Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/193

 CONTEMPORARY WITH ARISTOPHANES. 175 Theopompus, the son of Theodectes, Theodoras, or Tisamenus, is said to have been a contemporary of Aristophanes, but, if we may judge from the titles of twenty of his plays, which have been preserved, his style must have been chiefly that of the Middle Comedy. Strattis, who began to exhibit about B.C. 412, and wrote about twenty plays, two of which, the Medea and Phosmssce, derived their titles and probably their subjects from tragedies by Euripides, is chiefly interesting from the fact that he entertained a warm admiration for the tragi-comedies of that poet, especially the Orestes which he called hpafia Se^ccorarov^, a circumstance which tends to confirm our belief that Euripides exercised a paramount influence over the later writers of Attic Comedy. Besides the fifteen names which we have mentioned, the fol- lowing poets are assigned to the Old Comedy. 1. Telecleides, a contemporary and opponent of Pericles. 2. Philonides, a friend and coadjutor of Aristophanes. 3. Archippus, who gained the prize in b. c. 415, and was chiefly celebrated for a play called the Fishes in which he ridi- culed the fish-dinners of Athens. 4. Aristomenes, who competed with Aristophanes in B.C. 424 and 392. 5. Callias, a younger contemporary of Cratinus. 6. Lysippus, who won the prize in b. c. 435, and whose play called the Bacchce gained some reputation. 7. Leucon, who competed with Aristophanes and Eupolis in B.C. 422 and 4212. 8. Metagenes, who is known by the names of some five or six Comedies, and seems to have enjoyed a considerable repu- tation. 9. Aristagoras, who edited the Kvpau of Metagenes with the new title M.ajbbfidKv6o<;, to which Aristophanes alludes. 10. Aristonymus, a contemporary of Aristophanes, best known by his play called The Shivering Sun (''HXto? pcycov), 1 Schol. Eurip. Oresf. 278. 2 Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. p. 217.