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Article

Stratonicus, of Athens, c. 410–360 BCE  

Bernhard Zimmermann

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

Famous citharist (see music, § 3.1 (a)), remembered especially for his witticisms which are mainly preserved by *Ath. (1). According to *Phaenias (at Ath. 352c) he introduced multiplicity of notes (polychordia) into unaccompanied cithara-playing, i.e. he used an instrument with up to eleven strings.

Article

Strattis, Athenian comic poet  

Kenneth Dover

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Athenian comic poet who produced Anthroporestes after Eur.Or. (408) and Atalanta ‘long after’ (schol. Ar.Ran. 146) Ar.Ran. (405). We have 19 titles and 70 citations; many titles suggest tragic parody (blended with mythological burlesque; see parody, greek), e.g. Medea, Philoctetes, Phoenissae. A traditional figure, the gluttonous *Heracles, was a character (fr.

Article

Suda  

Robert Browning

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

The name of a lexicon, not an author: the word is a Latin loanword, and means Fortress or Stronghold: see F. Dölger, Der Titel der Suda (1936), who instances other fanciful names for reference works, e.g. Pamphilus' Λειμών (Meadow). The lexicon, which is a historical encyclopaedia rather than a mere word-list, was compiled about the end of the 10th cent. ce. Texts (with *scholia) of *Homer, *Sophocles (1), *Aristophanes (1), the Anth. Pal. (See anthology), and the Bible were directly consulted; otherwise work is mainly based on abridgements or selections made by later scholars, e.g. the Synagōgē (see lexica segueriana), *Harpocration, and *Diogenianus (2). The historians are quoted from the Excerpts of Constantine Porphyrogenitus; biography comes mainly from Hesychius of Miletus. It is a compilation of compilations, and like most works of its kind has suffered from interpolation. Nevertheless, in spite of its contradictions and other ineptitudes, it is of the highest importance, since it preserves (however imperfectly) much that is ultimately derived from the earliest or best authorities in ancient scholarship, and includes material from many departments of Greek learning and civilization.

Article

Susarion  

Kenneth Dover

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Susarion is first mentioned in the Parian Marble (see marmor parium), under some year between 581 and 560, as having originated Comedy in the Attic *deme Icaria. A later tradition makes him a *Megarian, and he calls himself υἱὸς Φιλίνου Μεγαρόθεν Τριποδίσκιος (‘son of Philinus of Megara, from Tripodiscus’) in the only putative citation from his work. This citation is in normal Attic, and its authenticity is highly improbable; Susarion may indeed be a fictitious person. See comedy (greek), origins of, b 4.

Article

Symmachus (1), Greek commentator, fl. c. 100 CE  

Nigel Wilson

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

A commentary with ὑποθέσεις (see hypothesis, literary (Greek) § (1)) on *Aristophanes (1) which owed much to *Didymus (1) and was one of the main sources of the oldest *scholia to Aristophanes.

Article

symposium literature  

Oswyn Murray

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Three overlapping types may be distinguished: 1. Poetry produced for the *symposium: this includes most or all Archaic monodic lyric poetry and at least some choral lyric, and much of elegiac and iambic poetry. There is a strong metasympotic element in this poetry, a tendency to relate content to context of performance; there is also a strong element of the normative: many elegiac and other poems offer rules for the conduct of symposia (*Xenophanes, *Panyassis, *Critias). Certain themes and forms like the epigram, the skolion (see scolia), riddles, and chain poems are characteristic. From the real context of the symposium a literary context developed: much Hellenistic and Roman poetry purports to be composed for the symposium; obvious examples are the *Anacreontea and the lyric poetry of *Horace.2.*Plato (1) established the prose genre of the Symposium, an imagined dialogue of set speeches or discussions usually on themes appropriate to the occasion. Plato wrote on ideal love; *Xenophon (1)'s Symposium is more realistic and less serious; *Aristotle wrote on drunkenness, *Epicurus on the physical effects of wine and sex, *Heraclides (4) of Tarentum on the medical effects of food and drink (Ath.

Article

Syrianus, rhetorician and Neoplatonist philosopher  

Donald Russell

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

Rhetorician and Neoplatonist philosopher (See neoplatonism), who succeeded Plutarch of Athens as head of the *Academy in 431 ce/2. His own pupil and successor was *Proclus, who owed much to him. Extant works are a commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics, and commentaries on *Hermogenes (2)'s Peri ideōn (On Types of Style) and Peri staseōn (On Issues).

