Epicharmus ofKos orEpicharmus Comicus orEpicharmus ComicusSyracusanus (Ancient Greek:Ἐπίχαρμος ὁ Κῷος), thought to have lived between c. 550 and c. 460 BC, was aGreekdramatist andphilosopher who is often credited with being one of the firstcomedic writers, having originated theDoric orSicilian comedic form.[1]
Most of the information about Epicharmus comes from the writings ofAthenaeus,Suda andDiogenes Laërtius, although fragments and comments come up in a host of other ancient authors as well. The standard edition of his fragments was made byKaibel (1890) to which there has been various additions and emendments.[2] There have also been some papyrus finds of longer sections of text, but these are often so full of holes that it is difficult to make sense of them.Plato mentions Epicharmus in his dialogueGorgias[3] and inTheaetetus. 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".[4]Aristotle (Poetics 5.1449b5)[5] writes that he andPhormis invented comic plots (μῦθοι,muthoi).[6]
The 12th-century philosopherConstantine of Nicaea cites Epicharmus.[7]
All of his biographical information should be treated as suspect. Epicharmus' birthplace is not known, but late and fairly unreliable ancient commentators suggest a number of alternatives. TheSuda (E 2766) records that he was eitherSyracusan by birth or from theSikanian city of Krastos.Diogenes Laërtius (VIII 78) records that Epicharmus was born inAstypalea, the ancient capital ofKos on theBay of Kamari, near modern-dayKefalos. Diogenes Laërtius also records that Epicharmus' father was the prominent physician Helothales, who moved the family toMegara in Sicily, when Epicharmus was just a few months old. Although raised according to theAsclepiad tradition of his father, as an adult Epicharmus became a follower ofPythagoras.[8]
It is most likely that sometime after 484 BC, he lived inSyracuse,Magna Graecia, and worked as a poet for thetyrantsGelo andHiero I. The subject matter of his poetry covered a broad range, from exhortations against intoxication and laziness to such unorthodox topics as mythologicalburlesque, but he also wrote onphilosophy,medicine,natural science,linguistics, andethics. Among many other philosophical and moral lessons, Epicharmus taught that the continuous exercise of virtue could overcome heredity, so that anyone had the potential to be a good person regardless of birth. He died in his 90s (according to a statement inLucian,[9] he died at ninety-seven).
Diogenes Laërtius records that there was a bronze statue dedicated to him in Syracuse, by the inhabitants, for whichTheocritus composed the following inscription:[10]
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) was written in his honour.
The cosmopolitan scientist and travelerAlexander von Humboldt turned Epicharmus into the protagonist of the only literary text he ever published; it appeared 1795 inFriedrich Schiller's journalHoren under the title "Die Lebenskraft oder der Rhodische Genius" [The Vital Force or the Rhodian Genius]. Epicharmos figures here as a natural philosopher and interpreter of art.[11]
Epicharmus wrote between thirty-five and fifty-two comedies, though many have been lost or exist only in fragments. Along with his contemporaryPhormis, he was alternately praised and denounced for ridiculing the great mythicalheroes. At the time it would have been dangerous to present comedies in Syracuse like those of the Athenian stage, in which attacks were made upon the authorities. Accordingly, the comedies of Epicharmus are calculated not to give offence to the ruler. They are either mythological travesties or character comedies.[12]
His two most famous works wereAgrōstīnos ("The Country-Dweller," or "Clodhopper"), which dealt humorously with the rustic lifestyle, andHebes Gamos ("The Marriage ofHebe"), in whichHeracles was portrayed as a glutton. He also depicted Odysseus as an unheroic figure of burlesque by parodying the Homeric image for comic effect in hisOdysseùs Autómolos (Ulysses the Deserter).[13] Additional works include
Reproducing a mid-4th century BC accusation fromAlcimus,Diogenes Laërtius in hisLives of Eminent Philosophers[14] conserves a late opinion that Plato plagiarized several of Epicharmus's ideas. "[H]e [Plato] derived great assistance from Epicharmus the Comic poet, for he transcribed a great deal from him, asAlcimus says in the essays dedicated to Amyntas [of Heraclea]...." Laërtius then lists, inIII, 10, the several ways that Plato "employs the words of Epicharmus." There were also some works believed by the ancients to have been spuriously attributed to him, but actually written by the forgerAxiopistus.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Epicharmus".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 9 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 680–681. Laërtius, Diogenes (1925)."Pythagoreans: Epicharmus" .Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 2:8. Translated byHicks, Robert Drew (Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.