Theognis of Megara: Difference between revisions

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'''Theognis of Megara''' ({{lang-grc-gre|[[wikt:Θέογνις#Ancient Greek|Θέογνις]] ὁ Μεγαρεύς}}, ''Théognis ho Megareús'') was a [[Greek lyric poet]] active in approximately the sixth century BC. The work attributed to him consists of [[gnomic poetry]] quite typical of the time, featuring ethical maxims and practical advice about life. He was the first Greek poet known to express concern over the eventual fate and survival of his own work<ref>B. M. Knox, 'Theognis', ''The Cambridge History of Greek Literature:I Greek Literature'', Cambridge University Press (1985), P. Easterling and B. Knox (ed.s), pages 138</ref> and, along with [[Homer]], [[Hesiod]] and the authors of the [[Homeric Hymns]], he is among the earliest poets whose work has been preserved in a continuous manuscript tradition (the work of other [[Archaic Greece|archaic]] poets is preserved as scattered fragments).<ref>Douglas E. Gerber, ''Greek Elegiac Poetry'', Loeb Classical Library (1999), page 8</ref> In fact more than half of the extant [[elegiac]] poetry of Greece before the [[Alexandrian period]] is included in the approximately 1,400 verses attributed to him.<ref>cf. Highbarger, p.170</ref> Some of these verses inspired ancient commentators to value him as a moralist<ref>B. M. Knox, 'Theognis', ''The Cambridge History of Greek Literature:I Greek Literature'', Cambridge University Press (1985), P. Easterling and B. Knox (ed.s), page 140</ref> yet the entire corpus is valued today for its "warts and all" portrayal of aristocratic life in archaic Greece.<ref>David Mulroy, ''Early Greek Lyric Poetry'', The University of Michigan Press (1992), page 171</ref>