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1. A poet and prophet of Crete. His father's name was Dosiades or Agesarces. We have an
account of him in Diogenes Laertius (1.100.10), which, however, is a very uncritical mixture
of heterogeneous traditions, so that it is difficult, if not altogether imposible, to discover
its real historical substance. The mythical character of the traditions of Epimenides is
sufficiently indicated by the fact of his being called the son of a nynmph, and of his being
reckoned among the Curetes. It seems, however, pretty clear, that he was a native of Phaestus
in Crete (de, Defect. Orac. 1), and that he spent the greater part of
his life at Cnossus, whence he is sometimes called a Cnossian. There is a story that when yet
a boy, he was sent out by his father to fetch a sheep, and that seeking shelter from the heat
of the midday sun, he went into a cave. He there fell into a sleep in which lie remained for
fifty-seven years. On waking he sought for the sheep, not knowing how long he had been
sleeping, and was astonished to find everything around him altered. When he returned home, he
found to his great amazement, that his younger brother had in the meantime grown an old man.
The time at which Epimenides lived, is determined by his invitation to Athens CYLON], consulted the Delphic
oracle about the means of their delivery. The god commanded them to get their city purified,
and the Athenians sent out Nicias with a ship to Crete to invite Epimenides to come and
undertake the purification. Epimenides accordingly came to Athens, about
According to some accounts, Epimenides was reckoned among the seven wise men of Greece
(Diog. Laert. Prooem. § 13;
These notions about Epimenides were propagated throughout antiquity, and it was probably owing to the great charm attached to his name, that a series of works, both in prose and in verse, were attributed to him, though few, if any, can be considered to have been genuine productions of Epimenides, the age at which he he lived was certainly not an age of prose composition in Greece.
Diogenes Laertius (1.112) notices as prose works, one on sacrifices, and another on the Political Constitution of Crete. There was also a Letter on the Constitution which Minos had given to Crete; it was said to have been addressed by Epimenides to Solon; it was written in the modern Attic dialect, and was proved to be spurious by Demetrius of Magnesia.
Diogenes himself has preserved another letter, which is likewise addressed to Solon; it is written in the Doric dialect, but is no more genuine than the former.
The reputation of Epimenides as a poet may have rested on a somewhat surer foundation; it
is at any rate more likely that he should have composed such poetry as s. v.
There cannot, however, be any doubt but that there existed in antiquity certain
old-fashioned poems written upon skins; and the expression,
Comp. Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. i. pp. 30, &c., 844; Höckh,
Kreta, vol. iii. p. 246, &c.; Bode, Gesch. der
Hellen. Dichtk. vol. i. p. 463, &c., and more especially C. F. Heinrich, Epimenides aus Creta, Leipzig, 1801, 8vo.