En torno a la datación del tragediógrafo Mosquión y al concepto griego del progreso humano

Abstract

A late date (at least III century b.C.) is defended for the tragoedian Moschion on the analysis of several evidences: 1) Alexander of Pherai’s fame was alive in the imperial age, so that Moschion’s fragment 3, belonging to his tragedy The people of Pherai, could be written in the Hellenistic age. 2) The detailed study of Middle and New Comedy texts in which a certain Moschion is mentioned proves that these references did not correspond to a famous tragoedian and that a tragoedian Moschion was not known by these authors. 3) Moschion, Nicander and Lycophron used similar expressions that show direct stylistic influences. 4) Among the several Greek texts about human progress, that of Diodorus Siculus is the most similar to that of Moschion. So, we can figure that both texts could have had the same Hellenistic source.