User:Paul August/Pherecydes of Leros

Pherecydes of Leros

Sources

Ancient

Suda

Φ 216

Of Athens, older than the one from Syros, who, it is said, collected the writings of Orpheus. He wrote Earth-born [Men], a work about the ancient history of Attica in ten books; Exhortations in hexameters. Porphyrios accepts no one older than the earlier [of these two Pherekydes'], and considers him the sole inventor of [prose] composition.[1]

Notes:

FGrH 3 T2. See also phi 214 (with more extensive notes and references) and phi 217; OCD4 Pherecydes(2).

[1] FGrH 260 F21. (Eusebius put him in Olympiad 81.1: 456 BCE.)

Φ 217

Of Leros,[1] a historian, lived a little before the seventy-fifth Olympiad.[2] [He wrote] About Leros, About Iphigeneia,[3] About the Festivals of Dionysus, etc.

Φερεκύδης, Λέριος, ἱστορικός, γεγονὼς πρὸ ὀλίγου τῆς οε# ὀλυμπιάδος. Περὶ Λέρου, Περὶ Ἰφιγενείας, Περὶ τῶν Διονύσου ἑορτῶν: καὶ ἄλλα.

Notes:

[2] 480-477.

Modern

Fowler 1999

p. 1 n. 3

3) Pherecydes the Lerian, whose existence is attested by the Suda alone, is a very shadowy; he is dated to before the Persian Wars, but two of his three book titles sound Hellenistic (περὶ Λέρου, περὶ Ἰφιγενείας, περὶ τῶν Διονύσου ἑορτῶν; even the first has a Hellenistic form, but might disguise a fifth-century local history).

Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition

p. 365

Sweeney

p. 47

Pherecydes is even more problematic than Herodotus on this point. There is some uncertainty regarding the identity of Pherecydes [of Athens], or more accurately, the various authors known as Pherkcydes.⁵ Debate focuses on whether Pherecydes of Syros (a philosopher) can be equated with Pherecydes of Athens, the genealogical writer whose work is discussed in this book. The Suda also mentions the existence of a Pherecydes of Leros, and Island within Miesian territory. This Pherecydes is said to have written a local history of his native island Leros as well as several mythological works. It remains uncertain whether this Pherecydes may have actually existed, when he may have been active, and whether he may have been the same as the [cont.]

p. 48

Athenian Pherecydes. Given the comparable subject matter of the Athenian and Lerian authors, it is possible that Pherecydes may have originally come from Leros and later moved to live and work in Athens.

⁵ The question has been discussed relatively recently in Toye 1997 and Fowler 1999, who present opposing views on the subject, See also Morrison 2011a.