11

Introduction
1. Name and Identity
Nothing is known of Eupolis (PA 5936; PAA 442535) himself beyond the claim
in the Suda (test. 1) that his father was called Sosipolis and that—seemingly
like all or almost all comic poets competing at the City Dionysia and Lenaea
festivals in his time—he was an Athenian citizen. The name Eupolis is borne
by a handful of other men (a dozen additional 5th-/4th-century exx. in LGPN ii
s.v), including a candidate for ostracism and thus an active politician in the
480s BCE (PAA 442630; from the deme Thorai); a Hellenotamias of 410/9 BCE
(PA 5941; PAA 422620; from the deme Aphidna); and two members of the
5th-/4th-century liturgical class, Eupolis son of Apollodorus? (PA 5935; PAA
442560; late 5th c.) and Eupolis son of Pronapes of the deme Aixone (PA 5937;
PAA 442590; trierarch in 334/3 BCE). Whether the comic poet Eupolis was
related to one or more of these men is impossible to say, but he must have
had a good education and been free to devote himself to writing when he was
young, leaving little doubt that his family was well-to-do. We know of no
other member of Eupolis’ family who was a poet, and he died too young (see
Chronology and Career below) for his sons—if he had any—to have had the
opportunity to learn the business from him, as Aristophanes’ sons for example
seemingly did from their own father.

2. Chronology and Career
According to the Suda (test. 1), Eupolis staged his first comedy when he was
seventeen years old; Anon, de Com. Ill (test. 2a) puts this performance in 429
BCE, whereas Eusebius (test. 6a) has it in 427 BCE. Taxiarchoi likely belongs
to 428 BCE (see the general introduction to that play, Date), so Anon, de
Com. is likely right on this count at least, putting Eupolis’ birth in 447/6 BCE
and making him a more or less exact contemporary of Aristophanes. The
Suda further reports that Eupolis died in the course of the Peloponnesian
War in a shipwreck (sc. a naval battle) in the Hellespont. The plays are all
plausibly dated to the 420s-late 410s BCE; none of the fragments refers to a
person or event that unambiguously belongs after 412 BCE; and the idea that
Eupolis died in the second half of the 410s BCE finds some modest support
in another—otherwise patently fantastic—story (test. 3 with n.), according to
which Alcibiades reacted to the depiction of himself in Baptai by drowning