Philoxenus of Cythera

Philoxenos of Kythira ( ancient Greek Φιλόξενος, * to 435 BC on the island of Kythira, † 380 BC in Ephesus ) was a Greek Dithyrambendichter. He came as a prisoner of war in the possession of the musician Melanippides of Melos, who trained him and released them. In classical literature, a character named Philoxenus of Leucas is anecdotal as " parasites" and " parasite" described, whose identity with Philoxenos of Kythira is not substantiated. However, both people and another Philoxenos were repeatedly confused in writings of antiquity with each other or details from their lives and their works mixed together.

Philoxenos stayed for a time in Sicily at the court of the elder Dionysius in which it is one of Dionysus ' lover, or by other sources because of his outspoken criticism of the written by rulers poems, stuck in the stone quarries. Due because of adjustments towards Galatea, But he mocked in his most famous Dionysos dithyramb " Cyclops " or " Galatea " in which he himself represented the visually impaired Dionysus as " Cyclops " Galatea as a flute player and as Odysseus.

In the late 5th and early 4th century Philoxenos was with his fellow poet Timotheus of Miletus, Telestes of Selenus Polyidus and a major representative of the " new music ", who wanted to create dramatic effects by breaking with the traditional forms of Greek music. Philoxenus ' dithyramb were famous for the original expression and the variety of melodies, their authors were celebrated. Philoxenos won in the year before his death in Athens victory in a poet hard, and Polybius described still around 100 BC, as the boys in Arcadia learn the songs of Philoxenus and Timotheus. Two hundred years later, Plutarch began his work De audiendis poetis with a quote from Philoxenos, he was apparently able to assume that his readers knew the poet. To date, " The Feast " are of Philoxenos parts of the lyric poem obtained whose content is a strange contrast to the traditional Doric rhythms.

Expenditure

Collection of traditional fragments, in:

• Theodor Bergk: poetae lyrici Graeci. 3 volumes. Volume 1: Reichenbach, Leipzig 1843 Online PDF; 51.4 MB, Volume 2: BG Teubner, Leipzig 1882 Online PDF; 25.5 MB, Volume 3: BG Teubner, Leipzig 1882 Online PDF; 35.7 MB, all accessed on August 20, 2013
• David A. Campbell: Greek Lyric. Vol 5: The new school of poetry and songs and hymns anonymous. The Loeb classical library Vol 144 Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.. , 1993, ISBN 0-674-99559-7