Parthenius
Frieze-Dennison Vergil
Could not find Parthenios in Logeion dictionaries.
Parthenios Proper-name noun: masculine accusative plural of Parthenius
- A mountain in Arcadia, now Partheni, Liv. 34, 26; Mel. 2, 3, 5; Plin. 4, 6, 10, § 21.—
- B Adj.: Parthenii saltus, Verg. E. 10, 57; so, nemus, Ov. M. 9, 188; Stat. Th. 4, 285: valles, Ov. H. 9, 49: antra, Prop. 1, 1, 11.—
- II A river in Paphlagonia, now Bartan Tchai, Mel. 1, 19; Plin. 6, 2, 2, § 5; Val. Fl. 5, 104; Ov. P. 4, 10, 49.—
- III A Grecian erotic poet and grammarian, an instructor of Virgil, Suet. Tib. 70; Gell. 9, 9, 3; 13, 26, 1; Macr. S. 5, 17.—
- IV A silversmith, famous in the time of Juvenal, Juv. 12, 43.—
- V A male proper name, Mart. 9, 50, 3.
- —Hence, Parthĕnĭānus, a, um, adj.: toga, given by Parthenius, Mart. l. l:
- 1. gebergte tussen Argolis en Arcadië, waar Hercules de hinde v. Artemis ving; — adj. Parthenius, a, um [nemus; valles; antra];
- 2. rivier in Paphlagonië (Kl.-Azië), nu de Bartin Su;
- 3. Griekse dichter en grammaticus uit Nicaea, die in 73 v. Chr. als krijgsgevangene naar Rome kwam; leermeester v. Vergilius.
occurs in Juvenal (12.44) as the name of a silver-chaser, evidently of high reputation at that time (comp. Schol.). Sillig (Append. ad Catal. Artif.) and the commentators on Juvenal, take the name either as entirely fictitious, or as meaning only a Samian artist, from Parthenia, the old name of Samos: but the same name occurs, in a slightly different form, C. Octavius Parthenio, with the epithet, Argentarius, in an inscription (Gruter, p. dcxxxix. 5; R. Rochette, Lettre à M. Schorn, pp. 376, 377, 2nd ed. Paris, 1845). [P.S]
(Παρθένιος), the chief chamberlain (cubiculo praepositus) of Domitian, took an active part in the conspiracy by which that emperor perished, A. D. 96. After the death of the tyrant he persuaded Nerva to accept the crown, but was himself killed shortly afterwards by the soldiers, together with the other conspirators against Domitian, whom Nerva had not the courage to protect. The soldiers cut off the genitalia of Parthenius, threw them in his face, and then strangled him. (D. C. 67.15, 17; Suet. Dom. 16; Aurel. Vict. Epit. 11, 12; Eutrop. 8.1; Mart. 4.78, 11.1.)
(Παρθένιος), literary.
1. Of Nicaea, or according to others, of Myrlea, but more probably of the former, since both Suidas (s. v. Νέστωρ) and Stephanus Byzantinus (s. v. Νίκαια) make him a native of that town, and the ancient grammarians generally speak of him as the Nicaean. He was the son of Heracleides and Eudoranor, as Hermippus stated, of Tetha; and Suidas further relates that he was taken prisoner by Cinna, in the Mithridatic war, was afterwards manumitted on account of his learning, and lived to the reign of Tiberius. The accuracy of this statement has been called in question, since there were seventy-seven years from the death of Mithridates to the accession of Tiberius; but if Parthenius was taken prisoner in his childhood, he might have been about eighty at the death of Augustus. Works
Parthenius' literary activity must at all events be placed in the reign of Augustus. He dedicated his extant work to Cornelius Gallus, which must, therefore, have been written before B. C. 26, when Gallus died. We know, moreover, that Parthenius taught Virgil Greek (Macrob. 5.17), and a line in the Georgics (1.437) is expressly stated both by Macrobius (l.c.) and A. Gellius (13.26), to have been borrowed from Parthenius. He seems to have been very popular among the distinguished Romanas of his time; we are told that the emperor Tiberius also imitated his poems, and placed his works and statues in the public libraries, along with the most celebrated ancient writers (Suet. Tib. 70).
