Lessico


Antagora di Rodi

In greco Antagóras. Poeta greco di Rodi del sec. III aC. Seguendo il modello epico ellenistico, compose il poema erudito Tebaide; lasciň inoltre esametri sulla discendenza di Eros, che ebbero larga eco nella poesia alessandrina.

Viene citato da Pausania in Periegesi della Grecia Attica cap. II, 3: So even in his time poets lived at the courts of kings, as earlier still Anacreon consorted with Polycrates, despot of Samos, and Aeschylus and Simonides journeyed to Hiero at Syracuse. Dionysius, afterwards despot in Sicily had Philoxenus at his court, and Antigonus, ruler of Macedonia, had Antagoras of Rhodes and Aratus of Soli. But Hesiod and Homer either failed to win the society of kings or else purposely despised it, Hesiod through boorishness and reluctance to travel, while Homer, having gone very far abroad, depreciated the help afforded by despots in the acquisition of wealth in comparison with his reputation among ordinary men. And yet Homer, too, in his poem makes Demodocus live at the court of Alcinous, and Agamemnon leave a poet with his wife. Not far from the gates is a grave, on which is mounted a soldier standing by a horse. Who it is I do not know, but both horse and soldier were carved by Praxiteles. (traduzione di W. H. S. Jones in www.theoi.com)

Συνῆσαν δὲ ἄρα καὶ τότε τοῖς βασιλεῦσι ποιηταὶ καὶ πρότερον ἔτι καὶ Πολυκράτει Σάμου τυραννοῦντι Ἀνακρέων παρῆν καὶ ἐς Συρακούσας πρὸς Ἱέρωνα Αἰσχύλος καὶ Σιμωνίδης ἐστάλησαν· Διονυσίῳ δέ, ὃς ὕστερον ἐτυράννησεν ἐν Σικελίᾳ, Φιλόξενος παρῆν καὶ Ἀντιγόνῳ Μακεδόνων ἄρχοντι Ἀνταγόρας ῾Ρόδιος καὶ Σολεὺς Ἄρατος. Ἡσίοδος δὲ καὶ Ὅμηρος ἢ συγγενέσθαι βασιλεῦσιν ἠτύχησαν ἢ καὶ ἑκόντες ὠλιγώρησαν, ὁ μὲν ἀγροικίᾳ καὶ ὄκνῳ πλάνης, Ὅμηρος δὲ ἀποδημήσας ἐπὶ μακρότατον καὶ τὴν ὠφέλειαν <τὴν> ἐς χρήματα παρὰ τῶν δυνατῶν ὑστέραν θέμενος τῆς παρὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς δόξης, ἐπεὶ καὶ Ὁμήρῳ πεποιημένα ἐστὶν Ἀλκίνῳ παρεῖναι Δημόδοκον καὶ ὡς Ἀγαμέμνων καταλείποι τινὰ παρὰ τῇ γυναικὶ ποιητήν. —ἔστι δὲ τάφος οὐ πόρρω τῶν πυλῶν, ἐπίθημα ἔχων στρατιώτην ἵππῳ παρεστηκότα· ὅντινα μέν, οὐκ οἶδα, Πραξιτέλης δὲ καὶ τὸν ἵππον καὶ τὸν στρατιώτην ἐποίησεν.