Timesitheus

(Τιμησίθεος), a tragic poet, mentioned only by Suidas (s. v.) who gives us the following titles of his plays :--Δαναΐδες β́, Ἕκτορος λύτρα, Ἡρακλἡς, Ἰξίων, Καπανεύς, Μέμνων, Μνηστῆρες, Ζηνὸς γοναί, Ἑλένης ἀπαίτησις, Ὀρέστης [καὶ] Πυλάδης, Κάστωρ καὶ Πολυδεύκης. In the last title but one, the καὶ, which is not in the text of Suidas, should evidently be inserted, for it cannot be supposed that Ὀρέστης and Πυλάδης were two distinct plays, any more than Κάστωρ and Πολυδεύκης. Meineke proposes to unite also two of the other titles, so as to make Ἐλένης μνηστῆρες a single play (Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. p. 391), but Welcker judiciously observes that the μνηστῆρες may refer to the suitors of Penelope quite as probably as to those of Helen, and that, in either case, the title is quite sufficient as it stands, without robbing another play in order to improve it. Welcker has also remarked, and probably with as much truth as ingenuity, that some of the above titles seem to be those of satyric dramas; for the Ζηνὸς λοναί cannot possibly be a tragedy, and Ἡρακλῆς, standing alone, without any epithet, indicates a satyric drama rather than a tragedy; and moreover, the Ζηνὸς γοναί and the Ἑλένης ἀπαίτησις both stand out of the alphabetical order. The same scholar shows that there is reason to think that the Δαναΐδες was not founded on the corresponding play of Aeschylus, but contained a different version of the story, which bad already been adopted by Archilochus, and according to which Lynceus avenged his brethren by slaying Danaus and his daughters (Jo. Malai. Chron. iv. init.; Schol. Eurip. Hec. 869, Serv. ad Viry. Aen. 10.497). The plan of the Ἑλένης ἀπαίτηοις may be conjectured to have been borrowed from Sophocles, and that of the Ἰξίων from Euripides; shortly after whom, so far as any conclusion can be drawn from the titles, Timesitheus appears to have lived (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 325; Welcker, die Griech. Tragöd. pp. 1046-1048 ; Kayser, Hist. Crit. Trag. Graec. p. 327 ; Wagner, Frag. Trag. Graec. pp. 144, 145, in Didot's Bibliotheca.) [P.S]