The Testimony and Fragments of Polemon of Ilion gather what survives of the periegete, active in the early second century BCE; his life is placed about 220–160 BCE, and Delphi honoured him as proxenos in 177/6. Polemon wrote in prose on the monuments and dedications of Greek cities, among them the Athenian Acropolis, the treasuries at Delphi and the offerings at Sparta, and he was prized for copying inscriptions at first hand.
None of his works survives whole. The passages collected here are quotations and reports in later writers, above all Athenaeus, together with notices on his life. They preserve names of dedicators, objects, painters and local customs known from nowhere else, which makes them a source for the history of Greek sanctuaries and for Hellenistic antiquarian scholarship. He is a different man from Polemon of Laodicea, the sophist of the second century CE.
Polemon of Ilion (the Periegete) Testimony and Fragments in Greek in PDF
Polemon of Ilion (the Periegete) Testimony and Fragments in Greek in MD
| test | Inschr. Syll. 3 585, 114 (IG 8, 281): (ἄρχοντος Μελισσίωμος, a. 177 i 76 a.) ... Πολέμων Μιλησίου Ἰλιεύς (Verwandter des Perihegeten?). |
| 4 bis.(l1) | PAP. OX. 1611 fr. 1 col. 5, 5—12 (s. 3 p.; vol. 13, 1919, 134. 139): ... ὅτι οὐχ [ ]ˈ δη.[ Πολέμω ν ] ˈ ἐν τῶι [ . Περὶ ἀκροπό ]ˈ λεως δ[ ] ˈ ἀναγ[ ] ˈ τὸν Μελησίου [υἱόν, Στε]ˈφάνου δὲ τοῦ Κο[αλέμου] 〈καλου〉ˈμένου πατέρα ... |
| 37 bis.(l1) | ETYM. GEN. 213, 18 Miller (vgl. ETYM. MAGN. 577, 50 Gaisf.): ‘Μελιταῖα κυνίδια‘· λέγεται ὅτι πλησίον Ἰταλίας νῆσός ἐστι Μελίτη, ἐξ ἧς ἐστι τὰ Μελιταῖα κυνίδια. Πολέμων δ ’ ἐ〈ν〉 Κτίσεσι (scil. Ἰταλικῶν καὶ Σικελικῶν) 〈Σι〉κελίαν Μελίτης φησὶν εἶναι 〈...〉. |
| 65 bis.(l1) | PAP. OX. 2176 fr. 1 col. 1, 1—10 + fr. 9 (s. 2 p.; vol. 18, 1941, 88f. 92. 95 [Taf. 12]; Komment. Hippon. F 118 p. 151—153 West): ‘ὦ Σάνν’, ἐπειδὴ ῥῖνα θεό[συλιν φύ]ˈεις, καὶ γαστρ[ὸς] οὐ κατακρ[ατεῖσ‘]· [κύριˈο]ν ὄνομα ὁ Σάννος, ὧ〈ι〉 λοιδορ[εῖται. ὃ ἔνιοι] ˈ πεποιῆσθαί φασιν παρὰ τὴ[ν ‘σαννάδα‘], ˈ Κρ[ῆτ]ας δὲ τὰς ἀγρίας αἶγας λέγειν ‘σανˈ[νάδασ‘, ὥς φη]σιν Πολέμων ἐν τοῖς Πρὸς ˈ [ Ἀντίγονον κ α ]ὶ Ἀδαῖο ν· τὰς δὲ αἶγας ἐπίˈ[σταται σανν]ιοπλήκτους εἶναι καὶ ναιˈ[αδολήπτους] καὶ ἐν τῶι βίωι τ[οὺ]ς εὐήˈ[θεις ἐπιπεφημισ]μέν[ους] ... |
| 75 bis | SCHOL. MTVB EURIP. OREST. 1637: ‘Κάστορί τε Πολυδεύκει τ’ ἐν αἰθέρος πτυχαῖς/ σύνθακος ἔσται, ναυτίλοις σωτηρίοισ‘] ὅτι καὶ ἡ Ἑλένη τοῖς χειμαζομένοις κατὰ θάλασσαν ἐπήκοός ἐστι κατὰ Εὐριπίδην, σεσημείωται. ὁ μέντοι Σωσίβιος (595 F 20) ἔμπαλιν οἴεται οὐκ εὐμενῶς αὐτὴν ἐπιφαί νεσθαι. Πολέμων δὲ {καὶ} ἐν τῶι δ {ε} τῶι Πρὸς Ἀναξανδρίδην (404 T 1) τὴν μὲν τῶν δυοῖν ἀστέρων ἐπιφάνειαν τῶν Διοσκούρων ἀνωμολογῆσθαι, τὴν δὲ τῶν λεγομένων Ζοβείρων 〈...〉.. |