Greek Literature

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Article

Timotheus (1), of Miletus, citharode and dithyrambic poet, c. 450–360 BCE  

Bernhard Zimmermann

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Timotheus (1) (c. 450–360 bce), of Miletus, famous citharode (lyre player and singer) and dithyrambic poet (see dithyramb). *Pherecrates criticizes him as the most effective musical innovator of the late 5th cent. bce (fr. 155. 19 ff. Kassel–Austin). Around 420 he won a victory as citharode over the famous Phrynis (fr. 802). In a papyrus of the 4th cent. bce large portions of his Persians, a citharodic nomos (see nomos(2)), are preserved, for which *Euripides wrote the prologue (Satyr. Vit. Eur. fr. 39, col. 22), probably performed between 410 and 407 bce. It is an account of the battle of Salamis mainly from a Persian point of view (see salamis, battle of). The passages in which a shipwrecked Persian struggles for his life or the Persians invoke their homeland or beseech the victors in broken Greek give an especially lively picture of the events and are a sign of the mimetic character of the music. In the final lines Timotheus proclaims the newness of his art (cf. also fr. 796). The Persians is astrophic (see dithyramb) and polymetrical, constructed mainly on iambic–trochaic and aeolic cola (see metre, greek, § 4 (a and h)).

Article

Tisias, of Syracuse, teacher of rhetoric, 5th cent. BCE  

Donald Russell

Article

Publication History:

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

Tisias of Syracus (5th cent. bce), teacher of rhetoric, pupil of *Corax. *Plato(1) (Phdr. 267a ff.) is the earliest evidence for Tisias' having taught the importance of probability (εἰκός) and the power of speech to revalue things. As with Corax, there are reasonable doubts about the form and content of his teaching.

Article

tourism  

Antony Spawforth

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
  2. Greek Literature
  3. Greek Material Culture
  4. Roman Material Culture
Well-known Greek tourists include *Solon, said (Hdt. 1. 30) to have visited Egypt and Lydia ‘for the sake of seeing’ (theōria), and *Herodotus (1) himself. Sea-borne *trade and sightseeing were surely companions from an early date, as they still were in the 4th cent. (Isoc. Trapeziticus 17. 4). A genre of Greek periegetic (‘travel’) literature arose by the 3rd cent., from which date fragments survive of a descriptive work, On the Cities in Greece, by Heraclides Criticus (ed. F. Pfister (1951); for partial trans. see Austin83); the only fully preserved work of this type is *Pausanias (3) (see polemon(3)), illustrating the thin line between sightseers and pilgrims. Under Rome ancient sightseeing came into its own. A papyrus (PTeb. 1. 33 = Bagnall and Derow 58) of 112 bce gives instructions to prepare for a Roman senator's visit to the *Fayūm, including titbits for the crocodiles; the colossi of *Memnon and other pharaonic monuments are encrusted with Greek and Latin graffiti.

Article

Toxaris  

Antony Spawforth

Article

Publication History:

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

Toxaris, one of the two speakers in Lucian's fictional essay of the same name, representing him as a Scythian visitor to Athens, given heroic honours there after his death in gratitude for good medical advice sent by him in a dream in time of plague.

Article

tragedy, Greek  

Richard Seaford, Patricia E. Easterling, and Fiona Macintosh

Article

Publication History:

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

Tragedy, one of the most influential literary forms that originated in Greece, is particularly associated with Athens in the 5th cent. bce, the period that saw its most distinctive development. All but one of the surviving plays date from the 5th cent. (the exception, Rhesus, attributed to *Euripides, is probably 4th cent.), but these represent only a tiny sample of the vast body of material produced from the late 6th cent. onwards; new plays were still being composed as late as the 2nd cent. ce. The popularity of the dramatic festivals at Athens attracted interest in other cities, with the result that performances of tragedy rapidly became common elsewhere, and what began as a medium reflecting the life of a particular community acquired universal appeal in the Greek-speaking world. By the end of the 3rd cent. bce, Roman translations and adaptations began to extend the range of its influence still further.

Article

tragic history  

Lisa Irene Hau

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
24 May 2018
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
  2. Latin Literature
Tragic history is a phrase coined in the late 19th century to describe a certain type of Hellenistic history writing, which was thought to have Peripatetic underpinnings, and whose main proponents were Duris of Samos and Phylarchus (of Athens or Naucratis). The expression gained currency quickly and is still widely used to designate un-Polybian, sensationalist, and emotionally involved historiography from the Hellenistic period (the works of which have all been lost), in spite of the current communis opinio among specialists that there was no real “school” of tragic history.Tragic history is a phrase coined in the late 19th century to describe a certain type of Hellenistic history writing, which was thought to have Peripatetic underpinnings, and whose main proponents were Duris of Samos and Phylarchus (of Athens or Naucratis). The expression gained currency quickly and is still widely used to designate un-Polybian, sensationalist, and emotionally involved historiography from the Hellenistic period (the works of which have all been lost), in spite of the current .

