Neophron of

Sicyon Sicyon (; el, Σικυών; ''gen''.: Σικυῶνος) or Sikyon was an ancient Greek city state situated in the northern Peloponnesus between Corinth and Achaea on the territory of the present-day regional unit of Corinthia. An ancient mona ...

(Νεόφρων, -ονος) was one of the most prolific of the

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 ...

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

s, to whom are accredited one hundred and twenty pieces, of which only a few fragments of his ''Medea'' remain. This, it is said,

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful e ...

used in his tragedy which bears the same title, although modern scholarship is divided on which tragedy came first. Neophron likely lived in the second half of the fifth century B.C. and was a rough contemporary of Euripides. As

Suidas The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; grc-x-medieval, Σοῦδα, Soûda; la, Suidae Lexicon) is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas (Σούδας) or Souidas ...

tells us, he introduced in his plays the torture of slaves, such scenes, according to the canons of dramatic art, not being enacted on the stage, but merely referred to by messengers.

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...

had Neophron executed along with the philosopher

Callisthenes Callisthenes of Olynthus (; grc-gre, Καλλισθένης; 360327 BCE) was a well-connected Greek historian in Macedon, who accompanied Alexander the Great during his Asiatic expedition. The philosopher Aristotle was Callisthenes's great ...

.Suda ν 218

Sources

* This article is based on text from ''The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization'', vol. 1. ed. Alfred Bates. London: Historical Publishing Company, 1906. Ancient Greek dramatists and playwrights {{AncientGreece-bio-stub

See also

Sources