Lesches is a semi-legendary early
Greek poet and the reputed author of the
Little Iliad.
According to the
usually accepted tradition, he was a native of Pyrrha in Lesbos
, and
flourished about 660 BC (others place him
about 50 years earlier). He may have spent part of his career at
Mytilene
, for
Proclus refers to him as "Lesches of
Mytilene".
The lost epic
Little Iliad, in four books, took up the
story of the
Homeric Iliad, and, beginning with the contest between
Telamonian Ajax and
Odysseus for the arms of
Achilles, carried it down to the feast of the
Trojans over the captured
Trojan Horse,
according to the epitome in
Proclus, or to
the
Fall of Troy, according to
Aristotle.
Some ancient authorities ascribe the work to
a Spartan
named
Cinaethon, and even to Homer.
References
- "Lescheos the son of Aeschylinus of Pyrrha" in Pausanias x. 25. 5; also in x. 26. 4
and .8 and x. 27. 1.
- Proclus. Chrestomathy, ii.
- Proclus. Chrestomathy, ii.
- Aristotle. Poetics, 23.
Sources
Wikis
Map
Search