Pherecrates
Pherecrates(Greek:Φερεκράτης) was aGreekpoetof AthenianOld Comedy,and a rough contemporary ofCratinus,CratesandAristophanes.
He was victorious at least once at theCity Dionysia,first probably in the mid-440s (IG II2 2325. 56; the fourth entry afterTeleclidesand three poets whose names have been lost, and just beforeHermippus), and twice at theLenaia,first probably in the mid- to late 430s (IG II2 2325. 122; just after Cratinus and just before Hermippus). He was especially famous for his inventive imagination, and the elegance and purity of his diction are attested by the epithet Ἀττικώτατος (most Attic) applied to him byAthenaeusand thesophistPhrynichus.He was the inventor of a newmeter,called after him, thePherecratean,which frequently occurs in the choruses ofGreek tragediesand inHorace.According to an anonymous essay on tragedy,[citation needed]Pherecrates wrote 18 plays, suggesting that one or more of the 19 surviving titles must be eliminated somehow (i.e. by assigning the play to another author who wrote a comedy by the same name, and assuming an ancient scholarly error, or by identifying e.g. The Human Heracles and The Fake Heracles as a single play with multiple titles).
Surviving Titles and Fragments[edit]
288 fragments (including six dubia) of his comedies survive, along with the following 19 titles:
- Agathoi( "The Good Men" )
- Agrioi( "The Wild Men," or "The Savages" )
- Anthropherakles( "The Human Heracles"; possibly the same play asPseuderakles)
- Automoloi( "The Deserters" )
- Graes( "The Old Women," or "The Hags" )
- Doulodidaskalos( "The Slave Teacher" )
- Epilesmon( "The Forgetful Man" ) orThalatta( "The Sea" )
- Ipnos( "The Kitchen" ) orPannychis(The All-Night Festival ")
- Korianno( "Corianno" )
- Krapataloi( "The Good-For-Nothings" )
- Leroi( "Jewelry" )
- Metalles( "The Miners" )
- Metoikoi( "The Resident Aliens" )
- Myrmekanthropoi( "The Ant-Men" )
- Persai( "The Persians" )
- Petale( "Petale" )
- Tyrannis( "Tyranny" )
- Cheiron( "Chiron")
- Pseuderakles( "The Fake Heracles"; possibly the same play asAnthropherakles)
The standard edition of the fragments and testimonia is inRudolf KasselandColin François Lloyd Austin'sPoetae Comici GraeciVol. VII. The eight-volumePoetae Comici Graeciproduced from 1983 to 2001 replaces the outdated collectionsFragmenta Comicorum GraecorumbyAugust Meineke(1839-1857),Comicorum Atticorum FragmentabyTheodor Kock(1880-1888) andComicorum Graecorum FragmentabyGeorg Kaibel(1899).
References[edit]
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Pherecrates".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Gilman, D. C.;Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905)..New International Encyclopedia(1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
