Teach Time Encyclopedia - Learn About Our World
Home Page
Teach Time
Featured Topics

United States
by state

CITYology

Academic Disciplines

Historical Timelines

Themed Timelines

Calendars

Reference Tables

Biographies

How-tos



Friday, January 09, 2009

Onomacritos

Onomacritos or Onomakritos was an Athenian poet who lived at the court of Pisistratus, about 520 BC - 485 BC. He is said to have prepared an edition of the Homeric poems, and was an industrious collector, as well as a forger of old oracles and poems. He was detected forging an oracle of Musaeus and was banished from Athens by the son of Pisistratus because of it; but he later reconciled with them. Those poems attributed to the name of Orpheus are regarded as having been composed, for the most part, by Onomacritus; but it should be noted that the line in those days between writing poems of your own and editing those of others was less sharply drawn than it is today.

According to Herodotus, Onomacritos induced Xerxes, the King of Persia, by his alleged oracular responses, to decide upon his war with Greece.

And Pausanias, in explaining the presence of the Titan Anytos at Lycosura, said that "Onomacritos took the name of the Titans from Homer and composed orgies for Dionysus and made the Titans the actual agents in the sufferings of Dionysos." Therefore, Onomacritos is responsible for inventing an important aspect of the mythology concerning the Titans.

Sources:

Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, by Harry Thurston Peck. New York. Harper and Brothers, 1898.

Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, by Jane Ellen Harrison, Cambridge, 1903.



Internet Hotel Solutions

Site Sponsors
AC Units
Baltimore Harbor
Boot Camp Grads
Bra Size
Burkittsville
College Hotels
Digital Harbor
Free Cell Phones
Golden Hare Travel
Golf Vacations
Golf Courses
Gourmet
Hair Styles
Hippodrome
iWoman
Lesson Plans
Maryland Hotels
MD Genealogy
Minor League Stuff
Motel Site
Ocean City
OC Real Estate
Old Agers
Office Supplies
Orlando
Pet Friendly Hotel
Room Prices
Savannah, GA
Ski Vacations
South Baltimore
Student Teaching
Travel Sources
University Hotels
Visit Military Bases
Washington, DC

Brought to you by NoChildLeftBehind.com and the Beaches and Towns Network, LLC.