Eupho'rion3. Of Chalcis in Euboea, an eminent grammarian and poet, was the son of Polymnetus, and was
born, according to Suidas (s. r.), in the 126th Olympiad, when Pyrrhus
was defeated by the Romans, B. C. 274. He became, but at what period
of his life is not known, a citizen of Athens. (Hellad. apud Phot. Cod
279, p. 532, Bekker.) He was instructed in philosophy by Lacydes, who flourished about B. C. 241, and Prytanis (comp. Athen.
10.447e), and in poetry by Archebulus of Thera. Though he was sallow, fat, and
bandylegged, he was beloved by Nicia (or Nicaea), the wife of Alexander, king of Euboea. His
amours are referred to in more than one passage in the Greek Anthology. (Brunck, Anal. vol. ii. pp. 3, 43.) Having amassed great wealth, he went into Syria,
to Antiochus the Great (B. C. 221), who made him his librarian. He
died in Syria, and was buried at Apameia, or, according to others, at Antioch. (Suid. s. v.) The epigram (Brunck, Anal. vol. ii. p. 43),
which places his tomb at the Peiraeeus, must be understood as referring to a cenotaph.
Works
Euphorion wrote numerous works, both in poetry and prose, relating chiefly to mythological
history.
Poems in Heroic Verse
The following were poems in heroic verse :--
1.
ἩσίοδοςἩσίοδος, the subject of which can only be
conjectured from the title. Some suppose it to have been an agricultural poem. Euphorion is
mentioned among the agricultural writers by Varro (1.1.9) and Columella (1.1.10). (See
Heyne, Excurs. iii. ad Virgil. Bucol. ; Harless,
ad Fabric. Bibl. Graec. 1.594.)
2.
ΜοψοπίαΜοψοπία, so called from an old name of Attica, the
legends of which country seem to have been the chief subject of the poem. From the variety
of its contents, which Suidas calls συμμιγγεῖρ
ἱστορίαρ, it was also called Ἄτακτα, a
title which was frequently given to the writings of that period.
3.
ΧιλιάδεςΧιλιάδες, a poem written against certain persons,
who had defrauded Euphorion of money which he had entrusted to their care. It probably
derived its title from each of its books consisting of a thousand verses. The fifth book,
or χιλίας, was entitled
περὶ
χρησμῶν, and contained an enumeration of oracles which had been fulfilled; and it
is probably of this book in particular that the statement of Suidas concerning the object
of the poem should be understood, namely, that the poet taught his defrauders that they
would in the end suffer the penalty of their faithlessness. The above seems the best
explanation of the passage in Suidas, which is, however, very corrupt, and has been very
variously explained. (See especially Heyne and Harless,
l.c., and
Meineke,
Euphor. pp. 20-24.) To these epic poems must be added the
following, which are not mentioned by Suidas : --
4.
ἈλέξανδροςἈλέξανδρος, which Meineke conjectures to have been
addressed to some friend of that name. (Steph. Byz. s. v.Σύλοι.)
5.
ἌνιοςἌνιος, a mythological poem referring to Anius, the
son and priest of the Delian Apollo. (Steph. Byz. Fragment. p. 744c.,
ed. Pined.)
6.
Ἀντιγραφαὶ πρὸς ΘεωρίδανἈντιγραφαὶ πρὸς Θεωρίδαν (Clem. Al. Strom. v. p. 243, ed. Sylb.), a work of
which nothing further is known, unless we accept the not improbable conjecture of Meursius
and Schneider, who read Θεοδωρίδαν for Θεωρίδαν, and suppose that the poem was written in
controversy with the grammarian Theodoridas, who afterwards wrote the epitaph on Euphorion,
which is extant, with seventeen other epigrams by Theodoridas, in the Greek Anthology.
(Brunck, Anal. vol. ii. pp. 41-45.) [THEODORIDAS.]
7.
ἈπολλόδωροςἈπολλόδωρος, which seems to have been a
mythological poem addressed to a friend of that name. (Tzetzes, Schol. ad
Lycophr. 513; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. 1.1063; Suid. and
Harpocrat. s. v.
Ὁ κάτωθεν νόμος; Phot. s. v.
Ὁ κάτωθεν λόγος.)
8.
