Erotika Pathemata

by Parthenius of Nicaea

Also known as: Erotika Pathemata, Sufferings in Love, Love Stories, Love Romances

Erotika Pathemata cover
Culture:Greek
Written:100-1 BCE
Length:110 pages, (~2 hours)
Erotika Pathemata cover
A Hellenistic collection of brief prose accounts of tragic and curious love tales, compiled by Parthenius as source material for Roman elegiac poetry and dedicated to Cornelius Gallus.

Description

Parthenius of Nicaea’s Erotica Pathemata is a compact anthology of thirty-six prose narratives, each recounting a myth or local legend centered on the sufferings caused by love—incestuous desires, betrayals, jealous gods, and fatal misunderstandings. Drawn from earlier Greek historians, poets, and local traditions, the vignettes supply names, motives, and outcomes with a scholar’s economy, often citing authorities and variants. Dedicated to the Roman poet Cornelius Gallus, the collection served as an index of motifs for elegy and narrative poetry in the late Hellenistic–Augustan milieu. Its tone is stark and antiquarian, privileging catalogic precision over ornament, and it preserves many otherwise obscure stories.

Historiography

Surviving in a single late manuscript tradition with subsequent copies and excerpts, the collection likely circulated among Roman literary circles connected to Gallus. Parthenius’ practice of naming sources anchors the work in Hellenistic scholarly methods and preserves fragments of lost historians and poets. Renaissance humanists revived interest through printed editions; modern scholarship, notably Lightfoot’s commentary, reassesses textual problems, onomastics, and source-criticism. The work influenced Roman elegists by providing compact exempla and mythic aetiologies.

Date Notes

Short prose summaries dedicated to Cornelius Gallus; compiled in Rome from earlier Greek sources during the late Hellenistic period.

Major Characters

  • Aphrodite
  • Eros
  • Artemis
  • Zeus
  • Hera

Myths

  • Byblis and Caunus
  • Myrrha and Cinyras
  • Hero and Leander
  • Acontius and Cydippe
  • Polytechnus and Aedon

Facts

  • The collection comprises thirty-six short prose narratives centered on love-driven calamities.
  • Parthenius dedicates the work to Cornelius Gallus as material for elegiac poetry.
  • Entries frequently cite earlier Greek sources, preserving otherwise lost authors and local traditions.
  • The tone is antiquarian and concise, prioritizing names, motives, and outcomes over elaboration.
  • Erotica Pathemata influenced Roman poets by supplying ready mythic exempla of erotic suffering.
  • Many stories survive primarily or uniquely through Parthenius’ summaries.
  • The work reflects Hellenistic scholarly habits: source citation, variant reporting, and onomastic precision.
  • Transmission depends on a late manuscript tradition with subsequent humanist editions and modern critical commentaries.
  • Parthenius, a Greek scholar captured in the Mithridatic Wars, later taught and wrote in Rome.
  • The collection preserves early attestations of tales such as Hero and Leander and Acontius and Cydippe.