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Democritus of Ephesus: On the Temple at Ephesus (Fragment)

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On the Temple at Ephesus was a work by Democritus of Ephesus, an otherwise obscure writer distinct from the philosopher of Abdera; little is known of him. The work is lost and survives in a single fragment quoted by Athenaeus (12.525c), who cites its first book for a description of the luxurious dress of the Ephesians, with its dyed, patterned and costly garments.

The fragment is a vivid piece of evidence for textiles and dress in Ionia and for the Greek literary theme of eastern luxury (tryphe), which Athenaeus collected with enthusiasm. It also attests the existence of a monograph devoted to the great temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders.

About this edition. The Greek text comes from the Eulogikon open corpus of public-domain editions (standard reference: FGrHist 267 F 1 (FHG IV p. 383)). Every word has been analyzed with odyCy, a neural language model for Ancient Greek — click or tap any word for its dictionary form, part of speech, and complete morphology, together with the full entry from the Liddell–Scott–Jones Greek–English Lexicon (LSJ).

Ancient Greek · History
On the Temple at Ephesus (Fragment)
Democritus of Ephesus · every word parsed
1 (1t)
ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΕΝ ΕΦΕΣῼ ΝΑΟΥ. E LIBRO PRIORE. Athenaeus XII: Ἀπώλοντο δὲ καὶ Μάγνητες οἱ πρὸς τῷ Μαιάνδρῳ διὰ τὸ πλέον ἀνεθῆναι, ὥς φησι Καλλῖνος ἐν τοῖς ἐλεγείοις, καὶ Ἀρχίλοχος. Ἑάλωσαν γὰρ ὑπὸ Ἐφεσίων. Καὶ περὶ αὐτῶν δὲ τῶν Ἐφεσίων Δημόκριτος Ἐφέσιος ἐν τῷ προτέρῳ Περὶ τοῦ ἐν Ἐφέσῳ ναοῦ, διηγούμενος περὶ τῆς χλιδῆς αὐτῶν καὶ ὧν ἐφόρουν βαπτῶν ἱματίων, γράφει καὶ τάδε· «Τὰ δὲ τῶν Ἰώνων ἰοβαφῆ καὶ πορφυρᾶ καὶ κρόκινα ῥόμβοις ὑφαντά· αἱ δὲ κεφαλαὶ κατʼ ἴσα διειλημμέναι ζῴοις. Καὶ σαράπεις μήλινοι καὶ πορφυροῖ καὶ λευκοὶ, οἱ δὲ ἁλουργεῖς. Καὶ καλασίρεις Κορινθιουργεῖς· εἰσὶ δὲ αἱ μὲν πορφυραῖ τούτων, αἱ δὲ ἰοβαφεῖς, αἱ δὲ ὑακίνθιναι· λάβοι δʼ ἄν τις καὶ φλογίνας καὶ θαλασσοειδεῖς. Ὑπάρχουσι δὲ καὶ Περσικαὶ καλασίρεις, αἵπερ εἰσὶ κάλλισται πασῶν. Ἴδοι δʼ ἄν τις, φησὶ, καὶ τὰς καλουμένας ἀκταίας, ὅπερ ἐστὶ καὶ πολυτελέστατον ἐν τοῖς Περσικοῖς περιβλήμασιν. Ἔστι δὲ τοῦτο σπαθητὸν ἰσχύος καὶ κουφότητος χάριν· καταπέπλασται δὲ χρυσοῖς κέγχροις· οἱ δὲ κέγχροι νήματι πορφυρῷ πάντες εἰς τὴν εἴσω μοῖραν ἅμματʼ ἔχουσιν ἀνὰ μέσον.» Τούτοις πᾶσι χρῆσθαί φησι τοὺς Ἐφεσίους ἐπιδόντας εἰς τρυφήν.
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Text: Perseus Digital Library, licensed CC BY-SA. Dictionary: Liddell, Scott & Jones (Perseus, CC BY-SA). Morphology: odyCy — machine parsing, corrected against the AGDT & PROIEL treebanks and Morpheus.
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