Xenocles

Xenocles

Xenocles

Ancient Greek tragic poet

For the athlete, see Xenocles of Messenia.

Xenocles (Greek: Ξενοκλῆς) was an ancient Greek tragedian. He won a victory at the Dionysia in 415 BC with the plays Oedipus, Lycaon, and Bacchae with the satyr play Athamas.[1] Other plays by Xenocles include Licymnius, parodied by Aristophanes in The Clouds,[2] and perhaps Myes.[1] Aristophanes also refers negatively to Xenocles in the Thesmophoriazusae and Frogs.[2]

Xenocles was the son of Carcinus the Elder and father of Carcinus the Younger, both also tragic playwrights.[3] He had at least two brothers were also tragic poets or actors. Ancient sources differ on whether Xenocles was one of three or four brothers,[4] and name them variously as Xenotimus, Xenarchus, Demotimus, Xenocleitus, and Datis.[3] Datis, quoted by Aristophanes in Peace,[3] may have been a nickname for Xenocles.[5]

Notes

  1. [1]
    Zimmerman, Bernhard (2006). "Xenocles [2]". Brill's New Pauly. doi:10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e12212800.
  2. [2]
    Brown, Andrew. "Xenocles". Oxford Classical Dictionary (4 ed.).
  3. [3]
    Sutton, Dana Ferrin (1987). "The Theatrical Families of Athens". The American Journal of Philology. 108: 17–18.
  4. [4]
    Public Domain Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Xenocles (2)". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
  5. [5]
    Pressler, Frank (2006). "Datis". Brill's New Pauly.
Stub icon

This article about an Ancient Greek poet is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Xenocles, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.