Παραστιχίς
acrostic
Translated by David Whitehead23 Apr 2003Vetting: high7 revisions
Translation
Heraclides Ponticus used [sc. Dionysius' bogus tragedy Parthenopaeus] as evidence, supposedly Sophoclean, in one of his own writings. On learning of this Dionysius confessed what he had done. But when Heraclides went into denial and would not believe him, Dionysius told him to look at the acrostic; and it yielded "Pankalos."1
Greek original · Adler’s text
Παραστιχίς· Ἡρακλείδης ὁ Ποντικὸς εἴς τι τῶν ἰδίων συγγραμμάτων ἐχρῆτο μαρτυρίοις, ὡς Σοφοκλέους. αἰσθόμενος δὲ ὁ Διονύσιος ἐμήνυσεν αὐτῷ τὸ γεγονός. τοῦ δὲ ἀρνουμένου καὶ ἀπιστοῦντος, ἐπέστειλεν ἰδεῖν τὴν παραστιχίδα· καὶ εἶχε παγκάλως.
Betacode
*parastixi/s: *(hraklei/dhs o( *pontiko\s ei)/s ti tw=n i)di/wn suggramma/twn e)xrh=to marturi/ois, w(s *sofokle/ous. ai)sqo/menos de\ o( *dionu/sios e)mh/nusen au)tw=| to\ gegono/s. tou= de\ a)rnoume/nou kai\ a)pistou=ntos, e)pe/steilen i)dei=n th\n parastixi/da: kai\ ei)=xe pagka/lws.
Notes (1)
- From Diogenes Laertius 5.92-93. See also Heraclides 11 Schutrumpf.
The headword nounparastixi/s , which occurs in the passage in the accusative case, is a variant ofa)krostixi/s . - 1As D.L. goes on to explain, Pankalos (the Suda's lower-case
pagka/lws is corrupt) was Dionysius' lover. (We are left to guess at the lines which generated the acrostic that spelled out his name.) For Heraclides see generally eta 461; for his fellow-citizen Dionysius "the Renegade" (so called because he switched from Stoicism to Cyrenaicism) see OCD4 s.v. Dionysius(8). ↩
Neighbouring entries
Revision history7 revisions · last 22 Nov 2014
- coding — Catharine Roth
- Revised — David Whitehead
- Revised — David Whitehead
- augmented notes; cosmetics — David Whitehead
- updated ref. — David Mirhady
- another keyword — David Whitehead
- Cosmetics; set status — Elizabeth Vandiver
- Translated — David Whitehead