Cut These Words into My Stone: Ancient Greek Epitaphs

Notes

163 NOTES Unless otherwise noted, all references are to The Greek Anthology, William Roger Paton, translator, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Volumes I–V, cited by book and poem numbers. I. Anonymous Epitaphs of No Known Date Page 7: 7.155. The epitaph appears in the Anthology in a tract of poems attributed to Isidorus of Aegae, sixth century BCE. The actual century of its composition is uncertain. Page 8: 7.309. Page 9: Paul Friedländer, with Herbert B. Hoffleit, Epigrammata: Greek Inscriptions in Verse from the Beginnings to the Persian Wars. Ares Publishers, 1948, 1987, no. 80. Page 10: Christopher W. Clairmont, Gravestone and Epigram: Greek Memorials from the Archaic and Classical Period. Verlag Philipp von Zabern , 1970, no. 23. This late-fifth-century BCE pillar is in the Kerameikos Museum in Athens. Page 11: 7.621. Sardinian celery: Ranunculus sardous. According to the American poet Keith Waldrop, “a poisonous herb, whose bitter taste could draw the lips back in a grin or sarcastic snarl, sardonic, like a dog’s.” See A Windmill Near Calvary, University of Michigan Press, 1968, p. 21. Page 12: 10.3. Page 13: 7.342. Page 14: 7.673. Page 15: 11.442. Peisistratus reigned at Athens from 547 to 527 BCE. 164 D Notes The epitaph is said to have been inscribed on a statue of the tyrant at Athens. Page says the epitaph is not dateable (D. L. Page, Further Greek Epigrams, Cambridge University Press, 1981, p. 339). Page 16: Friedländer, no. 135. This appears to be the oldest extant epitaph composed in elegiac couplets. Its four verses stood on a pillar along the main road running to Athens through the suburb of Sepolia. It seems to date from 575–550 BCE. Page 17: Clairmont, no. 24, plate 12. Another very old example, the lines accompany a gravestone cameo depicting an exuberant horse and its youthful rider (perhaps about to be thrown). Page 18: 7.325. Sardanapallus: The epitaph reads well on its own but rests on a complex allusion. In Greek legend, Sardanapallus, the last in a line of thirty kings of Assyria, was emblematic of the scandalous and slothful life. Herodotus, Ctesias, Diodorus Siculus, Aristophanes and others tell his story or allude to him. Aristotle cites him as an example of the lowest category of human existence , the “Life of Enjoyment,” suitable only for beasts. In 682 BCE Sardanapallus’s capital Nineveh was besieged. Two years into the siege, the Tigris River undermined his palace walls. Rather than live as a captive, he collected his wives and his treasure and set fire to them and himself. Page 19: 7.84. The pre-Socratic Thales of Miletus (624–546 BCE) was the first Greek thinker to define general principles, set forth hypotheses, study electricity, and much else. Aristotle called him the first philosopher. II. Late Archaic and Classical Periods Page 27: 7.489. Page 28: 7.153. Page 29: 7.160. Page 30: 7.226. Abdera: A coastal city in northeastern Greece, and the birthplace of Democritus. Page 31: 7.677. The night before the battle, Megistias foretold his own death. The Spartan general Leonidas urged him to depart; Megistias sent away his only son but stayed with the army, and perished the next day. Forty years later, the historian Herodotus quotes this poem (Bk. 7.228) and tells us that Simonides, a friend of Megistias, had the epitaph set up at Thermopylae in memoriam. Notes C 165 Page 32: 7.248. The epitaph was inscribed on a monument dedicated to all the Greeks who fell while attempting to hold the pass against an invading Persian army at Thermopylae in 480 BCE. The size of the Persian army is exaggerated here ten times or more. The size of the Greek defense, which included about a thousand Spartan slaves, is accurate. Page 33: 7.249. The epitaph was inscribed on a common monument to all those Spartans who fell while attempting to resist the invading Persian army at Thermopylae in 480 BCE. Leonidas, Sparta ’s king, led the allied Greeks. When an informer betrayed them, Leonidas remained with a small contingent in a heroic defense of the pass. All died. A hero cult was established at Sparta around this effort. Page 34: 7.348. Page 35: 7.507 (a). Page 36: 7.254 (a). Page 37: 7.280. Page 38: 7.532. Page 39: 7.346. Sabinus...