?
Dorieus’ Epigram on Milo of Croton (Athen. 10, 412f–413a)
The paper studies Dorieus' epigram on the renowned Greek wrestler Milo of Croton, about how he had carried a steer on his shoulders in Olympia and then sacrificed it at the altar of Zeus and ate the animal whole all by himself. Athenaeus preserves the epigram in his passage on extraordinary appetites of athletes, with reference to the historianPhylarchus who had cited the poem in his Histories (Athen. 10, 412f-413a). Nothing is known about the poet Dorieus, and this is the only text that has come down to us that is ascribed to him. The epigram (and the whole passage from Athenaeus) is regularly mentioned as source for the anecdote of Milo and the steer, but it has not received much scholarly attention as a poetic text (with the exception of a very short commentary in Page's Further Greek Epigrams). The paper presents an extensive linear commentary on the epigram. It is shown that it was a work of an extremely well-read and intelligent poet, whose references to Alexandrian scholarship show that he was either an Alexandrian himself, or at the very least well versed in Homeric scholarship of his time. He was not afraid to invent new expressions, nor to engage in
poetic experiment, as in the case of the highly unusual tmesis in v. 8. In his description of Milo, he visibly plays with the iconography of Moschophoros and Kriophoroi statues, inviting his readers to imagine a statue of the athlete with the steer on his shoulders.