Epigenes

• a Greek author, Varr. R. R. 1, 1, 8; cf. Sen. Q. N. 3 al.

(Ἐπιγέτης), son of Antiphon, of the demus of Cephisia, is mentioned by Plato among the disciples of Socrates who were with him in his last moments. Xenophon represents Socrates as remonstrating with him on his neglect of the bodily exercises requisite for health and strength. (Plat. Apol. p. 33, Phaed. p. 59; Xen. Mem. 3.12.) [E.E]

(Ἐπιγένης).

1. An Athenian poet of the middle comedy. Pollux indeed (7.29) speaks of him as νέων τις κωμικῶν, but the terms "middle" and "new," as Clinton remarks (F. H. vol. ii. p. xlix.), are not always very carefully applied. (See Arist. Eth. Nic. 4.8.6.) Epigenes himself, in a fragment of his play called Μνημάτιον (apud Ath. xi. p. 472f.) speaks of Pixodarus, prince of Caria, as "the king's son"; and from this Meineke argues (Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. p. 354), that the comedy in question musth ave been written while Hecatomnus, the father of Pixodarus, was yet alive, and perhaps about B. C. 380. We find besides in Athenaeus (ix. p. 409d.), that there was a doubt among the ancients whether the play called Ἀργυρίον ἀφανισμός should be assigned to Epigenes or Antiphanes. These poets therefore must have been contemporaries. [See vol. i. p. 204b.] The fragments of the comedies of Epigenes have been collected by Meineke (vol. iii. p. 537 ; comp. Poll. 7.29; Ath. iii. p. 75c., ix. p. 384a., xi. pp. 469, c., 474, a;, 480, a., 486, c., 502, e.).

2. Of Sicyon, who has been confounded by some with his namesake the comic poet, is mentioned by Suidas (s. v. Θέσπις) as the most ancient writer of tragedy. By the word "tragedy" here we can understand only the old dithyramhic and satyrical τραγῳδία, into which it is possible that Epigenes may have been the first to introduce other subjects than the original one of the fortunes of origin, if at least we may trust the account which we find in Apostolius, Photius, and Suidas, of the origin of the proverb οὐδὲν πρὸς τὸν Δτόνυσον. This would clearly he one of the earliest steps in the gradual transformation of the old dithyrambic performance into the dramatic tragedy of later times, and may tend to jutify the statement which ascribes the invention of tragedy to the Sicyonians. We do not know the period at which Epigenes flourished, and the point was a doubtful one in the time of Suidas, who says (s. v. Θέσπις) that, according to some, he was the 16th before Thespis, while, according to others, he almost immediately preceded him. (See Müller, Dor. 4.7.8; Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. p. 354; Arist. Poet. 3; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 160, 303, vol. iv. p. 10 ; Dict. of Ant. p. 980a.) [E.E]

(Ἐπιγένης) of Byzantium is supposed to have lived about the time of Augustus by some, and several centuries earlier by others; nothing, in fact, is known of his date, except what may be inferred from the slight mention of him by Seneca, Pliny, and Censorinus. According to Seneca (Nat. Quaest. 7.30.), Epigenes professed to have studied in Chaldea, from whence he brought, among other things, the notions of the Chaldeans on comets, in his account of which he is held to differ much from Apollonius Myndius [see his life], though it is not, we think, difficult to reconcile the two. Pliny (Plin. Nat. 7.56) has a passage about Epigenes, which states that he asserts the Chaldeans to have had observations recorded on brick (coctilibus laterculis) for 7)20 (?) years, and that Berosus and Critodemus say 420 (?) years. But among the various readings are found 720 thousand and 420 thousand, which seem to be the true * Diodorus (2.8) says the Chaldeans claim for themselves 473,000 years. ones, for on them Pliny goes on to remark "Ex quo apparet aeternus litterarum usus." Fa-bricias and Bayle (Dict. art. Babylon) adopt the larger readings, and also Bailly, who takes them to mean days. Pliny may perhaps seem to say that Epigenes is the first author of note who made any such assertion about the Chaldeans: " Epigenes . . . docet gravis auctor imprimis;" and thus interpreted, he is made to mean that Epigenes was older than Berosus, and therefore than Alexander the Great. Weidler adopts this conclusion on different and rather hypothetical grounds. [A. De M.]

(Ἐπιγένης). (1) Of Sicyon, said to have been the oldest writer of tragedy, and to have preceded even Thespis.

(2) An Athenian poet of the Middle Comedy who flourished about B.C. 380.