Python or Alexandriacus

Title(s):
  • Python or Alexandriacus
  • Πύθων ἢ Ἀλεξανδριακός
    (Puthōn ē Alexandriakos, Python or Alexandrian oration)
Period covered:
335 B.C. (sack of Thebes)?
Language:
Greek
State of Preservation:
Fragmentary
Genre:
  • Poetry (general)
Remarks:
Müller (1846: xxiv-xxv) supposes that a iambic poem - which is inserted in Pseudo-Callisthenes' Alexander romance (I 46) - might be a fragment of Soterichus' poem. This would help to explain the strange title in the Suda (Πύθων ἢ Ἀλεξανδριακός / Puthōn ē Alexandriakos): Alexander is the avenger of Python, the great snake killed by Cadmus. Müller's hypothesis encounters a problem, though: the Suda defines Soterichus as an epic poet (T 1: ἐποποιός), so we could expect his works to be written in hexameters: however, the poem in Pseudo-Callisthenes is in iambic metre. It is also possible that Soterichus’ poem concerned Diocletian’s punishment of Alexandria, making a comparison between the Roman emperor and Alexander the Great (Focanti 2018).
Edition - Translation:
Fragments:
  • Pseudo-Callisthenes, History of Alexander the Great 1.46
Users:
Sources:
Bibliography:
  • L. Bergson (1989) Carmina praecipue choliambica apud Pseudo-Callisthenem reperta. Stockholm.
  • L. Focanti (forthcoming) ‘The tetrarchs and the poet: Contextualizing the fragments of Soterichus of Oasis’. In: Les historiens grecs fragmentaires d’époque impériale et tardive, ed. E. Amato - P. de Cicco - B. Lançon - T. Moreau. Rennes.
  • P. Janiszewski (2006) The missing link: Greek pagan historiography in the second half of the third century and in the fourth century A.D. Warsaw.
  • C. Jouanno (1993) 'Un épisode embarrassant de l'histoire d'Alexandre: La prise de Thèbes'. Ktèma 18: 245-258.
  • A.D. Knox (1927) 'Soterichos (1)'. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft 3A.1: 1231-1232.
  • C. Müller (1846) Scriptores rerum Alexandri Magni. Paris.
  • A. Nauck (1849) 'De Soterichi Oasitae choliambis'. Philologus 4: 613-626.
  • J. Rusten, I.C. Cunningham, A.D. Knox (1993) Theophrastus' Characteres, Herondas' Mimes, Cercidas and the choliambic poets. London.