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[German version] (Φερεκράτης; Pherekrátēs). Important poet of Attic Old Comedy. First worked as an actor [1, testimony 2a], his own performances beginning after Cratinus [1] and Crates [1], but before Hermippus [1], Phrynichus [3], Aristophanes [3], Eupolis (cf. [1, testimony 2a, 5, 6]). There is a reference to a victory (it is unclear in which agon) for 437 BC [1, testimony 2a]; the Lenaea victory list ascribes two victories to P. [1, testimony 6]. He is said to have written 17 [1, testimony 1] or…

(Ἐπίχαρμος; Epícharmos). Earliest and most important writer of Doric comedy. [German version] A. Life Widely varying accounts are given for his origin: Syracuse, the Sicanian city of Crastus or Samos [1. test.1], Cos [1. test. 1. 3] or Megara Hyblaea in Sicily [1. test. 1. 2] have been mentioned; it is most probably a place in Sicily. Establishing dates for E. has to rely on the following details: he is said to have been active as a playwright ‘six years before the Persian Wars’, i.e. 486/5 BC [1. test. 1], o…

[German version] (Εὐφάνης; Euphánēs). Writer of Middle Comedy who is entered on the list of victors of the Lenaea directly before  Alexis [1. test. 1] and for whom two play titles and two fragments are attested; fr. 1 from the Μοῦσαι ( Moûsai; ‘The Muses’) presents a number of contemporary Athenian gluttons. Nesselrath, Heinz-Günther (Göttingen) Bibliography 1 PCG V, 280f.

[German version] (Ἔριφος; Ériphos). Poet of the Middle Comedy of whom three titles of works and seven fragments have still survived. In the Μελίβοια ( Melíboia), E. appears to have taken up verses of  Antiphanes [1] and varied them (fr. 2; cf. Antiphanes fr. 59); in Πελταστής ( Peltastḗs), a miles gloriosus probably appeared (fr. 6 [2. 326f.]). Nesselrath, Heinz-Günther (Göttingen) Bibliography 1 PCG V, 1986, 178-182 2 H.-G. Nesselrath, Die att. Mittlere Komödie, 1990.

[German version] (Ἀναξίλας; Anaxílas) Attic writer of comedies, who can be dated only on the basis of a few pieces of circumstantial evidence in his fragments to approximately the middle of the 4th cent. BC and thereafter [2. 199 f.]. 22 titles of plays (of which about a quarter relate to mythical themes) and also 30 verse fragments are preserved of A.'s works, including one in dactylo-epitrites (fr. 12), one in glyconic (fr. 13) and one in anapestic ‘dimeters’. In at least three works, there are derisive thrusts against Plato (frs. 5, 14, 26), in the Euandria, A. makes fun of Demosthene…

(Εὔπολις; Eúpolis). Apart from Aristophanes and Cratinus, the most important writer of Attic Old Comedy, son of Sosipolis. [German version] A. Life E. is said to have already begun his performances at the age of 17 [1. test. 1]; varying times for his debut are stated: in 429 [1. test. 2a], 427 [1. test. 6a], 426 [1. test. 6b] or between 427 and 424 BC [1. test. 7. 8]. The epigraphical lists of the winners at the Dionysia and the Lenaea show that he began his performances about the same time as  Aristophanes (or short…

[German version] (Φόρμις/ Phórmis) or Phormus (Φόρμος/ Phórmos in Ath. 14,652a; Them. Or. 27 p. 337b; Suda ε 2766, φ 609 = [1. test. 1]). P. was a Syracusan, and like his contemporary Epicharmus, a poet of comic dramas, allegedly also tutor to the sons of the tyrant Gelon [1. test. 1]. This, however, may rest upon a confusion with a military commander of the same name (Paus. 5,27,1 and 7). Aristotle declares P. and Epicharmus inventors of the coherent comic plot [1. test. 2]. The seven plays ascribed to him (no fragments survive) seem to have dealt with mostly mythical subjects. Nesselrath, Hein…

[German version] (Εὐάγης; Euágēs). Comic poet, life dates unknown, from the island of Hydrea (near Troezen). It is supposed that E. started out as an uneducated shepherd, but then turned into a comic poet of good repute [1. test.]. Nesselrath, Heinz-Günther (Göttingen) Bibliography 1 PCG V, 183.

[German version] Writer of comedies in the 3rd cent. BC (cf. the not entirely compelling epigraphical evidence [1. test.]), of which the sole surviving fragment consists of a -- textually uncertain -- invocation of Hecate in versus paroemiaci (from Halysis, ‘The Chain, ‘The Magical Bond?). Nesselrath, Heinz-Günther (Göttingen) Bibliography 1 PCG IV, 1983, 70f.

