Epi'genes
2. Of Sicyon, who has been confounded by some with his namesake the comic poet, is mentioned by Suidas (
s. v. Θέσπις) as the most ancient writer of
tragedy. By the word "tragedy" here we can understand only the old dithyramhic and satyrical
τραγῳδία, into which it is possible that Epigenes may have been the first to introduce other subjects than the original one of the fortunes of origin, if at least we may trust the account which we find in Apostolius, Photius, and Suidas, of the origin of the proverb
οὐδὲν πρὸς τὸν Δτόνυσον.
This would clearly he one of the earliest steps in the gradual transformation of the old dithyrambic performance into the dramatic tragedy of later times, and may tend to jutify the statement which ascribes the invention of tragedy to the Sicyonians. We do not know the period at which Epigenes flourished, and the point was a doubtful one in the time of Suidas, who says (
s. v. Θέσπις) that, according to some, he was the 16th before Thespis, while, according to others, he almost immediately preceded him. (See Müller,
Dor. 4.7.8; Meineke,
Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. p. 354; Arist.
Poet. 3; Fabric.
Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 160, 303, vol. iv. p. 10
; Dict. of Ant. p. 980a.)
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