Philoxenus of Kythera

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Philoxenos of Kythera ( ancient Greek Φιλόξενος , * around 435 BC on the island of Kythera ; † 380 BC in Ephesus ) was a Greek dithyramb poet . As a prisoner of war it came into the possession of the musician Melanippides von Meloswho trained him and released him. In classical literature, a character named Philoxenus von Leukas is anecdotally described as a “parasite” and “parasite”, but his identity with Philoxenus von Kythira has not been proven. Nevertheless, both people and another Philoxenus were repeatedly confused with each other in writings of antiquity or details from their life and their works were mixed up.

Philoxenus stayed for a while in Sicily at the court of the elder Dionysius , who put him in the quarries because of stalking Galatea, one of Dionysius' lovers, or according to other sources because of his frank criticism of the poems written by the ruler. For this he mocked Dionysius in his most famous dithyramb, Cyclops or Galathea , in which he portrayed the visually impaired Dionysus as Cyclops, Galathea as a flute player and himself as Odysseus.

In the late 5th and early 4th centuries, Philoxenus and his fellow poets Timotheos of Miletus , Telestes of Selenus and Polyidos were a major exponent of "New Music", which wanted to achieve dramatic effects by breaking with traditional forms of Greek music. Philoxenus' dithyrambs were famous for their original expression and variety of melodies, and their authors were celebrated. Philoxenus won a poets' festival in Athens the year before his death, and Polybius described in the 2nd century BC. How the boys in Arcadia learn the songs of Philoxenus and Timotheus. Two hundred years later, Plutarch began his work De audiendis poetis with a quote from Philoxenus; he could obviously assume that his readership knew the poet. To this day, parts of Philoxenus' lyrical poem Der Schmaus have survived , the content of which forms a comical contrast to the traditional Doric rhythms.

expenditure

  • Theodor Bergk : Poetae lyrici graeci. 3 volumes. Volume 1: Reichenbach, Leipzig 1843 Online PDF; 51.4 MB , Volume 2: BG Teubner, Leipzig 1882 Online PDF; 25.5 MB , Volume 3: BG Teubner, Leipzig 1882 Online PDF; 35.7 MB , all accessed August 20, 2013
  • David A. Campbell: Greek Lyric. Vol. 5: The new school of poetry and anonymous songs and hymns (= The Loeb classical library Vol. 144). Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.), 1993, ISBN 0-674-99559-7

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Krystyna Bartol: What did he do? Clearchus on Philoxenus (Ap. Ath. 1.5f – 6a = Clearch. Fr. 57 Wehrli) . In: The Classical Quarterly Vol. 54, No. 1, May 2004 ISSN  0009-8388 , pp. 292-296; Geert Roskam: Philoxenus once again . In: The Classical Quarterly Vol. 56, No. 2, December 2006 ISSN  0009-8388 , pp. 652-656; Pauline LeVen: Les nouveaux visages de la muse au IVe siècle av. J.-C. (The Many-Headed Muse: tradition And Innovation in Fourth-Century BC Greek Lyric Poetry). Thèse de doctorat en Lettres classiques, Université Paris Sorbonne-Paris IV, Paris 2008 Online PDF; 1,525 kB , accessed on August 20, 2013.
  2. ^ JH Hordern: The Cyclops of Philoxenus. In: The Classical Quarterly Vol. 49, No. 2, December 1999 ISSN  0009-8388 , pp. 445-455.
  3. ↑ Pauline Leven: Les nouveaux visages de la muse au IVe siècle av J.-C.. (The Many-Headed Muse: tradition And Innovation in Fourth-Century BC Greek Lyric Poetry). Thèse de doctorat en Lettres classiques, Université Paris Sorbonne-Paris IV, Paris 2008 Online PDF; 1,525 kB , accessed on August 20, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Philoxenus of Kythera
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek dithyramb poet
DATE OF BIRTH around 435 BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH Kythera
DATE OF DEATH 380 BC Chr.
Place of death Ephesus