The Cyzicene epigrams are a collection of nineteen numbered Greek epigrams,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. each accompanied by a short prose preamble, which, together with a one-sentence introduction, constitute the third and shortest book of the Palatine Anthology.Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 99. 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.Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 99; Demoen, p. 231. 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.Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 99; Paton, p. 149.
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.Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 99. As befitting a temple built by sons to honor their mother, the preambles describe scenes of love between mothers and sons.Livingstone and Nisbet, p. 100; Paton, p. 149.
The author and date of the collection is unknown.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.
The reliefs described
Dionysus freeing Semele from the Underworld Telephus recognised by his mother Auge Phoenix blinded by his father Amyntor Polymedes and Clytius killing their stepmother Cresphontes killing Polyphontes Python slain by Apollo and Artemis Amphion and Zethus tying Dirce to the bull Odysseus in the Underworld with his mother Pelias and Neleus freeing their mother Tyro Hypsipyle recognising her sons Euneus and Thoas Polydectes turned to stone by Perseus Ixion killing Phorbas and Polymelus Heracles leading Alcmene to the Elysian Fields Tityos slain by Apollo and Artemis Bellerophon saved by his son Glaucus Aeolus and Boeotus saving their mother Melanippe Anapis and Amphinomus saving their parents from Etna's eruption Kleobis and Biton helping their mother Cydippe Romulus and Remus saving their mother Rhea Silvia
Notes
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. . 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. . Online version at Harvard University Press. Livingstone, Niall, and Gidean Nisbet, Epigram, Cambridge University Press, 2010. .