[German version] In the Plautus manuscripts, all scenes in a metre other than the iambic senarius were headed canticum (re exceptions see [3. 220, note]), i.e. all parts accompanied by music (cf. Plaut. Stich. 758-768: while the flute player had a break for a drink, the metre changed to the senarius). Canticum therefore also includes parts that consisted of trochaic and iambic septenarii and octonarii arranged side by side and was generally understood as recitatives (cf. however [3]); canticum in the narrower sense (described by Donat. comm. Adelph. praef. 1,7 as MMC = Mutatis Modis Ca…

[German version] (παράσιτος/ parásitos; Latin parasitus). The Greek word parásitos was initially a designation for temple servants who participated in banquets in honour of the respective deity (cf. Ath. 6,234c-235e), and also for others who enjoyed official dining (Plut. Solon 24,5; cf. [7. 12]). It was Athenian comedy writers who transferred the term, perhaps before the middle of the 4th cent. BC, to stage figures who tried to obtain meals at other people's tables by all means possible (witty conversat…

[German version] (Χιόννης; Chiónnēs). Writer of comedies, from 1st cent. BC Thebes; known only from inscriptions; he was victor at the Amphiareia and the Rhomaea in Oropus [1. test.]. Nesselrath, Heinz-Günther (Göttingen) Bibliography 1 PCG IV, 1983, 77.

[German version] (Σκίρας/Skíras). Poet of 'Italic comedy' [1. test. 1] from Tarentum, who in a late record [1. test. 2] is, along with the phlyakes poet Rhinthon and the poet (of Menippian satire?) Blaesus named as a Pythagorean, which is not very credible. Of his work, only two iambic trimeters from the mythological play Μελέαγρος (Meléagros) have survived, a parody of Eur. Hipp. 75f. Hardly any clues exist regarding S.' biographical dates. He is usually associated with Rhinthon (c. 300 BC) Nesselrath, Heinz-Günther (Göttingen) Bibliography 1 CGF 190.

[German version] (Φλύακες; Phlýakes). According to the Hellenistic historian Sosibius Laconus (FGrH 595 F 7) the usual term in Graeca Magna for the performers of a local variety of Doric folk burlesque. In antiquity the name is usually derived from φλυαρεῖν/ phlyareîn, 'talk nonsense' (Hsch. s.v.; cf. Poll. 9,149). A derivation from φλέω/ phléō, 'teem, abound' is probably more correct. Phleon (and similar forms) is an old epithet for Dionysus as god of vegetation [2]. Since the late 19th cent. [4. 52], the P. plays have been connected with the representations of comic …

[German version] Writer of comedies, attested only epigraphically; he evidently once won first prize at the Attic Dionysia [1. test. *2], and also in 154 BC second place at the Great Dionysia with the play ‘The false self-accuser [1. test. 1]. Nesselrath, Heinz-Günther (Göttingen) Bibliography 1 PCG IV, 1983, 69.

[German version] (Θυμοτέλης; Thymotélēs). Athenian comic poet of the late 2nd cent. BC recorded only in inscriptions; nothing is known of his work. Nesselrath, Heinz-Günther (Göttingen) Bibliography 1 PCG 7, 1989, 753.

[German version] [1] see Little-master cup see  Little-master cup Nesselrath, Heinz-Günther (Göttingen) [German version] [2] Attic comic poet There is epigraphical evidence only of this Attic writer of comedies who, in 181 BC (earlier than Eudoxus), probably won the agon of comedies at the Great Dionysia [1. test. 2], and was also twice a winner at the Lenaea [1. test. 1]. Nesselrath, Heinz-Günther (Göttingen) Bibliography 1 PCG II, 1991, 537.

[German version] (Θουγενίδης; Thougenídes). Poet of the Old Comedy (I. C.); it is uncertain whether he was on the list of victors at the Dionysia in fifth place after Cratinus [1. test. *1]. Of his only recorded play, Δικασταί ( Dikastaí, ‘The Judges), two short fragments survive; five other play fragments without titles are also uninformative. Nesselrath, Heinz-Günther (Göttingen) Bibliography 1 PCG VII, 1989, 750-752.

[German version] (Σαννυρίων/ Sannyríōn). Attic comedic poet of the end of the 5th cent. BC, mocked by his competitors for his skinniness [1. test. 3]. The titles of three plays and 13 fragments with a total of eight and a half verses have been handed down: the Γέλως ( Gélōs, 'Laughter') featured a talking god (fr. 1) and mocked the tragedian Meletus [3] (fr. 2) and Aristophanes [3] (fr. 5); in the Δανάη ( Danáē), dated to 407-404 BC, Zeus considers what shape would be best for him to get to his Danae and in the process makes fun of the tragedic actor Hegelochus (fr. 8); the Ἰώ ( Iṓ), also on a mythical…

[German version] A bon viveur and poet originally from Lindus in Rhodes, who was the first person to use collated poetic (dithyrambic?) expressions and is said to have written ‘comedies’ as well as many other works; Jacoby (in FGrH 527 F 2) doubts his actual existence. A.'s period cannot be determined more precisely; he is said to have been a ‘relative’ of Cleobulus of Lindus, one of the Seven Sages. Nesselrath, Heinz-Günther (Göttingen) Bibliography 1 SH, 1983, no. 46 2 PCG II, 1991, 307.