Chionides (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: Χιονίδης or Χιωνίδης) an

Athenian Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

comic poet Ancient Greek comedy () was one of the final three principal dramatic forms in the theatre of classical Greece; the others being tragedy and the satyr play. Greek comedy was distinguished from tragedy by its happy endings and use of comically exa ...

of the 5th century BC, contemporary of Magnes. The ''

Suda The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; ; ) is a large 10th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine encyclopedia of the History of the Mediterranean region, ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas () or Souidas (). It is an ...

'' says that Chionides flourished eight years before the

Greco-Persian Wars The Greco-Persian Wars (also often called the Persian Wars) were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire and Polis, Greek city-states that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. The collision between the fractious political world ...

, that is, 487 BC. But

Augustus Meineke Johann Albrecht Friedrich August Meineke (also ''Augustus Meineke''; ; 8 December 179012 December 1870), Germany, German classical philology, classical scholar, was born at Soest, Germany, Soest in the Duchy of Westphalia. He was father-in-law to ...

thinks that Chionides flourished no earlier than 460 BC. In confirmation of this date he quotes from

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (, or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; ) was an ancient Greek rhetorician and Grammarian (Greco-Roman), grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century ...

, who quoted a fragment of Chionides' Πτωχοί (Beggars), which mentions

Gnesippus Gnesippus (), son of Cleomachus, a Doric lyric poet, according to Meineke, whose light and licentious love verses were attacked by the Athenian comic poets Chionides, Cratinus, and Eupolis. The passages quoted by Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucra ...

, a poet contemporary with

Cratinus Cratinus (; 519 BC – 422 BC) was an Athenian comic poet of the Old Comedy. Life Cratinus won prizes for his plays on 27 known occasions, eight times at the City Dionysia, first probably in the mid-to-late 450s BCE (IG II2 2325. 50), and t ...

. Aristotle also notes that Chionides "lived long after Epicharmus". But Athenaeus also noted that some critics at the time regarded Chionides' Πτωχοί as spurious. Similarly, some scholars (e.g.

Heinrich Ritter Heinrich August Ritter (; 21 November 1791 – 3 February 1869) was a German philosopher and historian of philosophy. He was born in Zerbst, and studied philosophy and theology at the University of Göttingen and Berlin until 1815. In 1824 he beca ...

) strongly argue against the genuineness of Aristotle's observations. Titles of his comedies: *Ἥρωες (''Heroes''), The Heroes *Πτωχοί (''Ptochoi''), Poor People, or Beggars *Πέρσαι (''Persai''), The Persians, or Ἁσσυριοι (''Assyrioi''), The Assyrians

Fragments

*Theodor Kock. ''Comicorum Atticorum fragmenta'', i. (1880). *

. ''Potarum Graecorum comicorum fragmenta'', (1855). *Rudolf Kassel, Colin Austin. ''Poetae comici Graeci'' Volume 4. (1983)

References

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' is a biographical dictionary of classical antiquity, edited by William Smith (lexicographer), William Smith and originally published in London by John Taylor (English publisher), Tayl ...

Chionidestheatrehistory.com
*This article paraphrased from an article in

. 5th-century BC Athenians Ancient Athenian dramatists and playwrights 5th-century BC Greek poets Old Comic poets {{AncientGreece-writer-stub