Article

tachygraphy  

H. Maehler

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
There is no clear evidence for the existence and use of a Greek system of shorthand before the Roman period. Two inscriptions, one from the Athenian Acropolis (IG 2/32. 2783; 4th cent. bce) and one in *Delphi (J. Bousquet, BCH1956, 20–32; 3rd cent. bce), which have been thought to represent shorthand, are to be interpreted as experimental proposals for a system of abbreviations rather than as the kind of shorthand that would have enabled a secretary to take down a speech verbatim.The first speech which, according to *Plutarch (Cat. Min. 23. 3), was recorded in this way was the one delivered by M. *Porcius Cato(2) on 5 December 63 bce in which he demanded the death penalty for the Catilinarians (see sergius catilina, l.). Plutarch adds that *Cicero had scribes specially trained for this purpose, because at that time professional shorthand scribes (σημειογράφοι) did not yet exist, as the new technique was only just beginning to develop.

Article

technopaignia  

Jan Kwapisz

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
  2. Latin Literature

The term technopaignia is primarily used with reference to the six Greek figure poems of the Palatine Anthology (Anth. Pal. 15.21–22, 24–27); in likely chronological order, these are Axe, Wings of Eros, and Egg by Simias of Rhodes, Syrinx, attributed to Theocritus, and two Altars. The lines of these poems vary in length, through metrical manipulation, to form the outlines of the described objects. The emergence of pattern poetry in the Hellenistic period reflects the broader penchant for bridging art and literature and was due to the development of book culture, including in particular the tradition of metrical experimentalism. The term technopaignia is at times extended to include Roman picture poems, such as the fragmentarily attested figure poem Phoenix by Laevius, a snake-shaped graffito poem from Pompeii (CIL IV 1595), and the highly refined visual poetry of Optatianus Porfyrius. The six Greek technopaignia and the grid poems of Optatianus Porfyrius are followed by a long line of imitators in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and beyond. The term technopaignia is also used more generally for all sorts of ancient linguistic games.

Article

Teleclides, Athenian comic poet  

Kenneth Dover

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Teleclides, Athenian comic poet (see comedy (greek), old), won three victories at the City *Dionysia, the first c. 445 bce (IG 22. 2325. 54), and five at the *Lenaea, the first c. 440 (ibid. 119). We have eight titles (including Eumenides and Hesiodoi (cf.

Article

Telephus (2), of Pergamum, Stoic grammarian, 2nd cent. CE  

Peter Barr Reid Forbes

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Telephus (2) of Pergamum (2nd cent. ce), a Stoic grammarian (see stoicism), teacher of the emperor Lucius *Verus, wrote on *Homer, on the history of literature and of scholarship, on bibliography and antiquities, and on Attic Syntax (five books); he compiled an alphabetical lexicon of things in common use, and an Okytokion (in ten books) of adjectives for the aid of writers and orators.

Article

Telesilla, Argive poet  

C. Carey

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Argive poet (see argos(1)) of the 5th cent. bce. Later tradition (probably of Argive origin, since her statue at Argos showed her putting on a helmet: Paus. 2. 20. 7) credited her with arming the women of Argos after its defeat by *Cleomenes (1) I (Paus. 2. 20. 8; Plut. Mor. 245c–f). *Herodotus(1) 6. 76 ff. does not mention her, and it has been suggested that the incident is a fabrication based on the oracle cited there. Nine fragments survive, possibly from *hymns. Her songs, written in the choral lyric dialect, were composed for choirs of girls (PMG fr. 717); *Artemis and *Apollo are prominent in the meagre remains; mythic narrative was present, with a strong local colour. The Telesilleion, or acephalous glyconic, is called after her (see metre, greek, § 4 (h), cf. 4 (d)).

Article

Telestes  

Cecil Maurice Bowra

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Telestes, *dithyrambic poet of *Selinus (Ath. 616 f., Diod. Sic. 46. 6), won victory at Athens 402/1 bce (Marm. Par.79). Titles of his dithyrambs are Argo, Asclepius, and Hymenaeus, of which in all four fragments survive. The comedian *Theopompus(2) referred to him (Ath. 501 f.). In style and music he resembled *Timotheus(1) and *Philoxenus(1) (Dion.

