EPIMENIDES, a semi-historical poet and prophet of Cnossos, in Crete, who lived in the 6th century B.C. He is said to have fal len into a deep sleep in the Dictaean cave, from which he did not awake for S7 years (Diogenes Laertius i. 109-115). When the Athenians were visited by a pestilence, in consequence of the murder of Cylon, he was invited by Solon (S96) to purify the city. He died in Crete at an advanced age ; according to his countrymen, who afterwards honoured him as a god, he lived nearly 30o years. According to another story, he was taken prisoner in a war be tween the Spartans and Cnossians and put to death by his captors because he refused to prophesy favourably for them. A collection of oracles, a theogony, an epic poem on the Argonautic expedition, prose works on purifications and sacrifices, and a cosmogony were attributed to him. He is supposed to be the Cretan prophet alluded to in the epistle to Titus (i. 12).
See H. Demoulin, Epimenide de Crete (i9oi) ; H. Diels, Die Frag mente der Vorsokratiker (19o3) ; O. Kern in Pauly-Wissowa's Realen cyklopddie.