Word.ws English Dictionary

Cylonian

Cylonian adjective: of or relating to Cylon of Athens, an Athenian noble who attempted a coup in either 636 BCE or 632 BCE.

Adjective

Cylonian (not comparable)

  1. Of or relating to Cylon of Athens, an Athenian noble who attempted a coup in either 636 BCE or 632 BCE.
    • Now the Cylonian villany had a long while diſtur’d the Commonwealth, even from that time when Megacles the Archon perſwaded the conſpiratours with Cylon that took ſanctuary in Minerva’s Temple, to ſtand to a fair trial; […]1683, Plutarch, “The Life of Solon”, in Thomas Creech, transl., Plutarchs Lives. Translated from the Greek […], volume I, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 289
    • The first of the Cylonian glosses of Suidas (s.v. Κυλώνειον ἄγος) has a marked resemblance to the item from the Heracleidean Excerpts (i.e. ultimately Aristotle’s Respub. Ath.); while the other gloss (s.v. Περικλῆς), rewritten in the light of the former, has a Thucydidean foundation which is...1892, John Henry Wright, “The Date of Cylon”, in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, volume III, Boston, Mass.: Ginn & Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, section III (The Story of Cylon: Our Sources of...
  2. Of or relating to Cylon of Croton, a leading citizen of Croton who led a revolt against the Pythagoreans, probably around 509 BCE.
    • Anyhow it is chronologically impossible that the Archippus of this letter is the same as the Pythagorean who together with Lysis survived the Cylonian slaughter.1971, G[erhard] J[ean] D[anie͏̈l] Aalders, “Political Thought and Political Programs in the Platonic Epistles”, in Pseudepigrapha I: Pseudopythagorica — Lettres de Platon, Littérature...
    • ca. 500 (?) Cylonian rebellion against Pythagoras (proceeding from the Crotonian upper class) ➛ Pythagoras’ emigration to Metapontum2005, Christoph Riedweg, translated by Steven Rendall, Christoph Riedweg, and Andreas Schatzmann, “Fifth century b.c.e.”, in Pythagoras: His Life, Teaching, and Influence, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell...

Noun

Cylonian (plural Cylonians)

  1. A follower of Cylon of Athens, an Athenian noble who attempted a coup in either 636 BCE or 632 BCE.
    • Solon (the diſcord betwixt the common ſort, and them of the richer ſort of the people being appeaſed) after the ſlaughter of the Cylonians, reſtored vnto his Countrey, the Democraticall or Popular Gouernement, the Oligarchie or Gouernment of ſome few, being quite taken away.1610, [Robert Glover], translated by Tho[mas] Milles et al., “Of the First Greeke Nobility”, in The Catalogue of Honor or Tresury of True Nobility, Peculiar and Proper to the Isle of Great Britaine...
    • In the line of these purifying sages, the figure of Epimenides stands out in particularly bold relief. Plutarch called him a sage in divine matters, with the sophia given to “the enraptured and the initiate”; it was he they called to Athens to drive off the miasma that had settled over the city...1982, Jean-Pierre Vernant, anonymous translator, “The Crisis of the City: The Earliest Sages”, in The Origins of Greek Thought, London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, →ISBN, page 76
  2. A follower of Cylon of Croton, a leading citizen of Croton who led a revolt against the Pythagoreans, probably around 509 BCE.
    • But I meane not hereupon to ſtand, nor to diſcourfe at large, but to let paſſe what vanity there was in him, to compare the accidents which befell to ſome good and vertuous perſons, as for example, the condemnation of Socrates, the burning of Pythagoras quicke by the Cylonians, […]1603, Plutarch, “The Contradictions of Stoicke Philosophers”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, page 1075, lines...
    • When the colledges and companies of the Pythagorian Philoſophers that were diſperſed through the cities of Italie, were baniſhed by the faction of the Cylonians: […]1603, Thomas North, transl., “The Life of Epaminondas”, in The Liues of Epaminondas, of Philip of Macedon, of Dionysius the Elder, and of Octavius Cæsar Augustus: Collected out of Good Authors. […]...

Examples of Cylonian in a sentence

  • The first of the Cylonian glosses of Suidas (s.v. Κυλώνειον ἄγος) has a marked resemblance to the item from the Heracleidean Excerpts (i.e. ultimately Aristotle’s Respub.1892, John Henry Wright, “The Date of Cylon”, in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, volume III, Boston, Mass.: Ginn & Company, →ISSN...
  • The surviving portion of the Constitution of Athens begins with the aftermath of the Cylonian conspiracy (an incident also mentioned by Herodotus, Thucydides and Plutarch).1987, Ian Morris, “Introduction: the argument”, in Burial and Ancient Society: The Rise of the Greek City-State (New Studies in...
  • Again, the parallel with the Cylonian story is worth noting, considering how important a role the theme of stoning plays in the Alcmaeonid traditions; […]2013, Renaud Gagné, “Alcaeus”, in Ancestral Fault in Ancient Greece, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, chapter...
  • Our first evidence concerns the dramatic episode in Pythagoras’ life when he left Croton because of the Cylonian revolt.2016, Leonid Zhmud, “The Papyrological Tradition on Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans”, in Christian Vassallo, editor, Presocratics and...

Forms of Cylonian

Adjective
alternative formKylonian
Noun
pluralCylonians

Origin of Cylonian

From Cylon + -ian.

Questions about Cylonian

What does Cylonian mean?
Cylonian means of or relating to Cylon of Athens, an Athenian noble who attempted a coup in either 636 BCE or 632 BCE.
How do you use Cylonian in a sentence?
The first of the Cylonian glosses of Suidas (s.v. Κυλώνειον ἄγος) has a marked resemblance to the item from the Heracleidean Excerpts (i.e. ultimately Aristotle’s Respub.
What part of speech is Cylonian?
Cylonian can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near Cylonian in the dictionary

  1. cylixes
  2. Cyllene
  3. Cyllenean
  4. Cyllenian
  5. Cylon
  6. Cylonian
  7. Cylonians
  8. CYLOR
  9. cyma
  10. cyma inversa
  11. cyma recta

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Cylonian (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “Cylonian.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cylonian. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.