Hermippus ( grc-gre, Ἕρμιππος; fl. 5th century BC) was the one-eyed

Athenian Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...

writer of the

Old Comedy Old Comedy (''archaia'') is the first period of the ancient Greek comedy, according to the canonical division by the Alexandrian grammarians.Mastromarco (1994) p.12 The most important Old Comic playwright is Aristophanes – whose works, with thei ...

, who flourished during the Peloponnesian War.

Life

He was the son of Lysis, and the brother of the comic poet Myrtilus. He was younger than

Telecleides Telecleides ( grc, Τηλεκλείδης) was an Athenian Old Comic poet. A contemporary of Cratinus, he was active , and is known to have won at the Dionysia three times and the Lenaia five times. Only eight titles and a few fragments of his pl ...

and older than Eupolis and

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion ( la, Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his fo ...

. According to the Suda, he wrote forty plays, and his chief actor was Simeron, according to the

scholia Scholia (singular scholium or scholion, from grc, σχόλιον, "comment, interpretation") are grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments – original or copied from prior commentaries – which are inserted in the margin of t ...

st of Aristophanes. The titles and fragments of nine of his plays are preserved. He was a bitter opponent of Pericles, whom he accused (probably in the ''Moirai'') of being a bully and a coward, and of carousing with his boon companions while the Lacedaemonians were invading Attica. He also accused Aspasia of impiety and offences against morality, and her acquittal was only secured by the tears of Pericles (

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ...

, ''Pericles'', 32). In the "Female Bread-Sellers", he attacked the demagogue Hyperbolus. The "Mat-Carriers" contains many parodies of

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the '' Iliad'' and the '' Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of ...

Surviving titles and fragments

Ninety-four fragments of Hermippus' work survives, along with the following nine titles: *''Athenas Gonai'' ("Birth of Athena") *''Artopolides'' ("Female Bread-Sellers") *''Demotai'' ("Citizens") *''Europa'' (" Europa") *''Theoi'' ("Gods") *''Kerkopes'' (" Cercopes") *''Moirai'' ("Fates") *''Stratiotai'' ("Soldiers") *''Phormophoroi'' ("Mat-Carriers") Hermippus also appears to have written scurrilous iambic poems after the manner of Archilochus.Douglas E. Gerber, ''Greek Iambic Poetry'', Loeb Classical Library (1999), page 9 Other types of works written by Hermippus cited by ancient writers include trimeters and tetrameters.

Fragments

*Theodor Kock. ''Comicorum Atticorum fragmenta'', i. (1880). * Augustus Meineke. ''Poetarum Graecorum comicorum fragmenta'', (1855). *C. Austin and Rudolf Kassel. '' Poetae Comici Graeci''.

References

Sources

* 5th-century BC Athenians Ancient Greek dramatists and playwrights Ancient Greek poets Old Comic poets Iambic poets 5th-century BC writers 5th-century BC poets Athenians of the Peloponnesian War Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Culture in Classical Athens {{AncientGreece-writer-stub