Cercidas ( grc, Κερκιδᾶς ''Kerkidas''; fl. 3rd century BC) was a

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

, Cynic philosopher, and

legislator A legislator (also known as a deputy or lawmaker) is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are often elected by the people of the state. Legislatures may be supra-national (for ex ...

for his native city

Megalopolis A megalopolis () or a supercity, also called a megaregion, is a group of metropolitan areas which are perceived as a continuous urban area through common systems of transport, economy, resources, ecology, and so on. They are integrated enoug ...

. A papyrus roll containing fragments from seven of his Cynic poems was discovered at Oxyrhynchus in 1906.

Life

Cercidas was an admirer of

Diogenes Diogenes ( ; grc, Διογένης, Diogénēs ), also known as Diogenes the Cynic (, ) or Diogenes of Sinope, was a Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynicism (philosophy). He was born in Sinope, an Ionian colony on the Black Sea ...

, whose death he recorded in some Meliambic lines. He is mentioned and cited by

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (; grc, Ἀθήναιος ὁ Nαυκρατίτης or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; la, Athenaeus Naucratita) was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of th ...

(who cites him as a source for the cult of

Venus Kallipygos The ''Venus Callipyge'', also known as the ''Aphrodite Kallipygos'' ( el, Ἀφροδίτη Καλλίπυγος) or the ''Callipygian Venus'', all literally meaning "Venus (or Aphrodite) of the beautiful buttocks", is an Ancient Roman marble st ...

) and

Stobaeus Joannes Stobaeus (; grc-gre, Ἰωάννης ὁ Στοβαῖος; fl. 5th-century AD), from Stobi in Macedonia, was the compiler of a valuable series of extracts from Greek authors. The work was originally divided into two volumes containin ...

. At his death he ordered the first and second books of the

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Odys ...

to be buried with him. Aelian relates that Cercidas died expressing his hope of being with

Pythagoras Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His politi ...

of the philosophers, Hecataeus of the historians, Olympus of the musicians, and

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

of the poets, which clearly implies his esteem for these four disciplines. He commanded his city's infantry contingent at the battle of Sellasia in 222 BC. He appears to be a descendant of Cercidas the Arcadian, who is mentioned by

Demosthenes Demosthenes (; el, Δημοσθένης, translit=Dēmosthénēs; ; 384 – 12 October 322 BC) was a Greek statesman and orator in ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual pr ...

among those

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

s, who, by their cowardice and corruption, enslaved their states to

Philip II of Macedon Philip II of Macedon ( grc-gre, Φίλιππος ; 382 – 21 October 336 BC) was the king ('' basileus'') of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia from 359 BC until his death in 336 BC. He was a member of the Argead dynasty, founders of the ...

. In ''Sophists, Socratics and Cynics'', D. Rankin notes that Cercidas “was active in the politics of his city… nd��was appointed ''nomothetes'', or legislative commissioner, with the task of drawing up a new constitution”. But in his poetry, he was a harsh critic of the wealthy, and called for justice and revenge (Nemesis) upon them, also invoking Fortune, asking why she didn't “reduce to poverty the profligate Xenon and give us the money now running to futility?”. He refers to the profligate wealthy as “dirty-cheat usurers” misusing their “stink-pig wealth”, as misers, and "ruin merchants". He invokes Justice and asks why she – and all the gods on Olympus – are so blind. But most significant is his invocation of Nemesis, “the spirit of earthly retribution” to attack the wealthy for their profligacy and to attack the system of wealth itself, rather than specific acts of injustice or inequality – a profound theme of the Cynics.

Poetry

An Oxyrhynchus

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...

with the title "''the meliambic poems of Cercidas the Cynic''" ( el, Κερκίδα κυνός μελίαμβοι) was discovered in 1906. Meliambic poetry, which is a style peculiar to Cercidas, is a combination of the iambic and

hexameter Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek and Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of syllables). It w ...

meters The metre ( British spelling) or meter ( American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its p ...

. His poems are filled with moralistic themes such as the uneven distribution of wealth and the unfortunate results of luxurious living. There are seven poem fragments attributable to Cercidas. The longest fragment contains a discussion of the nature of the

gods A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater ...

and of divine providence, in which Cercidas declares that the current beliefs do not square with the facts of life:

hy did God notchoose that greedy cormorant wealthpurse,
that sweet-scented out-of-control Xenon, make him a pathetic poor man,
and transfer to us who deserve it the silver that now
is uselessly flowing away? What can there be to prevent god -
supposing you asked him the question - since a god,
whatever comes into his mind, can easily get it all done,
if a man is a turd of a loan-shark, a real old die-for-a-penny
who squanders it all out again, one who's the death of his fortune,
why can't God just empty this man of his swinewealth,
and give to a thin-feeding, common-bowl cup-dipper
all the man's damned expenditure? Has the eye of Justice been mole-blinded?

Cercidas goes on to explain that he would rather leave the gods to the

astrologers Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...

, and worship the tried Paean, Giving, and Retribution, that is, beneficence for those afflicted in body or spirit and punishment for wrongdoers. Another poem is erotic, teaching the cheap and easy way of love. Another fragment, apparently biographical, expressing the poet's satisfaction that he has devoted himself to the service of the Muses all his life. In addition to these poems, there are also some papyrus fragments of a moral anthology with an introduction in

choliamb Choliambic verse ( grc, χωλίαμβος), also known as limping iambs or scazons or halting iambic,. is a form of meter in poetry. It is found in both Greek and Latin poetry in the classical period. Choliambic verse is sometimes called ''scazo ...

ics, which can be dated to the 3rd century BC. It is possible that the anthology was compiled by Cercidas, but this is doubtful because the quality of the choliambic poetry in the introduction is much inferior to his meliambic poetry.A. D. Knox, (1923), ''First Greek Anthologist'', Cambridge.

Notes

References

Cercidas
from William Smith, ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1870).

External links

''Theophrastus Characters. Herodas, Cercidas and the Greek Choliambic Poets''
ed. & trans. J. M. Edmonds, A. D. Knox. (1925). Loeb Classical Library.
''Scholarly Bibliography for Cercidas''
a
''A Hellenistic Bibliography''
compiled by Martine Cuypers, Trinity College Dublin. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cercidas 3rd-century BC Greek people 3rd-century BC poets 3rd-century BC philosophers Ancient legislators Ancient Greek poets Ancient Megalopolitans Cynic philosophers Hellenistic-era philosophers