Ἀραὶ ἤ ποτηριοκλέπτηςἈραὶ ἤ ποτηριοκλέπτης (Steph. Byz. s. v.
Ἀλύβη ; Schol. ad Theocrit.
2.2), an attack on some person who had stolen a cup from Euphorion, which Callimachus
imitated in his
Ibis, and both were probably followed by Ovid
in his
Ibis, and by Cato and Virgil in their
Dirae. (Meineke,
Euphor. pp. 30, 31.)
9.
ἈρτεμίδωροςἈρτεμίδωρος, probably a poem like the
Apollodorus. (Steph. Byz.
s. v.
Ἀσσωρόν.)
10.
ΓέρανοςΓέρανος, the subject of which, as well as its
genuineness, is very uncertain. (Athen. 3.82a.)
11.
ΔημοσθένηςΔημοσθένης, the title of which Meineke explains as
he does the
Alexander,
Apollodorus, and
Artemidorus, and he conjectures that the person to whom the poem was
addressed was Demosthenes of Bithynia. (Choeroboscus, apud
Bekker. Anecd.
Graec. iii. p. 1383.)
12.
ΔιόνυσοςΔιόνυσος, which doubtless contained a full account
of the myths relating to Dionysus. (Schol. Φ. ad Odyss. iv. p. 136, ed. Buttmann; Steph. Byz. s.
v.
Ὠρύχιον, Ἀκτὴ, Λύκαψος; Schol. ad Arat. Phaenom. 172; Tzetzes, Schol. ad Lycophr. 320; Etym.. Mag. p. 687. 26.)
13.
Ἐπικήδειος εἰς ΠρωταγόρανἘπικήδειος εἰς Πρωταγόραν, an elegy on an
astrologer named Protagoras. (D. L. 9.56.) This poem was
doubtless in the elegiac, and not in the heroic verse.
14.
ΘρᾷξΘρᾷξ. (Steph. Byz. s. v.Ά̀σβωτος, Ὀγκαῖαι; Parthen. Erot. xiii. p. 35, xxvi. p. 61.)
15.
ἹππομέδωνἹππομέδων. (Tzetzes, Schol. ad
Lycophr. 451.)
16.
ΞένιονΞένιον. (Schol. ad Apollon.
Rhod. 2.354.)
17.
ΠολυχάρηςΠολυχάρης. (Etym. Mag. p. 223.
16; Choeroboscus, apud Bekker. Anecd. Graec. iii. p. 1381.)
18.
ὙάκινθορὙάκινθορ. (Schol. Theocr.
10.28; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 285.)
19.
ΦιλοκτήτηςΦιλοκτήτης. (Stobaeus, Serm.
lviii., Tit. lix.; Tzetzes, Schol. ad Lycophr.
911.)
Epigrams
Euphorion was an epigrammatist as well as an epic poet. He had a place in the
Garland of Meleager (
Prooem, 23), and the Greek
Anthology contains two epigrams by him. (Brunck,
Anal. vol. i. p. 256;
Jacobs,
Anth. Graec. vol. i. p. 189.) They are both erotic; and that
such was the character of most of his epigrams, is clear from the manner in which he is
mentioned by Meleager, as well as from the fact that he was among the poets who were
imitated by Propertius, Tibullus, and Gallus. (Diomed. iii. p. 482. 3; Probus,
ad Virgil. Ecl. 10.50.) It was probably this seductive elegiac poetry of
Euphorion, the popularity of which at Rome, to the neglect of Ennius, moved the indignation
of Cicero. (
Tusc. Disp. 3.19.) It was therefore quite natural that
Euphorion should be a great favourite with the emperor Tiberius, who wrote Greek poems in
imitation of him (Sueton.
Tiber. 70; see Casaubon's note.)
Possible Dramatic Poetry
Some writers have supposed that Euphorion was also a dramatic poet. Ernesti (Clav. Ciceron. s. v.) and C. G. Müller (ad Tzetz.
Schol. p. 651) say, that he composed tragedies; but they give no reasons for the
assertion, and none are known. Fabricius (Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 304)
places him in his list of comic poets, mentioning as his plays the Ἀπολλόδωρος, which was an epic poem (vid. sup.), and the
Ἀποδιδοῦσα, respecting which there can be no doubt
that for Ευφορίων we should read Εὔφρων in the passage of Athenaieus (xi. p. 503).
