Epinicus

Last updated March 30, 2019

Epinicus or Epinikos (Greek : Ἐπίνικος, 3rd century BC), was an Athenian comic poet of the new comedy. Two of his plays are known, Hypoballomenai^[1] and Mnêsiptolemos. The latter title determines his date to the time of Antiochus III the Great, about 217 BC, for Mnesiptolemus was an historian in great favour with that king.^[2]

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It has the longest documented history of any living Indo-European language, spanning more than 3000 years of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history; other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems.

The city of Athens during the classical period of Ancient Greece was the major urban center of the notable polis (city-state) of the same name, located in 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 Isagoras. This system remained remarkably stable, and with a few brief interruptions remained in place for 180 years, until 322 BC. The peak of Athenian hegemony was achieved in the 440s to 430s BC, known as the Age of Pericles.

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. Old Comedy survives today largely in the form of the eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes, while Middle Comedy is largely lost, i.e. preserved only in relatively short fragments by authors such as Athenaeus of Naucratis. New Comedy is known primarily from the substantial papyrus fragments of Menander.

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References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Philip Smith (1870). "article name needed". In Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology .

The public domain consists of all the creative works to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable.

Sir William Smith was an English lexicographer. He also made advances in the teaching of Greek and Latin in schools.

The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 pages. It is a classic work of 19th-century lexicography. The work is a companion to Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities and Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography.

Footnotes

↑ Suda ε 2493
↑ Eudoc. p. 166; Athen. x. p. 432, b., xi. pp. 469, a., 497, a., 500, f.; Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. vol. i. p. 481, iv. pp. 505-508. (cited by Smith)

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[1] Suda ε 2493

[2] Eudoc. p. 166; Athen. x. p. 432, b., xi. pp. 469, a., 497, a., 500, f.; Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. vol. i. p. 481, iv. pp. 505-508. (cited by Smith)