Cyzicene epigrams
part of the third book of the Palatine Anthology
The Cyzicene epigrams are a collection of nineteen numbered Greek epigrams, each accompanied by a short prose preamble, which, together with a one-sentence introduction, constitute the third and shortest book of the Palatine Anthology. 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. 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.
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. As befitting a temple built by sons to honor their mother, the preambles describe scenes of love between mothers and sons.
The author and date of the collection is unknown.
The reliefs described
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.
The public source identifies “Cyzicene epigrams” as part of the third book of the Palatine Anthology. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Cyzicene, epigrams and part.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q104855621. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1988.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cyzicene epigrams” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.