Alcmeonis

The Alcmeonis (Ancient Greek: Ἀλκμεωνίς, Alkmeonis, or Ancient Greek: Ἀλκμαιωνίς, Alkmaiōnis) is a lost early Greek epic which is sometimes 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, but it is believed to have been composed in Corinth sometime after 600 BC. 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.

Works that mention the Alcmeonis

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

Select editions and translations

Critical editions

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}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)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

Evelyn-White, H.G. (1936), Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, Loeb Classical Library (3rd rev. ed.), Cambridge, MA, ISBN 978-0-674-99063-0 {{citation}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link). (The link is to the 1st edition of 1914.) English translation with facing Greek text; now obsolete except for its translations of the ancient quotations.
West, M.L. (2003), Greek Epic Fragments, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA, ISBN 978-0-674-99605-2{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link). Greek text with facing English translation

References

1 2 3 Dibiasi, Andrea (2015). Tsagalis, Christos; Fantuzzi, Marco (eds.). The Greek Epic Cycle and Its Ancient Reception. Cambridge University Press. p. 326. ISBN 9781316298213. Retrieved October 8, 2026.
↑ Navascués, David Barrado (2027). Cosmography in the Greco-Roman World. London: World Scientific. p. 334. ISBN 978-1-80061-957-9. Retrieved October 8, 2026.
↑ West, Martin L. Greek Epic Fragments. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2003, pp. 10–11, 58–63.

Bibliography

Davies, M. (1989), Greek Epic Cycle, London, ISBN 978-1853990397{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).

[Dibiasi-1] 1 2 3 Dibiasi, Andrea (2015). Tsagalis, Christos; Fantuzzi, Marco (eds.). The Greek Epic Cycle and Its Ancient Reception. Cambridge University Press. p. 326. ISBN 9781316298213. Retrieved October 8, 2026.

[2] Navascués, David Barrado (2027). Cosmography in the Greco-Roman World. London: World Scientific. p. 334. ISBN 978-1-80061-957-9. Retrieved October 8, 2026.

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

v t e Theban Cycle
Poems	Oedipodea Thebaid Epigoni Alcmeonis
Nominal authors	Cinaethon (Oedipodea) Homer (Thebaid, Epigoni) Antimachus of Teos (Epigoni)