1910–1911
Britannica 11th
Encyclopaedia Britannica · 11th edition
THESPIS (6th cent. B.C.), Greek poet, of Icaria, in Attica, generally considered the inventor of tragedy, flourished in the time of the Peisistratidae. According to Diogenes Laertius (iii. 56), he introduced for the first time in the old dithyrambic choruses a person distinct from the chorus, who conversed with the leader, and was hence called foroicpiTifr (" answerer ").* 3 According to another explanation, he was so called from repeating the words of another — the poet or composer.
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- Vol. 26, pp. 840-840