Epigenes of Athens
Encyclopedia
Epigenes was an Athenian
comic poet
of the middle comedy.
Pollux
indeed speaks of him as neôn tis kômikôn, but the terms "middle" and "new," as Clinton remarks, are not always very carefully applied. Epigenes himself, in a fragment of his play called Mnêmation speaks of Pixodarus, prince of Caria
, as "the king's son"; and from this Meineke
argues that the comedy in question must have been written while Hecatomnus
, the father of Pixodarus, was yet alive, and perhaps about 380 BC. We find besides in Athenaeus
, that there was a doubt among the ancients whether the play called Argurion aphanismos should be assigned to Epigenes or Antiphanes. These poets therefore must have been contemporaries.
The fragments of the comedies of Epigenes have been collected by Meineke and Kock.
Classical Athens
The city of Athens during the classical period of Ancient Greece was a notable polis of Attica, Greece, leading the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League. Athenian democracy was established in 508 BC under Cleisthenes following the tyranny of Hippias...
comic poet
Ancient Greek comedy
Ancient Greek comedy was one of the final three principal dramatic forms in the theatre of classical Greece . Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods, Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy...
of the middle comedy.
Pollux
Pollux
Pollux may refer to:Astronomy*Pollux , *Pollux, a crater on the Saturnian moon EpimetheusFictional characters*Pollux Black, a pureblood wizard, grandfather of Sirius Black in the Harry Potter universeGames...
indeed speaks of him as neôn tis kômikôn, but the terms "middle" and "new," as Clinton remarks, are not always very carefully applied. Epigenes himself, in a fragment of his play called Mnêmation speaks of Pixodarus, prince of Caria
Caria
Caria was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionian and Dorian Greeks colonized the west of it and joined the Carian population in forming Greek-dominated states there...
, as "the king's son"; and from this Meineke
Augustus Meineke
Johann Albrecht Friedrich August Meineke , German classical scholar, was born at Soest in Westphalia.After holding educational posts at Jenkau and Danzig , he was director of the Joachimsthal Gymnasium in Berlin from 1826 to 1856. He died at Berlin on 12 December 1870...
argues that the comedy in question must have been written while Hecatomnus
Hecatomnus
Hecatomnus was king or dynast of Caria in the reign of Artaxerxes II of Persia .-Biography:...
, the father of Pixodarus, was yet alive, and perhaps about 380 BC. We find besides in Athenaeus
Athenaeus
Athenaeus , of Naucratis in Egypt, Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourished about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD...
, that there was a doubt among the ancients whether the play called Argurion aphanismos should be assigned to Epigenes or Antiphanes. These poets therefore must have been contemporaries.
The fragments of the comedies of Epigenes have been collected by Meineke and Kock.