Suidas calls Parthenius an elegiac poet, and the author of verses in various kinds of measures (ἐλεγειοποιὸς καὶ μέτρων διαφόρων ποιητής); and although his only extant work is in prose, it was as a poet that he was best known in antiquity. The following are the titles of his principal works:-- 1. Ἐλεγεῖα εὶς Ἀφροδίτην
(Suid.) for whith we ought probably to read ἐλεγείαι, Ἀφροδίτη, as two separate works, and this conjecture is supported by the way in which these works are quoted by the ancient writers(comp. Steph. Byz. s.v. Ἀκαμάντιον ; Artemid. 4.63). 2. Ἀρήτης ἐπικήδειον, a dirge on his wife Arete (Suid.). 3. Ρ̓ήτης ἐγκώμιον, in three books (Suid.). Either to this work or the former may be referred the quotation in the Scholiast on Pindar (ἐν τῇ Ἀρήτῃ, Isthm. 2.63). 4. Ἀνθίππη
(Steph. Byz. s. vv.. Κρανιδες, Λάμπεια). 5. Εἰς Ἀρχελαΐδα ἐπικήδειον
(Hephaest. p. 9). 6. Εἰς Αὐξίθεμιν ἐπικήδειον
(Steph. Byz. s. v. Γαλλήσιον 7. Βίας
(Schol. ad Il. ix. 446). 8. Δῆλος
(Steph. s. v. Βεληδόνιοι, Γρύνοι) 9. Ἡρακλῆς
(Steph. s. vv. Ἴσσα, Οἰνώνη; Etymol. s. v. αὐρόσχας). 10. Ἴφικολς
(Steph. s. v. Ἀράφεια). 11. Κριναγόρας
(Etym. s. v. ἅρπυς). 12. Λευκαδίαι
(Steph. s. v. Ἰβηρίαι) 13. Προπεμπτικόν
(Steph. s. v. Κώρυκος). 14. Moretum.
It is stated in the Ambrosian manuscript of Virgil that Parthenius wrote a work in Greek under this title, which was imitated by Virgil. 15. Μεταμορφώσεις
Whether Parthenius was the author of this work or not is doubtful. Suidas (s. v. Νέστωρ), in one passage, ascribes it to Parthenius of Nicaea; but in another (s. v. Παρθένιος), he attributes it to Parthenius of Chios [No. 2]. Since, however, the words in the latter passage are wanting in the old editions and in most manuscripts of Suidas, it is probable that they were not written by him, but were made up by some one from the passage on Nestor, and then inserted under Parthenius in their wrong place. This work is likewise referred to by Eustathius (ad Dionys. 420); and it must be admitted, as Clinton has remarked, that the expression of Eustathius stems to imply that another Parthenius was intended. It is not improbable that Ovid may have borrowed from this work in his Metamorphoses. 16. Περὶ ἐρωτικῶν παθημάτων.
The Περὶ ἐρωτικῶν παθημάτων is the only one of the writings of Parthenius that has come down to us. It is written in prose, and contains thirty-six brief love-stories, which ended in an unfortunate manner. It is dedicated, as has been already remarked, to Cornelius Gallus, and was compiled for his use, that he might avail himself of the materials in the composition of epic and elegiac poems. The work is of some interest to us, as Parthenius gives in most cases the names of the writers from whom he derived his narratives, and thus extends our acquaintance with some Greek writers of whom we have very few fragments extant. Of this work we have only one manuscript, written in the tenth century, and preserved at present at Heidelberg. Editions
It was first printed at Basel, 1531, edited by Comarius.
The principal editions are :--by Gale, in Historiae Poeticae Scriptores Antiqui, Paris, 1675; by Heyne, appended to his edition of Conon, Göttingen, 1798; by Passow, Leipzig, 1824; and by Westermann, in Μυθογράφοι: Scriptores Poeticae Historiae Brunswick, 1843. Further Information
Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol iv. p. 305, &c.; Voss. De Hist. Graec. p. 208, &c. ed Westermann ; Clinton, F. H. vol. iii. p. 548, &c.; Lebeau, Sur les Auteurs dont Parthenius a tiré ses Narrations, in M:ém. de l' Acad. d. Inscrip. vol. xxxiv. p. 63, &c.; Eckstein, in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclopädie, art. Partdenius.
