Sophron

Sophron of Syracuse (, fl. 430 BC), Magna Graecia, was a writer of mimes (μῖμος, a kind of prose drama).

Sophron was the author of prose dialogues in the Doric dialect, containing both male and female characters, some serious, others humorous in style, and depicting scenes from the daily life of the Sicilian Greeks. Although in prose, they were regarded as poems; in any case they were not intended for stage representation. They were written in pithy and popular language, full of proverbs and colloquialisms.

Influence Plato is said to have introduced Sophron's works into Athens and to have made use of them in his dialogues; according to Diogenes Laërtius, they were Plato's constant companions, and he even slept with them under his pillow; the Suda says of the mimes of Sophron, "Plato the philosopher always read them, so as to be sent into an occasional doze." |Humphry House

Editions The fragments of Sophron are collected in: Ahrens, H. L., De graecae linguae dialectis (1843), ii. (app.), and C. J. Botzon (1867); see also his De Sophrone et Xenarcho mimographis (1856). The most recent edition is: Hordern, J. H., Sophron's Mimes: Text, Translation, and Commentary, Oxford, 2004. .