The Shelves · Tragedy

Alexandra

Ἀλεξάνδρα

Known · Probablein Alexandria?Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placement

◇ Doubted: the attribution is disputed; the attribution is uncertain; its date is uncertain. Lines on Rome's world rule have led some to date the poem to the early 2nd century BCE and give it to a later author.

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I · The entry, in his form

In the table of Tragedy: “tragic monologue”

Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placement

Attributed to Lycophron of Chalcis

fl. c. 285 BCE. A tragedian of the Pleiad at Ptolemy II's court who, according to Tzetzes, sorted the comedies for the Library and wrote a treatise On Comedy. The dark, oracular Alexandra transmitted under his name may be his or a later poet's.

Alexandra

Ἀλεξάνδρα

Opening words

Λέξω τὰ πάντα νητρεκῶς ἅ μ᾽ ἱστορεῖς

I will tell you truly all that you ask

Length: 1,474 lines

◇ Doubted: the attribution is disputed; the attribution is uncertain; its date is uncertain. Lines on Rome's world rule have led some to date the poem to the early 2nd century BCE and give it to a later author.

Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.

II · Does it survive? Where to read it

Survives whole

Was it in Alexandria?

Known · Probable

Written in Alexandria.

In the cupboard: written at Alexandria by a scholar or court writer a source places there.

Read it today

III · In the show

The show has not yet spoken of this work.

IV · Sources and the living entry

Ancient references (2)
  • Lycophron, Alexandra 1226-1280 (Rome's rise)
  • Suda λ 827
Modern scholarship
  • S. Hornblower, Lykophron: Alexandra (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).

Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›

ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΑ

Beside it in the cupboard