Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/116

102 EUPOLIS. being alluded to by Thucydides or any other trast- wortliy historian, the answer of Cicero is conciu- Bive, that Eratosthenes mentioned plays produced by Eupolis after the Sicilian expedition. (Ad Alt. vi. 1.) There is still a fragment extant, in which the poet applies the title a-Tpar-nySv to Aristarchus, whom we know to have been (npam]'y6s in the year B. c. 4 If, that is, four years later than the date at which the common story fixed the death of Eupolis. (Schol. Victor, ad. Iliad, xiii. 353.) The only discoverable foundation for this story, and probably the true account of the poet's death, is the statement of Suidas, that he perished at the Hellespont in the war against the Lacedae- monians, which, as Meineke observes, must refer either to the battle of Cynossema (b. c. 411), or to that of Aegospotami (b. c. 405). That he died in the former battle is not improbable, since we never hear of his exhibiting after b. c. 412 ; and if so, it is very likely that the enemies of Alcibiades might charge him with taking advantage of the confusion of the battle to gratify his revenge. Meineke throws out a conjecture that the story may have arisen from a misunderstanding of what Lysias says about the young Alcibiades (i. p, 541). There are, however, other accounts of the poet's death, which are altogether different. Aelian ( A. A. x. 41) and Tzetzes (Chil. iv. 245) relate, that he died and was buried in Aegina, and Pausanias (ii. 7. § 4) says, that he saw his tomb in the territory of Sicyon. Of the personal history of Eupolis nothing more is known. Aelian (Z. c.) tells a pleasant tale of his faithful dog, Augeas, and his slave Ephialtes. The chief characteristic of the poetry of Eupolis seems to have been the liveliness of his fancy, and the power which he possessed of imparting its images to the audience. This characteristic of his genius influenced his choice of subjects, as well as his mode of treating them, so that he not only ap- pears to have chosen subjects which other poets might have despaired of dramatizing, but we are expressly told that he wrought into the body of his plaj'S those serious political views which other poets expounded in their parabases, as in the Atj/uoi, in which he represented the legislators of other times conferring on the administration of the state. To do this in a genuine Attic old comedy, without converting the comedy into a serious phi- losophic dialogue, must have been a great triumph of dramatic art (Platon. de Div. Char. p. xxvi.) This introduction of deceased persons on the stage appears to have given to the plays of Eupolis a certain dignity, which would have been inconsistent with the comic spirit had it not been relieved by the most graceful and clever merriment. (Platon. I. c.) In elegance he is said to have even sur- passed Aristophanes {Ibid. ; Macrob. Sat. vii. 5), while in bitter jesting and personal abuse he emulated Cratinus. (Anon, de Com. p. xxix. ; Pers. Sai. i. 124 ; Lucian. Jov. Ace. vol. ii. p. 832.) Among the objects of his satire was Socrates, on whom he made a bitter, though less elaborate attack than that in the Clouds of Aristophanes. (Schol. adAristoph. Nub. 97, 1 80; Etym. Mag. p. 18. 10 ; Lucian. Pise. vol. i. p. 595.) Innocence seems to have afi^orded no shelter, for he attacked Auto- lycus, who is said to have been guilty of no crime, and is only known as having been distinguished for his beauty, and as a victor in the pancratium, as vehemently as Callias, Alcibiades, Melanthius, and others. Nor were the dead exempt from his EUPOMPIDAS. abuse, for there are still extant some lines of his, in which Cimon is most unmercifully treated. (Plut. dm. 15; Schol. ad Aristeid. p. 515.) It is hardly necessary to observe that these attacks were mingled with much obscenity. (Schol. ad Aristoph. Pac. 741, 1142, Nub. 296, 541.) A close relation subsisted between Eupolis and Aristophanes, not only as rivals, but as imitators of each other. Cratinus attacked Aristophanes for borrowing from Eupolis, and Eupolis in his BaTrrai made the same charge, especially with reference to the Knights^ of which he says, KaKi'ivovs Tous 'iTTTTeas ^uvfTTolTjcra r^ (paAaKp^ roirt^ KaSuprjcrdfj.riv, The Scholiasts specify the last Parabasis of the Knights as borrowed from Eupolis. (Schol. ad Aristuph. Equit. 528, 1288, Nub. 544, foil.) On the other hand, Aristophanes, in the second (or third) edition of the Clouds, retorts upon Eu- polis the charge of imitating the Knights in his Maricas (Nub. I. c), and taunts him with the further indignity of jesting on his rival's baldness. There are other examples of the attacks of the two poets upon one another. (Aristoph. Pax, 762, and Schol. ; Schol. ad Vesp. 1020; Schol. ad Platon. p. 331, Bekker ; Stobaeus, Serm. iv. p. 53.) The number of the plays of Eupolis is stated by Suidas at seventeen, and by the anonymous writer at fourteen. The extant titles exceed the greater of these numbers, but some of them are very doubtful. The following fifteen are considered by Meineke to be genuine : AZyes, 'AtrrpaTeurot ^ ^J^.v^po'yvval, AvtoKvkos, BaTrrai, A'fijxoi, Aiairdv, E'/Awrey, KoAoKes, Mapi/cas, 'Hovfjuqviai, IloAets, TlpoatraKTioi, Ta^iapxoi, 'TGpLaTodiKai, Xpvaovv yevos. An analysis of these plays, so far as their subjects can be ascertained, will be found in the works quoted below, and especially in that of Meineke. The following are the plaj'S of Eupolis, the dates of which are known : — b. c. 425. At the Lenaea. 'NovnTjviai. Third Prize. 1st. Aristophanes, 'AxapveTs. 2nd. Cratinus, Xeifxa^ofxivoi. „ 423 or 422. 'Aa-TpdrevToi. „ 421. MaAKas. Probably at the Lenaea. „ „ KoAa/ces. At the great Dionysia. First Prize. 2nd. Aristoph. Elp-^vr). „ 420. AdrdAvKos. Eupolis, like Aristophanes and other comic poets, brought some of his plays on the stage in the name of another person, ApoUodorus. (Athen, V. p. 216, d.) Hephaestion (p. 109, ed. Gaisf.) mentions a peculiar choriambic metre, which was called Eu- polidean, and which was also used by the poets of the middle and of the new comedy. The names of Eupolis and Eubulus are often confounded. (Fabric. Bibl. Cfraec. vol. ii. pp. 445 — 448 ; Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. vol. i. pp. 104 — 146, vol. ii. pp. 426 — 579 ; Bergk, Comment, de Reliq. Com. Att. Ant. pp. 332—366 ; Clinton, Fast. Hellen. vol. ii. sub annis.) [P. S.] EUPO'MPIDAS (Ei)7ro;U7rt'Sos), son of Daima- chus, one of the commanders in Plataea during its siege by the Lacedaemonians, b. c. 429 — 8. He with Theaenetus, a prophet, in the winter follow- ing this second year, devised the celebrated plan for passing the lines of circuravallation, which, ori- ginally intended for the whole number of the be-