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LYCOPHRON

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 153 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LYCOPHRON , See also:

Greek poet and grammarian, was See also:born at See also:Chalcis in See also:Euboea. He flourished at See also:Alexandria in the See also:time of See also:Ptolemy Philadeiphus (285–247 B.C.). According to Suidas, he was the son of Socles, but was adopted by Lycus of Rhegium. He was entrusted by Ptolemy with the task of arranging the comedies in the Alexandrian library, and as the result of his labours composed a See also:treatise On See also:Comedy. His own compositions, however, chiefly consisted of tragedies (Suidas gives the titles of twenty, of which very few fragments have been preserved), which secured him a See also:place in the See also:Pleiad of Alexandrian tragedians. One of his poems, Alexandra or See also:Cassandra, containing 1474 See also:iambic lines, has been preserved entire. It is in the See also:form of a prophecy uttered by Cassandra, and relates the later fortunes of See also:Troy and of the Greek and Trojan heroes. References to events of mythical and later times are introduced, and the poem ends with a reference to See also:Alexander the See also:Great, who was to unite See also:Asia and See also:Europe in his See also:world-wide See also:empire. The See also:style is so enigmatical as to have procured for Lycophron, even among the ancients, the See also:title of "obscure" (aKOretvor). The poem is evidently intended to display the writer's knowledge of obscure names and uncommon myths; it is full of unusual words of doubtful meaning gathered from the older poets, and many See also:long-winded compounds coined by the author. It has none of the qualities of See also:poetry, and was probably written as a show-piece for the Alexandrian school. It was very popular in the See also:Byzantine See also:period, and was read and commented on very frequently; the collection of scholia by See also:Isaac and See also:John See also:Tzetzes is very valuable, and the See also:MSS. of the Cassandra are numerous.' A few well-turned lines which have been preserved from Lycophron's tragedies show a much better style; they are said to have been much admired by See also:Menedemus of See also:Eretria, although the poet had ridiculed him in a satyric See also:drama.

Lycophron is also said to have been a skilful writer of anagrams. Editio princeps (1513); J. See also:

Potter (1697, 1702); L. See also:Sebastiani (1803); L. Bachmann (183o); G. See also:Kinkel (188o); E. Scheer (1881–1908), vol. ii. containing the scholia. The most See also:complete edition is by C. von Holzinger (with See also:translation, introduction and notes, 1895). There are See also:translations by F. Deheque (1853) and See also:Viscount See also:Royston (1806; a See also:work of great merit). See also Wilamowitz-Mollendorff, De Lycophronis Alexandra (1884); J. Konze, De Dictione Lycophronis (1870).

The commentaries of the See also:

brothers Tzetzes have been edited by C. 0. See also:Muller (1811).

End of Article: LYCOPHRON

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