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

(Μόρσιμος), a tragic poet, the son of Philocles [PHILOCLES], and father of Astydamas He is attacked and ridiculed more than once by Aristophanes, who classes with villains of

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the deepest dye in Hades any one who ever copied out a speech of Morsimus. Besides his profession as a poet, he seems to have practised as a physician and oculist, in which departments, according to all accounts (Schol. ad Arist. Equit. 401; Hesychius, s. v. Κλύμενος), he was not much more successful. (Ran. 151; comp. Equit. 401, Pax, 776, with the scholia on those passages.) Frigidity seems to have been the predominant characteristic of his poetry. (Suidas, s. v.; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 311; Meineke, Fragmenta Com. Graec. vol. ii. part ii. p. 659.)

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