Library › Greek: History › Phrygiaca (Fragments)
These fragments are transmitted under the name of Hermesianax of Cyprus as the author of a Phrygiaca, a work on Phrygian matters. He and his work are known only from citations in the treatise On Rivers ascribed to Plutarch, whose source references are widely believed to be invented. The passages tell of a stone called aster that glows at night, and of the brothers Helicon and Cithaeron, who gave their names to mountains.
The fragments are best read as part of the curious literature of the treatise On Rivers, which mixes mythical metamorphoses with marvellous stones and plants and supports them with learned-sounding citations. They are of interest for the study of ancient paradoxography and of fictitious source-citation, rather than as evidence for a real historian.
About this edition. The Greek text comes from the Eulogikon open corpus of public-domain editions (standard reference: FHG IV p. 428). 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). He and his Phrygiaca are known only from citations in Pseudo-Plutarch's De fluviis, whose sources are widely held to be invented.