Susarion (Greek: Σουσαρίων) was anArchaic Greekcomicpoet, was a native ofTripodiscus inMegaris (seeMegara) and is considered one of the originators of metrical comedy[1] and, by others, he was considered the founder of Attic Comedy.[nb 1] Nothing of his work, however, survives except one iambic fragment (see below) and this is not from a comedy but instead seems to belong within theIambus tradition.[2]
About 580 BC, he transplanted the Megariancomedy (if the rudeextempore jests and buffoonery deserve the name) into theAtticdeme of Icaria, the cradle also ofGreek tragedy and the oldest seat of the worship ofDionysus. According to theParian Chronicle, there appears to have been a competition on this occasion, in which the prize was a basket offigs and anamphora ofwine.
Susarion's improvements in his nativefarces did not include a separateactor or a regularplot, but probably consisted in substituting metrical compositions for the old extempore effusions of thechorus. These were intended for recitation, and not committed to writing. But such performances did not suit the taste of theAthenians, and nothing more is heard of them until eighty years after the time of Susarion.
Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (inHermes, ix) considers the so-called Megarian comedy to have been an invention of the Athenians themselves, intended as a satire on Megarian coarseness and vulgarity. The lines attributed to Susarion (inJohann Albrecht Friedrich August Meineke'sPoetarum comicorum graecorum fragmenta) are probably not genuine.
The following quote, recorded partly byStobaeus and partly byTzetzes, is reconstructed here to form the only extant fragment of Susarion's work:
Listen people. These are the words of Susarion, son of Philinus, from Tripodeske in Megara. Women are a bane: but nevertheless it is not possible to live in a household without bane. For to marry or not to marry, either is baneful.[3]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Susarion".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 162.| International | |
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