Herondas

(Ἡρώνδας) or Herōdas (Ἡρώδας). A Greek writer of iambics, who lived probably at Cos in the third century B.C., and of whose verses little was known before the recent discovery among the papyri in the British Museum of a MS. containing seven poems. Previous to this discovery there existed only ten quotations from him (one in iambic dimeter and nine in choliambics), five of which are found in the British Museum MS., and served to identify the author, as his name is not there given. These seven complete poems contain from 85 to 129 lines apiece, and are entitled (1) Προκυκλίς ἢ Μαστροπός, “The Matchmaker or the Go-between;”

(2) Πορνοβοσκός, “The Pimp;”

(3) Διδάσκαλος, “The Schoolmaster;”

(4) Ἀσκληπιῷ ἀνατιθεῖσαι καὶ θυσιάζουσαι, “A Visit to Asclepius;”

(5) Ζηλότυπος, “The Jealous Woman;”

(6) Φιλιάζουσαι ἤ Ἰδιάζουσαι, “Affectionate Friends, or the Confidantes;”

(7) Σκυτεύς(?), “The Cobbler.” The titles of two more poems are found in the MS.—Ἐνύπνιον, “The Dream;” and Ἀπονηστιζόμεναι, “Ladies at Breakfast.” The poems are difficult to read, abounding in words found hitherto only in Hesychius, and containing some that are entirely unknown. Many of these strange vocables are probably the result of copyists' errors, having been written in Egypt whence the MS. came, while others are doubtless colloquialisms.

The previously extant fragments of Herondas can be found in Meineke's Ceterorum Poetarum Choliambi, appended to Lachmann's Babrius (Berlin, 1845). The recently discovered poems have been published unamended with autotype facsimiles of the MS. by the Trustees of the British Museum, and collated by F. G. Kenyon (London, 1891). An edition with a translation into Latin and a most admirable index has been published by Prof. Bücheler of Bonn (1892). An improved text with short notes by Rutherford appeared simultaneously with Mr. Kenyon's text. The latest edition is that of Crusius (Leipzig, 1894). Valuable edition by Meister in Ber. der sächs. Geschichte der Wiss. (Leipzig, 1893).