Achaios from Eretria

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Achaios from Eretria (* around 484 BC ; † before 406 BC ) was a Greek tragedy poet, of whom only a few fragments have survived.

Live and act

We are only informed about his work from isolated information from Athenaios and from a vita of the Byzantine Suda (10th century). According to Suda, his father was called Pythodoros or Pythorides; he was during the 76th Olympiad, around 484 BC. Born in BC, he was a lot younger than his contemporaries Sophocles and Euripides . At the 83rd Olympiad (around 454 BC) he appeared for the first time in Athens with a piece and competed with Euripides. He is said to have only won one victory in the tragedy contest in the course of his career. He must have died before the performance of Aristophanes' Frogs , as he is not mentioned among the tragedy writers listed there.

Only the Suda gives information about the number of his pieces: He is said to have written 44, 30 or 24 pieces, i.e. eleven, eight or six tetralogies . His pieces must have survived into the Hellenistic period. Only 19 titles are known today, of which at least six, probably ten, are satyr games . This focus makes understandable the judgment of the philosopher Menedemos of Eretria that Achaios is only second to Aeschylus in the satyr play.

The history of the impact of Achaios can only be partially reconstructed. The comedy writer Aristophanes verifiably parodied him once, his colleague Euripides is said to have adopted a sentence from him, the grammarian and philologist Didymos Chalkenteros wrote a commentary on his dramas after the news of Athenaeus.

Well-known pieces

The fragments are cited by August Nauck according to the page numbers and consecutive numbering of the Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta , 2nd edition, Leipzig 1889 . Ludwig von Urlichs provided the first collection of fragments on Achaios in his dissertation Achaei Eretriensis quae supersunt (Bonn 1834).

title genus material Fragments
Ἄδραστος tragedy Adrastos 746/1
Αἴθων Satyr game Aithon, probably through Odysseus or Erysichthon 747-749 / 6-11
Ἀλκμέων Satyr game Alkmaion 749-750 / 12-15
Ἀλφεσίβοια tragedy Alphesiboia 750/16
Ἆθλα / Ἆθλοι Satyr game (?) "The competitions" 746-747 / 3-4
Ἀζᾶνες tragedy Azan 746/2
Ἐργῖνος tragedy Erginos no
Ἥφαιστος Satyr game Hephaestus 750/17
Ἴρις Satyr game iris 751-752 / 19-23
Κύκνος Satyr game (?) "The Swan" 752 / 24-25
Λίνος Satyr game Linos 752-753 / 26
Μοῖραι Satyr game (?) "The Moiren " 753 / 27-28
Μῶμος Satyr game (?) Momos 753-754 / 29
Οἰδίπους tragedy Oedipus 754 / 30-31
Ὀμφάλη Satyr game Omphale 754-755 / 32-35
Περίθοος tragedy Peirithoos 755/36
Φιλοκτήτης tragedy Philoctetes 755-756 / 37
Φρίξος tragedy Phrixus 756/38
Θησεύς tragedy Theseus 751/18

literature

personal data
SURNAME Achaios from Eretria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Achaios
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek tragedian
DATE OF BIRTH around 484 BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH Eretria
DATE OF DEATH around 406 BC Chr.