A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

(Σωσιφάνης), the son of Sosicles, of Syracuse, a tragic poet, who, according to Suidas, exhibited seventy-three dramas, and obtained seven victories; was one of the seven tragedians who were called the Tragic Pleiad; was born at the end of the reign of Philip, or, as others said, in that of Alexander; and died in the 121st or 124th Olympiad (adopting Clinton's correction ρκά and ρκδ, for ριξ́ and ριδ,); while others stated that he flourished at one or the other of those dates. (Suid. s. v.) Clinton proposes to reduce these statements into a consistent form in the following manner : Sosiphanes was born in the reign of Philip, or in that of Alexander, between B. C. 340 and B. C. 330, and exhibited tragedy in the times of the Pleiad, Ol. 121 (B. C. 296) or Ol. 124 (B. C. 284). He is placed among the poets of the Pleiad by a scholiast on Hephaestion (p. 185), as well as by Suidas; but, in the other three lists, the name of Aeantides appears instead of Sosiphanes. If the latter really belonged to the Tragic Pleiad, he must have been the oldest of the seven poets in it.

Of the seventy-three plays of Sosiphanes, the only remains are one title, Μελέαγρος, and a very few lines from it and other plays. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 318, 322; Clinton, F. H. vol. iii. s. aa. 278, 259, pp. 502, 504; Welcker, Griech. Tragöd. p. 1266; Wagner, Frag. Trag. Graec in Didot's Bibliotheca, p. 157.)

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