Phanocles () 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 ...
elegiac
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 ...
who probably flourished about the time of
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...
.
His extant fragments show resemblances in style and language to
Philitas of Cos
Philitas of Cos (; , ''Philītas ho Kōos''; – ), sometimes spelled Philetas (; , ''Philētas''; see Bibliography below), was a Greek scholar, poet and grammarian during the early Hellenistic period of ancient Greece. He is regarded as the fo ...
,
Callimachus
Callimachus (; ; ) was an ancient Greek poet, scholar, and librarian who was active in Alexandria during the 3rd century BC. A representative of Ancient Greek literature of the Hellenistic period, he wrote over 800 literary works, most of which ...
and
Hermesianax. He was the author of a poem on
pederasty
Pederasty or paederasty () is a sexual relationship between an adult man and an adolescent boy. It was a socially acknowledged practice in Ancient Greece and Rome and elsewhere in the world, such as Pre-Meiji Japan.
In most countries today, ...
, entitled ''Loves or Beautiful Boys'' (). A lengthy fragment in
Stobaeus
Joannes Stobaeus (; ; 5th-century AD), from Stobi in Macedonia (Roman province), Macedonia, was the compiler of a valuable series of extracts from Greek authors. The work was originally divided into two volumes containing two books each. The tw ...
(''Florilegium'', 4.20b.47) describes the love of
Orpheus
In Greek mythology, Orpheus (; , classical pronunciation: ) was a Thracians, Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet. He was also a renowned Ancient Greek poetry, poet and, according to legend, travelled with Jason and the Argonauts in se ...
for the youthful Calaîs, son of Boreas, and his subsequent death at the hands of the Thracian women. ''Erotes e Kaloi'' describes among others the love between
Dionysos
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Greek ...
and
Adonis
In Greek mythology, Adonis (; ) was the mortal lover of the goddesses Aphrodite and Persephone. He was considered to be the ideal of male beauty in classical antiquity.
The myth goes that Adonis was gored by a wild boar during a hunting trip ...
,
Cycnus
In Greek mythology, several characters were known as Cycnus (Ancient Greek: Κύκνος) or Cygnus. The literal meaning of the name is "swan", and accordingly most of them ended up being transformed into swans.
* Cycnus, son of Ares.
* Cycnus, ...
and
Phaethon
Phaethon (; , ), also spelled Phaëthon, is the son of the Oceanids, Oceanid Clymene (mother of Phaethon), Clymene and the solar deity, sun god Helios in Greek mythology.
According to most authors, Phaethon is the son of Helios who, out of a de ...
,
Tantalos and
Ganymedes, and of
Agamemnon
In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (; ''Agamémnōn'') was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans during the Trojan War. He was the son (or grandson) of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of C ...
and
Argynnos.
References
*
*
*Katherina Alexander, A stylistic commentary on Phanocles and related texts. (Amsterdam, 1988)
*Michael Tueller, text & commentary on fragments 1–3, in D. Sider (ed.), ''Hellenistic Poetry: A Selection'' (Ann Arbor 2017) 462–71.
*
External links
Phanocles, Fragment 1 translation by S. Burges Watson
Living Poets (Durham, 2014)
{{Authority control
4th-century BC Greek poets
Ancient Greek elegiac poets
Hellenistic poets
Greek mythology of Thrace