Stasinus () of
Cyprus
Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...
was a semi-legendary early
Greek poet. He is best known for his lost work ''
Cypria
The ''Cypria'' (; ; ) is a lost epic poem of ancient Greek literature, which has been attributed to Stasinus and was quite well known in classical antiquity and fixed in a received text, but which subsequently was lost to view. It was part of ...
'', which was one of the poems belonging to the
Epic Cycle
The Epic Cycle () was a collection of Ancient Greek epic poems, composed in dactylic hexameter and related to the story of the Trojan War, including the '' Cypria'', the ''Aethiopis'', the so-called '' Little Iliad'', the '' Iliupersis'', the ' ...
that narrated the
War of Troy.
The ''Cypria'', presupposing an acquaintance with the events of the Homeric poem, confined itself to what preceded the ''
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...
'', and has been described as an introduction. The poem contained an account of the
Judgement of Paris
The Judgement of Paris is a story from Greek mythology, which was one of the events that led up to the Trojan War, and in later versions to the foundation of Rome.
Eris, the goddess of discord, was not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Th ...
, the
rape of Helen, the abandonment of
Philoctetes
Philoctetes ( ''Philoktētēs''; , ), or Philocthetes, according to Greek mythology, was the son of Poeas, king of Meliboea (Magnesia), Meliboea in Thessaly, and Demonassa or Methone (Greek myth), Methone. He was a Greek hero, famed as an archer ...
on the island of
Lemnos
Lemnos ( ) or Limnos ( ) is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Lemnos (regional unit), Lemnos regional unit, which is part of the North Aegean modern regions of Greece ...
, the landing of the
Achaeans on the coast of
Asia Minor
Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...
, and the first engagement before
Troy
Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...
.
Proclus
Proclus Lycius (; 8 February 412 – 17 April 485), called Proclus the Successor (, ''Próklos ho Diádokhos''), was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major classical philosophers of late antiquity. He set forth one of th ...
, in his ''Chrestomathia'', gave an outline of the poem (preserved in
Photius
Photius I of Constantinople (, ''Phōtios''; 815 – 6 February 893), also spelled ''Photius''Fr. Justin Taylor, essay "Canon Law in the Age of the Fathers" (published in Jordan Hite, T.O.R., and Daniel J. Ward, O.S.B., "Readings, Cases, Mate ...
, cod. 239).
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 ...
puts quotes from Stasinus' works in the mouth of Socrates, in his dialogue ''
Euthyphro
''Euthyphro'' (; ), is a philosophical work by Plato written in the form of a Socratic dialogue set during the weeks before the trial of Socrates in 399 BC. In the dialogue, Socrates and Euthyphro attempt to establish a definition of '' piet ...
''.
[Plato, ''Euthyphro'' 12a–b (Stasinus ''Cypria'' Fr. 20).]
Surviving fragments
*''Of Zeus, the author and creator of all these things,/ You will not tell: for where there is fear there is also reverence.'' - fragment cited by Socrates in the ''Euthyphro'' dialogue
References
Sources
*
F.G. Welcker,
Der epische Cyclus, oder Die homerischen Dichter' Bonn : E. Weber, 1849-65.
*
D.B. Monro,
Homer's Odyssey, books XIII-XXIV' Appendix to his edition of ''
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...
'', xiii–xxiv. (1901)
*Thomas W Allen, "The Epic Cycle," in ''Classical Quarterly'' 2.1 (January 1908:54-64).
*
{{authority control
Cypriot poets
Ancient Cypriots
Early Greek epic poets
7th-century BC Greek poets
Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown
Ancient Greek writers known only from secondary sources