The Alcmeonis (Ancient Greek: Ἀλκμεωνίς, Alkmeonis, or Ancient Greek: Ἀλκμαιωνίς, Alkmaiōnis) is a lost early Greek epic which is considered to have formed part of the Theban cycle. There are only seven references to the Alcmeonis in ancient literature, and all of them make it clear that the authorship of the epic was unknown. It told the story of Alcmaeon's killing of his mother Eriphyle for having arranged the death of his father Amphiaraus, whose murder was narrated in the Thebaid. One of the surviving fragments is quoted by Athenaeus in the Deipnosophistae: he chose it because it describes a funeral banquet. The lines have very little in common with descriptions of feasts in the Iliad and Odyssey.[1]

Works that mention the Alcmeonis

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Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library: in Two Volumes. Trans. James George Frazer. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976.

Select editions and translations

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Critical editions

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  • Kinkel, G. (1877), Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta, vol. 1, Leipzig{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).
  • Allen, T.W. (1912), Homeri opera. Tomus V: Hymni, Cyclus, Fragmenta, Margites, Batrachomyomachia, Vitae, Oxford, ISBN 0-19-814534-9{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).
  • Bernabé, A. (1988), Poetae epici Graecae, vol. pars i, Leipzig, ISBN 978-3-598-71706-2{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).
  • Davies, M. (1988), Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta, Göttingen, ISBN 978-3-525-25747-0{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).

Translations

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References

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  1. ^ West, Martin L. Greek Epic Fragments. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2003, pp. 10–11, 58–63.

Bibliography

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