Byzantine Triassic

The term Byzantine Triassic is used in Classical Philology for the selection of three pieces from the works of the four playwrights of classical Greek antiquity : Aeschylus , Sophocles , Euripides and Aristophanes .

Trias means trinity , the adjective Byzantine refers to the meaning of the pieces for teaching and training in the Byzantine Empire .

The term triad has great significance for the tradition of these authors. The learned librarians of the library of Alexandria , especially Callimachus , had compiled a complete catalog of the library and thus of all Greek literature, as far as it was still available, during the Hellenistic period . From the works of the four playwrights, later, during the Roman Empire , a differently extensive selection was made for teaching purposes. The pieces that were considered typical and canonical for the author for the subsequent period - the individual criteria are essentially unknown to us - came into the stream of handwritten tradition and are, apart from a few things found later or contained in quotations, fragments that are available to us today.

From this selection a further selection was made in the Middle Byzantine epoch, from around the year 1000, again for teaching purposes, namely three works by each of the four dramatists that were judged to be particularly representative. Each of these triplets is known as the Byzantine Triassic .

The Byzantine triad of the works of Aeschylus includes the tragedies

• Prometheus bound
• The Persians
• Seven against Thebes

Of the works of Sophocles, the tragedies made their way into the Triassic

• Aias
• Elektra
• King Oedipus

The triad of Euripides are the tragedies

• Hecabe
• Orestes
• The Phoenicians

Contains the triad of comedy poet Aristophanes

• Wealth
• The clouds
• The frogs

The works of this selection of three were extensively annotated with ancient and medieval scholia and were often copied. On the other hand, the dramas contained only in the older and more extensive selection take a back seat. They have been copied less often and in some cases are only contained in manuscripts that go back to a single manuscript.

literature

• Albin Lesky : History of Greek Literature. Francke-Verlag, Bern 1957/58 (2nd edition) on Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes; P. 17 on the transmission of Greek literature.
• Hans Herter : Callimachos 3rd In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 3, Stuttgart 1969, Sp. 73-79 (esp. Sp. 74).

Remarks

1. ↑ Greek τρίας trías
2. ↑ In his compilation Πίνακες τῶν ἐν πάσῃ παιδείᾳ διαλαμψάντων καὶ ὧν συνέγραψαν Pínakes ton en pase paideia dialampsánton kai on synégrapsan (' indexes of the 120 authors' in their entirety ).