Spi'ntharus
（
*Spi/nqaros), of Heracleia on the Pontus, a tragic poet, contemporary with Aristophanes, who designates him as a barbarian and a Phrygian (
Av. 763, comp.
Schol.).
He was also ridiculed by the other comic poets. We know nothing of his plays, except two titles, preserved by Suidas (
s. v.),
περικαίομενος Ἡρακλῆς, and
Σεμέλη κεραυνομένη.
He appears to be the same person as the Spintharus who, according to Diogenes Laertius (5.92, 93; comp. Suid.
s. v. παραστίχις, attempted to pass off a spurious tragedy, entitled
Παρθενοπαῖος as a work of Sophocles ; and so far succeeded as to impose upon Heracleides, who quoted the play as a genuine drama of Sophocles ; but the Alexandrian grammarians never give it a place among the works of Sophocles.
The forgery was also ascribed to a certain Dionysius Metathemenus. (Fabric.
Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 211, 215, 323; Welcker,
die Griech. Tragöd. p. 1034; Bode,
Gesch. d. Hellen. Dichtkunst, vol. iii. pt. 1, pp. 48, 562.) Respecting some other insignificant writers of this name, see Menag.
ad Diog. Laert. 2.20.
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