Editing Antipater of Sidon

{{Short description|Ancient Greek poet; best known for his list of the Seven Wonders of the World}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
'''Antipater of Sidon''' ([[Ancient Greek|Greek]]: Ἀντίπατρος ὁ Σιδώνιος, ''Antipatros ho Sidonios'') was an [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] poet of the 2nd and 1st centuries BC.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|entry=Antipater [8] of Sidon<!-- not in the entry for A. of Sidon -->|title=Brill's New Pauly}}</ref>

[[Cicero]] mentions him living in Rome during the time of [[Quintus Lutatius Catulus]],<ref>Cicero, ''Oratore'' III, 194.</ref> and calls him a brilliant [[epigram]]mist, sometimes too fond of imitation.<ref>Cicero, ''Oratore'' III, 50; ''de Fato'' 2.</ref> His poems, about 75 of which are preserved in the ''[[Greek Anthology]]'', are mostly epitaphs and [[ekphrasis|ecphrastic]] poems.<ref name=OCD>{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Oxford Classical Dictionary|edition=4|title=Antipater (3)}}</ref>  96 poems in the ''Greek Anthology'' are attributed simply to "Antipater", without an indication of whether they are by Antipater of [[Sidon]] or the later [[Antipater of Thessalonica]], and it is difficult to identify which are his.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|entry=Antipater [9] of Thessalonica<!-- not in the entry for A. of Sidon -->|title=Brill's New Pauly}}</ref>

One of his poems gives one of the earliest known lists of the [[Seven Wonders of the Ancient World]].<ref name=OCD/>

<blockquote>I have set eyes on the wall of lofty [[Babylon]] on which is a road for chariots, and the [[Statue of Zeus at Olympia|statue of Zeus]] by the [[Alfeios|Alpheus]], and the [[Hanging Gardens of Babylon|hanging gardens]], and the [[Colossus of Rhodes|Colossus]] of [[Helios|the Sun]], and the huge labour of the high [[Giza pyramids complex|pyramids]], and the vast [[Mausoleum at Halicarnassus|tomb of Mausolus]]; but when I saw the [[Temple of Artemis|house of Artemis]] that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy, and I said, "Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught so grand."<ref>''Anth. Pal.'' ix. 58.</ref></blockquote>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*Jean-Claude Polet, ''Patrimoine littéraire européen'', v. II, De Boeck Université, 1992. {{in lang|fr}}
*Rolf Toman, Barbara Borngasser, and Achim Bednorz, "History of Architecture: From Classic to Contemporary". New York: Parragon, [n.d.]

==External links==
* [http://www.attalus.org/poetry/antipater1.html Antipater of Sidon: translation of all surviving epigrams] at ''attalus.org''; adapted from W.R.Paton (1916–18)

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[[Category:2nd-century BC Greek poets]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek elegiac poets]]
[[Category:Hellenistic-era people]]
[[Category:Epigrammatists of the Greek Anthology]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]
[[Category:People from Sidon]]
[[Category:Hanging Gardens of Babylon]]
[[Category:Colossus of Rhodes]]
[[Category:Giza pyramid complex]]
[[Category:Statue of Zeus at Olympia]]
[[Category:Temple of Artemis]]
[[Category:Mausoleum at Halicarnassus]]

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