Ciris
A poem falsely ascribed to Vergil, and sometimes printed with his works. It consists of 541
hexameter lines, giving an account of the treacherous conduct of the Megarian princess Scylla
towards her father, Nisus, and her transformation into the bird Ciris. It is dedicated to the
son of Messalla, and draws largely upon Vergil's verse, eleven lines being copied outright,
and eight with the change of only one word. Other portions suggest Catullus and occasionally
Lucretius.
The metrical treatment is less careful than Vergil's own, while the style is more lively.
See Kreunen,
Prolegomena in Cirin (Utrecht, 1882); Walz,
De Carmine Ciris (Paris, 1881); Siecke,
De Niso et
Scylla in Aves Mutatis (Berlin, 1884); and R. Ellis in the
American
Journal of Philology, vol. viii. p. 399.