ants.

Carcinus, a tragic poet of the time of Sophocles and Euripides, had a son, Xenocles, who also produced tragedies, Carcinus and and in the fourth century the younger Carcihis descend- nus, son of Xenocles, was a successful and popular writer, who produced one hundred and sixty tragedies and won numerous victories. He spent a large part of his life in Syracuse at the court of the younger Dionysius. His son, the younger Xenocles, was also a tragic poet.

Critias, Meletus, Aristarchus, Neo

phron, Sthenelus.

Among the other tragic poets of the fifth century are none who deserve more than a passing notice. Critias, the pupil of Socrates, best known as the leader of the Thirty Tyrants, was an orator of distinction, a writer of elegies, and a tragic poet. He seems to have imitated Euripides and to have inserted much philosophical reflection into his tragedies. Meletus is better known as one of the accusers of Socrates than as a tragic poet. His lyrics appear to have been coarse, and perhaps indecent. He wrote a connected tetralogy on the subject of Edipus, the latest known example of such a work. Aristarchus of Tegea was a prolific author of the time of Euripides. His Achilles was imitated by the Roman poet Ennius and is the only tragedy not by one of the three great tragedians known to have been adapted by a Roman author. Neophron of Sicyon gave great prominence to slave characters. His Medea is said to have suggested the play of the same name by Euripides. Sthenelus is said to have written tragedies in the language of ordinary life. Several other tragic poets are known by name, but only as writers of little importance.

In the fourth century tragedy continued to be popular Tragedy in at Athens, and spread also to other cities. the fourth Most of the tragic poets, however, wherever they happened to be born, came to Athens to compete for the prize in the great contests, while others

century.

merely sent their works to Athens. The subjects of tragedy were still the ancient myths, and it was difficult for any one to treat them with originality. The result was a tedious monotony, hardly improved by the introduction of rhetorical flourishes. Theodectes of Phaselis, who was born about 375 and settled in Athens at an early age, took up speech writing as his principal profession, but also composed tragedies. He competed in thirteen contests and won eight prizes. When Artemisia of Halicarnassus invited the most distinguished oratorical writers to compose speeches in honor of the memory of her husband, Maussolus, Theodectes was defeated by Theopompus, but his tragedy in honor of Maussolus gained the prize. He seems to have had some dramatic ability, but his style was too rhetorical. Charemon, who flourished about the middle of the fourth century, was the most distinguished of a class of writers who composed tragedies to be read rather than to be acted. His diction was pleasing, his style finished and careful, though somewhat artificial. He seems to have excelled in description and to have been a lover of nature, especially of flowers. The philosopher Heraclides of Pontus, his pupil Dionysius, and other writers of the fourth century composed tragedies under the names of earlier poets, either with intent to deceive or merely as literary exercises. So the fragments preserved under the name of Thespis are due to Heraclides. Dionysius the elder, tyrant of Syracuse from 405 to 367 B. C., is the most interesting of the remaining tragic poets of the fourth century. He wrote histories and perhaps comedies, but his tragedies were his most important literary productions. They do not appear to have been very successful, though they are mentioned by later writers, and one of them gained a prize at the Lenæan festival in Athens in 367.

Tragedies continued to be written and acted in the time of Alexander the Great, who caused them to be per

formed at his festivals, and even after the fourth century —in fact, until long after the Romans conquered Greece. Tragic performances became a regular part of various festivals in all parts of the Greek world and even in Parthia. But the vigorous growth of tragic poetry ends with the death of Euripides.

CHAPTER XXI

THE OLD COMEDY-ARISTOPHANES

The origin and development of comedy-Susarion, about 560 B. C. -Epicharmus, about 485 B. C.-Mimes-Sophron, about 440 B. C.— Pantomimes-Early Attic comedy-Chionides and Ecphantides, wrote 480-450 B. c.—Magnes, wrote 460-430 B. C.-Cratinus, wrote about 450– 423 B. C.--Crates, 445 B. C.-Pherecrates, about 440 B. C.-Eupolis, 446411 B.C.-Aristophanes, about 450-385 B. C.-His life, style, and composition-The extant plays-Analysis of the Birds.

COMEDY, like tragedy, arose from the worship of Dionysus, and was developed into a branch of literature at Athens in the fifth century. Its development was somewhat later than that of tragedy and its vigorous life continued longer. Tragedy arose from the dithyramb, which was a regular and, in part at least, a serious form of worship. Comedy, on the other hand, had its origin in the unrestrained, boisterous, and sometimes licentious fun of the processions connected with the festivals of the god of wine. Whether the word comedy is derived from komos, festive procession, or from kome, village, is uncertain. In any case, comedy arose from the festive processions connected with the rustic worship of Dionysus. Among the Dorians such processions were popular, and those who took part in them improvised jokes and rude verses, probably at times impersonating their neighbors or others against whom the shafts of their wit were aimed. In the villages of the Megarid bacchic processions with impersonations, mimic dances, and jokes, probably of a political and satiric nature, were popu

Origin of comedy.

lar, and this so-called Megarian comedy was introduced into the neighboring Attica in the early part of the sixth century. According to one account, the first comic performances in Attica were at Icaria, the birthplace of Thespis.

Susarion.

This Megarian comedy had no plot, but consisted merely of detached scenes and coarse buffoonery. The words were not written, and were originally improvised by the revelers, apparently in prose. The first who composed comedies in verse was Susarion, who is called the inventor of comedy. He was born at Tripodiscus, a village of the Megarid, not far from 600 B. C., for he began to be known about 575. His comedies had as yet no plot, and were not more than three or four hundred lines long. It is not even certain that they were committed to writing. The names Myllus and Mæson, sometimes supposed to be those of authors of primitive comedies, are more probably names of stock characters in the comic scenes-Myllus a man who pretends to be deaf and dumb, but who really hears everything, Mæson a fat cook. If there were any contests or competitions in comedy in Attica before the fifth century they can have been only local contests between village jesters.

Such rude beginnings of comedy as existed in the Doric states of the Peloponnesus were to be found also in Sicily, and here an important advance was made. Aristoxenus of Selinus appears to have written iambics of a comic and satiric sort about the end of the sixth century, and may in some measure have prepared the way for Phormus and Epicharmus. Of the former little is known except that Gelo entrusted to him the education of his children, but Epicharmus seems to have been a man of orig. Epicharmus. inal genius. He was born in the island of Cos in the second half of the sixth century, but was taken as a child to Megara in Sicily. He afterward moved to Syracuse, where he gave performances in 486 B. C. He