/Arcades/.

[36] Anth. Pal. x. 8; vi. 253, 268; vi. 79.


X

Though the section of the Palatine Anthology dealing with works of
art, if it ever existed, is now completely lost, we have still left a
considerable number of epigrams which come under this head. Many are
preserved in the Planudean Anthology. Many more, on account of the
cross-division of subjects that cannot be avoided in arranging any
collection of poetry, are found in other sections of the Palatine
Anthology. It was a favourite device, for example, to cast a criticism
or eulogy of an author or artist into the form of an imaginary
epitaph; and this was often actually inscribed on a monument, or
beneath a bust, in the galleries or gardens of a wealthy /virtuoso/.
Thus the sepulchral epigrams include inscriptions of this sort of many
of the most distinguished names of Greek literature. They are mainly
on poets and philosophers; Homer and Hesiod, the great tragedians and
comedians, the long roll of the lyric poets, most frequently among
them Sappho, Alcman, Erinna, Archilochus, Pindar, and the whole line
of philosophers from Thales and Anaxagoras down to the latest teachers
in the schools of Athens. Often in those epigrams some vivid epithet
or fine touch of criticism gives a real value to them even now; the
"frowning towers" of the Aeschylean tragedy, the trumpet-note of
Pindar, the wealth of lovely flower and leaf, crisp Archanian ivy,
rose and vine, that clusters round the tomb of Sophocles.[1] Those on
the philosophers are, as one would expect, generally of inferior
quality.