Eumelos of Corinth

According to ancient tradition, Eumelos of Corinth ( Greek ςμηλος ) was a Greek epicist of the 8th century BC. Chr.

The poet should a son of Amphilytos of the family of Bakchiads , the Corinthian kings have been. He is counted among the so-called Cyclic poets (Cyclics) who, following Homer, embellished the stories of the gods in epic poems, but did not achieve his potency. The tragedians of later times drew abundantly from their subjects.

Three epics are ascribed to Eumelos: the Corinthiaka , a mythical description of the early history of Corinth, the Titanomachia , which dealt with the battle between the titans and gods, and the Europia , which represented the kidnapping of Europa by Zeus and probably also the descendants from this connection. The bougonia ("cattle origin"), perhaps a didactic poem about cattle breeding, is said to come from him. He is also said to have composed a procession song (prosodion) for the Delian Apollo .

None of his works have survived. Only a small fragment from the processional song is quoted in Pausanias . The Korinthiaka could still use Pausanias for its presentation of the history of Corinth, but now the work is lost.

According to Eusebius of Caesarea , Eumelos was a combatant and contemporary of Archias , who lived around 734 BC. BC Syracuse founded. After Martin West , however, the works are to be dated later than usual. He puts it in the late 7th or early 6th century BC. Chr. Klaus Tausend suggested that the prosodion should be used for a work from the 4th century BC. BC, which the Messenians ascribed to the archaic poet after their independence from Sparta in order to emphasize their political identity through an alleged early connection to Corinth.

Collection of sources and fragments

Martin L. West (Ed.): Greek Epic Fragments. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) 2003, ISBN 0-674-99605-4 , pp. 220-251 (Greek texts with English translation)

literature

Overview representations

Michael Reichel : Epic Poetry. 4. Pseudo-Homerica and other epics of the archaic and classical epochs. In: Bernhard Zimmermann (Hrsg.): The literature of the archaic and classical times (= manual of the Greek literature of antiquity , volume 1). Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3406-57673-7 , pp. 66–78, here: 74.
Joachim Latacz : Eumelos [5]. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 4, Metzler, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-476-01474-6 , column 249 f.

Investigations

Klaus Tausend: The Prosodion of Eumelos. Literary propaganda and political identity creation in the 4th century BC Chr. In: Historia . Volume 61, 2012, pp. 66-77.
Martin L. West: Eumelos, A Corinthian Epic Cycle? In: The Journal of Hellenic Studies . Vol. 122, 2002, ISSN 0075-4269 , pp. 109-133.

Remarks

↑ Pausanias 2,1,1.
↑ Pausanias 4,33,2.
↑ West 2002, p. 109.
↑ Klaus thousand: The prosodion of Eumelos. Literary propaganda and political identity creation in the 4th century BC Chr. In: Historia 61, 2012, pp. 66–77.

personal data
SURNAME	Eumelos of Corinth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Greek epic
DATE OF BIRTH	9th century BC BC or 8th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH	8th century BC BC or 7th century BC Chr.

[1] Pausanias 2,1,1.

[2] Pausanias 4,33,2.

[3] West 2002, p. 109.

[4] Klaus thousand: The prosodion of Eumelos. Literary propaganda and political identity creation in the 4th century BC Chr. In: Historia 61, 2012, pp. 66–77.