Timothy of Miletus

Timotheos von Milet, The Perser , verses 193–247, in Berlin, Egyptian Museum, Papyrus 9875 (4th century BC)

Timotheus of Miletus ( Τιμόθεος ο Μιλήσιος ; * around 450 BC in Miletus ; † around 360 BC in Macedonia ) was a Greek poet who worked in Athens , Macedonia and Sparta .

Timotheus broke with traditional forms of Greek music to create more emotional and dramatic effects. He is therefore considered to be the main exponent of the “new music”, by which poets like Euripides were influenced.

The best-known work of Timothy is the one from around 410–407 BC. The poem Die Perser (Πέρσαι) originated in the 4th century BC and has been handed down through fragments from ancient authors such as Plutarch and in particular through a papyrus that was discovered in 1902 during excavations by the German Orient Society in Abusir . The papyrus, which dates back to the 4th century BC and contains around 250 verses, is one of the oldest known Greek-language papyri and is now in the Egyptian Museum Berlin (P. Berlin P 9875). The complete work probably comprised more than 700 verses and contains references to the Persians of Aeschylus .

Text output

Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (Ed.): Timotheus. The Persians. From a papyrus by Abusir , Leipzig 1903. [1]
James H. Hordern , The Fragments of Timotheus of Miletus, Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 2002. ISBN 9780199246946

literature

Herman Louis Ebeling: The Persians of Timotheos . In: American Journal of Philology 46, 1925, pp. 317-331.
O. Hansen: On the Date and Place of the First Performance of Timotheus' Persae. In: Philologus 128 (1984), 135-138.
Irene Huber: The Persian nomos of Timotheus. Between entertainment literature and political propaganda . In: Monika Schuol, Udo Hartmann, Andreas Luther (eds.): Transgressions of boundaries : Forms of contact between Orient and Occident in antiquity ( Oriens et Occidens 3), Stuttgart 2001, 169–195.
B. Hutzfeld: The image of the Persians in Greek poetry of the 5th century BC , Wiesbaden 1999.
TH Janssen: Timotheus Persae. A Commentary , Amsterdam 1984.

Individual evidence

↑ Timotheos von Milet, Die Perser ( entry P. 9875 in the Berlin papyrus database ).

personal data
SURNAME	Timothy of Miletus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Timotheus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Greek poet
DATE OF BIRTH	around 450 BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH	Miletus
DATE OF DEATH	around 360 BC Chr.
Place of death	Macedonia

[1] Timotheos von Milet, Die Perser ( entry P. 9875 in the Berlin papyrus database ).