So'tades
2. A native of Maroneia in Thrace (or, according to others, of Crete, but he is generally called
Μαρωνείγης), flourished at Alexandria about B. C. 280.
He wrote lascivious poems, called
φλύακες or
κίναιδοι, in the Ionic dialect, whence they were also called
Ἰωνικοὶ λόγοι. (Suid. s.v. Ath. xiv. p. 620e.) They were also called
Σωτάδεια ᾁσματα. (Socrat.
H. E. 1.9.)
As other examples of this species of composition, Athenaeus and Suidas mention the works of Alexander the Aetolian, Pyres (or Pyrrhus) the Milesian, Alexas, Theodorus, Timocharidas and Xenarchus. Strabo (
xiv. p.648) ascribes the beginning of this species to Sotades, who, as well as his successor, Alexander the Aetolian, wrote in prose, while Lysis and Simus wrote in metre; but there is some error in this statement, for we have express information respecting the kind of metre which Sotades employed.
It would seem that Sotades carried his lascivious and abusive satire to the utmost lengths; this appears to be what Suidas means by calling him
δαιμονισθείς.
The freedoms which he took at last brought him into trouble.
According to Plutarch (
Op. Mor. p. 11a.) he made a vehement and gross attack on Ptolemy Philadelphus, on the occasion of his marriage with his sister Arsinoe, and the king threw him into prison, where he rotted for a long time.
According to Athenaeus (
l.c. the poet attacked both Lysimachus and Ptolemy, and, having fled from Alexandria, he was overtaken at Caunus by Ptolemy's general Patroclus, who shut him up in a leaden chest and cast him into the sea.
Of his works, we possess a few lines, and the following titles : --
Ἄδωνις (Hephaest. p. 8, ed. Gaisford);
Ἀμαζών (Suid.)
εἰς ᾁδου κατάβασις (Suid.);
εἰς Βελεστίχην (Suid.);
Ἰλίας (Hephaest. p. 21 );
Πρίηπος (Suid.).
The metre which he generally used, and which was called after him the
Sotadean verse, was Ionic a Majore Tetrameter Brachycatalectic admitting, however, of several variations. (Hephaest. p. 63; Gaisf.
ad Hephaest. p. 319).
Athenaeus (xiv. p. 620e.) refers to commentaries on Sotades and his works by his son Apollonius, and by Carystius of Pergamus.
He appears to have had many imitators. Of the Latin poets, Ennius, L. Accius, and others, are said to have composed poems of the same species; and even among Greek churchmen Arius was accused by Athanasius of writing in a style approaching to the " Sotadean poems." (Fabric.
Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 495, 496; Clinton,
F. H. vol. iii.
s. a. 280, p. 500.)
