Ameipsias

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Ameipsias (Ancient Greek : Ἀμειψίας, fl. late 5th century BC) of Athens was an Ancient Greek comic poet, a contemporary of Aristophanes, whom he twice bested in the dramatic contests. His Konnos (Κόννος) gained a second prize at the City Dionysia in 423, when Aristophanes won the third prize with The Clouds . [1] [2]

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Ancient Greece Civilization belonging to an early period of Greek history

Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Roughly three centuries after the Late Bronze Age collapse of Mycenaean Greece, Greek urban poleis began to form in the 8th century BC, ushering in the Archaic period and colonization of the Mediterranean Basin. This was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedon, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the western end of the Mediterranean Sea. The Hellenistic period came to an end with the conquests and annexations of the eastern Mediterranean world by the Roman Republic, which established the Roman province of Macedonia in Roman Greece, and later the province of Achaea during the Roman Empire.

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Konnos appears to have had the same subject and aim as Clouds. It is at least certain that Socrates appeared in the play, and that the Chorus consisted of Φροντισταί. [3] [4] Aristophanes alludes to Ameipsias in The Frogs , [5] and we are told in the anonymous life of Aristophanes, that when Aristophanes first exhibited his plays under the names of other poets, Ameipsias applied to him the Greek proverb τετράδι γεγονώς, which means "a person who labours for others," an allusion to Heracles, who was born on the fourth of the month.

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Works

Ameipsias wrote many comedies, out of which there remain only a few fragments of the following six plays:

Kottabos

Kottabos was a game of skill played at ancient Greek and Etruscan symposia, especially in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. The game is played by flinging wine lees at targets. The player would utter the name of the object of his affection.

We also know he wrote other plays, although their names are now lost. Most of his plays were of the Old Comedy, but some, in all probability, were of the Middle Comedy. [2] [6]

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References

  1. ↑ Argum. in Aristoph. Nub. et Av.
  2. 1 2 3 Smith, Philip (1867). "Ameipsias". In William Smith. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology . 1. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. pp. 141–142.
  3. ↑ Diogenes Laërtius, ii. 28
  4. ↑ Athen. v. p. 218
  5. ↑ Aristophanes, The Frogs v. 12—14
  6. ↑ Meineke, Frag. Com. i. p. 199, ii. p. 701

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