Article

Triclinius, Demetrius, early 14th cent. CE  

Nigel Wilson

Article

Publication History:

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

Demetrius Triclinius (early 14th cent.), one of the most important scholars of his day, lived probably Thessalonica. He prepared editions of numerous classical poets, using his knowledge of metre to improve the text, and in some cases he also revised the accompanying corpus of *scholia. A number of his emendations are generally accepted; but though he was a better metrician than his contemporaries many of his alterations to the text are violent and unnecessary (see textual criticism). He is known to have worked on *Aeschylus, *Sophocles (1), *Euripides, *Aristophanes (1), *Pindar, *Hesiod, *Theocritus, and *Babrius. Several autograph manuscripts survive. His scientific interests are demonstrated by a recently published treatise on lunar theory.

Article

Triphiodorus, of Panopolis  

Laura Miguélez-Cavero

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Triphiodorus, who originated from Egypt and lived in the 3rd century ce, was an epic poet and teacher of grammar whose only extant work is The Sack of Troy (691 lines, narrating the final events of the Trojan War).Triphiodorus means “gift of Triphis,” a local deity of Panopolis (modern Akhmim) in Upper Egypt, and was a common name in Panopolis itself and all over Upper Egypt. This and the entry of the Suda (T 1111), calling him an Egyptian, have led to the conclusion that he originated from the area of Panopolis. The Suda actually includes two entries under the same name, the first (T 1111) calling him a poet and grammarian (γραμματικὸς καὶ ποιητὴς ἐπῶν) and attributing to him Marathoniaca (Μαραθωνιακά, on the battle of Marathon, or more likely on Theseus and the Marathonian bull, as in Callimachus’ Hecale), The Sack of Troy.

Article

Troy  

Peter Pavúk

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
  2. Greek Material Culture: Bronze Age
  3. Near East

Major Bronze Age fortified settlement on the West Anatolian coast, south of the Dardanelles, consisting of a citadel and a lower town, changing in size and importance over time. The site, formerly called formerly Hisarlık, has been intermittently excavated for more than a century now, mainly thanks to Heinrich Schliemann’s identification of the site with Homeric Troy. Whereas the Homeric question has become less central over the years, it is clear by now that Troy, thanks to its localisation in the border-zone between Anatolia, the Aegean, and the Balkans, but also thanks to its uninterrupted occupation from c. 2900 bce to the 6th century ce, is an important archaeological site on its own. Troy became a major reference point, with two main cultural peaks: during Troy II/III (c. 2550–2200 bce) and later on during Troy VI Late/VIIa (c. 1400-1180 bce). It must have profited from a fertile surrounding, the trade in raw materials, or its facilitation, and possibly human resources. Situated on the edge of the Near Eastern civilisations, it was still part of the broader Bronze Age world.

Article

Tryphon (2), Greek grammarian, late 1st cent. BCE  

Peter Barr Reid Forbes and Nigel Wilson

Article

Publication History:

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

Tryphon (2), son of Ammonius, an important Greek grammarian from *Alexandria(1) (late 1st cent. bce). His works, which were used by his contemporary *Didymus(1), by *Apollonius(13) Dyscolus, and very freely by *Herodian(1), included treatises on parts of speech, pronunciation, accents, orthography, and dialect forms. His works are almost entirely lost, though some brief treatises transmitted under his name may contain elements from the original texts.

Article

Tynnichus, of Chalcis, early 5th cent. BCE?  

Bernhard Zimmermann

Article

Publication History:

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

Tynnichus (early 5th cent.?), poet of *Chalcis, whose reputation rested on a *Paean, of which one line was admired by *Aeschylus (test. 114 Radt = Porphyrius 2. 18, p. 148 Nauck) and by *Plato(1) (Ion 534d5–e1).

Article

Tyrannio (1), 'the Elder', Aristarchan teacher at Rome, early 1st cent. BCE  

Peter Barr Reid Forbes, Robert Browning, and Nigel Wilson

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Theophrastus, son of Epicratides, of *Amisus (where his teacher nicknamed him Tyrannio), afterwards a pupil of *Dionysius (15) Thrax, was brought by L. *Licinius Lucullus (2) as prisoner to Rome, where he was freed and enjoyed the patronage of *Pompey, being the first Aristarchan (cf. aristarchus(2)) to teach in the city. He was a friend of *Cicero, *Caesar, and T. *Pomponius Atticus, and interested in the *Latin language, which he regarded as derived from an Aeolic Greek dialect (see dialects, greek (prehistory)). He was among those who examined the manuscripts of *Aristotle and *Theophrastus brought by *Sulla from Athens, 86 bce. His works, on metre (a comparatively rare topic), on Homeric and other criticism and exegesis (cf. homer), and on grammar (which, under Atticist influence (see asianism and atticism), he defined as θεωρία μιμήσεως, a ‘theory of imitation’), have perished.

Article

Tyrannio (2) , 'the Younger', grammarian, 1st cent. BCE  

Peter Barr Reid Forbes and Nigel Wilson

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature

Tyrannio (2) the Younger, son of Artemidorus, a *Phoenician, originally named Diocles, was brought as a prisoner to Rome and freed by *Terentia, the widow of *Cicero. He was a pupil of *Tyrannio (1) the Elder, and became an eminent grammarian at Rome. He wrote on accents and other grammatical topics, but his works have been confused with those of the elder Tyrannio, the fate of which they have shared.

