Everything about Epicharmus totally explained
Epicharmus is considered to have lived within the hundred year period between c.
540 and c.
450 BC. He was a
Greek dramatist and
philosopher often credited with being one of the first
comic writers, having originated the
Doric or
Sicilian comedic form. Aristotle (Poetics 5 1449b5 ) writes that he and Phormis invented comic plots (muthos). Most of the information we've about Epicharmus comes from the writings of
Athenaeus,
Suidas and
Diogenes Laertius, but fragments and comments come up in a host of other ancient authors as well. There have also been some papyrus finds of longer sections of text, but these are often so full of holes that it's difficult to make sense of them.
Plato mentions Epicharmus in his dialogue
Gorgias and in
Theaetetus. In the latter, Socrates refers to Epicharmus as "the prince of Comedy", Homer as "the prince of Tragedy", and both as "great masters of either kind of poetry". More references by ancient authors can be found discussed in Pickard-Cambridge's
Dithyramb, Tragedy, Comedy and they're collected in Greek in Kassel and Austin's new edition of the fragments in
Poetae Comici Graeci, (2001).
Life and work
Epicharmus' birth place isn't known, but late and fairly unreliable ancient commentators suggest a number of alternatives. The Suda (E 2766) records that he was either Syracusan by birth or from the Sikanian city of Krastos. Diogenes Laertius (VIII 78) records that Epicharmus was born in
Astypalea, the ancient capital of
Kos on the
Bay of Kamari, near modern-day
Kefalos. Diogenes Laertius also records that his father, was the prominent physician
Helothales, moved the family to
Megara,
Sicily when Epicharmus was just a few months old. Although raised according to the
Asclepiad tradition of his father, as an adult Epicharmus became a follower of
Pythagoras. All of this biographical information could be treated as suspect. More references to alternative origins and discussion of their likelihood can be found in Pickard-Cambridge's
Tragedy, Comedy, Dithyramb, and more recently in Rodriguez Noriega Guillen's
Epicarmo di Siracusa: Testimonios y Fragmentos. The standard edition of his fragments by Kaibel has now been updated with the publication of Kassel and Austin's
Poetae Comici Graeci. It is most likely that sometime after 484 BC, he lived in
Syracuse, and worked as a poet for the
tyrants
Gelo and
Hiero I. The subject matter of his poetry covered a broad range, from exhortations against intoxication and laziness to such unorthodox topics as mythological
burlesque, but he also wrote on
philosophy,
medicine,
natural science,
linguistics, and
ethics. Among many other philosophical and moral lessons, Epicharmus taught that the continuous exercise of virtue could overcome hereditary, so that anyone had the potential to be a good person regardless of birth. He died in his 90s (according to a statement in
Lucian,
Macrobii, 25, he died at ninety-seven).
Diogenes Laertius records that there was a bronze statue dedicated to him in Syracuse, by the inhabitants, for which
Theocritus composed the following inscription :
"As the bright sun excels the other stars,
As the sea far exceeds the river streams:
So does sage Epicharmus men surpass,
Whom hospitable Syracuse has crowned."
Theocritus Epigram 18 (AP IX 60; Kassel and Austin Test. 18) is also written in his honor.
Works
Epicharmus wrote somewhere between thirty-five and fifty-two comedies, though many have been lost or exist only in
fragments. Along with his contemporary
Phormis, he was alternately praised or denounced for ridiculing the great mythic
heroes.
His two most famous works were
Agrostinos which dealt humorously with the agricultural lifestyle, and
Marriage of Hebe to Hercules, in which
Hercules was portrayed as a glutton. Additional works include
Odysseus automolos,
Cyclops,
Amykos, and
Promytheus.
Quotations
"Judgement, not passion should prevail."
"The mind sees and the mind hears. The rest is blind and deaf."
"A mortal should think mortal thoughts, not immortal thoughts."
"The best thing a man can have, in my view, is health."
"The hand washes the hand: give something and you may get something."
"Then what is the nature of men? Blown up bladders!"
Further Information
Get more info on 'Epicharmus'.
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