Tryphé
Tryphe (Greek τρυφἠ ) referred to the 4th century BC licentiousness, effeminacy, but also elegant life. In the Hellenistic period the importance walked towards the positives and called the public display of Dionysian wealth and abundance, particularly certain forms of self- stylization Hellenistic kings.
In Praise of Folly by Erasmus of Rotterdam Tryphe part of the allegoric wake of folly.
- 2.1 Alexander's march through Carmania
- 2.2 The Dionysian state cult of the Ptolemies
- 2.3 Festival Procession of Ptolemy II
- 2.4 Demetrios Poliorketes
Archaic and Classical Period
Sybaris
The city on the Gulf of Taranto, belonging to Magna Graecia Sybaris was well known in antiquity for its wealth and the inclination of residents to good living and for flaunting her wealth. The lifestyle of the Sybarites and Tryphe were almost interchangeable terms with each other, so that even in ancient times Sybarite or Sybaritentum synonyms for " spoiled sissy " or " luxurious dissolute life " were.
In this life of luxury relating anecdotes were called Sybaritikoi logoi ( " sybaritic stories "). Some examples of these anecdotes are narrated by Athenaeus:
- A Sybarite tells how he mere fact that he watched a farm laborer at work, possibly sustain a fracture. A listener: "I ache already from listening the ribs. "
- A Sybarite visited Sparta and where he took part in a communal meal. The food was sparse and the bank hard. The Sybarite said: "I used to admire you because of your Spartan valor. Now I no longer wonder your fearlessness, because even the biggest coward would rather die than to live such a life to end. "
- A Sybarite wanted to Croton go and hired a ship for himself alone. The captain had to promise him that he would not be splashed. Then he tried to persuade a friend to accompany him: "I have agreed with the captain that he keeps close to the country. " Then the friend: " What? I would hardly let me talk about an overland expedition along the lake, let alone a sea voyage along the country! "
In general, the Sybarite seems to have been rather averse to travel. Some were proud to have long not leave her life Sybaris. It was also rumored them to need for the distance of one day's journey three days, although they used the car. Some of the roads in the area were incidentally covered.
As for the health and preservation, as it was considered healthy to drink a lot and turn night into day. This at least is reported by the Sybarites Smindyrides. Athenaeus quotes one of the Chamaeleon of Pontus or Theophrastus attributed to work over the pleasure which Smindyrides 've seen in 20 years, neither sunrise nor sunset, as he rose in the evening and early morning went to bed.
From the same Smindyrides Herodotus, he was one of the suitors who are Agariste, the daughter of Cleisthenes, tyrant of Sicyon, competed. For a wife he had, according to Athenaeus appeared with an entourage of 1,000 chefs and trappers.
It was also this Smindyrides, tells of the Aelian that he had complained for a spent on rose petals night on the uncomfortable surface. The Exaggerated such stories suggests that existing here narrative motifs, ranging in this case from antiquity up to Andersen's Princess and the Pea, transferred to a specific person, or were corresponding to " Sybaritengeschichten " rebuilt.
Tryphe in Hellenism
Alexander's march through Carmania
Plutarch in his biography of Alexander, that when the army of Alexander drew on his way back from India through Carmania in southern Persia, this train had taken the form of a dionyischen Komo, so the festive procession of a binge society. For seven days the army was constantly carousing and singing hand in hand drawn, accompanied by cries bakchische ejecting women and the sounds of Syrinx and flute. He himself, Alexander would have been sitting with his cronies on one of eight horse -drawn floats and had been drinking all the time in front of everyone. The authenticity of this story, however, was already doubted by Arrian.
The Dionysian state cult of the Ptolemies
Especially with the Ptolemies took Tryphe as self-representation of the ruler of almost the shape of a state cult or a state ideology.
This was also reflected in the nickname: Ptolemy III. and Ptolemy IV carried the nickname of Tryphon. When Ptolemy VIII, it appears as part of the official titulary.
At the public presentation of feasting was also corpulence and a demonstrative Effiminiertheit: The representation of Ptolemaic their apparent obesity falls on. So also noted the Roman embassy of Scipio Africanus in Ptolemy VIII in 140/39 BC the considerable girth of the king, who also transparently presented itself effimierter clothing. What was the Romans evidence of decay and decadence of the Egyptian dynasty, was indispensable part of its role as representative of the Dionysian ideal of good life and pomp of the Ptolemies.
That the care of a Dionysian lifestyle on Ptolemäerhof was not only pleasure, but could also be mandatory, illustrated an anecdote from the reign of Ptolemy XII. about the philosopher Demetrius:
Festival Procession of Ptolemy II
A particularly pompous expression found the herrscherliche Tryphe in the famous procession of Ptolemy II He is described in a work by the Kallixeinos of Rhodes, which is lost, the description is, however, quoted at some length in the Banquet of the philosophers of Athenaeus, there as an example of the epitome of pomp and luxury par excellence.
This pageant was held in Alexandria in the 70 years of the 3rd century BC.
On the one hand, the description is in itself of cultural historical interest, as well nothing would be so likely to give an impression of what we in the mind even in ancient times as a fabulously wealthy applicable Ptolemaic Egypt under Tryphe should at very least be given the initial:
One can hardly fathom what impression this ostentation of every human dimension busting, unfathomable wealth, pales next to any modern spectacle of shabbiness, drew attention to the contemporary viewer. It was, of course, certainly fits the intention to overwhelm and with impressions to slay the audience, so to speak - it was the principle of the Ptolemaic propaganda.