Philiscus of

Corcyra Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...

( grc, Φιλίσκος ὁ Κερκυραῖος), or Philicus, was a distinguished tragic poet, and one of the seven who formed the Tragic Pleiad, was also a priest of

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Roma ...

, and in that character he was present at the coronation procession of Ptolemy II Philadelphus in 284 BC. Pliny states that his portrait was painted in the attitude of meditation by

Protogenes Protogenes (; el, Πρωτογένης; fl. 4th century BC) was an ancient Greek painter, a contemporary rival of Apelles. As with the other famous ancient Greek painters, none of his work has survived, and it is known only from literary referen ...

, who is known to have been still alive in 304 BC. It seems, therefore, that the time of Philiscus must be extended to an earlier period than that assigned to him by the Suda, who merely says that he lived under Ptolemy Philadelphus. He wrote 42 dramas,Sud
φ 358
/ref> of which we know nothing, except that the ''Themistocles'', which is enumerated among the plays of Philiscus of Athens the comic poet, ought probably to be ascribed to him : such subjects are known to have been chosen by the tragedians, as in the ''Marathonians'' of Lycophron. The choriambic

hexameter Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek and Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of syllables). It w ...

verse was named after Philiscus, on account of his frequent use of it ( Hephaestion . p. 53). There is much dispute whether the name should be written, or , but the former appears to be the true form, though he himself, for the sake of metre, used the latter. Spyridon (Filiskos) Samaras from

, the composer of the

Olympic Hymn The Olympic Hymn ( el, Ολυμπιακός Ύμνος, ), also known as the Olympic Anthem, is a choral cantata by opera composer Spyridon Samaras (1861–1917), with lyrics by Greek poet Kostis Palamas. Both poet and composer were the choice of ...

was named after Philiscus.

References

* Ancient Corcyrans Tragic poets Ancient Greek priests Ptolemaic court {{greece-poet-stub