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Lycophron was a Greece|Greek poet and grammarian.

He was born at Chalcis in Euboea, and flourished
at Alexandria in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus
(285-247 BC). According to Suidas, he was the son
of Socles, but was adopted by Lycus of Rhegium. He
was entrusted by Ptolemy with the task of
arranging the comedies in the Alexandrian library,
and as the result of his labours composed a
treatise On Comedy.

His own compositions, however, chiefly consisted
of tragedy|tragedies (Suidas gives the titles of
twenty, of which very few fragments have been
preserved), which secured him a place in the
Pleiad of Alexandrian tragedians. One of his
poems, Alexandra or Cassandra, containing 1474
iambic lines, has been preserved in its complete
form. 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 Lycophron, even among the
ancients, the title of "obscure" . 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 collection
of scholia by Isaac and John Tzetzes is very
valuable, and the manuscripts of the Cassandra are
numerous. A few well-turned lines which have been
preserved from Lycophron's tragedies show a much
better style; they are said to have been much
admired by Menedemus|Menedemus of Eretria,
although the poet had ridiculed him in a satyric
drama. Lycophron is also said to have been a
skilful writer of anagrams.

Editio princeps (1513); John Potter (1697, 1702);
L Sebastian (1803); L Bachmann (1830); Gottfried
Kinkel (1880); E Scheer (1881-1908), vol. ii.
containing the scholia. The most complete edition
is by C von Holzinger (with translation,
introduction and notes, 1895). There are
translations by F Deheque (1853) and Viscount
Royston (1806; a work of great merit). See also
Ulrich von
Wilamowitz-Moellendorff|Wilamowitz-Moellendorff,
De Lycophronis Alexandra (1884); J Konze, De
Dictione Lycophronis (1870). The commentaries of
the brothers Tzetzes have been edited by Otfried
Müller (1811).


This entry was originally from the 1911
Encyclopedia Britannica.

----
Another Lycophron was a son of the Corinth,
Greece|Corinthian tyrant Periander. He was exiled
by Periander when he found out Periander had
killed his mother Melissa, and refused to return
to Corinth unless Periander abdicated. Lycophron
was killed by the inhabitants of Corcyra.