Euphorion of Chalcis and Parthenius of Nicæa

Of the life and work of Euphorion of Chalcis very little is known, but such evidence as there is points to his being a writer of hexameter poems. His elegiac verse may have been confined entirely to epigrams, two of which ¹ are extant; with the exception of these no trace of elegiac verse survives in a considerable number of fragments. It is true that he is twice referred to as an elegiac poet. Probus ² calls him scriptor elegiarum; Diomedes ³ names Propertius, Tibullus and Gallus as Roman writers of elegy imitati Grœos Callimachum et Euphoriona. It is possible that both writers were mistaken owing to a very natural confusion. In both instances Gallus and Euphorion are associated, and Gallus was well-known as the imitator and translator of Euphorion. ⁴ As the fame of Gallus rested chiefly on his elegies, the commentators may have assumed that Euphorion was also an elegiac poet. Athenæus on the other hand several times calls him ἐποποıς, and Quintilian includes him among the epic poets, mentioning only Callimachus and Philetas as elegiac poets; ⁵ moreover, the fragments are definitely epic in style. The evidence is too scanty to warrant the assumption that he did not write elegy, but, if he did, it is curious that we have not a single line, apart from epigrams, which can be definitely ascribed to an elegiac poem. ¹