The Shelves · Tragedy

Tragedies of the Alexandrian 'Pleiad'

Known · Attestedin Alexandria?Conjecturedvery likely class

See it on the shelves ›

I · The entry, in his form

In the table of Tragedy

Conjecturedvery likely class

Lycophron, Alexander Aetolus, Homerus of Byzantium, Sositheus, Philicus and others

fl. c. 285 BCE. A tragedian of the Pleiad at Ptolemy II's court who, according to Tzetzes, sorted the comedies for the Library and wrote a treatise On Comedy. The dark, oracular Alexandra transmitted under his name may be his or a later poet's.

Tragedies of the Alexandrian 'Pleiad'

Opening words not preserved.

Length: not counted

Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.

II · Does it survive? Where to read it

Lost

Lists of the seven names vary between ancient sources; only titles and scraps survive, plus part of Philicus's hymn to Demeter on papyrus.

Was it in Alexandria?

Known · Attested

Written in Alexandria.

In the cupboard: written at Alexandria by a scholar or court writer a source places there.

Read it today

Fragments in Snell and Kannicht, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta vol. 1.

III · In the show

The show has not yet spoken of this work.

IV · Sources and the living entry

Ancient references (3)
  • Tzetzes, Prolegomena de comoedia
  • Athenaeus 5.198c
  • Suda λ 827
Modern scholarship (2)
  • B. Snell (ed.), Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, vol. 1, 2nd ed. rev. R. Kannicht (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1986).
  • P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria, 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972)

Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›

TRAGEDIES OF THE ALEXANDRIAN 'PLEIAD'

Beside it in the cupboard