Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/189

 CONTEMPORARY WITH ARISTOPHANES. 171 Phrtnichus, the comic poet, who must be carefully distin- guished from the tragedian of the same name, exhibited first in the year 435 b. c.^ He was attacked as a plagiarist in the ^op/Mo- (fyopoc of Hermippus, which was written before the death of Sitalces, i. e. before 424 B. c- In 414 b. c. when Ameipsias was first with the Kcofiaarai, and Aristophanes second with the "Opvc- ^69, Plnyniclius was third with the ^lovoTpoiro^^, In 405 B.C. Philonides was first with the Bdrpaxot of Aristophanes, Phrjni- chus second with the ^,lovcraL, and Plato third with the K€0(f)cov^. He is ridiculed by Aristophanes in the Barpaxoc for his custom of introducing grumbling slaves on the stage ^. The names of ten of his pieces are known to us ^. Of Hermippus, the son of Lysis, we know nothing save that he was opposed to Pericles", and on one occasion prosecuted Aspasia for impiety^. His brother Myrtilus was also a come- dian^. EuPOLis was not much older than Aristophanes. It is stated by Suidas that he was seventeen years old when he began to ex- hibit ; and if we may conclude from another statement^", that he produced his first Comedy in the archonship of Apollodorus, he must have been bom about the year 446 B.c.-^^ The success of his Comedy, called ^ovfiT^vLac, in 425 B.C., has been already mentioned. Two of his Comedies, the ^iapLKa<; and the KoXa/ce?, appeared in 421 B.C. The Avt6vko<; came out in the following year, when perhaps he wi*ote the Warpdrevroi also, for that play appears to have preceded the Elprjvr} of Aristophanes, which was acted in 1 Suid. ^pvv. — idlda^e to irp-^TOv iiri irar' oXv/xiriddos. Clinton would read tt^'. 2 Clinton, F. H. II. p. 67. 3 ^rg. Av. ^ Arg. Pmu. ° Aristoph. Ran. 12 sqq. 'Eo.vdias. TL brjT^ eSet /xe ravra to, cTKevr] (pepeiv, etirep ttoit^cw fJ.T]5eu uvTrep ^pvvixos etude TTOieTu, Kal Avkis, k 'A/uLerlias, (XKevrj (pepova'' eKdaTOT ev Kwixi^bia ; Aiovvcros. p.7] vvv Troirjcrys' ws iyoj dewp-evos, OraV TL TOt/TOJV tQv <T0(f)L(yix6.TWV ?5w, irXelv rj 'uiavTc^ irpea^vTepos direpxop-on. ^ Fabricius, II. p. 483, Harles. 7 See the Anapaests in Plutarch, PericUs, xxxiii. 8 Plutarch, Pericles, cxxxi. xxxn. This was about the year 432 B. c. 9 Suid. My/3Ti?y.oj. i- Prolegom. ArUtoph. p. xxix. " Clinton, F. H. 11. p. 63.