Agathon

Agathon of Athens (c. 448 BC; † 400 BC ) was a Greek tragic poets of antiquity.

Life

Agathon was the son of a rich Athenian Tisamenus, he was a friend of Euripides and Plato. The latter immortalized the banquet, with the Agathon his first dramatic win 417 celebrated by his symposium; with the former, he was up at the court of King Archelaus I of Macedon, where he seems to have died around 402.

Work

Agathon of Athens introduced various rhythmic and musical innovations, also he was the first who dared in his tragedy Anthos (The Flower ) not to take the material from the history of myths, but to invent action and people. In his style he had the sophist Gorgias as a model.

Of his literary works are merely get a few fragmentary verses. He is mentioned as the winner of a tragedy rivalry during the festivals of Dionysus in Athens in the Symposium of Plato.

The fragments of his poems in Naucks Tragicorum Graec. fragmentary ( Leipz. 1856). Wieland has made him the hero of his novel Agathon.

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