It has been said that the name derives from the Ancient Macedonian "Mogila" which means graveyard, even though there has been nowhere recorded any such word by ancient lexicographers such as Hesychius of Alexandria, Amerias, Marsyas of Pella and Athenaeus who have saved around 200 ancient Macedonian words.
The biographical notices, the author avers, are condensed from the Onomatologion or Pinax of Hesychius of Miletus; other sources include the excerpts of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, the chronicle of Georgius Monachus, the biographies of Diogenes Laertius and the works of Athenaeus and Philostratus.
The "Swallow song of Rhodes" is the most famous ancient Greek folk song, performed by the children of Rhodes in springtime and preserved by Athenaeus.
He published also notes on Stobaeus, Euripides, Athenaeus and the Iliaca of John Tzetzes; translations of Aelian (History of Animals); many of the Greek romances (Philostratus); poetical versions of much of the Greek Anthology; miscellaneous essays on classical subjects; and some very successful school books.
Two plays of Epicrates, Emporos (Merchant) and Antilais (Against Lais), are mentioned by Suidas (s. «.), and are quoted by Athenaeus (xiv. p. 655, f., xiii. pp. 570, b., 605, e.), who also quotes his Amazones (x. p. 422, f.) and Dyspratos (Hard to Sell) (vi. p. 262, d.), and informs us that in the latter play Epicrates copied some things from the Dyspratos of Antiphanes.
He is possibly the Harpocration mentioned by Julius Capitolinus (Life of Verus, 2) as the Greek tutor of Lucius Verus (2nd century AD); some authorities place him much later, on the ground that he borrowed from Athenaeus.
However, a passage in Athenaeus suggests that the Mysian language was akin to the barely attested Paeonian language of Paeonia, north of Macedon.
He was especially famous for his inventive imagination, and the elegance and purity of his diction are attested by the epithet Ἀττικώτατος (most Attic) applied to him by Athenaeus and the sophist Phrynichus.
Citing Aristoxenus, Athenaeus said the pyrrhic is a Spartan dance for boys carrying spears to prepare for war, and noted the intense speed of the dance.