Euphorion may refer to:
Euphorion of Chalcis
Euphorion, Greek poet and grammarian, born at Chalcis in Euboea about 275 BC.
Euphorion spent much of his life in Athens, where he amassed great wealth. After studying philosophy with Lacydes and Prytanis, he became the student and eromenos of the poet Archeboulus.[1] About 221 he was invited by Antiochus the Great to the court of Syria. He assisted in the formation of the royal library at Antioch, of which he held the post of librarian till his death. He wrote mythological epics (the epyllion Thrax), amatory elegies, epigrams and a satirical poem (Arae, "curses") after the manner of the Ibis of Callimachus.
Prose works on antiquities and history are also attributed to him. Like Lycophron, he was fond of using archaic and obsolete expressions, and the erudite character of his allusions rendered his language very obscure. His elegies were highly esteemed by the Romans - they were imitated or translated by Cornelius Gallus and also by the emperor Tiberius.
Fragments published in Meineke, De Euphorionis Chalcidensis vita et scriptis, in his Analecta Alexandrina (1843) began the modern editions of the surviving fragments of Euphorion. Further lines have been recovered from papyri of Oxyrhynchus and elsewhere.[2]
A character in Goethe's Faust, Part 2, the offspring of Faust and Helen of Troy.
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An epic and epigrammatic poet, born at Chalcis in Euboea, B.C. 276, and who became librarian to Antiochus the Great. He wrote various poems, entitled Hesiod, Alexander, Arius, Apollodorus, etc. His Mopsopia or Miscellanies (Μοψοπία ἤ ἄτακτα) was a collection, in five books, of fables and histories relative to Attica, a very learned work, but rivalling in obscurity the Cassandra of Lycophron. The fifth book bore the title of Chiliad (Χιλιάς), either because it consisted of a thousand verses, or because it contained the ancient oracles that referred to a period of a thousand years. Perhaps, however, each of the five books contained a thousand verses, for the passage of Suidas respecting this writer is somewhat obscure and defective, and Eudocia, in the "Garden of Violets," speaks of a fifth Chiliad, entitled Περὶ Χρησμῶν, "Of Oracles." Quintilian recommends the reading of this poet, and Vergil is said to have esteemed his productions very highly. A passage in the tenth eclogue (v. 50 foll.) and a remark made by Servius (Ad Eclog. vi. 72) have led Heyne to suppose that C. Cornelius Gallus , the friend of Vergil, had translated Euphorion into Latin verse. This poet was one of the favourite authors of the emperor Tiberius, one of those whom he imitated, and whose busts he placed in his library. The fragments of Euphorion were collected and published by Meineke in his work De Euphorionis Chalc. Vita et Scriptis (1823), and in his Analecta Alexandrina (Berlin, 1843). See also Kock, Frag. Com. Graec. (1880). The amours of Euphorion with Nicia or Nicaea, the wife of King Alexandria of Euboea, are often alluded to in the poems of the Greek Anthology. See Brunck, Anal. vol. ii. pp. 3, 43.
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