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The Cyzicene epigrams are a collection of nineteen numbered Greek epigrams,^[1] each accompanied by a short prose preamble, which, together with a one-sentence introduction, constitute the third and shortest book of the Palatine Anthology.^[2] The epigrams are supposed to have been inscribed somewhere on the columns of the Temple of Apollonis at Cyzicus, a monument which no longer exists.^[3] Apollonis was the wife and queen of Attalus I, first king of Pergamon. When she died in the mid-second century BC, two of her sons, Eumenes and Attalus, built a temple in Apollonis' home town of Cyzicus, and dedicated it to her.^[4]

According to the one-sentence introduction, each epigram was, apparently, a kind of subtitle for a relief decorating each column of the temple, illustrating a scene from Greek mythology. The prose preamble, taking the place of the carved image, provides a description of it.^[5] As befitting a temple built by sons to honor their mother, the preambles describe scenes of love between mothers and sons.^[6]

The author and date of the collection is unknown.^[7]

Notes

^ Only eighteen are complete, epigram seventeen is almost completely lost, with only the fragment "fire and earth" preserved, see Paton, pp. 166, 167. For a short introduction and a translation of the Cyzicene epigrams see Paton, pp. 149–169. For discussions of the epigrams see Livingstone and Nisbet, pp. 99–101, and Demoen, pp. 231–248.
^ Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 99.
^ Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 99; Demoen, p. 231.
^ Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 99; Paton, p. 149.
^ Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 99.
^ Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 100; Paton, p. 149.
^ If we are to believe the introduction, the epigrams would apparently have been composed shortly after Apollonis' death in the early-second century BC. However, although some scholars accept the epigrams as authentic (see Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 99 n. 2), Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 101, describes a Hellenistic date for the epigrams as "extremely unlikely", while Demoen, p. 248, dates the collection as no earlier than the 6th century AD.

References

Demoen, Kristoffel, "The Date of the Cyzicene Epigrams. An Analysis of the Vocabulary and Metrical Technique of AP III", L'Antiquité Classique, 1988, T. 57 (1988), pp. 231-248. JSTOR 41658027.
Paton, W. R. (ed.), Greek Anthology, Volume I: Book 1: Christian Epigrams, Book 2: Description of the Statues in the Gymnasium of Zeuxippus, Book 3: Epigrams in the Temple of Apollonis at Cyzicus, Book 4: Prefaces to the Various Anthologies, Book 5: Erotic Epigrams, translated by W. R. Paton. Revised by Michael A. Tueller, Loeb Classical Library No. 67, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0-674-99688-5. Online version at Harvard University Press.
Livingstone, Niall, and Gidean Nisbet, Epigram, Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN 9780521145701.