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THESPIS (6th cent. B.C.)

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 841 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THESPIS (6th cent. B.C.) , See also:Greek poet, of Icaria, in See also:Attica, generally considered the inventor of tragedy, flourished in the See also:time of the Peisistratidae. According to See also:Diogenes Laertius (iii. 56), he introduced for the first time in the old dithyrambic choruses a See also:person distinct from the See also:chorus, who conversed with the See also:leader, and was hence called Ur oxpeells (" answerer " ).3 a According to another explanation, he was so called from repeat, See also:ing the words of another—the poet or composer. , His claim to be regarded as the inventor of tragedy in the true sense of the See also:term depends upon the extent to which this person was really an " actor " (see See also:DRAMA). Suidas gives the titles (of doubtful authenticity) of several of his plays (not confined to the legends of See also:Dionysus, but embracing the whole See also:body of heroic legends), but the fragments quoted in various writers as from Thespis are probably forgeries by Heracleides of See also:Pontus. The statement of See also:Horace (Ars Poetica, 276) that Thespis went See also:round Attica with a See also:cart, on which his plays were acted, is due to confusion between the origin of tragedy and See also:comedy, and a See also:reminiscence of the scurrilous jests which it was customary to utter from a waggon (axCaµ See also:Tara dµti rtr) at certain religious festivals. A. and M. Croiset (See also:History of Greek Literature, Eng. tr., 1904), who attach more importance to the See also:part played by Thespis in the development of tragedy, accept the testimony of Horace. According to them, Thespis, actor and manager, transported his apparatus on a cart to the deme in which he intended to produce his drama, formed and trained a chorus, and gave a See also:representation in public. See DRAMA; and W. See also:Christ, Griechische Litteraturgeschichle (1898).

End of Article: THESPIS (6th cent. B.C.)

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