Kodros

Kodros on an Attic red-figure bowl (Bologne)

Domenico Beccafumi : The victim of Kodros

Kodros ( Greek Κόδρος ), the son of Melanthos , was the last mythical king of Attica .

According to mythical tradition, when the Dorians invaded the oracle, the Athenians would only win if their king was killed by the enemy. Kodros, disguised as a farmer, went to the enemy camp on the Ilisos River . He started a quarrel there and was slain, whereupon the Dorians, after hearing of the oracle, actually withdrew. They left Megara , which had already been conquered , to the Corinthians .

The succession is told in different ways. One version reads: Under the pretext that no one is worthy to follow Kodros as king, the Eupatrids used his sons' controversy for the throne to abolish the monarchy. Medon became the first lifelong archon of Kodros' sons, while Neleus and Androklos founded colonies in Asia Minor.

In Delphi there was a statue of Kodros made by Phidias .

Literary adaptations

Lessing was interested in the Kodros material in the 1750s, but couldn't get beyond sketches for a planned piece. Johann Friedrich von Cronegk, on the other hand, submitted his five-act Alexandrian tragedy “Codrus” to the Nicolai competition in 1757 and was thus declared the winner. The piece then appeared in print for the first time in 1758 in the appendix to the first two volumes of the Library of Fine Sciences and the Freyen Künste and later saw further editions. A performance in Hamburg is discussed in Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's Hamburg Dramaturgy .

literature

Balduin Lorentz : Kodros . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.1, Leipzig 1894, column 1265 ( digitized version ).
Karl Scherling: Kodros 1. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XI, 1, Stuttgart 1921, Col. 984-994.

Individual evidence

↑ Justin , Epitome 2, 6, 16-21.
^ Pausanias , Travels in Greece 1,19,5.
^ Pausanias, Travels in Greece 1,39,4.
^ Strabo , Geographica 633.
^ Pausanias, Journeys in Greece 10,10,1.
↑ Friedrich Nicolai: Critique of the "Freygeist". In: Appendix to the first and second volumes of the library of the fine sciences and the free arts. Dyck, Leipzig 1758, pp. III – XXIV, here pp. XIV – XXI ( online ).

predecessor	Office	successor
Melanthos	King of Attica	Medon

[1] Justin , Epitome 2, 6, 16-21.

[2] Pausanias , Travels in Greece 1,19,5.

[3] Pausanias, Travels in Greece 1,39,4.

[4] Strabo , Geographica 633.

[5] Pausanias, Journeys in Greece 10,10,1.

[6] Friedrich Nicolai: Critique of the "Freygeist". In: Appendix to the first and second volumes of the library of the fine sciences and the free arts. Dyck, Leipzig 1758, pp. III – XXIV, here pp. XIV – XXI ( online ).