Philostephanus

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Philostephanus is also a genus of plant bugs among the Miridae.

Philostephanus of Cyrene (Philostephanus Cyrenaeus[1]) was a Hellenistic writer from Cyrene in north Africa, who was a pupil of the poet Callimachus in Alexandria and doubtless worked there, during the third century BCE. His history of Cyprus, De Cypro, written during the reign of Ptolemy Philopator (222-206 BCE), has been lost, but it was known to at least two Christian writers, Clement of Alexandria[2] and Arnobius.[3] It contained a narration of the story of Pygmalion, a mythical king of Cyprus who fashioned a cult image of Aphrodite that came to life; Ovid depended on the account by Philostraphanus for his dramatised and expanded version in Metamorphoses, through which the Pygmalion myth[4] was transmitted to the medieval and modern world.[5].

The remarks on Cyprus seem to have come from a larger work, On Islands. Scattered brief quotes of Philostephanus on islands refer also to Sicily,[6] Calauria off the coast of Troezen[7] and Stryme, off the Thracian coast.[8] Pliny's Natural History adduces Philostephanus as a source for the assertion Jason was the first that went out to sea in a long vessel.[9]

Other works of Philostephanus cited in passages from other authors were works Of the Cities of Asia, On Cyllene, Epirotica ("On Epirus"), On Remarkable Rivers[10] On Inventions, and various commentaries.

The fragments of Philostephanus, surviving in quotes from other authors, were published in Fragmenta historicorum graecorum[11]

Another Philostephanus was a comic poet, of whom little is known.[12]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ He is refered to once, mistakenly, by Aulus Gellius, as Polystephanus. (FHG); Aulus Gellius found an old manuscript of "Polystephanus" at Brundisium (Leofranc Holford-Strevens, Aulus Gellius: An Antonine Scholar and His Achievement (Oxford University Press) 2003:70.
  2. ^ Clement, Protrepticus, vi.22).
  3. ^ Arnobius, chs. 17, 32.
  4. ^ The name Galatea was not applied to his statue until the eighteenth century: see Galatea.
  5. ^ Constance Jordan, "Montaigne's Pygmalion: The Living Work of Art in 'De l'affection des pere aux enfans'", Sixteenth Century Journal. 9,4 (Winter 1978:5-12) p. 5 note 2.
  6. ^ Philostephanus, frs. 16, 17.
  7. ^ fr. 18.
  8. ^ fr. 19; Mogens Herman Hansen and Thomas Heine Nielsen, eds. An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis (Oxford University Press) 2004:880, no. 650
  9. ^ N.H., vii.57: Longa nave Jasonem primum navigasse, Philostephanus Auctor est
  10. ^ frs. 20-25. Deipnosophistae reports glancingly Philostephanus' remarks on fishes, which may belong here: "Clearchus says this also more plainly than Philostephanus the Cyrenaean, whom I have previously mentioned: 'There are some fish which, though they have no throats, can utter a sound.'" (On-line text).
  11. ^ Karl Otfried Müller et al. Fragmenta historicorum graecorum (FHG)
  12. ^ Kassel, R. and C. Austin,Poetae Comici Graeci, (Berlín-New York) 1983-2000,

[edit] References