(), an Athenian comic poet, belonging to the
latter years of the Old Comedy, and the beginning of the Middle.
He was contemporary with Diocles and Philyllius (Suid. s. v.Διοκλῆς). Since he ridiculed the pronunciation of
Hegelochus, the actor of the
Orestes of Euripides, which was brought out in
B. C. 408, he must have been exhibiting comedies soon after that
year (Schol. ad Eur. Orest. 279 ; Schol.
ad Aristoph. Frogs 305 ; Clinton,
F. H. vol. ii. s. a. 407, and Preface, p. xxix.).
On the other hand, if the comedy entitled Io, which is mentioned in the
didascalic monument (Böckh, Corp. Inscr. vol. i. p. 353) be the
Io of Sannyrion, his age would be brought down to S.
C. 374.
We know nothing of his personal history, except that his excessive leanness was ridiculed by
Strattis in his
Cinesias and Psychastae
(Pollux, 10.189; Ath. xii. p. 551c.; for explanations of the passages, see Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 769, 785); and also by Aristophanes in the
Gerytades, where he and Meletus and Cinesias are chosen as ambassadors from
the poets to the shades below, because, being shades themselves, they were frequent visitants
of that region (ᾁδοφοῖται, Ath. l.c. a; comp. the editions of the Fragments by Bekker, Dindorf, and Bergk apud Meineke). It is a proof of how lightly and good-humouredly such jests were
thrown about by the comic poets, that Sannyrion himself ridiculed Meletus on precisely the
same ground in his Τέλως, calling him τὸν ὰπὸ Ληναίου νεκρόν (Ath. l c.). He
also returned the compliment to Aristophanes, by ridiculing him for spending his life in
working for others; referring doubtless to his habit of bringing out his comedies in other
persons' names. (Schol. ad Plat. p. 331, ed. Bekker; comp. PHILONIDES.)
Works
The following are mentioned as his dramas by Suidas (s. c.):--Τέλως, Δανάη, Ἰώ, Ψυχασταί; but the
reference which Suidas proceeds to make to Athenaeus, as his authority, proves that he has
got the last title by a careless reading of the passage above quoted, in which Athenaeus says
that Sannyrion was ridiculed in the
Psychastae of Strattis.
Eudocia (p. 382) omits the Δανάη, and adds the
Ἰνώ and Σαρδανάπαλλος, of which there is no other mention made.
A few scattered lines are preserved from the Τέλως,
and a fragment of five lines from the Δανάη, in which
he ridicules, as Aristophanes also does in the
Frogs (305), Hegelochus's
pronunciation of the word γάλην̓, in a line of the Orestes of Euripides (Schol. ad Eurip. et Aristoph. ll.
cc.).
There are a few words from the
Io in Athenaeus (vi. p. 261f.).
The
Danae and Io evidently belong, in subject, to the Middle
Comedy, although, from the circumstance just mentioned, the date of the former cannot be
placed much lower than B. C. 407.
Further Information
Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. vol. i. pp. 263, 264, vol. ii. pp. 873-875;
Bergk, Reliq. Comoed. Att. Ant. p. 430; Bode, Gesch. d.
Hellen. Dichtkunst, vol. iii. pt. 2, p. 387.