TheMargites (Ancient Greek:Μαργίτης) is a comic mock-epic ascribed toHomer[1] that is largely lost. From references to the work that survived, it is known that its central character is an exceedingly stupid man named Margites (fromancient Greekμάργος,margos, "raving, mad; lustful"), who was so dense he did not know which parent had given birth to him.[2] His name gave rise to the adjectivemargitomanēs (μαργιτομανής), "mad as Margites", used byPhilodemus.[3]
The work, among a mixed genre of works loosely labelled "Homerica" in antiquity, was commonly attributed toHomer, as byAristotle (Poetics 13.92)—"HisMargites indeed provides an analogy: as are theIliad andOdyssey to our tragedies, so is theMargites to our comedies"—andHarpocration.[4]Basil of Caesarea writes that the work is attributed to Homer but that he is unsure regarding this attribution.[5] However, the massive medieval Greek encyclopaedia called theSuda attributed theMargites toPigres, a Greek poet ofHalicarnassus.
It is written in mixedhexameter andiambic lines, an oddity characteristic also of theBatrachomyomachia (likewise attributed to Pigres), which inserts a pentameter line after each hexameter of theIliad as a curious literary game.[6]
Margites was famous in the ancient world, but only the following lines survive:[7][8]
There came toKolophon an old man and divine singer, a servant of theMuses and of far-shootingApollon. In his dear hands he held a sweet-toned lyre.
He knew many things but knew all badly... The gods had taught him neither to dig nor to plow, nor any other skill; he failed in every craft.
The fox knows many a wile; but the hedge-hog's one trick can beat them all.
Due to the Margites character, the Greeks used the word as an insult to describe foolish and useless people.[4][5]Demosthenes calledAlexander the Great Margites in order to insult and degrade him.[4][9][10]
Works related toHomer in antiquity | ||
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| About Homer | ||
