Parthenius ofNicaea (Greek:Παρθένιος ὁ Νικαεύς) orMyrlea (Greek:ὁ Μυρλεανός) inBithynia was aGreekgrammarian andpoet. According to theSuda, he was the son of Heraclides and Eudora, or according toHermippus of Berytus, his mother's name was Tetha.^[1] He was taken prisoner byHelvius Cinna in theMithridatic Wars and carried toRome in 66 BC.^[2][3] He subsequently visitedNeapolis, where he taughtGreek toVirgil, according toMacrobius.^[4] Parthenius is said to have lived until the accession ofTiberius in 14 AD.

Parthenius was a writer ofelegies, especiallydirges, and of shortepic poems.

He is sometimes called "the last of the Alexandrians".

His only surviving work, theErotica Pathemata (Ἐρωτικὰ Παθήματα,Of the Sorrows of Love), was set out, the poet says in his preface, "in the shortest possible form" and dedicated to the poetCornelius Gallus, as "a storehouse from which to draw material".Erotica Pathemata is a collection of thirty-sixepitomes of love-stories, all of which have tragic or sentimental endings, taken from histories and historicised fictions as well as poetry.

As Parthenius generally quotes his authorities, these stories are valuable as affording information on the Alexandrian poets and grammarians.

The mythical or legendary characters whose stories are presented inErotica Pathemata are as follows.

In Parthenius' own time, he was not famous for his prose but his poems. These are listed below:

Parthenius is one of the few ancient writers whose work survives in only one manuscript. The only surviving manuscript of Parthenius was called Palatinus Heidelbergensis graecus 398 (P), probably written in the mid-9th century AD. It contains a diverse mixture of geography, excerpts fromHesychius of Alexandria,paradoxography,epistolography and mythology.^[5]

• 1531:Editio princeps, edited by Janus Cornarius. Basle, Froben.
• 1601:Editio princeps Graeca, in: Achilles Tatius:De Clitophontis et Leucippes amoribus Lib. VIII; Longus:De Daphnidis et Chloes amoribus Lib. IV; Parthenius Nicaenus:De amatoriis affectibus Lib. 1; Graece ac Latine. Officina Commeliniana, s.l. [Heidelberg].
• 1675:Historiae poeticae scriptores antiqui, edited byThomas Gale, Paris.
• 1798: Legrand and Heyne, Göttingen.
• 1824:Corpus scriptorum eroticorum Graecorum, Passow, Leipzig.
• 1843:Analecta alexandrina, Augustus Meineke (ed.), Berolini sumptibus Th. chr. Fr. Enslini.
• 1843:Mythographoi. Scriptores poetiace historiae graeci, Antonius Westermann (ed.), Brunsvigae sumptum fecit Georgius Westermann,pagg. 152-81.
• 1856: Didot edition,Erotici scriptores, Hirschig, Paris.
• 1858: Hercher,Erotici Scriptores Graeci, Leipzig.
• 1896:Mythographi graeci, Paulus Sakolowski (ed.),vol. II, fasc. I, Lipsiae in aedibus B. G. Teubneri.
• 1902:Mythographi graeci, Edgar Martini (ed.),vol. II, fasc. I suppl., Lipsiae in aedibus B. G. Teubneri.
• 1916: S. Gaselee,Longus: Daphnis and Chloe and the love romances of Parthenius and other fragments, with English translation.
• 2000:J.L. Lightfoot,Parthenius of Nicaea: the poetical fragments and the Erōtika pathēmata.ISBN 0-19-815253-1. Reviewed by Christopher Francese atThe Bryn Mawr Classical Review
• 2008: Michèle Biraud, Dominique Voisin, and Arnaud Zucker (trans. and comm.), Parthénios de Nicée.Passions d'amour. Grenoble: Éditions Jérôme Millon. Reviewed by Simone Viarre atThe Bryn Mawr Classical Review

• Lyrcus

GreekWikisource has original text related to this article:

Περί ερωτικών παθημάτων

• Erōtika pathēmata (original text in Greek)

• 1st-century BC births
• 10s deaths
• Ancient Greek grammarians
• Ancient Greek mythographers
• Ancient Greek slaves and freedmen
• Ancient Greek epic poets
• Ancient Greek elegiac poets
• 1st-century BC Greek poets
• People from Bithynia
• People of the Mithridatic Wars

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