The New International Encyclopædia/Theognis

THEOG′NIS (Lat., from Gk. Θέογνις) (6th century B.C.). A Greek elegiac poet, born at Nisæan Megara. During the conflict in his native city between the aristocratic and democratic parties, in which he took the side of the aristocrats, he lost his estate and was reduced to poverty and driven into exile. He appears to have visited Sicily, Bœotia, Eubœa, and Sparta, and later, apparently under changed conditions, he returned to his native city. Theognis is the only elegiac poet whose works have come down to us in anything like complete condition. We possess under his name 1389 verses in two books which set forth the political belief and ideals of the Dorian oligarchs. The work is fragmentary and has suffered largely from interpolations. The genuine remains of his work are valuable evidence as to the state of political parties and social conditions in the sixth century. The fragments are edited by Bergk in his Poetæ Lyrici Græci (4th ed., Leipzig, 1882); by Ziegler (2d ed., Tübingen, 1880); by Sitzler (Heidelberg, 1880); and by Hartmann in his Studies in Theognis (Cambridge, 1902).