2. Of Chios, the son of Thestor, surnamed Chaos, was said to be a descendant of Homer, and wrote a poem on his father, Thestor (Suid.). Suidas also ascribes to him the composition of the Metamorphoses ; but we have shown above that this sentence is probably misplaced in Suidas.
3. The Grammarian, was a pupil of the Alexandrine grammarian, Dionysius, who lived in the first century before Christ (Suidas, s. v. Διονύσιος). This Parthenius is mentioned by Athenaeus, who quotes a work of his, entitled Περὶ τῶν παρὰ τοῖς Ἰστορικοῖς Λέξεων ζητουμένων (Athen. 11.467c. p. 501a. xv. p. 680d. e.), and also by Eustathius (ad Il. xxiii. p. 1412, ad Od. xv. p. 567).
4. The Phocaean, frequently quoted by Stephanus Byzantinus (s. vv. Γότθοι, Δεκέντιοι, Μπῖρσα). In the Greek Anthology there is an epigram of Erycius (Anal. vol. ii. p. 297). addressed εἰς Πρθένιον Φωκαέα τὸν εἰς Ὄμηρον παροινήσαντα. Brtinek understands this to be the Parthenius who was taken in the Mithridatic war [No. 1], and Jacobs supposes him to be the same as the disciple of Dionysius [No. 3]; but neither of these opinions can be correct, as Clinton has observed (F. H. vol. iii. p. 549), since it appears from the authority of Stephanus Byz. (s. v. Δεκέντιοι) that the Phocaean Parthenius lived after Magnentius, who slew Constans in A. D. 350.
PARTHE´NIUS (Παρθένιος), the most important river in the west of Paphlagonia. It owes its Greek name probably to a similarity in the sound of its native appellation, which is still Bartan-Su or Bartine; though Greek authors fabled that it derived its name from the fact that Artemis loved to bathe in its waters (Scymn. 226, foll.) or to hunt on its banks, or from the purity of its waters. The river has its sources on mount Olgassys, and in its north-western course formed the boundary between Paphlagonia and Bithynia. It empties itself into the Euxine about 90 stadia west of Amastris. (Hom. Il. 2.854; Hes. Th. 344; Hdt. 2.104; Xenoph. Anab. 5.6.9, 6.2.1; Strab. 12. p. 543; Ptol. 5.1.7; Arrian, Peripl. p. 14; Steph. B. s. v., who erroneously states that the river flowed through the middle of the town of Amastris; Ov. Pont. 4.1049; Amm. Marc. xxii 9.)
[L.S](Παρθένιος). A Greek grammarian and poet, of Nicaea in Bithynia, who was brought captive to Rome during the war with Mithridates. After his release, he lived there till the time of Tiberius, esteemed as a scholar and poet, especially as a writer of elegiac verse. He was acquainted with Vergil, whom he taught Greek, and one of his poems is said to have been the model for the Moretum (q. v.); but he was more closely connected with the elegiac poet, Cornelius Gallus. For Gallus he composed the only work of his which has survived, under the title, Erotic Experiences (Περὶ Ἐρωτικῶν Παθημάτων). This is a collection of thirty-six prose stories of unhappy lovers, compiled from ancient poets, especially from those of the Alexandrian school. They are in reality only sketches and were intended to be developed by Gallus into poems of passion. Apart from the light which the work throws on the Alexandrine poets, of whose productions it contains fragments, it has a special interest as a precursor of the Greek novel. Edited by Hirschig in the Didot collection (Paris, 1856). See novels and romances.
- Paus. 9.13.5
- Syrians in its neighbourhood: Hdt. 2.104
- infant Telephus exposed on: Apollod. 2.7.4, Apollod. 3.8.2
- Paus. 1.28.4, Paus. 8.6.4, Paus. 8.48.7, Paus. 8.54.6, 7
- vision of Pan seen there by Phidippides: Hdt. 6.105