What is "phocylides"

Phocylides , Greek gnomic poet of Miletus, contemporary of Theognis of Megara, was born about 560 BC.

A few fragments of his " maxims" have survived (chiefly in the Florilegium of Stobaeus), in which he expresses his contempt for the pomps and vanities of rank and wealth, and sets forth in simple language his ideas of honour, justice and wisdom. An example is an epigram quoted by Dio Chrysostom:

(, trans. Colburn)

Aristotle also found cause to quote him:

(The Politics. Book Four. Ch. XI.)

A complete didactic poem (230 hexameters) called Ποίημα νουθετικόν or γνῶμαι, bearing the name of Phocylides, is now considered to be the work of an Alexandrian Christian of Jewish origin who lived between 170 BC and AD 50. The Jewish element is shown in verbal agreement with passages of the Old Testament (especially the Wisdom of Sirach); the Christian by the doctrine of the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body. Some Jewish authorities, however, maintain that there are in reality no traces of Christian doctrine to be found in the poem, and that the author was a Jew. The poem was first printed at Venice in 1495, and was a favourite school textbook during the Reformation period.

Phocylides is a lunar crater located near the southwest rim of the Moon. It overlays the south rim of the crater Nasmyth to the north. To the northwest is the unusual plateau formation of Wargentin. Eastward is the merged formation Schiller, and in the southwest lies Pingré.

The outer wall of Phocylides is worn and eroded, especially along the western edge. The northern edge of the rim is notched and irregular, with a rise of ground joining the south rim of Wargentin. The crater Phocylides F lies across the southern rim. The floor of Phocylides is flooded and relatively smooth, with a few small craterlets and no central peak. The most notable impact on the floor is a crater near the northeast rim.

Phocylides lies to the northwest of the Schiller-Zucchius Basin.