Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Culture & Arts subjects for wider area of: "ALEXANDRIA Airport EGYPT" .
ALEXANDRIA (Ancient city) EGYPT
The so-called Alexandrian Canon, arranged by Aristophanes of Byzantium and his
disciple Aristarchus. The daily increasing multitude of books of every kind had
become so great that there was no expression, however faulty, for which precedent
might not be found; and as there were far more bad than good writers, the authority
and weight of numbers were likely to prevail, and the language, consequently,
to grow more and more corrupt. It was thought necessary, therefore, to draw a
line between those classic writers to whose authority an appeal in matter of language
might be made and the common herd of inferior authors. In the most cultivated
modern tongues it seems to have been found expedient to erect some such barrier
against the inroads of corruption; and to this preservative caution we are indebted
for the vocabulary of the Academicians della Crusca, and the list of authors therein
cited as affording testi di lingua. To this, also, we owe the great dictionaries
of the Academies of France and Spain of their respective languages. But as for
the example first set in this matter by the Alexandrian critics, its effects upon
their own literature have been of a doubtful nature. In so far as the Canon has
contributed to preserve to us some of the best authors included in it, we can
not but rejoice. On the other hand, there is reason to believe that the comparative
neglect into which those not received into it were sure to fall has been the occasion
of the loss of a vast number of writers who would have been, if not for their
language, yet for their matter, very precious; and who, perhaps, in many cases,
were not easily to be distinguished, even on the score of style, from those that
were preferred. The details of the Canon are as follows:
(1) Epic Poets. Homer, Hesiod, Pisander, Panyasis, Antimachus.
(2) Iambic Poets. Archilochus, Simonides, Hipponax.
(3) Lyric Poets. Alcman, Alcaeus, Sappho, Stesichorus, Pindar, Bacchylides, Ibycus, Anacreon, Simonides.
(4) Elegiac Poets. Callinus, Mimnermus, Philetas, Callimachus.
(5) Tragic Poets. First Class: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Ion, Achaeus, Agathon. Second Class, or Tragic Pleiades: Alexander the Aetolian, Philiscus of Corcyra, Sositheus, Homer the younger, Aeantides, Sosiphanes or Sosicles, Lycophron.
(6) Comic Poets. Old Comedy: Epicharmus, Cratinus, Eupolis, Aristophanes, Pherecrates, Plato. Middle Comedy: Antiphanes, Alexis. New Comedy: Menander, Philippides, Diphilus, Philemon, Apollodorus.
(7) Historians. Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Theopompus, Ephorus, Philistus, Anaximenes, Callisthenes.
(8) Orators. The ten Attic orators: Antiphon, Andocides, Lysias, Isocrates, Isaeus , Aeschines, Lycurgus, Demosthenes, Hyperides, Dinarchus.
(9) Philosophers. Plato, Xenophon, Aeschines, Aristotle, Theophrastus.
(10) The Poetic Pleiades. Seven poets of the same epoch with one another: Apollonius
the Rhodian, Aratus, Philiscus, Homer the younger, Lycophron, Nicander, Theocritus.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Pleias. (a group of seven stars). The name given by the Alexandrian critics to a group of seven tragic poets, who wrote at Alexandria under Ptolemy Philadelphus in the first half of the third century B.C. Their names were: Alexander Aetolus, Philiscus, Sositheus, Homerus, Aeantides, Sosiphanes, and Lycophron.
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
