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HIPPONAX

Volume 8 · 100 words · 1797 Edition

a Greek poet, born at Ephesus 540 years before the Christian era. He cultivated the same satirical poetry as Archilochus, and was not inferior to him in the beauty or vigour of his lines. His satirical raillery obliged him to fly from Ephesus. As he was naturally deformed, two brothers, Baphalus and Anthermus, made a statue of him; which, by the ugliness of its features, exposed the poet to universal ridicule. Hipponax resolved to revenge the injury; and he wrote such bitter invectives and satirical laments against them, that they hanged themselves in despair. (Cic. ad Famil. vii. ep. 24.)