Author(s):
Nesselrath, Heinz-Günther (Göttingen)
[German version] (Ῥίνθων/
Rhínthōn). Poet, composer of literary Phlyakes plays (of which he is said to have written 38 [1. test. 2 and 3]), from Syracuse [1. test. 1], active at Tarentum [1. test. 2 and 3] in the reign of Ptolemy I (Ptolemaeus [1]) (322-283 BC, reigned from 305). Of nine surviving titles, eight are identifiable as parodies of tragedies by Euripides [1]: Ἀμφιτρύων/
Amphitryon , Ἡρακλῆς/
Heracles , Ἰφιγένεια ἁ ἐν Αὐλίδι/
Iphigeneia at Aulis, Ἰφιγένεια ἁ ἐν Ταύροις/
Iphigeneia among the Taurians, Δοῦλος Μελέαγρος/
Meleager the Slave, Μήδεια/
Medea , Ὀρέστας/
Orestes , Τήλεφος/
Telephus ). Among the total of 28 fragments, there are only four literal quotations, comprising six verses in all; fragment 10 shows a pointed and playful use of the choliamb (containing also a learned reference to Hipponax) in a iambic environment. Later sources have R. as the creator of a novel dramatic form, the so-called
hilarotragōidía ('burlesque tragedy'
, also called
phlyakographía [1. test. 3]) or
fabula Rhinthonica [1. test. 5]. The sparse surviving extracts do not permit further speculation as to whether there was more to this than the parodying or travestying of Attic tragedies, as was already commonplace in the Attic Middle Comedy. The equally late statement [1. test. 6] that R. wrote comedies in hexameters and thus provided Lucilius [I 6] with a model for his satires is scarcely credible. Parody; Phlyakes Nesselrath, Heinz-Günther (Göttingen) Bibliography
1 CGF 183-189
2 M. Gigante, Rintone e il…