Epicharmus of Kos
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Epicharmus (c540–c450 BCE), also called Epicharmus of Kos, was a Greek dramatist and philosopher often credited with being one of the first comic writers, having originated the Doric or Sicilian comedic form. Most of the information we have about Epicharmus comes from the writings of Suidas and Diogenes Laertius.
Epicharmus was born around 540 BCE in Astypalea, the ancient capital of Kos on the Bay of Kamari, near modern-day Kefalos. His father, the prominent physician Helothales, moved the family to Megara, Sicily when Epicharmus was just a few months old. Although raised according to the Asclepiad tradition of his father, as an adult Epicharmus became a follower of Pythagoras. After [[|480s BCE|484 BCE]] he lived in Syracuse, and worked as a poet for the tyrants Gelon and Hiero I. The subject matter of his poetry covered a broad range, from exhortations against intoxication and laziness to such unorthodox topics as mythological burlesque, but he also wrote on philosophy, medicine, natural science, linguistics, and ethics. Epicharmus taught that the continuous exercise of virtue could overcome hereditary, so that anyone had the potential to be a good person regardless of birth.
Epicharmus died in his 90s. There is a statue dedicated to him in Syracuse, with the following inscription:
"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."
Works
Epicharmus wrote somewhere between 35 and 52 comedies, though many have been lost or exist only in fragments. Along with his contemporary Phormis, he was alternately praised or denounced for ridiculing the great mythic heros.
His two most famous works were Agrostinos which dealt humorously with the agricultural lifestyle, and Marriage of Hebe to Hercules, in which Hercules was portrayed as a glutton. Additional works include Odysseus automolos, Cyclops, Amykos, and Promytheus.
Quotations
"Judgement, not passion should prevail."
"The mind sees and the mind hears. The rest is blind and deaf."
References
- William Ridgeway, contrib. The Dramas and Dramatic Dances of Non-European Races. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1915.
- A. W. Pickard-Cambridge, Dithyramb, Tragedy, and Comedy (1927, repr. 1962).