The Formation of a Canon and the Emergence of a Repertory TraditionIn , the tragic playwright Astydamas the Younger won first prize in the tragedy competition at the Great Dionysia with Lycaon and Parthenopaeus, the latter a play about the son of Atalanta who was one of the Seven against Thebes. This was Astydamas' second victory in a row at the Dionysia; in , he had won with his Achilles, Athamas and Antigone. It is a mark of Astydamas' popularity that the people of Athens voted to set up his portrait statue in the Theatre of Dionysus. (All that remains of the statue is the base, with only the first four letters of Astydamas' name legible. ) Reportedly, Astydamas composed an inscription for his own statue, but it was so self-congratulatory that the Athenians refused to have it inscribed on the statue. In the inscription, Astydamas complained that the only reason he is not considered the equalor superiorof Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides is that they all lived before his time, and are thus immune to the 'envy' of Astydamas' contemporaries. Astydamas' epigram seems to have become a byword for extravagant self-praise, as suggested in a fragment by the fourth-century comedian Philemon: "You're praising * The sections on 'The formation of a canon and the emergence of a repertory tradition', 'Innovation in later tragedy', 'Canonization and Lycurgus', 'Architecture of the theatres', 'Theatrical machinery', 'The rise of the actor', 'Acting style', 'Standardization of masks' and 'Conclusion' are by Duncan. The rest of the chapter is the work of Liapis. Both authors have read and commented on each other's sections but remain responsible only for their respective contributions. IG ii² = Millis and Olson : ; see Pickard-Cambridge : -. See TrGF I, T a; Papastamati-von Moock : -; Scodel : ; Pickard-Cambridge : -. Astydamas' statue must have been erected shortly after his victory in ; Papastamati-von Moock (l.c.
