Phocylides
Phocylides, Greek gnomic poet of Miletus, contemporary of Theognis of Megara, was born about 560 BC. A few fragments of his "maxims" have survived (chiefly in the Florilegium of Stobaeus), in which he expresses his contempt for the pomps and vanities of rank and wealth, and sets forth in simple language his ideas of honour, justice and wisdom. An example is an epigram quoted by Dio Chrysostom: Aristotle also found cause to quote him:
Also recorded as Phocylides of Miletus
Phocylides
- Born
- 560 · Miletus.
- Died
- 600
- Nationality
- Miletus
- Occupation
- poet · epigrammatist · elegist
- Languages
- Ancient Greek
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
gnd · 118791990 · wikidata · Q972799 · wikipedia · Phocylides
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Institutions cited
Bibliothèque nationale de France · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Complete reading chain (JSON)In this article
Works
Works
Phocylides of Miletus was once credited with writing Pseudo-Phocylides, a complete didactic poem (230 hexameters). However, that text is now considered to be the work of an Alexandrian Christian of Jewish origin who lived between 170 BC and AD 50. The Jewish element is shown in verbal agreement with passages of the Old Testament (especially the Wisdom of Sirach); the Christian by the doctrine of the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body. Some Jewish authorities, however, maintain that there are in reality no traces of Christian doctrine to be found in the poem, and that the author was a Jew. The poem was first printed at Venice in 1495, and was a favourite school textbook during the Reformation period.
Documentary record
Phocylides is documented in the authority records of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Phocylides was born in Milet.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
560
Phocylides born at Miletus.
600
Phocylides died.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q972799: Phocylides
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Phocylides”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 118791990, Phocylides, Milesius.
General reference · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Phocylides, revision 1373907554 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.LacusCurtius • Dio Chrysostom — Discourse 36.
- 2.Toy, Crawford Howell. PSEUDO-PHOCYLIDES. Jewish Encyclopedia.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 8
- Fragments and the spurious poem in T. Bergk, Poetae lyrici graeci, II, pp. 68-73 (4th ed., 1882).
- Jakob Bernays Über das Phokylideische Gedicht (1858)
- Phocylides, Poem of Admonition, with introduction and commentaries by J. B. Feuling, and translation by H. D. Goodwin (Andover, Massachusetts, 1879)
- Franz Susemihl, Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur in der Alexandrinerzeit, (1892), ii. 642
- E. Schürer, History of the Jewish People, div. ii., vol. iii., 313—316 (English translation 1886), where full bibliographies are given.
- English translation by W. Hewett (Watford, 1840), The Perceptive Poem of Phocylides.
- M. L. West, 'Phocylides,' Journal of Hellenic Studies 98, 164–7.
- Phocylides. 21.
References
Citations
References
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authority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 118791990, Phocylides, Milesius.Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
39,529 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
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- Phoebe HalliwellAuthor
- Phoebe PalmerAuthor
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