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Rhinthon
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<p>Rhinthon was a <a href="/facts/Hellenistic_period/q6BgQsaF">Hellenistic</a> <a href="/facts/Greek_drama/g79S9GHG">dramatist</a>. </p><p>The son of a potter, he was probably a native of <a href="/facts/Syracuse%2c_Italy/d6TtVugX">Syracuse</a>, <a href="/facts/Magna_Graecia/XdhvdfTN">Magna Graecia</a>, and afterwards settled at <a href="/facts/Taranto/TyJDvBep">Tarentum</a>. </p><p>He invented the <i><a href="/facts/Phlyax_play/DRosGHTr">hilarotragoedia</a>,</i> (Ἱλαροτραγῳδία) a <a href="/facts/Burlesque/93s5ChM3">burlesque</a> of tragic subjects. Such burlesques were also called <i>phlyakes</i> ("fooleries") and their writers <i>phlyakographoi</i>. He was the author of thirty-eight plays, of which only a few titles (<i><a href="/facts/Amphitryon/B5DJaXHX">Amphitryon</a>,</i> <i><a href="/facts/Heracles/CIQWycTu">Heracles</a>,</i> <i><a href="/facts/Medea/bf2scTHY">Medea</a></i>, <i><a href="/facts/Orestes/3U9yfugH">Orestes</a></i>) and lines have been preserved, chiefly by the <a href="/facts/Philology/5u0xzd5g">grammarians</a>, as illustrating dialectic Tarentine forms. The metre is <a href="/facts/Iamb_(foot)/ThzV8VjR">iambic</a>, in which the greatest licence is allowed. The scant fragments of his plays are collected in R. Kassel and C. Austin, <i>Poetae Comici Graeci</i>, vol. 1, pp. 260–70. </p>