Oedipodea

The Oedipodea (Ancient Greek: Οἰδιπόδεια) is a lost poem of the Theban cycle, a part of the Epic Cycle (Επικὸς Κύκλος). The poem was about 6,600 verses long and the authorship was credited by ancient authorities to Cinaethon (Κιναίθων), a barely known poet who lived probably in Sparta.^[1] Only three short fragments and one testimonium survived.

It told the story of the Sphinx and Oedipus and presented an alternative view of the Oedipus myth. According to Pausanias,^[2] Cinaethon states that the marriage between Oedipus and his own mother, Jocasta (= Epicasta) was childless; his children had been born from another engagement with Euryganeia (Εὐρυγανεία), daughter of Hyperphas (Ὑπέρφας). That is all we know about these two characters.

A small glimpse of Cinaethon's style survives in Plutarch's On the Pythia's Oracles 407b: "he added unnecessary pomp and drama to the oracles".

References

1. IG 14.1292 2.11; Euseb. Chron. Ol. 4.1.
2. Pausanias. Description of Greece, 9.5.10-1; West, Fr. 1.

Select editions and translations

Critical editions

• Kinkel, G. (1877), Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta, vol. 1, Leipzig External link in |title= (help).
• Allen, T.W. (1912), Homeri opera. Tomus V: Hymni, Cyclus, Fragmenta, Margites, Batrachomyomachia, Vitae, Oxford, ISBN 0-19-814534-9.
• Bernabé, A. (1988), Poetae epici Graecae, pars i, Leipzig, ISBN 978-3-598-71706-2.
• Davies, M. (1988), Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta, Göttingen, ISBN 978-3-525-25747-0.

Translations

• Evelyn-White, H.G. (1936), Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, Loeb Classical Library, no. 57 (3rd rev. ed.), Cambridge, MA, ISBN 978-0-674-99063-0 External link in |title= (help). (The link is to the 1st edition of 1914.) English translation with facing Greek text; now obsolete except for its translations of the ancient quotations.
• West, M.L. (2003), Greek Epic Fragments, Loeb Classical Library, no. 497, Cambridge, MA, ISBN 978-0-674-99605-2. Greek text with facing English translation

Bibliography

• Davies, M. (1989), Greek Epic Cycle, London, ISBN 978-1853990397.