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[German version] (ἡ χορηγία; hē chorēgía). Office of the choregos; from c. 500 BC a special form of   leitourgia in Athens. The choregia was imposed on prosperous citizens by the appropriate archon, and young notables were glad to use this kind of leiturgia in order to win political esteem (in 472 Pericles was choregos for Aeschylus' ‘Persians; cf. also Thuc. 6,16,3 on Alcibiades). The political significance of the choregia becomes especially clear in the dithyrambic agon, where it is not the poet but the choregos who is named in the inscription ( Didaskaliai). Towards the end o…

[German version] (ἡ τετραλογία/ hē tetralogía). Originally a technical term in rhetoric to describe four speeches treating the same case from different perspectives (Antiphon [4] A.), later also used to summarize the Platonic dialogues in groups of four (Diog. Laert. 3,57; Plato [1] C. 1. - 2.). Since the Hellenistic era, philology has used the term primarily for four theatre pieces connected by content: three tragedies (Trilogy) and one satyr play [2. 80 f.]. The 'originator' of the tetralogy was probably Aeschylus [1]; his Oresteia (458 BC) survives (without the satyr play)…

[German version] (Φιλοξενίδης; Philoxenídēs) from Oropos, writer of satyr plays; after 85 BC he achieved success at the Amphiaraea and Romaea festivals in Oropus (TrGF I 170). Zimmermann, Bernhard (Freiburg)

[German version] (Θεύδοτος; Theúdotos). Greek tragedian (TrGF I 157), victorious with the satyr play Palamedes presumably in Magnesia [2] in the 1st cent. BC (DID A 13,5). Zimmermann, Bernhard (Freiburg)

[German version] (τὸ μηχάνημα, τὸ τέχνημα; tò mēchánēma, tò téchnēma). Already Hom. Od., bks. 19-24 shows the close link between recognition scenes ( Anagnorisis) and intrigue that is typical of Attic tragedy. Locus classicus is Aesch. Cho. Intrigue is missing from almost none of Euripides' plays, so that Aristoph. Thesm. 94 can rightly call him the ‘master of the intrigue play’. Euripides composes anagnṓrisis-intrigue dramas especially in his later work. After the recognition, rescue is effected by an intrigue (e.g. Eur. IT 1017ff.; Eur. Hel. 1034ff.). In Ion there is a playful …

[German version] (also anagnorismos: ἡ ἀναγνώρισις, ὁ ἀναγνωρισμός; hē anagnṓrisis, ho anagnōrismós). According to Aristot. Poet. 11,1452a-b, anagnorisis is the technical term for the ‘Recognition’ in drama. Aristotle defined anagnorisis as a transition from unknowing into knowing, with the effect that friendship is changed into enmity and vice versa. To him, that anagnorisis is the most dramatic, which occurs simultaneously with   peripeteia . Aristotle differentiated three varieties of anagnorisis with reference to the object: the recognition of persons, of ina…

[German version] (Θέσπις; Théspis) from Icarium [1] in the Attic deme of Icaria [1. 49], according to one tradition attested on the  Marmor Parium (43) the ‘inventor’ ( prôtos heuretḗs ) of tragedy (TrGF I 1 T 2), according to another (Suda θ 282 = T 1) the sixteenth or second tragedian after Epigenes [0] of Sicyon. Between 535/4 and 532/1, he is supposed to have presented the first tragedy at the great Dionysia in Athens (but cf. [3]) and is considered to be the inventor of theatrical masks (made of linen, T 1). By adding a prologue ( prólogos) and a  rhêsis , he transf…

[German version] (Πλειάς/ Pleiás). The 'Constellation of Seven' Greek tragic poets during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus (Ptolemaeus [I 3] II Philadelphus) (285-246 BC). The list of names varies (as with those of the Seven Sages and the Seven Wonders of the World); certain are: Alexander [21] Aetolus, Lycophron [5] of Chalcis, Homerus [2] of Byzantium,  Philicus of Corcyra and Sositheus of Alexandria; also mentioned are: Sosiphanes [2] of Syracuse, Aeantides, Dionysiades of Tarsus and Euphronius…

[German version] (Νόθιππος; Nóthippos). Athenian tragedian (TrGF I 26), mentioned by the comic poet Hermippus in his Moîrai (prob. performed 430 BC) (Fr. 46 PCG). Zimmermann, Bernhard (Freiburg)

[German version] Derived from the verb δρᾶν ( drân), predominantly attested in Attic, the noun δρᾶμα ( drâma; ‘action’, ‘deed’ in a general sense) is the antonym of ‘what is experienced’ (πάθος/ páthos) (Aesch. Ag. 533); it can also mean ‘duty’, ‘task’ (Pl. Tht. 150a, Resp. 451c ). For the most part, though, drama is a technical term meaning ‘theatrical play’ (tragedy, comedy, satyr play) in the context of its performance (Aristoph. Ran. 920); it appears in the plural form in the title of Aristophanes' play Δράματα ἢ Νίοβος ( Drā́mata ē Níobos; fr. 289-298 PCG III2; fr. 299-304 PCG III2), in T…

