Demonax | Hellenic Library Beta

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Elegy and Iambus. with an English Translation by. J. M. Edmonds. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1931. 2. 

====== Astydamas: Poems ======


“Astydamas the Elder: —Son of Morsimus son of Philocles, both writers of tragedy; of Athens; writer of tragedy; wrote 240 plays; was 15 times victorious; he was a disciple of Isocrates, and changed his subject for tragedy.” 

Suidas Lexicon 

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“At this time （398 B.C.） Astydamas the tragedy-writer produced his first play. He lived to be sixty （?） years of age.” 

Diodorus of Sicily Historical Library 

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“From the time when Astydamas won at Athens 109 years, in the archonship of Asteius at Athens （373 B.C.）.1” 

Parian Chronicle 

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“The Athenians honoured Astydamas above poets like Aeschylus by giving him a bronze statue.” 

Diogenes Laertius Lives of the Philosophers 2. 43

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===== Inscription =====

You praise yourself like old Astydamas:—Astydamas son of Morsimus, having won the prize with his tragedy Parthenopaeus , was accorded by the Athenians the right of dedicating his portrait in the Theatre, and composed on himself the following boastful inscription:

//Would I had lived in their day or they in mine, who bear the palm for a happy tongue: then should I have been truly judged if I had come off first; but alas! the competitors beyond cavil were before my day.2//

Photius Lexicon:

1 inscriptions mention the performance of his tragedies in 348,342, and 341 （ Parthernopaeus ） cf. Dittenb. 1078; we should therefore prob. read his age above as 90, but there has perh. been confusion between A. and his son of the same name

2 cf. Suid. σαυτὴν ἐπαινεῖς , Zenob. 5. 100