40

Eupolis

(test. 4)... Εύπολις Αθηναίος, έδίδαξεν έπί άρχοντας Απολλοδώρου (430/29
BCE), έφ’ ού και Φρύνιχος, γεγονώς δυνατός τη λέξει καί ζηλών Κρατϊνον-
πολύ γοϋν λοίδορον καί σκαιόν έπιφαίνει. γέγραπται δε αύτω δράματα ιδ'
The Old Comic poets took part in the contests out of an interest in witty
entertainment rather than in offering true advice; a total of 365 of their plays
are preserved if one includes the forgeries. The most significant of them are
Epicharmus (test. 6a), Magnes (test. 3), Cratinus (test. 2a), Crates (test. 2a),
Pherecrates (test. 2a), Phrynichus (test. 2), Eupolis, Aristophanes (test. 4) ...
Eupolis the Athenian. He staged a play in the archonship of Apollodorus
(430/29 BCE), to whose year Phrynichus also belongs, and was powerful in
his diction and an imitator of Cratinus; at any rate, he exhibits considerable
abuse and crudity. He is the author of 14 plays
b. Canones comicorum, tab. M cap. 4 = tab. C cap. 10, pp. 6 = 12 Kroehnert
κωμωδοποιοί αρχαίας επτά· ’Επίχαρμος (test. 6b), Κρατΐνος (test. 2b), Εΰπο-
λις, Αριστοφάνης (test. 4), Φερεκράτης (test. 2b), Κράτης (test. 2b), Πλάτων
(test. 2)
Seven Old Comic poets: Epicharmus (test. 6b), Cratinus (test. 2b), Eupolis,
Aristophanes (test. 4), Pherecrates (test. 2b), Crates (test. 2b), Plato (test. 2)
Discussion Sarati 1996. 130-2; Storey 2003. 54-6
Citation context Test. 2a is part of a canned Byzantine history of the comic
genre, with each poet given separate treatment in the same order as in the
initial list of names; the entries include a mix of information about dates,
number of plays preserved, stylistic characteristics, various career details
and the like. Similar but briefer discussions of “Middle” and “New Comedy”
follow. The material on individual poets resembles that in the entries in
Hesychius’ Onomatologos (test. 1 n.) and is likely drawn at least in part from
that source. The overall count of plays preserved, on the other hand, must go
back to the catalogue of a major library, most likely the one in Alexandria;
see Interpretation.
Test. 2b is part of an unadorned Byzantine catalogue of canonical authors
in various literary genres. Kassel-Austin apparently take the material pre-
served in test. 2b to be closely connected with the list of poets’ names in the
first part of test. 2a, although the catalogues overlap only in part.
Interpretation The final six (Athenian) names in the first part of test. 2a
follow the order of neither the City Dionysia Victors List (Magnes, Cratinus,
Crates, Pherecrates, but then Aristophanes, Eupolis, Phrynichus) nor the
Lenaea Victors List (Cratinus, Pherecrates, Phrynichus, Eupolis and then pre-
sumably Aristophanes, but without Magnes at the head of the list). Probably