Article

Tyro  

Richard Hunter

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
  2. Greek Myth and Religion
Tyro, in mythology, daughter of *Salmoneus and mother (by Cretheus) of *Jason(1)'s father Aeson and (by *Poseidon) of the twins *Pelias and *Neleus. Tyro loved the river *Enipeus, but Poseidon tricked her by assuming that river's form and lay with her (Hom. Od.

Article

Tyrtaeus  

Martin Litchfield West

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Tyrtaeus, Spartan elegiac poet of the mid-7th cent. bce. His works are said to have filled five books; some 250 lines or parts of lines survive in quotations and papyri. They are of great historical interest in relation to two crises affecting Sparta at the time. One was civic unrest that threatened the authority of the kings and elders. In a poem that later came to be entitled Eunomia (‘Law and Order’) (frs. 1–4 W), Tyrtaeus reminded the citizens of the divine right by which the kings ruled, and of the oracle which had laid down the constitutional roles of kings, council, and demos; fr. 4. 3–9 quotes the four-line hexameter oracle, padded out with pentameters, and corresponding to part of the Rhetra in Plut.Lyc. 6. The other crisis was the Second Messenian War (see messenia, Myth-history; sparta, § 2). Here too Tyrtaeus functioned as a sort of state poet, exhorting the Spartans to fight to the death for their city (frs. 10–14, 18–24). *Callinus was making similar use of elegy at the same period on the other side of the Aegean.

Article

Tzetzes, Johannes, 12th cent. CE  

Peter Barr Reid Forbes, Robert Browning, and Nigel Wilson

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
  2. Late Antiquity
Johannes Tzetzes (12th cent. ce), a copious, careless, quarrelsome Byzantine polymath. In his youth he wrote (ce 1143) a commentary on *Homer's Iliad of which the greater part is still unpublished, followed by Allegories on Iliad and Odyssey (in 10,000 verses), and other verse works on Antehomerica, Homerica, and Posthomerica. His other writings included scholia on *Hesiod, *Aristophanes, *Lycophron ( (b)), and others, and a poem on prosody. His chief work, Βίβλος Ἱστορική, Histories, by its first editor named Chiliades, is a review (in 12,674 verses) of Greek literature and learning, with quotations from over 400 authors. In regard to his poverty and slighted merits Tzetzes displays an engaging lack of reticence. He was not always without taste or discretion; e.g. once, when reduced to selling the rest of his library he retained his *Plutarch; nor is felicity of expression lacking in (for example) his objurgation of *Thucydides (2)'s cross-word style (λοξοσυστρόφοις λόγοις).

Article

Ulpianus, of Ascalon  

Nigel Wilson

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
  2. Late Antiquity
Ulpianus of Ascalon taught rhetoric at *Emesa and *Antioch (1) in the reign of Constantine (324–37 ce) and wrote a number of declamations and rhetorical works (no longer extant). He is the reputed author of *scholia to eighteen speeches of *Demosthenes(2); they are of little independent value.

Article

Uranius, Greek writer about Arabia  

Simon Hornblower

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
09 June 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
  2. Late Antiquity
  3. Near East

His date is not quite certain, but 4th century ce (rather than three centuries earlier) seems likeliest. He is a source for much of the Arabian information in Stephanus of Byzantium, in whose treatise on ethnics he is praised highly.

Article

warfare, attitudes to, Greek and Hellenistic  

Michel Austin

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
  2. Greek Literature
Homer'sIliad, a poem about war, does not glorify war: it celebrates martial prowess but also portrays the sufferings caused by war, and *Ares, god of war, is rebuked by Zeus as the most hateful of all the gods, to whom strife, wars, and slaughter are forever dear (Il. 5. 890 f.). The same ambivalence pervades Greek attitudes to warfare. War in Greece was a recurring phenomenon, and conflicts multiplied in numbers and scale as larger power blocks emerged. Greek history divides according to major conflicts: the *Persian Wars, the *Peloponnesian War and its sequels, the rise of *Macedonia, *Alexander(3) the Great's conquest of Asia and the wars of the successor kingdoms (see diadochi; ptolemy(1); seleucids). These provide the subject-matter of much of Greek historical writing. There were also innumerable local wars, less prominent in the record. ‘War is the father of all things’ (Heraclitus, DK 22 B 53). It shaped the institutions, society, and economy of the Greek world. Military function and social and political *status were closely related (Arist.

Article

Xanthus (1), Greek poet  

P. J. Parsons

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
Poet mentioned by *Stesichorus, who adapted many works from him, including the Oresteia; he presented *Heracles in his Homeric guise, and said that Laodice (cf. Il. 9. 145) was renamed Electra because of being unmarried (ἄλεκτρος). This information can be traced back no further than the Homeric scholar Megaclides (later 4th cent. bce?).