Article

Terpanderof Antissa  

Cecil Maurice Bowra and Eveline Krummen

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Terpander (Τέρπανδρος) of *Antissa in *Lesbos, outstanding musician and poet of the early 7th cent. bce, head of the guild of citharodes in Antissa; yet his main activity was focused in *Sparta (Arist. fr. 551 Gigon = T 60 c Gostoli), where he instituted and won the first citharodic competition at the *Carnea (676/3 bce; Ath. 635e; ps.-Plut. De mus. 9 = Mor. 1134b). He also won four successive victories at the Pythian festival (see pythian games) (ibid. 4). He is considered the creator of the canon of the seven citharodic nomes (see music) which he used for the setting to music of his own compositions and the verses of *Homer (ibid. 3). He composed citharodic prooemia (preludes) and *scolia (i.e. drinking songs, ibid. 28), invented the seven-stringed cithara or lyre, introduced the Mixolydian tune, and prevented a civil war in Sparta either by singing with his cithara or by playing the pipes. It is doubtful whether the fragments ascribed to him are genuine; they include such subjects as ‘the new song’, ‘the Muses’, ‘Zeus, the beginning of the universe’. The existence of an Alexandrian edition seems unlikely. See also music.

Article

Teucer (3), of Cyzicus, Greek writer, c. mid-1st cent. BCE  

Alexander Hugh McDonald and Kenneth S. Sacks

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
  2. Near East

Wrote several books about the contemporary near east, including coverage of Pompey's settlement in 63–62. His Περὶ χρυσοφόρου γῆς (‘On the Gold-Producing Land’) does not necessarily identify him with *Teucer(4) of Babylon.

Article

textual criticism  

M. D. Reeve

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
  2. Latin Literature
  3. Reception
Textual criticism sets out to establish what a text originally said or meant to say. Anyone who checks a garbled message with the sender has given a faultless demonstration of it. Classical texts, which have mostly come down through a succession of copies, present stiffer challenges. Even some inscriptions (see epigraphy) are corrupt.Politian (Poliziano; see scholarship, classical, history of) in 1489 first refined ancient methods by showing that for historical reconstruction authorities were less to be counted than weighed and derivative ones ignored. He made such arresting discoveries as that all copies of Cicero's Ad familiares in circulation derived from one misbound ancestor. For 300 years these insights were seldom exploited even by critics good at picking out valuable witnesses, like Heinsius and Bentley; and when genealogical classification finally took hold, among editors of the Bible in the later 18th cent. and of classical texts in the 1820s, it was not until 1872 that the historical linguist Johannes Schmidt framed the cardinal principle, still often flouted, that in a family only shared innovations indicate a closer relationship.

Article

Thaletas, of Gortyn  

Cecil Maurice Bowra and Eveline Krummen

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

Thaletas of Gortyn, in *Crete (Paus. 1. 14. 4), worked at Sparta in the 7th cent. bce, where he founded the Gymnopaedia (ps.-Plut. De mus. 9) and cured the plague or prevented a civil war with his songs. He wrote poems which urged obedience to the laws (Plut.

Article

Theagenes (2), of Rhegium, grammarian and Homeric critic, fl. c. 525 BCE  

M. B. Trapp

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Theagenes of Rhegium, grammarian and Homeric critic (see homer). Ancient sources claim him as the first both to raise questions of style (Ἑλληνισμός, ‘Hellenism’; see greek language, § 1.3) and to defend Homer's account of the strife of the gods (Il.20) as an *allegory of the ‘strife’ of the natural elements.

Article

theatre staging, Greek  

J. Richard Green

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
  2. Greek Material Culture
The visual element in Greek theatre is demonstrably strong from the time of the earliest formal drama; the importance accorded to stage production may be judged from *Aristophanes(1)'s *parodies of tragic performances in his comedies, or indeed from the whole development of theatre as a genre in the 5th and 4th centsuries bce; if confirmation were needed, it would come from the reservations *Aristotle expresses about production as opposed to composition in his lectures on composition in the Poetics (1450b17–20; 1453b1 ff.).Theatres in antiquity were constantly modified and rebuilt, and the surviving remains give few clear clues to the nature of the theatrical space available to the Classical dramatists of the 5th cent. In the Theatre of Dionysus at Athens, the wall of conglomerate stone (H, with its projection T), which was traditionally taken as belonging to the stage building of the later 5th century, is now thought by some to date to the mid-4th. (See theatres (greek and roman).

Article

Themistogenes, of Syracuse  

Klaus Meister

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Themistogenes of *Syracuse, pseudonym under which *Xenophon(1) published the Anabasis (Hell. 3. 1, 2), in order to create the impression of greater objectivity (Plut.Mor. 345). The *Suda accepts Themistogenes' historicity; but it is unlikely that a third author should have written on the march of the 10,000 in addition to *Sophaenetus (FGrH109) and Xenophon.