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Diphilus
Diphilus (Greek: Δίφιλος), of Sinope, was a poet of the new Attic comedy and a contemporary of Menander (342–291 BC). He is frequently listed together with Menander and Philemon, considered the three greatest poets of New Comedy. He was victorious at least three times at the Lenaia, placing him third before Philemon and Menander. Although most of his plays were written and acted at Athens he died at Smyrna. His body was returned and buried in Athens. According to Athenaeus, he was on intimate terms with the famous courtesan Gnathaena. Athenaeus quotes the comic poet Machon in support of this claim. Machon is also the source for the claim that Diphilus acted in his own plays. An anonymous essay on comedy from antiquity reports that Diphilus wrote 100 plays. Of these 100 plays, 59 titles, and 137 fragments (or quotations) survive. From the extant fragments, Diphilus' plays seem to have featured many of the stock characters now primarily associated with the comedies of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diphilus (Poet)
Diphilus (Greek: Δίφιλος), of Sinope, was a poet of the new Attic comedy and a contemporary of Menander (342–291 BC). He is frequently listed together with Menander and Philemon, considered the three greatest poets of New Comedy. He was victorious at least three times at the Lenaia, placing him third before Philemon and Menander. Although most of his plays were written and acted at Athens he died at Smyrna. His body was returned and buried in Athens. According to Athenaeus, he was on intimate terms with the famous courtesan Gnathaena. Athenaeus quotes the comic poet Machon in support of this claim. Machon is also the source for the claim that Diphilus acted in his own plays. An anonymous essay on comedy from antiquity reports that Diphilus wrote 100 plays. Of these 100 plays, 59 titles, and 137 fragments (or quotations) survive. From the extant fragments, Diphilus' plays seem to have featured many of the stock characters now primarily associated with the comedies of the ... [...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). Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods: Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy. Old Comedy survives today largely in the form of the eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes; Middle Comedy is largely lost, i.e. preserved only in relatively short fragments by authors such as Athenaeus of Naucratis; and New Comedy is known primarily from the substantial papyrus fragments of Menander. The philosopher Aristotle wrote in his ''Poetics'' (c. 335 BC) that comedy is a representation of laughable people and involves some kind of blunder or ugliness which does not cause pain or disaster. C. A. Trypanis wrote that comedy is the last of the great species of poetry Greece gave to the world. Periods The Alexandrine grammarians, and most likely Aristophanes of Byzantium in particular, seem to have been the first to d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New 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). Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods: Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy. Old Comedy survives today largely in the form of the eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes; Middle Comedy is largely lost, i.e. preserved only in relatively short fragments by authors such as Athenaeus of Naucratis; and New Comedy is known primarily from the substantial papyrus fragments of Menander. The philosopher Aristotle wrote in his ''Poetics'' (c. 335 BC) that comedy is a representation of laughable people and involves some kind of blunder or ugliness which does not cause pain or disaster. C. A. Trypanis wrote that comedy is the last of the great species of poetry Greece gave to the world. Periods The Alexandrine grammarians, and most likely Aristophanes of Byzantium in particular, seem to have been the first to d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gnathaena
Gnathaena ( grc, Γνάθαινα) was an Athenian ''hetaira'' (plural: ''hetairai''), a class of ancient Greek prostitutes who were companions to wealthy men. Though there is no source for either her date of birth or date of death, Gnathaena is known to have lived during the 4th century BCE due to her affiliations with various men of the era. Her most notable lover was Diphilus, an Athenian New Comedy playwright. According to Athenaeus, Gnathaena was famous for her lavish parties and witty repartee, and even wrote a treatise on proper conduct at her symposiums entitled, "Rules for Dining in Company". Life as a ''hetaira'' Gnathaena was one of many fourth-century women in the class of prostitutes known as a ''hetaira'', or "companion". The ''hetairai'' were a class of courtesans in ancient Greece that were distinct from ''pornai,'' another type of prostitute, as ''hetairai'' were thought to be women who consorted exclusively in aristocratic circles and with only a few men as op ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Menander
Menander (; grc-gre, Μένανδρος ''Menandros''; c. 342/41 – c. 290 BC) was a Greek dramatist and the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy. He wrote 108 comedies and took the prize at the Lenaia festival eight times. His record at the City Dionysia is unknown. He was one of the most popular writers in antiquity, but his work was lost during the Middle Ages and is now known in highly fragmentary form, much of which was discovered in the 20th century. Only one play, ''Dyskolos'', has survived almost complete. Life and work Menander was the son of well-to-do parents; his father Diopeithes is identified by some with the Athenian general and governor of the Thracian Chersonese known from the speech of Demosthenes ''De Chersoneso''. He presumably derived his taste for comic drama from his uncle Alexis. He was the friend, associate, and perhaps pupil of Theophrastus, and was on intimate terms with the Athenian dictator Demetrius of Phalerum. He also enjoyed th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sinop, Turkey
Sinop, historically known as Sinope (; gr, Σινώπη, Sinōpē), is a city on the isthmus of İnce Burun (İnceburun, Cape Ince), near Cape Sinope (Sinop Burnu, Boztepe Cape, Boztepe Burnu) which is situated on the northernmost edge of the Turkish side of the Black Sea coast, in the ancient region of Paphlagonia, in modern-day northern Turkey. The city serves as the capital of Sinop Province. History Over a period of approximately 2,500 years, Sinope has at various times been settled by Colchians, Greeks (in the late 7th, late 5th, and 4th–3rd centuries BC), by Romans in the mid-1st century BC, and by Turkic people beginning in the 12th century. In the 19th and 20th centuries it was also settled by the '' muhacir'' who immigrated from the Balkans and Caucasus. Evidence for Hittite Kingdom settlement along the Black Sea's southern shore remains murky. Researchers in the 1940s and 50s debated whether the "Great Sea", mentioned on the Boghazkoy tablets describing war b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deipnosophistae
