Editing Antimachus

{{short description|Ancient Greek poet}}
{{other uses}}
[[File:Antimaco di Colofone.jpg|thumb|Herm of Antimachus from Colophon]]
'''Antimachus of [[Colophon (city)|Colophon]]''' ({{langx|el|Ἀντίμαχος ὁ Κολοφώνιος}}), or of [[Claros]], was a [[Greece|Greek]] [[poet]] and [[grammar]]ian, who flourished about 400 BC.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

== Life ==
Scarcely anything is known of his life. The [[Suda]] claims that he was a pupil of the poets [[Panyassis]] and [[Stesimbrotus]].<ref>Suda α 2681</ref>

== Work ==
His poetical efforts were not generally appreciated, although he received encouragement from his younger contemporary [[Plato]] ([[Plutarch]], ''Lysander'', 18).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} The emperor [[Hadrian]], however, would later consider him superior to [[Homer]].<ref>Cassius Dio, 69.4.6.</ref>

His chief works were: an epic ''Thebaid'', an account of the expedition of the [[Seven against Thebes]] and the war of the [[Epigoni]]; and an elegiac poem ''Lyde'', so called from the poet's mistress, for whose death he endeavoured to find consolation telling stories from [[mythology]] of heroic disasters (Plutarch, ''Consul, ad Apoll.'' 9; [[Athenaeus]] xiii. 597).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Antimachus was the founder of "learned" [[epic poetry]], and the forerunner of the [[Alexandrian school]], whose critics allotted him the next place to [[Homer]]. He also prepared a critical recension of the Homeric poems.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

He is to be distinguished from [[Antimachus of Teos]], a much earlier poet to whom the lost [[Cyclic epic]] ''[[Epigoni]]'' was apparently ascribed (though the attribution may result from confusion).

== Bibliography ==
* Fragments, ed. Stoll (1845); [[Theodor Bergk|Bergk]]
* ''Poetae Lyrici Graeci'' (1882); [[Johann Gottfried Kinkel|Kinkel]]
* ''Fragmenta epicorum Graecorum'' (1877). 20th century ed: V.J. Matthews
* ''Antimachus of Colophon, text and commentary'' (Leiden : Brill, 1996) {{ISBN|90-04-10468-2}}

==References==
{{reflist}}
'''Attribution:'''
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Antimachus|volume=2|page=127}}

==External links==
*''[https://books.google.com/books?id=FX9bAAAAQAAJ Antimachi colophonii reliquias]'', Henr. Guil. Stoll (ed.), Dillenburgi apud ed. Pagenstecher, 1845.
* ''Poetae Lyrici Graeci''. Recensuit Theodorus Bergk. Editionis quartae. Vol. 2. Lipsiae in aedibus B. G. Teubneri, 1882, [https://archive.org/stream/poetaelyricigrae02berguoft#page/288/mode/2up pagg. 289-94].
* ''Epicorum graecorum fragmenta'', Godofredus Kinkel (ed.), [https://archive.org/details/epicorumgraecoru00kinkuoft vol. 1], Lipsiae in aedibus B. G. Teubneri, [https://archive.org/stream/epicorumgraecoru00kinkuoft#page/272/mode/2up pagg. 273-75].
*[https://sites.google.com/site/hellenisticbibliography/pre-hellenistic/antimachus Scholarly Bibliography for Antimachus], at A Hellenistic Bibliography, by Martine Cuypers

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Antimachus}}
[[Category:Ancient Greek grammarians]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek epic poets]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek elegiac poets]]
[[Category:4th-century BC Greek poets]]
[[Category:Ancient Colophonians]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]