Greek tragedians in ancient and medieval Armenia

   1. А Greek inscription found in Armavir (Armenia) written probably in the 2^nd c. BC in a script close to papyrus cursive, contains a fragment from a tragedy similar in style to Euripides. 2. Plutarch writes that the Armenian king Artavazd (Artavasdes) II (55–34 BC) wrote tragedies. He also tells that after the battle of Carrhae in 53 BC Crassus was beheaded and his head was taken to Armenia and cast into the hall, as the head of Pentheus, where, at the court of Artavazd, a tragic actor was singing a part of the Bacchae of Euripides. 3. The plot of Euripides’ lost tragedy The Daughters of Pelias is the subject matter of one of the “refutation” exercises (ἀνασκευή) in the old Armenian rhetorical handbook Book of Chreia — in part a translation from the second half of the 5^th c., based օn the Progymnasmata of Aphthonius of Antioch (late 4^th c.). 4. The Art of Grammar by Dionysius Thrax was translated into Armenian in the 2^nd half of the 5^th c. Between the 6^th and 17^th centuries, about a dozen of Armenian commentaries on this work were written. The commentators mention the connection of tragedy with Dionysus, the inventor of wine, the iambic meter characteristic of tragedy, and that the word itself means “goat-song”. 5. While there was a noticeable interest in Greek theatre during the Hellenistic period of pre-Christian Armenia, there are few medieval testimonies regarding this matter in medieval times. The learned author Grigor Magistros (11^th c.) is an exception: he mentions Euripides several times.

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