...

, whose critics allotted him the next place to

. He also prepared a critical recension of the Homeric poems. He is to be distinguished from

Antimachus of Teos __NOTOC__ Antimachus of Teos () was an early Cyclic poets, Greek epic poet. According to Plutarch, he observed a solar eclipse in 753 BC, the same year in which Ancient Rome, Rome was founded. The epic ''Epigoni (epic), Epigoni'', a sequel to the T ...

, a much earlier poet to whom the lost Cyclic epic ''

'' was apparently ascribed (though the attribution may result from confusion).

Bibliography

* Fragments, ed. Stoll (1845); Bergk * ''Poetae Lyrici Graeci'' (1882); Kinkel * ''Fragmenta epicorum Graecorum'' (1877). 20th century ed: V.J. Matthews * ''Antimachus of Colophon, text and commentary'' (Leiden : Brill, 1996)

References

Attribution: *

External links

*
Antimachi colophonii reliquias
', Henr. Guil. Stoll (ed.), Dillenburgi apud ed. Pagenstecher, 1845. * ''Poetae Lyrici Graeci''. Recensuit Theodorus Bergk. Editionis quartae. Vol. 2. Lipsiae in aedibus B. G. Teubneri, 1882
pagg. 289-94
* ''Epicorum graecorum fragmenta'', Godofredus Kinkel (ed.)
vol. 1
Lipsiae in aedibus B. G. Teubneri
pagg. 273-75

Scholarly Bibliography for Antimachus
at A Hellenistic Bibliography, by Martine Cuypers {{DEFAULTSORT:Antimachus Ancient Greek grammarians Ancient Greek epic poets Ancient Greek elegiac poets 4th-century BC Greek poets Ancient Colophonians Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown