LYCOPHRON  ,

Greek poet and grammarian, was born at Chalcis in Euboea . He flourished at Alexandria in the time of Ptolemy Philadeiphus (285–247 B.C.) . 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 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 entire . It is in the form 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 is so enigmatical as to have procured for Lycophron, even among the ancients, the title of "obscure" (aKOretvor) . 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 many long-winded compounds coined by the author . It has none of the qualities of poetry, and was probably written as a show-piece for the Alexandrian school . 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 MSS. 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 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); J .

Potter (1697, 1702); L . Sebastiani (1803); L . Bachmann (183o); G . Kinkel (188o); 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 Wilamowitz-Mollendorff, De Lycophronis Alexandra (1884); J . Konze, De Dictione Lycophronis (1870) .

The commentaries of the

brothers Tzetzes have been edited by C . 0 . Muller (1811) .