Sannyrion

Who is Sannyrion?

Sannyrion was an Athenian comic poet of the late 5th century BC, and a contemporary of Diocles and Philyllius, according to the Suda. He belonged to the later years of Old Comedy and the start of Middle Comedy.

He mocked the pronunciation of Hegelochus, the actor in Euripides' Orestes, which was presented in 408 BC. In line 279 of the play, instead of "after the storm I see again a calm sea", Hegelochus recited "after the storm I see again a weasel". The error was also ridiculed by Strattis in his Kinesias and Psychastae and by Aristophanes in his Gerytades, where he, Meletus and Cinesias are chosen as ambassadors from the poets to the shades below. Curiously, Sannyrion himself ridiculed Meletus on the same ground in his Τέλως Telōs.