Epimenĭdes
（
Ἐπιμενίδης). A Cretan, contemporary with Solon, and born
perhaps in B.C. 659, at Phaestus, in the island of Crete, according to some accounts, or at
Cnosus according to others. Many marvellous tales are related of him. It is said that, going
by his father's order in search of a sheep, he laid himself down in a cave, where he fell
asleep and slept for fifty years, on which legend Goethe has written a poem. He then made his
appearance among his fellow-citizens with long hair and a flowing beard, and with a knowledge
of medicine and natural history which then appeared more than human. Another story told of
this Cretan was that he had the power of sending his soul out of his body and recalling it at
pleasure; that he had familiar intercourse with the gods, and possessed the power of prophecy.
The event of his life by which he is best known was his visit to Athens at the request of the
inhabitants, in order to pave the way for the legislation of Solon by purifications and
propitiatory sacrifices. These rites were intended, according to the spirit of the age, to
allay the feuds and party dissensions which prevailed there; and, although what he enjoined
was mostly of a religious nature (for instance, the sacrifice of a human victim, the
consecration of a temple to the Eumenides, and of two altars to Hybris and Anaidea, the two
evil powers which were exerting their influence on the Athenians), there can be little doubt
that his object was political, and that Solon's constitution would hardly have been accepted
had it not been recommended and sanctioned by some person who, like Epimenides, claimed from
men little less than the veneration due to a superior being. The Athenians wished to reward
Epimenides with wealth and public honours, but he refused to accept any remuneration, and
demanded only a branch of the sacred olive-tree and a decree of perpetual friendship between
Athens and his native city. Epimenides is said to have lived, after his return to Crete, to
the age of 157 years. Other accounts give his age as nearly 230 years. Divine honours were
paid him by the Cretans after his death.
Epimenides composed a theogony and other poems concerning religious mysteries. He wrote also
a poem on the Argonautic Expedition, and other works, which are entirely lost. His treatise on
oracles and responses, mentioned by St. Jerome, is said to have been the work from which St.
Paul quotes in the epistle to Titus (i. 12). See Diog. Laert. i. 109; Val. Max. viii. 13. See
the monograph by Schultess,
De Epimenide Crete (Vienna, 1877).
