CYCLE (Gr. KUK)^os, a circle)

This article appears in Volume V07, Page 682 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: CRE-DAH

CYCLE (Gr. KUK)^os, a circle) , in astronomy, a period of time at the end of which some aspect or relation of the heavenly bodies recurs. The more important cycles are discussed in the articles CALENDAR and ECLIPSE. In physics, the term is applied to a

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of operations which, performed upon a system, brings it back to its

original

ORIGINAL

state; Carnot's Cycle " is an example (see THERMODYNAMICS). From the use of the word for any period at the end of which the same events recur in the same order or for any complete

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of phenomena, it is used loosely of any long period of time. The name o Eaums KUKAos, the epic cycle, was given to the poems which complete the Homeric account of the Trojan War (see below). It is this use which has given rise to the application of the term " cycle to a series of

prose

PROSE

or poetical romances which have for a centre one subject, whether a person, as in the Alexander, Arthurian or Charlemagne cycles, or an object, such as the ring of the Nibelungenlied. In music " Song-cycle " (Ger. Liederkreis) is similarly used of a series of songs written round one subject or set to poems by the same author. Beethoven's An die ferne Gelieble (Op. 98), published in 1816, is the earliest instance. Schubert's Die schone Miillerin, Schumann's Dichterliebe and Brahms's Magelone-Lieder are well-known instances.
Epic Cycle: This is a collection or corpus of lays written about 776580 B.C. by poets of the Ionian School, introductory or complementary to the Homeric poems, dealing with the legends of the Trojan and Theban wars. At a later date they were arranged so as to form a continuous narrative (the Iliad and the Odyssey included), perhaps after certain alterations had been made, to fill up gaps and remove inconsistencies and repetitions. By whom, and when, they were so arranged, cannot be decided; it is possible that it was the

work

WORK

of Zenodotus of Ephesus, who had the care of the epic section of the Alexandrian library. In order to furnish the general reader with a comprehensive sketch of mythological history, Proclusaccording to Welcker and Valesius (Valois), not the neo-Platonist, but an unknown 2nd or 3rd century grammarian, perhaps Eutychius

Proclus

PROCLUS, or PROCULUS (A.D. 410-485)

of Siccal in Africa, one of the tutors of Marcus Aurelius (see

PROCLuS

PROCLUS, or PROCULUS (A.D. 410-485)

) compiled ' a

prose

PROSE

summary (I'paarucij XprlvroaOeia)
1 An objection to this view is that according to the Augustan historian Capitolinus (Antoninus, 2) Eutychius of Sicca was a Latin not a Greek grammarian.of the contents of the poems, to serve as a sort of primer to Greek literature. Extracts from this are preserved in the Codex Venetus of

Homer

HOMER, WINSLOW (1836-191o)

and Photius (cod. 239), according to which the epic cycle began with the union of Uranus and Ge and ended with the death of Odysseus on his return to Ithaca at the hands of his son Telegonus. The cycle was in existence in his (Proclus's) time, and was in request not so much for its artistic merit, as for the " sequence of the events described in it." Further light is thrown on the subject by pictorial representations, intended for school use during the Roman imperial period, the most famous of which is the Tabula Iliaca in the Capitoline museum.
. The expression " epic cycle " in the sense of a poetical collection does not occur before the Christian era; the word KUKAos (" cycle," " circle ") is used of a

special

SPECIAL

kind of short poem and also of a prose abstract of mythological history; the adjective has the general sense of " hackneyed," " conventional," and is applied contemptuously (by Callimachus and

Horace

HORACE [QuINTus HORATIUS FLACCUS] (65-8 B.C.)

) to a particular Alexandrian school of poetry.
The most important poems of the Trojan legendary cycle are the Cypria of Stasinus (q.v.); the Aethiopis and Iliou Perlis (Sack of Troy) of

Arctinus

ARCTINUS

(q.v.); the Little Iliad of Lesches (q.v.); the Nosti of Hagias or Agias; the Telegonia of Eugammon. To the Theban cycle belong: the Thebais or Expedition of Amphiaraus and the Epigoni of Antimachus. The Oechalias Halosis (capture of Oechalia) of Creophylus (q.v.); the Phocais (or Minya) of Prodicus; and the Danais of Cercops, although belonging to the old Homeric epos, cannot with certainty be included in the epic cycle. The names of the authors are in several cases exceedingly doubtful.

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