AGATHON (c. 448-400 B.C.), Athenian tragic poet, friend of
Euripides and
Plato, best known from his mention by
Aristophanes
(
Thesmophoriazusae) and in Plato's
Symposium, which describes
the banquet given to celebrate his obtaining a prize for a tragedy
(416). He probably died at the court of Archelaus, king of
Macedonia. He introduced certain innovations, and
Aristotle
(
Poetica, 9) tells us that the plot of his 0Antho1 was
original, not, as usually, borrowed from mythological subjects.
See Aristophanes, Thesmoph. 59, 106, Eccles. 100