Parthenius of Nicaea

Parthenius is said to have lived until the. Parthenius was a writer of elegies, especially dirges, and of short epic poems. He is sometimes called "the last of the Alexandrians".

His only surviving work, the Erotica Pathemata (Ἐρωτικὰ Παθήματα, Of the Sorrows of Love), was set out, the poet says in his preface, "in the shortest possible form" and dedicated to the poet Cornelius Gallus, as "a storehouse from which to draw material". Erotica Pathemata is a collection of thirty-six epitomes of love-stories, all of which have tragic or sentimental endings, taken from histories and historicised fictions as well as poetry. As Parthenius generally quotes his authorities, these stories are valuable as affording information on the Alexandrian poets and grammarians.

The mythical or legendary characters whose stories are presented in Erotica Pathemata are as follows. • Lyrcus • Polymela • Evippe • Oenone • Leucippus • Pallene • Hipparinus of Heraclea • Herippe • Polycrite • Leucone, wife of Cyanippus • Byblis • Calchus • Harpalyce • Antheus, loved and killed by Cleoboea • Daphne • Laodice • Cratea, mother of Periander • Neaera • Pancrato, daughter of Iphimedeia • Aëro, daughter of Oenopion • Pisidice of Methymna • Nanis • Chilonis • Hipparinus of Syracuse • Phayllus • Apriate (see Trambelus) • Alcinoë • Clite • Daphnis • Celtine • Dimoetes • Anthippe • Assaon • Corythus • Eulimene • Arganthone

In Parthenius' own time, he was not famous for his prose but his poems. These are listed below: • Arete • Dirge on Archelais • Aphrodite • Bias • Delos • Krinagoras • Leucadiai • Anthippe • Dirge on Auxithemis • Idolophanes • Herakles • Iphiklos • Metamorphoses • Propemptikon • A Greek original of Moretum

Parthenius is one of the few ancient writers whose work survives in only one manuscript. The only surviving manuscript of Parthenius was called Palatinus Heidelbergensis graecus 398 (P), probably written in the mid-9th century AD. It contains a diverse mixture of geography, excerpts from Hesychius of Alexandria, paradoxography, epistolography and mythology.