eul_aid: cyy
Ἄνακτος Ἔπος
Epic Work Anonymous
1 work

The author of the Anaktos Epos (The Poem of the Lord) is an anonymous Greek epic poet from the Classical period, likely active in the 5th or 4th century BCE. No biographical details about the poet's life, origins, or background are known.

The poet's sole known work, the Anaktos Epos, is almost completely lost. The entire poem survives only as a single line quoted centuries later by the philosopher Porphyry. That line describes a cave with "the one [gate] of the gods, the other of mortals." The title suggests the lost poem may have dealt with themes of divine rule or cosmology, but its full subject, length, and structure are unknown.

The poem's historical importance is minimal as a literary work but notable for its philosophical reception. Its only trace is its citation by Porphyry in the 3rd century CE, who used the lone surviving line to support an allegorical interpretation of a scene in Homer's Odyssey. This indicates the anonymous epic was still known in certain scholarly circles in late antiquity and was considered thematically relevant to Homeric poetry. Otherwise, it has left no mark on the historical record.

Available Works

Ναυπάκτια Ἀποσπάσματα
Poem of Naupactus, Fragments
9 passages

Sources