''Triptolemos'' (

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

: Τριπτόλεμος) is a lost play of

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or co ...

. It was one of the plays which he produced in 468 BC for the City Dionysia, the year he first won the prize for tragedy at the festival. Though the play is usually assumed to have been a tragedy, this is not certain, and it might instead have been a

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 stro ...

. The plot of the play is not known, though it probably centered around

Triptolemos In Greek mythology, Triptolemus ( el, Τριπτόλεμος, ''Triptólemos'', lit. "threefold warrior"; also known as Buzyges) is a figure connected with the goddess Demeter of the Eleusinian Mysteries. He was either a mortal prince, the el ...

' mission to bring the art of agriculture to Greece. Fragments of the lost play still remain. For example, Dionysius of Halicarnassus claims that in this play, Sophocles made reference to Italy in the following iambic verses: And after this, first, then, upon the right, Oenotria wide-outstretched and Tyrrhene Gulf, And next the Ligurian land shall welcome thee.

References

Works cited

* * Lost plays Plays based on classical mythology

Satyr plays {{AncientGreece-stub