Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/452

430 430 HISTORY OF THE So early as the time when Cratinus was in his prime, (01. 85, 1. «. c. 440,) a law was passed limiting the freedom of comic satire. It is very probable that it was under the constraint of this law, (which, however, was not long in force,) that the Ulysseses ('Ocutro-cTe) of Cratinus was brought out ; a piece of which it was remarked by the old literary critics,* that it came nearer to the character of the middle comedy : it probably abstained from all personal, and especially from political satire, and kept itself within the circle of the general relations of mankind, in which it was easy for the poet to avail himself of the old mythical story, — Ulysses in the cave of Polyphemus. § 2. A Roman poet, who was very careful in his choice of words, and who is remarkable for a certain pregnancy of expression, t calls Cratinus " the bold," and in the same passage opposes Eupolis to him, as "the an°ry." Although Eupolis is stated to have been celebrated for his elegance, and for the aptness of his witticisms, as well as for his imaginative powers,! his style was probably marked by a strong hatred of the prevailing" depravity, and by much bitterness of satire. He himself claimed a share in the " Knights" of Aristophanes, in which personal satire prevails more than in any other comedy of that poet. On the other hand, Aristophanes maintains that Eupolis, in his Maricas, had imitated the " Knights," and spoiled it by injudicious additions. § Of the Maricas, which was produced 01. 89, 3. b.c. 421, we only know thus much, that under this slave's name he exhibited the demagogue Hyperbolus, who succeeded to Cleon's place in the favour of the people, and who was, like Cleon, represented as a low-minded, ill-educated fellow ; the worthy Nicias was introduced in the piece chiefly as the butt of his tricks. The most virulent, how- ever, of the plays of Eupolis was probably the Baptce, which is often mentioned by old writers, but in such terms that it is not easy to gather a clear notion of this very singular drama. The view which appears most probable to the author of these pages is, that the comedy of Eupolis was directed against the club {tTaiplu) of Alcibiades, and espe- cially against a sort of mixture of profligacy, which despised the con- ventional morality of the day, and frivolity, and which set at nought the old religion of Athens, and thus naturally assumed the garb of mystic and foreign religions. In this piece Alcibiades and his comrades appeared Qiairv^iv tivo) of Homer's Odyssey is not to be understood as if Cratinus had wished to ridicule Homer. f Audaci quicunque adflate Cratino, Iratum Eupolidem prwgrandi cum sene palles. Persius, I. 124. The Vita Aristophanis agrees with this. % -Pavrcttrlu, iv$avra;. Platonius also speaks highly of the energy (i^nXot) and grace (ivn'xugis) of Eupolis. He perhaps exaggerates the latter quality See Meineke, Hist. Crit. Corn. Gr. vol. I. p. 107. $' Aristophanes, Clouds 553.
 * Platonius de Comadia, p. viii. That the piece contained a caricature