Stasinus

Stasinus, of Cyprus, semi-legendary early Greek poet, was according to some ancient authorities the author of the Cypria (in 11 books), one of the poems belonging to the Epic Cycle.

Others ascribed it to Hegesias (or Hegesinus) of Salamis or even to Homer himself, who was said to have written it on the occasion of his daughter's marriage to Stasinus.

The Cypria, presupposing an acquaintance with the events of the Homeric poem, confined itself to what preceded, and thus formed a kind of introduction to the Iliad. It contained an account of the judgement of Paris, the rape of Helen, the abandonment of Philoctetes on the island of Lemnos, the landing of the Achaeans on the coast of Asia Minor, and the first engagement before Troy.

It is possible that the "Trojan Battle Order" (the list of Trojans and their allies, Iliad 2.816-876, which formed an appendix to the "Catalogue of Ships") is abridged from that in the Cypria, which was known to contain a list of the Trojan allies. Proclus, in his Chrestomathia, gave an outline of the poem (preserved in Photius, cod. 239).

[Socrates] quoted his works in the dialogue [Euthyphro].

Authorities

• FG Welcker, Der epische Cyclus (1862)
• DB Monro, Appendix to his edition of Odyssey, xiii.-xxiv. (1901)
• Thomas W Allen, "The Epic Cycle," in Classical Quarterly (Jan. 1908, sqq.)

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)