Anthos (play)
| Anthos | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Agathon |
| Date premiered | 5th century BCE |
| Place premiered | Athens |
| Original language | Ancient Greek |
| Genre | Athenian tragedy |
Anthos or Antheus (Flower) is a play by the 5th century BCE Athenian dramatist Agathon. The play has been lost. The play is mentioned by Aristotle in his Poetics (1451b) as an example of a tragedy with a plot which gives pleasure despite the incidents and characters being entirely made up.[1][2] Anthos is the only known Greek tragedy play whose plot was entirely invented by the poet.[3] Other 5th century tragedies were based on myth, or less frequently on actual history.[3]
The play's plot is not clear; H. J. Rose claimed that Parthenius of Nicaea sourced the story of Antheus and Cleoboea from this Anthos (or rather Antheus), a typical Potiphar's wife tale where Antheus rejects the married Cleoboea's amorous advances, and she in revenge kills him by throwing a boulder on him after convincing him to go down into a well.[4][5]
See also
References
- ^ Aristotle 2000, p. 69.
- ^ Wright 1907, p. 269.
- ^ a b Austin 2011, p. 25.
- ^ Rose 2004, p. 231.
- ^ Pitcher 1939, pp. 145–8.
Bibliography
- Aristotle (2000). "Poetics". Classical Literary Criticism. Translated by Dorsch, T.S. Penguin Classics. ISBN 9780140446517.
- Austin, N. (2011). Sophocles' Philoctetes and the Great Soul Robbery. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 9780299282745.
- Pitcher, Seymour M. (1939). "The Anthus of Agathon". The American Journal of Philology. 60 (2). doi:10.2307/291196. JSTOR 291196. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
- Rose, Herbert J. (2004). A Handbook of Greek Mythology (6th ed.). London, New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-04601-7.
- Wright, W.C.F. (1907). A short history of Greek literature from Homer to Julian. University of California.