The ''Deipnosophistae'' is an early 3rd-century AD Greek work ( grc, Δειπνοσοφισταί, ''Deipnosophistaí'', lit. "The Dinner Sophists/Philosophers/Experts") by the Greek author Athenaeus of Naucratis. It is a long work of literary, historical, and antiquarian references set in Rome at a series of banquets held by the protagonist for an assembly of grammarians, lexicographers, jurists, musicians, and hangers-on. Title The Greek title ''Deipnosophistaí'' () derives from the combination of ' (, "dinner") and ''sophistḗs'' (, "expert, one knowledgeable in the arts of ~"). It and its English derivative ''s'' thus describe people who are skilled at dining, particularly the refined conversation expected to accompany Greek symposia. However, the term is shaded by the harsh treatment accorded to professional teachers in Plato's Socratic dialogues, which made the English term ' into a pejorative. In English, Athenaeus's work usually known by its Latin form ''Deip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philemon (poet)
Philemon ( grc-gre, Φιλήμων; c. 362 BC – c. 262 BC) was an Athenian poet and playwright of the New Comedy. He was born either at Soli in Cilicia or at Syracuse in Sicily but moved to Athens some time before 330 BC, when he is known to have been producing plays. He attained remarkable popularity, for he repeatedly won victories over his younger contemporary and rival Menander, whose delicate wit was apparently less to the taste of the Athenians of the time than Philemon's comedy. Except for a short sojourn in Egypt with Ptolemy II Philadelphus, he passed his life at Athens. He there died, nearly a hundred years old, but with mental vigour unimpaired, about the year 262 BC, according to the story, at the moment of his being crowned on the stage.''Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities'', p. 1229 ("Philemon"). Surviving titles and fragments Of his ninety-seven works, fifty-seven are known to us by titles and fragments. Two of his plays were the basis for two Latin ada ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hipponax
Hipponax ( grc, Ἱππῶναξ; ''gen''. Ἱππώνακτος; fl. late 6th century BC), of Ephesus and later Clazomenae, was an Ancient Greek iambic poet who composed verses depicting the vulgar side of life in Ionian society. He was celebrated by ancient authors for his malicious wit (especially for his attacks on some contemporary sculptors, Bupalus and Athenis), and he was reputed to be physically deformed (a reputation that might have been inspired by the nature of his poetry). Life Ancient authorities record the barest details about his life (sometimes contradicting each other) and his extant poetry is too fragmentary to support autobiographical interpretation (a hazardous exercise even at the best of times). The Marmor Parium, only partially preserved in the relevant place, dates him to 541/40 BC, a date supported by Pliny The Elder in this comment on the theme of sculpture: Archeological corroboration for these dates is found on the pedestal of a statue in Delos, ins ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sappho
Sappho (; el, Σαπφώ ''Sapphō'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her Greek lyric, lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by music. In ancient times, Sappho was widely regarded as one of the greatest lyric poets and was given names such as the "Tenth Muse" and "The Poetess". Most of Poetry of Sappho, Sappho's poetry is now lost, and what is extant has mostly survived in fragmentary form; only the "Ode to Aphrodite" is certainly complete. As well as lyric poetry, ancient commentators claimed that Sappho wrote elegiac and iambic poetry. Three epigrams attributed to Sappho are extant, but these are actually Hellenistic imitations of Sappho's style. Little is known of Sappho's life. She was from a wealthy family from Lesbos, though her parents' names are uncertain. Ancient sources say that she had three brothers; Charaxos (Χάραξος), Larichos ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Callias (comic Poet)
Callias ( grc-gre, Καλλίας), sometimes called by the nickname Schoenion (), was a poet of the Old Comedy, not to be confused with the three Athenian aristocrats named Callias, the last of which, Callias III, appears in Plato's ''Protagoras''. Callias is best known for a few extant fragments of a comedy, ''The Letter Tragedy''. This comedy featured a 24-piece chorus that consisted of the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet. On this work there has been debate since the early 19th century over the meaning of the play's claim to have influenced Greek tragedy. Many scholars take Callias' claim to have been ironic and a joke. The titles of his other known plays are: ''Aigyptios'' (The Egyptian), ''Atalante'', ''Batrakhoi'' (Frogs), ''Kyklopes'' (The Cyclopes), ''Pedetai'' (Men In Shackles), ''Scholazontes'' (Men At Leisure), and a fragmentary title ''...era Sidera'', which has been reconstructed as either ''Hypera Sidera'' (Iron Pestles) or ''Entera Sidera'' (Iron Guts). Callias ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amastrine
Amastris ( grc-gre, Ἄμαστρις; killed c. 284 BC) also called Amastrine, was a Persian princess, and Tyrant-ruler of the city of Heraclea from circa 300 to her death. She was the daughter of Oxyathres of Persia, Oxyathres, the brother of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian King Darius III. Life Amastris was given by Alexander the Great in marriage to Craterus, however Craterus later decided to marry Phila (daughter of Antipater), Phila, one of the daughters of Antipater. Still, he first arranged his wife's advantageous marriage to Dionysius of Heraclea, Dionysius, tyrant of Heraclea Pontica, in Bithynia, whom she married in 322 BC. She had two sons with him named Clearchus and Oxyathres of Heraclea, Oxyathres. After the death of Dionysius of Heraclea, Dionysius, in 306, Amastris became guardian of their children. Several others joined in this administration. Amastris married Lysimachus in 302. However, he abandoned her shortly afterwards and married Arsinoe II, one of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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