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A Megarian, from the Megara in Sicily,[1] born in the 59th Olympiad.[2] He wrote an elegy on the Syracusans who were saved in the siege,[3] aphorisms in elegiacs in 2800 verses,[4] and to Kyros, his beloved,[5] a Maxim-collection in elegiacs and other hortatory poems of advice. All [are] in epic style.
"Theognis wrote paraenetic poems, but in the midst of these are scattered disreputable and pedophilic love poetry and other matters which the praiseworthy life avoids."[6]

*qe/ognis, *megareu/s, tw=n e)n *sikeli/a| *mega/rwn, gegonw\s e)n th=| nq# o)lumpia/di. e)/grayen e)legei/an ei)s tou\s swqe/ntas tw=n *surakousi/wn e)n th=| poliorki/a|, gnw/mas di' e)legei/as ei)s e)/ph #22bw#, kai\ pro\s *ku=ron, to\n au)tou= e)rw/menon, *gnwmologi/an di' e)legei/wn kai\ e(te/ras u(poqh/kas parainetika/s. ta\ pa/nta e)pikw=s. o(/ti me\n paraine/seis e)/graye *qe/ognis: a)ll' e)n me/sw| tou/twn paresparme/nai miari/ai kai\ paidikoi\ e)/rwtes kai\ a)/lla, o(/sa o( e)na/retos a)postre/fetai bi/os.

cf. theta 137 (second part); and see generally OCD(4) under Theognis(1).
[1] Megara Hyblaia, on the east coast of the island. An alternative ancient tradition put him in the better-known Megara (founder of the Sicilian one), in Balkan Greece.
[2] 544-541. However, a date of this sort, also found elsewhere, is hard to reconcile with allusions in the body of gnomic verse attributed to him, which seem to point to the second half of the C7. (Equally, some of the material postdates the C6.)
[3] An unidentifiable event, if event it was; see Figueira in Figueira/Nagy (below) 125-7. (On the present allusion to it, Adler notes Schneidewin's proposed emendation of swqe/ntas "saved" to a)nalwqe/ntas "killed".)
[4] A figure twice, oddly, the c.1400 that survive.
[5] Kyrnos (kappa 2773), rather.
[6] This censorious addendum is presented as a quotation, but its origin cannot be determined.

David Whitehead (augmented notes; added keywords; internal rearrangement) on 20 November 2001@03:12:28.
David Whitehead (more keywords; cosmetics) on 13 December 2005@08:09:14.
David Whitehead (another note and keyword; tweaking) on 31 December 2012@06:11:40.
David Whitehead (tweaked tr; expanded n.3) on 2 April 2014@05:05:44.
David Whitehead on 5 August 2014@06:40:41.
Catharine Roth (coding) on 16 October 2018@20:01:19.

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