Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/178

 160 AGATHON AND THE dramatic art, and that his plays were free from the corruptions which Em-ipides had introduced into Greek Tragedy : it is, indeed, likely that a foreigner would copy rather from the old models, than from modern innovations. He died before Euripides, for he was dead when Aristophanes brought out the Feace^ (b.c. 419). From an anecdote mentioned by Athen^us, that he presented each Athenian citizen with a Chian vase, on one occasion, when lie gained the tragic prize^, we may infer that he was a man of fortune. Aristarchus, of Tegea, who first exhibited in B.C. 454, de- serves to be mentioned as having furnished models for the imita- tions of Ennius. AcH^US, of Eretria, must also be considered as belonging to an earlier age of the tragic art than Euripides, whose senior he was by four years. He wrote forty-four, thirty, or twenty-four dramas, but only gained one tragic victory^. His countryman Menedemus considered him the best writer of satyrical dramas after .iEschylus^. Agathon was, like his friend Euripides, a dramatic sophist. He is best known to us from his appearance in the Banquet of Plato, which is supposed to have been held at his house on the day after the celebration of his tragic victory. This appears to have taken place at the Lengea, in the archonship of Euphe- mius, B.C. 416^. He is introduced to us by Plato* as a well- dressed, handsome young man, courted by the wealth and wis- dom of Athens, and exercising the duties of hospitality with all the ease and refinement of modern politeness. In the Epideixis, in praise of love, which he is there made to pronounce, we are presented with the artificial and rhetorical expressions which his friend^ Aristophanes attributes to his style "^j and which we might ^ Schol. Pac. 837: oTL 6 iJLh'lwv ^'5t; ridvriKe, d^Xov. ^ Athenseus, I. p. 4. ^ Suidas. ■* Diog. Laert. ii. p. 133, ^ Athenseus, v. p. 217 A: ixl apxopros 'Evcpri/xov (rrecpauovTai i]valois. ^ It will be recollected, that Aristophanes is introduced at Plato's Banquet among the other intimates of Agathon. Apvoxovs TLOivai, dpafxaros dpxds'