A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Σπίνθαρος), of Heracleia on the Pontus, a tragic poet, contemporary with Aristophanes, who designates him as a barbarian and a Phrygian (Av. 763, comp. Schol.). He was also ridiculed by the other comic poets. We know nothing of his plays, except two titles, preserved by Suidas (s. v.), περικαίομενος Ἡρακλῆς, and Σεμέλη κεραυνομένη. He appears to be the same person as the Spintharus who, according to Diogenes Laertius (5.92, 93; comp. Suid. s. v. παραστίχις, attempted to pass off a spurious tragedy, entitled Παρθενοπαῖος as a work of Sophocles ; and so far succeeded as to impose upon Heracleides, who quoted the play as a genuine drama of Sophocles ; but the Alexandrian grammarians never give it a place among the works of Sophocles. The forgery was also ascribed to a certain Dionysius Metathemenus. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 211, 215, 323; Welcker, die Griech. Tragöd. p. 1034; Bode, Gesch. d. Hellen. Dichtkunst, vol. iii. pt. 1, pp. 48, 562.) Respecting some other insignificant writers of this name, see Menag. ad Diog. Laert. 2.20.

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