Margites

The Margites, a comic mock-epic of Ancient Greece,

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

is about an idiot named "Margites" (Greek μάργος "raving, mad; lustful") who was so dense he didn't know which parent had given birth to him. His name gave rise to the recherch? adjective, margitomanes used by Philodemus (Liddell, Scott, 1940).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It was commonly attributed to Homer, as by Aristotle: " His Margites indeed provides an analogy: as are the Iliad and Odyssey to our tragedies, so is the Margites to our comedies. (Poetics 13.92); but the work, among a mixed genre of works loosely labelled "Homerica" in Antiquity, was more reasonably attributed to Pigres, a Greek poet of Halicarnassus, in the massive medieval Greek encyclopedia called Sudas. It is written in mixed hexameter and iambic lines, an odd whim of Pigres, who also inserted a pentameter line after each hexameter of the Iliad as a curious literary game (Peck 1898).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Margites was famous in the ancient world, but now only the following lines survive:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:Him, then, the Gods made neither a delver nor a ploughman,

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:Nor in any other way wise; he failed every art.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::as quoted by Aristotle

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:He knew many things, but he knew them badly...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::as quoted by Plato

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:There came to Colophon an old man and divine singer,

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:a servant of the Muses and of far-shooting Apollo.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:In his dear hands he held a sweet-toned lyre...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::as quoted by Atilius Fortunatianus

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:The fox knows many a wile;

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:but the hedgehog's one trick can beat them all.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::as quoted by Zenobius (attributed simply to "Homer")

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Homer: :For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation)....

Aristotle: Aristotle (Greek: Αριστοτέλης...

Homerica: Redirect Costa Europa...