Panathenaea: Or, A Singular Book on the Twin Festival of Minerva

IOANNIS MEVRSI

...e citharoede of Mitylene, the first deemed to have sung to the lyre among the Athenians, won at the Panathenaea. Suidas: "Phrynis, a citharoede of Mitylene, who is thought to have been the first to play the lyre among the Athenians and to win at the Panathenaea." In this competition, the praises of Aristogiton, Harmodius, and Thrasybulus were sung. The latter, having advanced from Phyle, liberated Athens from the thirty tyrants. Philostratus, Life of Apollonius, book VII, chapter II: "He also discoursed to them on the Attic Panathenaea, during which Harmodius and Aristogiton are sung of, as well as the exploit from Phyle, which also at once overcame the thirty tyrants." A circular chorus original: "Chorus quoque circularis" was also exhibited. Lysias, in Apology for Bribery: "And in the archonship of Diocles, for the minor Panathenaea, I spent three hundred drachmae on a circular chorus." Therefore, there were also choregoi producers/sponsors of a chorus here to provide the expenses. Xenophon mentions them in the Constitution of the Athenians: "In addition to these, they must decide for the choregoi producers at the Dionysia, the Thargelia, and the Panathenaea." Poets also competed with four plays at the same time, of which the fourth was a satyr play; this collection of plays was called a tetralogia four-play cycle. Diogenes Laertius, in Plato, book III: "They competed with four plays at the Dionysia, the Lenaea, the Panathenaea, and the Chytroi, of which the fourth was a satyr play; and the four plays were called a tetralogia four-play cycle." Regarding this matter, if it is worth the effort, see what I have recently noted at the end of Sophocles.