Editing Epigram (section)

==Ancient Greek==
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The [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] tradition of epigrams began as poems inscribed on votive offerings at sanctuaries{{spaced ndash}}including statues of athletes{{spaced ndash}}and on funerary monuments, for example [[Battle of Thermopylae#Epitaph of Simonides|"Go tell it to the Spartans, passersby..."]]. These original epigrams did the same job as a short prose text might have done, but in [[Verse (poetry)|verse]]. Epigram became a [[literary genre]] in the [[Hellenistic period]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Greek Poetry: Epigrams |url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780195389661/obo-9780195389661-0049.xml |access-date=2024-11-10 |website=obo |language=en}}</ref> probably developing out of scholarly collections of inscriptional epigrams.

Though modern epigrams are usually thought of as very short, [[Ancient Greek literature|Greek literary]] epigram was not always as short as later examples, and the divide between "epigram" and "[[elegy]]" is sometimes indistinct (they share a characteristic [[Metre (poetry)|metre]], [[elegiac couplets]]). In the [[Classical antiquity|classical period]], the clear distinction between them was that epigrams were inscribed and meant to be read, while elegies were recited and meant to be heard. Some elegies could be quite short, but only public epigrams were longer than ten lines. All the same, the origin of epigram in inscription exerted a residual pressure to keep things [[Concision|concise]], even when they were recited in Hellenistic times. Many of the characteristic types of literary epigram look back to inscriptional contexts, particularly funerary epigram, which in the Hellenistic era becomes a literary exercise. Many "sympotic" epigrams combine sympotic and funerary elements{{spaced ndash}}they tell their readers (or listeners) to drink and live for today because life is short. Generally, any theme found in classical elegies could be and were adapted for later literary epigrams.

Hellenistic epigrams are also thought of as having a "point"{{spaced ndash}}that is, the poem ends in a punchline or satirical twist. By no means do all Greek epigrams behave this way; many are simply descriptive, but [[Meleager of Gadara]] and [[Philippus of Thessalonica]], the first comprehensive anthologists, preferred the short and witty epigram. Since their collections helped form knowledge of the genre in Rome and then later throughout Europe, Epigram came to be associated with 'point', especially because the European epigram tradition takes the Latin poet [[Martial]] as its principal model; he copied and adapted Greek models (particularly the contemporary poets [[Lucillius]] and [[Nicarchus]]) selectively and in the process redefined the genre, aligning it with the indigenous Roman tradition of "satura", hexameter [[satire]], as practised by (among others) his contemporary [[Juvenal]]. Greek epigram was actually much more diverse, as the [[Milan Papyrus]] now indicates.

A major source for Greek literary epigram is the ''[[Greek Anthology]]'', a compilation from the 10th century AD based on older collections, including those of [[Meleager of Gadara|Meleager]] and Philippus. It contains epigrams ranging from the [[Hellenistic period]] through the [[Roman Empire|Imperial period]] and [[Late Antiquity]] into the compiler's own [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] era{{spaced ndash}}a thousand years of short elegiac texts on every topic under the sun. The ''Anthology'' includes one book of Christian epigrams as well as one book of [[erotic]] and amorous [[homosexual]] epigrams called the {{lang|grc|Μοῦσα Παιδικἠ}} ({{Transliteration|grc|Mousa Paidike}}, "The Boyish Muse").