Life
The dates for Eumelus‘ floruit all point to the eighth century BCE. Eusebius placed him both in the first year of the fifth (760/759) and ninth (744/743) Olympiads, while Cyril of Alexandria (Contra Iulian. 1.12) locates him in the latter year. Clement of Alexandria (Strom. 1.21.131) states that he overlapped with Archias, who founded Syracuse c. 734 BCE, while Pausanias (4.4.1) places his prosodion in the time of Phintas of Messene, who ruled Messene in the latter half of the eighth century.
Moreover, he was a Corinthian noble of the Bacchiad house. In the middle of the eighth century, Corinth transitioned (via revolt, according to later traditions) from a hereditary monarchy ruled by a single king of the Bacchiad house to an aristocracy in which all members of the Bacchiad clan were involved in ruling the city. This transition coincided with (or perhaps even spurred) Corinth’s economic growth and its spread of colonies abroad, notably Syracuse. As political power came to be shared among all the Bacchiads, it is likely that Eumelus also benefited from the new political arrangement.
Works
Eumelus was held such high distinction in his own day that he was asked by the Messenians to compose a prosodion—a type of processional ode—to Delos an island sacred to Apollo. The Messenians there sang this song as part of a sacrifice to Apollo. Pausanias states that many think this is Eumelus’ only genuine work, something some scholars (notably Martin West) agree with. The authenticity and date of the Prosodion, though, are rarely doubted, and therefore the poem was composed before the Homeric Hymn to Apollo.
Others in antiquity ascribed to Eumelus several other poems:
- Nostoi, which narrates the return voyages of the Greeks from Troy;
- Titanomachy, a poem on the battle between the Olympians and the Titans;
- Corinthiaca, a history in poetic meter of Corinth since mythical times;
- Europia, which told the story of Europa and her encounter with Zeus in his bull form;
- Bougonia, presumably on cattle-rearing from the name.
The Nostoi has sometimes been attributed to Homer as well, and the author of the Odyssey is at least familiar with some poem narrating those events. It is possible that the author of the Odyssey knew of Eumelus’ Nostoi, but scholars generally do not give such an idea much credence. The evidence is too little to say one way or another.
The Titanomachy was sometimes said to have been composed by Homer or an anonymous poem. West argues that some anonymous poet a century later is more likely on account of anachronistic iconography of Helius’ chariot, which he dated to the Cypselid tyranny; David Braund, conversely has argued that such imagery used by the Cypselids was borrowed instead from the Titanomachy and does not necessarily date the poem. Once again, the evidence is thin either way.
The Corinthiaca is extremely important for being the first recorded Greek poem that chronicled the whole history of a single city, and the ancients apparently mined it extensively for its mythological content.
All of these works have only a few fragments preserved in quotations by later authors, most of whom lived hundreds or even a thousand years after they were written.
Further Reading
- Braund, D. 2005. “Reflection on Eumelus’ Black Sea region,” in Kacharava, Faudot, & Geny edd. Pont-Euxin et polis: polis hellenis et polis barbaron. Presses Universitaires de Franche-Comté.
- West, M. L. ed. 2003. Greek Epic Fragments. Loeb Classical Library. Harvard University Press.
