1. A poet, philosopher, and legislator for his native city, Megalopolis. At his death he
ordered the first and second books of the
Iliad to be buried with him. (Ptol.
Hephaest. apud Phot. Cod. 190, p. 1.51, a., 14, ed. Bekker.) Aelian
(Ael. VH 13.20) relates that Cercidas died expressing his hope
of being with Pythagoras of the philosophers, Hecataeus of the historians, Olympus of the
musicians, and Homer of the poets, which clearly implies that he himself cultivated these four
sciences.
Works
He was a disciple of Diogenes, whose death he recorded in some Meliambic lines. (D. L. 6.76.) He is mentioned and cited by Athenaeus (viii. p. 347e.,
12.554, d.) and Stobaeus (4.43, 58.10).
Same person as Cereidas the Arcadian
He appears to be the same person as Cereidas the Arcadian, who is mentioned by Demosthenes
among those Greeks, who, by their cowardice and corruption, enslaved their states to Philip.
(De Coron. p. 324; see the reply of Polybius to this accusation,
17.14.)