Prose Writings
Euphorion's writings in prose were chiefly historical and grammatical. They were :
1.
Ἱστορικὰ ὐπομνήματαἹστορικὰ ὐπομνήματα. (Athen. 4.154c., xv. p. 700d.)
2.
Περὶ τῶν ἈλευαδῶνΠερὶ τῶν Ἀλευαδῶν (Clem. Al. Strom. i. p. 389, Sylb.; Schol. Theocr. ad Idyll. 16.34; Quint. Inst.
10.2), which Suidas (s. v.
Ἔφορος) attributes to the younger Ephorus. (See
Meineke, Euphor. pp. 39, 40.)
3.
Περὶ τῶν ἸσθμίωνΠερὶ τῶν Ἰσθμίων. (Athen.
4.182e. et alib.)
4.
Περὶ ΜελοποιϊῶνΠερὶ Μελοποιϊῶν (Athen.
4.184a.)
5.
Λέξις ἹπποκράτουςA grammatical work of great celebrity, which related chiefly to the language of
Hippocrates, and appears to have been entitled
Λέξις
Ἱπποκράτους.
Assessment
The character of Euphorion as a poet may be pretty clearly understood from the statements
of the ancient writers, and from his extant fragments, as well as from the general literary
character of his age. He lived at the time when the literature of the Alexandrian school had
become thoroughly established, when originality of thought and vigour of expression were all
but extinct, and, though the ancient writers were most highly valued, their spirit was lost,
and the chief use made of them was to heap together their materials in elaborate compilations
and expand them by trivial and fanciful additions, while the noble forms of
verse in which they had embodied their thoughts were made the vehicles of a mass of cumbrous
learning. Hence the complaints which the best of succeeding writers made of the obscurity,
verboseness, and tediousness of Euphorion, Callimachus, Parthenius, Lycophron, and the other
chief writers of the long period during which the Alexandrian grammarians ruled the literary
world. (Clem. Al. Strom. v. p. 571 ; Cic. de Div. 2.64; Lucian. de Conscrib. Hist. 57, vol. ii.
p. 65.) These faults seem to have been carried to excess in Euphorion, who was particularly
distinguished by an obscurity, which arose, according to Meineke, from his choice of the most
out of the way subjects, from the cumbrous learning with which he overloaded his poems, from
the arbitrary changes which he made in the common legends, from his choice of obsolete words,
and from his use of ordinary words with a new meaning of his own. The most ancient and one of
the most interesting judgments concerning him is in an epigram by Crates of Mallus (Brunck,
Anal., vol. ii. p. 3), from which we learn that he was a great admirer
of Choerilus [CHOERILUS, vol. i. p. 697b.], notwithstanding which,
however, the fragments of his poetry shew that he also imitated Antimachus. Meineke
conjectures that the epigram of Crates was written while the contest about receiving
Antimachus or Choerilus into the epic canon was at its height, and that some of the
Alexandrian grammarians proposed to confer that honour on Euphorion. In the same epigram
Euphorion is called Ὁμηρικός, which can only mean that
he endeavoured, however unsuccessfully, to imitate Homer, -- a fact which his fragments
confirm. (Comp. Cic. de Div. l.c.) That he also imitated Hesiod, may be
inferred from the fact of his writing a poem entitled
Ἡσίοδος; and there is a certain similarity in the circumstance of each poet
making a personal wrong the foundation of an epic poem,--Hesiod in the
Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι, and Euphorion in the
Χιλιάδες.
As above stated, Euphorion was greatly admired by many of the Romans, and some of his poems
were imitated or translated by Cornelius Gallus ; but the arguments by which Heyne and others
have attempted to decide what poems of Euphorion were so translated, are quite
inconclusive.
Edition
Meineke, de Euphorionis Chalcidensis Vita et Scriptis, Gedan.
1823, in which the fragments are collected.
Further Information
Vossius, de Hist. Graec. pp. 142, 143, ed. Westermann ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. i. p. 594, &c. ; Meineke, de
Euphorionis Chalcidensis Vita et Scriptis, Gedan. 1823, in which the fragments are
collected ; a new edition of this work forms part of Meineke's Analecta
Alexandrina, Berol. 1843 ; Clinton, Fast. Hell. vol. iii. pp. 311,
312.