Onomacritus

Also known as Onomakritos

Onomacritus (; c. 530 – c. 480 BC), also spelled Onomacritos and Onomakritos, was a Greek chresmologue, or compiler of oracles, who lived at the court of the tyrant Pisistratus in Athens and prepared an edition of the Homeric poems. He was a collector and forger of oracles and poems.

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Testimonia et fragmenta

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Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Gender: male
Citizenship: Classical Athens
Place of birth: Athens
Occupation: mythographer
Languages spoken: Ancient Greek

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writing language: Ancient Greek
date of birth: 0530-01-01
date of death: 0480-01-01
described by source: Pauly–Wissowa

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Encyclopedic overview

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Contents

Herodotus
Pausanias and Orphic attributions
Notes
References

==Herodotus== Herodotus reports that Onomacritus was hired by Pisistratus to compile the oracles of Musaeus, but that Onomacritus inserted forgeries of his own that were detected by Lasus of Hermione. As a result, Onomacritus was banished from Athens by Pisistratus' son Hipparchus. After the flight of the Pisistratids to Persia, Onomacritus was reconciled with them. According to Herodotus, Onomacritus induced Xerxes I, the King of Persia, by his oracular responses, to decide upon his war with Greece.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Onomacritus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.