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Astydamas
Astydamas (), or sometimes Astydamas the Younger or Astydamas Minor, was a tragic poet of ancient Greece, who lived at Athens and was by far the most celebrated and prolific dramatist of the 4th century BCE. He was active from roughly 373 BCE to 340 BCE. Life Astydamas was part of a sprawling, multi-generational theatre family. He was the son of Astydamas the Elder, who was also a dramatist, albeit a lesser known one, and with whom he is very often confused by many ancient sources. This would make him a grandnephew of the renowned tragedian Aeschylus, as well as great-grandson of the tragedian Philocles. He also had a brother named Philocles the Younger, who was also a tragic poet. His grandfather Morsimus was also a tragic poet. The family is often described as "one of the most remarkable theatrical families in Attic history". Astydamas was the pupil of the rhetorician Isocrates, and wrote 240 tragedies and took the top prize a virtually unprecedented fifteen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astydamas The Elder
Astydamas () was a tragic poet of ancient Greece who lived around the turn of 4th century BCE, from roughly 423 to 363 BCE. He is very often confounded in ancient sources with his more well known and successful son Astydamas, Astydamas the Younger, who was also a tragic poet.Diodorus Siculus, ''Bibliotheca historica'' xiv. p. 676 Astydamas was a member of a large, multigenerational theatre dynasty. He was the son of Morsimus, grandson of Philocles, and nephew of Aeschylus (by way of Morsimus's wife, who was Aeschylus's sister), all of whom were renowned tragic poets. Astydamas's sons, Astydamas and Philocles, were both also tragic poets, and there is a later, more obscure tragic poet named Astydamas who may have been this Astydamas's grandson or great-grandson. All of his works are lost and we do not even have any of the titles of his plays. He had two sons, Astydamas, Astydamas the Younger and Philocles the Younger. References {{DEFAULTSORT:Astydamas the E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philocles The Younger
Philocles () was a tragic poet of ancient Greece who lived in the 4th century BCE and was a member of a large, multigenerational theatre dynasty. He was the great-grandnephew of Aeschylus, great-grandson of Philocles, grandson of Morsimus, son of Astydamas the Elder, and brother of Astydamas the Younger, all of whom were also notable tragic poets. Philocles himself was also a tragic poet, according to the scholiast on Aristophanes. All of his works are lost. Today we know only the title of a single play of his, ''Phrixus'' (Φριξος). The 19th century classicist proposed an elaborate argument to show that there are no grounds for supposing that this Philocles really was a tragic poet, partly related to the fact that the 10th century Byzantine encyclopedia called the Suda describes this Philocles as a military general. Most scholars do not agree with this position, and believe we ought to accept the statement of the scholiast, and to assume ''strategos ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morsimus
Morsimus or Morsimos () was a tragic poet of the 5th century BCE, around 450 to 400 BCE, and the member of a large dynasty of tragic poets. None of his plays survive. He was the son of Philocles, brother of Melanthius (tragic poet), Melanthius, grandnephew of Aeschylus, the father of Astydamas the Elder, grandfather of both Astydamas, Astydamas the Younger and Philocles the Younger. All of these were tragic poets of some renown. Unlike most of his tragic poet family, Morsimus does not appear to have been very successful as a playwright. His plays are described in some sources as "wretched". He is attacked and ridiculed several times by the comic playwright Aristophanes, whose cutting criticisms are probably in large part responsible for Morsimus's negative reputation. Aristophanes wrote a character who describes the experience of performing in one of Morsimus's plays as being comparable to being "drenched in urine", and describes anyone who ever helped distribute th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philocles
Philocles (), was an Athens, Athenian tragic poet during the 5th century BC. Through his mother, Philopatho (), he had three famous uncles: Aeschylus, the famous poet, Cynaegirus, hero of the battle of Marathon, and Ameinias of Athens, Ameinias, hero of the battle of Salamis. The ''Suda'' claims that Philocles was the father of the tragic playwright Morsimus, who was in turn the father of the tragedian Astydamas the Elder and was in his turn the father of the tragedian Astydamas, Astydamas the Younger.Suda φ 378 Works According to the ''Suda'', Philocles wrote 100 tragedies. Philocles is best known for winning first prize in the competition against Sophocles' ''Oedipus Rex''. Philocles also wrote a play on the subject of Tereus, which was parodied in Aristophanes' ''The Birds (play), The Birds'' along with Sophocles' Tereus (Sophocles), treatment of the same subject. A scholiast has noted that Philocles' ''Tereus'' was part of his ''Pandion I, Pandionis'' tetralogy. An extan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thessalus (actor)
Thessalus was an eminent tragic actor ( hypocrites) in the time of Alexander the Great, whose especial favour he enjoyed, and whom he served before his accession to the throne, and afterwards accompanied on his expedition into Asia. He was victor in the Attic Dionysia in 347 and 341, as well as the Lenea. In 340 BC, he acted in the ''Parthenopaeus'' of Astydamas. He acted as the envoy of Alexander to Pixodarus of Caria Pixodarus or Pixodaros (in Lycian 𐊓𐊆𐊜𐊁𐊅𐊀𐊕𐊀 ''Pixedara''; in Greek Πιξώδαρoς; ruled 340–334 BC), was a satrap of Caria, nominally the Achaemenid Empire Satrap, who enjoyed the status of king or dynast by virtue ... in 336 BC. Early in 331 BC, he was defeated by the actor Athenodorus, much to Alexander's dismay. Thessalus later performed at the Susa weddings (324 BC). References *Who's who in the age of Alexander the Great: prosopography of Alexander's empire Actors of Alexander the Great 4th-century BC Athenians ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dionysia
