Xenocles () was an

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

tragedian. He won a victory at the Dionysia in 415 BC with the plays ''Oedipus'', ''Lycaon'', and ''Bacchae'' with the

satyr play The satyr play is a form of Attic theatre performance related to both comedy and tragedy. It preserves theatrical elements of dialogue, actors speaking verse, a chorus that dances and sings, masks and costumes. Its relationship to tragedy is st ...

''Athamas''. Other plays by Xenocles include ''Licymnius'', parodied by

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Ancient Greek comedy, comic playwright from Classical Athens, Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. The majority of his surviving play ...

in ''

The Clouds ''The Clouds'' (, ''Nephelai'') is a Greek comedy play written by the playwright Aristophanes. A lampooning of intellectual fashions in classical Athens, it was originally produced at the City Dionysia in 423BC and was not as well received as th ...

'', and perhaps ''Myes''. Aristophanes also refers negatively to Xenocles in the ''

Thesmophoriazusae ''Thesmophoriazusae'' (; ''Thesmophoriazousai'', ), or ''Women at the Thesmophoria'' (sometimes also called ''The Poet and the Women''), is one of eleven surviving comedy plays by Aristophanes. It was first produced in 411 BC, probably at the Cit ...

'' and ''

Frogs A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough skin texture due to ...

''. Xenocles was the son of Carcinus the Elder and father of Carcinus the Younger, both also tragic playwrights. He had at least two brothers who were also tragic poets or actors. Ancient sources differ on whether Xenocles was one of three or four brothers, and name them variously as Xenotimus, Xenarchus, Demotimus, Xenocleitus, and Datis. Datis, quoted by

in ''

Peace Peace is a state of harmony in the absence of hostility and violence, and everything that discusses achieving human welfare through justice and peaceful conditions. In a societal sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (suc ...

'', may have been a nickname for Xenocles.

Notes

5th-century BC Greek poets Ancient Greek tragic poets Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown {{AncientGreece-poet-stub