[German version] (Νεόφρων; Neóphrōn) of Sicyon. Tragedian, 2nd half of 5th cent. BC; according to the Suda (TrGF I 15 T 1) the author of 120 plays, and the first to depict tutors and the torture of slaves on the stage. According to the hypothesis of Euripides' [1] ‘Medea arising from the Peripatetic tradition, the Euripidean drama is said to have derived from N. The 24 surviving verses show clear concordances with Euripides (esp. Medea's monologue in N. fragment 2, cf. Eur. Med. 1021ff., 1236ff.); …

(Μνησίλοχος/ Mnēsílochos). [German version] [1] see Mnasilochus See Mnasilochus Zimmermann, Bernhard (Freiburg) [German version] [2] Father-in-law of Euripides Father-in-law of Euripides [1], of the deme of Phlya. In our sources, the daughter's name varies between Choerile and Melito. In the hypothesis to Aristophanes' ‘Thesmophoriazousai the kēdēstḗs (close relative) of Eupolis is incorrectly identified with M. (also in manuscript R). Zimmermann, Bernhard (Freiburg) Bibliography U. v. Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Euripides, Herakles I 1895, 7. [German version] [3] Secon…

[German version] of Olynthus (TrGF 1, 118; FGrH 74), end of the 4th, beginning of the 3rd cent. BC; according to Diog. Laert. 2,110 teacher of  Antigonus [2] Gonatas, to whom he dedicated a work ‘On the Rule of Kings’ (Περὶ βασιλείας; Perì basileías). Writer of a history of the Diadochi period and of several successful tragedies. Zimmermann, Bernhard (Freiburg)

[German version] (ἡ τριλογία/ hē trilogía). From Hellenistic philology onwards a term for three tragedies, without the concluding satyr play, performed during the Great Dionysia at Athens (cf. Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 1124) [1. 80]. Tetralogy; Tragedy I. Zimmermann, Bernhard (Freiburg) Bibliography 1 Pickard-Cambridge/Gould/Lewis.

[German version] (ἡ περιπέτεια/ hē peripéteia). Literally 'turn-about, reversal' of a situation, mostly of fate, often unexpected and as a rule from good to bad (e.g. Aristot. Rhet. 1371b 10). The concept is central to Aristotle's Poetics (Poet. 11,1452a 22-29), where P. is defined as the reversal of what was to be achieved into its opposite. This should happen by probability (κατὰ τὸ εἰκός) or by necessity (κατὰ τὸ ἀναγκαῖον). Together with  anagnorisis P. is a characteristic of complex narrative structures ('plots', μῦθοι πεπλεγ…

[German version] (Πρατίνας/ Pratínas) of Phlius (in the Peloponnese), according to the Suda π 2230 (TrGF I 4 T 1) the inventor of the satyr play; son of a Pyrrhonides or Encomius (descriptive names: son of a 'red-head' or of 'a member of a - Dionysian - komos'; on the red hair and beards of satyrs cf. Dioscorides, Anth. Pal. 7,707,3 and  Soph. Ichn. 358). Two dates are attested for his life: between 499 and 496 he entered a tragedic agon against Aeschylus [1] and Choerilus [2] (T 1); and 467 is a  terminus ante quem for his death: that year his son Aristias [2] entered with plays by P. ('…

[German version] (Πολυχάρης/ Polychárēs). Early 4th cent. BC poet, uncertain whether of tragedy or dithyramb (DID B 6). Zimmermann, Bernhard (Freiburg)

[German version] (Μόρσιμος; Mόrsimos). Son of Philocles, great-nephew of Aeschylus [1] (TrGF I 12 T 3), middle of the 5th cent. BC, oculist (TrGF I 29 T 2) and tragedian, the latter according to Aristophanes (Equ. 401, Pax 802, Ran. 151) of particularly poor quality. Zimmermann, Bernhard (Freiburg)

[German version] (Θεοδωρίδης; TheodōrÍdēs). Greek tragedian (TrGF I 78 A), took second place at the Athenian Lenaea in 363 BC with a Medea and a Phaethon (DID A 2b, 94). Zimmermann, Bernhard (Freiburg)

[German version] (Φίλικος; Phílikos) of Corcyra (Corfu). Poet and tragedian, priest of Dionysus at Alexandria in the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246 BC). Member of the Pleias, often confused with Philiscus [4] of Aegina (TrGF I 89; I 104 T1, T4). Nothing survives of the 24 tragedies attributed to him. A large section is preserved of a hymn to Demeter in stichic catalectic choriambic hexameters (SH 676-680). In it, Demeter is consoled for the loss of her daughter with the prospect of cultic honours at Eleusis and by the wit of the maiden Iambe (in direct speech). Zimmermann, Bernhar…