Iophon (,

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

428 BC – 405 BC) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

tragic

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

, son of

Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...

, and brother to Ariston. Iophon gained the second prize in tragic competition in 428 BC,

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

being first, and Ion third. He must have been alive in 405 BC, the date of the production of '' The Frogs'' of

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 which he is spoken of as the only good

Athenian Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

tragic poet, although it is hinted that he owed much to his father's assistance. He wrote fifty plays, of which only a few fragments and the following eight titles remain: ''Achilles'', ''Actaeon'', ''Aulodoi'' ("The Flute-Singers"), ''Bacchae'', ''Dexamenus'', ''Iliou Persis'' ("The Sacking of Troy"), ''Pentheus,'' and ''Telephus''. It is said that Iophon accused his father before the court of the ' of being incapable of managing his affairs, so that he might gain the guardianship of his father's fortune. Sophocles replied to this charge by reading the chorus of the '' Oedipus at Colonus'' (688 ff.), which he was currently writing. The piece so proved that he was still in possession of all his mental faculties that he was acquitted.

Notes

References

* This work in turn cites: ** Aristophanes, ''Frogs'', 73, 78, with ''

scholia Scholia (: scholium or scholion, from , "comment", "interpretation") are grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments – original or copied from prior commentaries – which are inserted in the margin of the manuscript of ancient a ...

'' **

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

, ''De senectute'', vii. 22 **

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

, ''Moralia'', 785 B ** A. Nauck, ''Tragicorum Graecorum fragmenta'' (1889) ** O. Wolff, ''De Iophonte poëta'' (Leipzig, 1884) 5th-century BC Athenians Ancient Athenian dramatists and playwrights Ancient Greek tragic poets 5th-century BC Greek poets Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Sophocles {{AncientGreece-poet-stub