Epigenes in Wikipedia

Epigenes may refer to: Epigenes of Athens Epigenes (c. 4th century BC) was an Athenian comic poet of the middle comedy. Pollux indeed[1] speaks of him as neôn tis kômikôn, but the terms "middle" and "new," as Clinton remarks,[2] are not always very carefully applied.[3] Epigenes himself, in a fragment of his play called Mnêmation[4] speaks of Pixodarus, prince of Caria, as "the king's son"; and from this Meineke argues[5] that the comedy in question must have been written while Hecatomnus, the father of Pixodarus, was yet alive, and perhaps about 380 BC. We find besides in Athenaeus,[6] that there was a doubt among the ancients whether the play called Argurion aphanismos should be assigned to Epigenes or Antiphanes. These poets therefore must have been contemporaries. The fragments of the comedies of Epigenes have been collected by Meineke[7]and Kock[8]. Epigenes of Byzantium Epigenes of Byzantium (Greek: Έπιγένης; unknown-circa 200 BC) was a Greek astrologer. He seems to have been strong supporter of astrology, which, though derided by many Greek intellectuals, had been accepted and adopted by many Greeks from the seventh century BC through commercial contact with the Chaldeans of Babylonia. It is unclear when Epigenes lived - he may have lived about the time of Augustus; some conjecture that he lived centuries earlier - but he is known to have refined the study of his chosen field, defining Saturn, for example, as "cold and windy." Along with Apollonius of Myndus and Artemidorus of Parium, he boasted of having been instructed by the Chaldean priest-astrologers, many of whom infiltrated Greece when the ports of Egypt opened to Greek ships after 640 BC.[1] Epigenes' claims to have been educated by the Chaldeans comes from the writings of Seneca.[2] Pliny the Elder writes that Epigenes attests to the fact that the Chaldeans preserved astral observations in inscriptions upon brick tiles (coctilibus laterculis) extending to a period of 720 years. Pliny calls Epigenes a writer of first-rate authority (gravis auctor imprimis).[3] The 55-km lunar crater Epigenes is named after him. Epigenes of Sicyon Epigenes of Sicyon was an Ancient Greek tragic poet. He has been confounded by some with his namesake the comic poet. He is mentioned by Suidas[1] as the most ancient writer of tragedy. By the word "tragedy" here we can understand only the old dithyrambic and satyrical tragôidia, into which it is possible that Epigenes may have been the first to introduce other subjects than the original one of the fortunes of origin, if at least we may trust the account which we find in Apostolius, Photius, and Suidas, of the origin of the proverb ouden pros ton Dtonuson. This would clearly be one of the earliest steps in the gradual transformation of the old dithyrambic performance into the dramatic tragedy of later times, and may tend to justify the statement which ascribes the invention of tragedy to the Sicyonians. We do not know the period at which Epigenes flourished, and the point was a doubtful one in the time of Suidas, who says[2] that, according to some, he was the 16th before Thespis, while, according to others, he almost immediately preceded him.[3] Epigenes, son of Antiphon Epigenes (Epigetês), son of Antiphon, of the demus of Cephisia, is mentioned by Plato among the disciples of Socrates who were with him in his last moments. Xenophon represents Socrates as remonstrating with him on his neglect of the bodily exercises requisite for health and strength.[1] Other * Epigenes (biology), a concept in biology * Epigenes (crater), a lunar crater named after the astrologer