Hermippus
Hermippus(Greek:Ἕρμιππος;fl. 5th century BC) was the one-eyedAthenianwriter of theOld Comedy,who flourished during thePeloponnesian War.[1]
Life[edit]
He was the son of Lysis, and the brother of the comic poet Myrtilus. He was younger thanTelecleidesand older thanEupolisandAristophanes.According to theSuda,he wrote forty plays,[2]and his chief actor was Simeron, according to thescholiastof Aristophanes. The titles and fragments of nine of his plays are preserved. He was a bitter opponent ofPericles,whom he accused (probably in theMoirai) of being a bully and a coward, and of carousing with his boon companions while theLacedaemonianswere invadingAttica.He also accusedAspasiaof impiety and offences against morality, and her acquittal was only secured by the tears of Pericles (Plutarch,Pericles,32). In the "Female Bread-Sellers", he attacked thedemagogueHyperbolus.The "Mat-Carriers" contains many parodies ofHomer.[1]
Surviving titles and fragments[edit]
Ninety-four fragments of Hermippus' work survives, along with the following nine titles:
Hermippus also appears to have written scurrilousiambicpoems after the manner ofArchilochus.[1][3]Other types of works written by Hermippus cited by ancient writers includetrimetersandtetrameters.
Fragments[edit]
- Theodor Kock.Comicorum Atticorum fragmenta,i. (1880).
- Augustus Meineke.Poetarum Graecorum comicorum fragmenta,(1855).
- C. Austin and Rudolf Kassel.Poetae Comici Graeci.
References[edit]
Sources[edit]
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Hermippus".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 371.
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