Lycophron ( ; ; born about 330–325 BC) was a Hellenistic Greek tragic poet, grammarian, and commentator on comedy, to whom the poem Alexandra is attributed (perhaps falsely).
Life and miscellaneous works
He was born at Chalcis in Euboea, and flourished at Alexandria in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus (285–247 BC). According to the Suda, the massive tenth century Byzantine Greek historical encyclopaedia, he was the son of Socles, but was adopted by Lycus of Rhegium. It is believed that Lycophron was acquaintances with Greek philosopher Menedemus, who may have influenced some of Lycophron's tragedies and even wrote a satyr drama about the man. At an unknown date Lycophron was intrigued by the literary movement in Alexandria and settled there.He was entrusted by Ptolemy with the task of arranging the comedies in the Library of Alexandria; as the result of his labours he composed a treatise On Comedy. Lycophron is also said to have been a skillful writer of anagrams. Like most of his life, the end of Lycophron's life is lost to time as of now, but there is some evidence of his death. Although it is not known if he stayed in Alexandria for the rest of his life, what may be his end is told in Ovid's Ibis, "Tuque cothurnatus cecidesse Lycophrona narrant, Haereat in fibris fixa sagitta tuis" (And they say that Lycophron fell in his boots, and let his arrow stick in his bones.)
Tragedies
The poetic compositions of Lycophron chiefly consisted of tragedies, which secured him a place in the Pleiad of Alexandrian tragedians. The Suda gives the titles of twenty tragedies, of which a very few fragments have been preserved: Aeolus, Allies (Symmakhoi), Andromeda, Chrysippus, Daughters of Aeolus, Daughters of Pelops, Elephenor, Herakles, Hippolytus, Kassandreis, Laius, Marathonians, Menedemus, Nauplius, Oedipus (two versions), Orphan (Orphanos), Pentheus, Suppliants (Hiketai), Telegonus, and the Wanderer (Aletes). Among these, a few well-turned lines show a much better style than the Alexandra.
The Alexandra
One poem traditionally attributed to him, Alexandra or Cassandra, has been preserved in its complete form. The first mention of Alexandra is from the first century A.D. by The ancient scholiast, whose report is traced back to Theon, an Alexandrian Grammarian (first century A.D.). Alexandra runs at 1474 iambic trimeters. It consists of a prophecy uttered by Cassandra and relates the later fortunes of Troy and of the Greek and Trojan heroes. References to events of mythical and later times are introduced, and the poem ends with a reference to Alexander the Great, who was to unite Asia and Europe in his world-wide empire.
The style obtained for the poem's author, even among the ancients, the title of "obscure"; one modern scholar says the Alexandra "may be the most illegible piece of classical literature, one which nobody can read without a proper commentary and which even then makes very difficult reading." The poem is evidently intended to display the writer's knowledge of obscure names and uncommon myths; it is full of unusual words of doubtful meaning gathered from the older poets, and long-winded compounds coined by the author. It was probably written as a show-piece for the Alexandrian school, rather than as straight poetry. It was very popular in the Byzantine period, and was read and commented on very frequently; the manuscripts of the Alexandra are numerous. Two explanatory paraphrases of the poem survive, and the collection of scholia by Isaac and John Tzetzes is very valuable (much used by, among others, Robert Graves in his Greek Myths).
Debate over the author of Alexandra
Through most of antiquity there seems to be a mostly universal opinion that the tragedy was written by Lycophron. The only real skeptics from antiquity instead believe that Alexandra was rather written by a homonymous poet who probably was a grandson of Lycophron and lived during the first half of the second century B.C.