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Diphilus (Greek: Δίφιλος), ofSinope, was a poet of the new Atticcomedy and a contemporary ofMenander (342–291 BC). He is frequently listed together with Menander andPhilemon, considered the three greatest poets ofNew Comedy. He was victorious at least three times at theLenaia, placing him third before Philemon and Menander.[1] Although most of his plays were written and acted atAthens he died atSmyrna. His body was returned and buried in Athens.[2]
According toAthenaeus, he was on intimate terms with the famous courtesanGnathaena.[3] Athenaeus quotes the comic poetMachon in support of this claim. Machon is also the source for the claim that Diphilus acted in his own plays.[4]
An anonymous essay on comedy from antiquity reports that Diphilus wrote 100 plays. Of these 100 plays, 59 titles, and 137 fragments (or quotations) survive. From the extant fragments, Diphilus' plays seem to have featured many of thestock characters now primarily associated with thecomedies of the Roman playwrightPlautus, who translated and adapted a number of Diphilus' plays. Swaggering soldiers, verbose cooks, courtesans, and parasites, all feature in the fragments. In contrast to his more successful contemporaries, Menander and Philemon, Diphilus seems to have had a preference for the mythological subjects so popular inMiddle Comedy.[5]
To judge from the imitations ofPlautus (Casina from the Κληρούμενοι,Asinaria from the Ὀναγός,Rudens from some other play), he was very skillful in the construction of his plots.Terence also tells us that he introduced into theAdelphi (ii. I) a scene from the Συναποθνήσκοντες, which had been omitted by Plautus in his adaptation (Commorientes) of the same play.[6]
According to theEncyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition:
The style of Diphilus was simple and natural, and his language on the whole goodAttic; he paid great attention to versification, and was supposed to have invented a peculiar kind of metre. The ancients were undecided whether to class him among the writers of the New or Middle comedy. In his fondness for mythological subjects (Hercules,Theseus) and his introduction on the stage (by a bold anachronism) of the poetsArchilochus andHipponax as rivals ofSappho, he approximates to the spirit of the latter.[6]
Fragments in R. Kassel-C. Austin, "Poetae Comici Graeci" (PCG) vol. 5 (previously in T. Kock,Comicorum Atticorum fragmenta ii; see J. Denis,La Comédie grecque (1886), ii. p. 414; R.W. Bond in "Classical Review"24(1) (February 1910) with trans. ofEmporos fragm.).[7]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Diphilus".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 290.| International | |
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