The Encyclopedia of Ancient Natural Scientists: The Greek tradition and its many heirs

(Ron) #1

As an ethicist, Polemo ̄n is associated with the idea that, whereas virtue is the most
important object of pursuit, being sufficient for happiness, humans must also give thought
to the provision of the “first things according to nature,” various desirable things promoting
life from its very first stages. His definition of love, associating it with service to the
gods in looking after the youth, is preserved by P, Uneducated Ruler 3 (780D),
and the Academy under him was characterized by a number of prominent male-to-male
relationships, including his own with Xenokrate ̄s and then his successor as scholarch,
Krate ̄s, causing Tarrant (JHP 43 [2005] 131–155) to postulate a relationship with the
pseudo-Platonic Theage ̄s, combining the divinely inspired So ̄crate ̄s with the erotic one.


Ed.: M. Gigante, Polemonis Academici Fragmenta (1977).
Dillon (2003) 155–177; D.N. Sedley, “The Origins of the Stoic God,” in M. Frede and A. Laks, edd.,
Traditions of Theology: Studies in Hellenistic Theology, its Background, and Aftermath (2002) 41–83.
Harold Tarrant


Polemo ̄n of Ilion (190 – 160 BCE)


Wrote a set of perie ̄ge ̄tic works on various Greek lands, explaining myths and customs, a
number of scholarly works, and paradoxographical works. Over 100 fragments sur-
vive, in authors from S to M, and he was described by P,
Q.Conv. 5.2 (675B), as “of wide learning, tireless, and accurate.” From his paradoxographical
work Rivers in Sicily, Macrobius, Sat. 5.19.26–30, preserves a long fragment; see also Ath.,
Deipn. 7 (307b).


BNP 11 (2007) 458–459 (#2), A.A. Donohue.
PTK


Polemo ̄n of Laodikeia on the Lukos (“Antonius Polemo”) (ca 110 – 144 CE)


Born ca 88 CE from an influential family, Polemo ̄n was a rhetor and prominent politician in
Smurna and a representative of the Second Sophistic (Philostratos, Vit. Soph. 1.23). He enjoyed
privileged access to power through his friendship with Hadrian, but also Trajan and
Antoninus Pius; he died in 144 CE. From his rhetorical work, only two short declamations
and several fragments have survived, showing him as preferring the “Asian” style of brief
sentences and rhetorical tropoi.
He is reported to have been extraordinarily conscious of comportment and self-
representation, so it is not surprising that he also was a physiognomist. His written work on
physiognomy can be reconstructed from one brief fragment, an Arabic translation and
a Greek paraphrase by A. It appears to have been silently based on the
A C P, and interspersed with anecdotes from
Polemo ̄n’s own travels. Most prominent in his physiognomical method is the observation of
signs in the eyes, comprising one-third of the text (in the Arabic version). Polemo ̄n also
reviews the character traits of 92 animals, signs of the various parts of the body, ethno-
graphic differences, the color of skin and eyes, the significance of hair on head and body,
and features of comportment such as body movement, gait, gesture and voice. As in the
Aristotelian Corpus Physiognomy, Polemo ̄n considers it essential to “seek an overall impres-
sion (epiprépeia) so that you may apply it to the body the way a signet ring is applied to
material on which it is to print” (1 [1.168 F.] Arabic; cf. 2.1 [1.348–9. F.] Adamantios).


POLEMO ̄N OF ILION
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