The Dionysia (; Greek: Διονύσια) was a large festival in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus, the central events of which were processions and sacrifices in honor of Dionysus, the theatrical performances of dramatic tragedies and, from 487 BC, comedies. It was the second-most important festival after the Panathenaia. The Dionysia actually consisted of two related festivals, the Rural Dionysia and the City Dionysia, which took place in different parts of the year. Rural Dionysia Origins The Dionysia was originally a rural festival in Eleutherae, Attica ( – ''Dionysia ta kat' agrous''), celebrating the cultivation of vines. Archaeological evidence suggests that theatres for the Rural Dionysia had been constructed as early as the 6th century BCE , but the festival is generally believed to have been celebrated even before that. This "rural Dionysia" was held during the winter, in the month of Poseideon (the month straddling the winter solstice, i.e., ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatre Of Dionysus
The Theatre of Dionysus (or Theatre of Dionysos, ) is an ancient Greek theatre in Athens. It is built on the south slope of the Acropolis hill, originally part of the sanctuary of Dionysus Eleuthereus (Dionysus the Liberator). The first ''orchestra'' terrace was constructed on the site around the mid- to late-sixth century BC, where it hosted the City Dionysia. The theatre reached its fullest extent in the fourth century BC under the '' epistates'' of Lycurgus when it would have had a capacity of up to 25,000, and was in continuous use down to the Roman period. The theatre then fell into decay in the Byzantine era and was not identified, excavated and restored to its current condition until the nineteenth century. Sanctuary and first theatre The cult of Dionysus was introduced to Attica in the Archaic period with the earliest representation of the God dating to c. 580 BC. The City Dionysia (or Great Dionysia) began sometime in the Peisistratid era. and was reorganised du ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word derives from the Greek (, "inscription", from [], "to write on, to inscribe"). This literary device has been practiced for over two millennia. The presence of wit or sarcasm tends to distinguish non-poetic epigrams from aphorisms and adages, which typically do not show those qualities. Ancient Greek The Greek tradition of epigrams began as poems inscribed on votive offerings at sanctuariesincluding statues of athletesand on funerary monuments, for example "Go tell it to the Spartans, passersby...". These original epigrams did the same job as a short prose text might have done, but in verse. Epigram became a literary genre in the Hellenistic period, probably developing out of scholarly collections of inscriptional epigrams. Though modern epigrams are usually thought of as very short, Greek literary epigram was not always as short as later examples, and the divide between ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theodectes
Theodectes (; c. 380c. 340 BC) was a Greek rhetorician and tragic poet, of Phaselis in Lycia. Life He lived in the period which followed the Peloponnesian War. Along with the continual decay of political and religious life, tragedy sank more and more into mere rhetorical display. The school of Isocrates produced the orators and tragedians, Theodectes and Aphareus. He was also a pupil of Plato and an intimate friend of Aristotle. He at first wrote speeches for the law courts though he soon moved on to compose tragedies with success. He spent most of his life at Athens, and was buried on the sacred road to Eleusis. The inhabitants of Phaselis honored him with a statue, which was decorated with garlands by Alexander the Great on his way to the East. He won the prize eight times, on one occasion with his tragedy, ''Mausolus'', in the contest which the queen Artemisia of Caria had instituted in honor of her dead husband, Mausolus. On the same occasion he was defeated in rhetoric by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greek Anthology
The ''Greek Anthology'' () is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the Classical Greece, Classical and Byzantine periods of Greek literature. Most of the material of the ''Greek Anthology'' comes from two manuscripts, the ''Palatine Anthology'' of the 10th century and the ''Anthology of Planudes'' (or ''Planudean Anthology'') of the 14th century.: Explanatory text for the book of W. R. Paton entitled "The Greek Anthology with an English Translation" (1916), the same text is also at the introduction in page http://www.ancientlibrary.com/greek-anthology/ before the facsimile copy of the pages of the same book The earliest known anthology in Greek was compiled by Meleager of Gadara in the first century BC, under the title ''Anthologia'', or "Flower-gathering." It contained poems by the compiler himself and forty-six other poets, including Archilochus, Alcaeus of Mytilene, Alcaeus, Anacreon, and Simonides of Ceos, Simonides. In his preface to his collection, Meleag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Greek Comedy
Ancient Greek comedy () was one of the final three principal dramatic forms in the theatre of classical Greece; the others being tragedy and the satyr play. Greek comedy was distinguished from tragedy by its happy endings and use of comically exaggerated character archetypes, the latter feature being the origin of the modern concept of the comedy. Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods; Old Comedy survives today largely in the form of the eleven extant plays of Aristophanes; Middle Comedy is largely lost and preserved only in relatively short fragments by authors such as Athenaeus of Naucratis; New Comedy is known primarily from the substantial papyrus fragments of Menander. A burlesque dramatic form that blended tragic and comic elements, known as phlyax play or hilarotragedy, developed in the Greek colonies of Magna Graecia by the late 4th century BC. The philosopher Aristotle wrote in his '' Poetics'' (c. 335 BC) that comedy is a representation of l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parian Chronicle
The Parian Chronicle or Parian Marble (, Mar. Par.) is a Greek chronology, covering the years from 1582 BC to 299 BC, inscribed on a stele. Found on the island of Paros in two sections, and sold in Smyrna in the early 17th century to an agent for Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, this inscription was deciphered by John Selden and published among the Arundel Marbles, ''Marmora Arundelliana'' (London 1628–9) nos. 1–14, 59–119. The first of the sections published by Selden has subsequently disappeared. A further third fragment of this inscription, comprising the base of the stele and containing the end of the text, was found on Paros in 1897. It has entries from 336/35 to 299/98 BC. The two known upper fragments, brought to London in 1627 and presented to Oxford University in 1667, include entries for the years 1582/81–355/54 BC. The surviving upper chronicle fragment currently resides in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. It combines dates for events which modern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
