Hermippus ( grc-gre, Ἕρμιππος; fl. 5th century BC) was the one-eyed
Athenian writer of the
Old Comedy, who flourished during the
Peloponnesian War
The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Greek world. The war remained undecided for a long time until the decisive intervention of th ...
.
Life
He was the son of Lysis, and the brother of the comic poet Myrtilus. He was younger than
Telecleides Telecleides ( grc, Τηλεκλείδης) was an Athenian Old Comic poet. A contemporary of Cratinus, he was active , and is known to have won at the Dionysia three times and the Lenaia five times. Only eight titles and a few fragments of his pl ...
and older than
Eupolis and
Aristophanes. According to the
Suda
The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; grc-x-medieval, Σοῦδα, Soûda; la, Suidae Lexicon) is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas (Σούδας) or Souidas ...
, he wrote forty plays, and his chief actor was Simeron, according to the
scholiast of Aristophanes. The titles and fragments of nine of his plays are preserved. He was a bitter opponent of
Pericles, whom he accused (probably in the ''Moirai'') of being a bully and a coward, and of carousing with his boon companions while the
Lacedaemonians were invading
Attica. He also accused
Aspasia of 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 the
demagogue Hyperbolus. The "Mat-Carriers" contains many parodies of
Homer.
Surviving titles and fragments
Ninety-four fragments of Hermippus' work survives, along with the following nine titles:
*''Athenas Gonai'' ("Birth of Athena")
*''Artopolides'' ("Female Bread-Sellers")
*''Demotai'' ("Citizens")
*''Europa'' ("
Europa
Europa may refer to:
Places
* Europe
* Europa (Roman province), a province within the Diocese of Thrace
* Europa (Seville Metro), Seville, Spain; a station on the Seville Metro
* Europa City, Paris, France; a planned development
* Europa Cliff ...
")
*''Theoi'' ("Gods")
*''Kerkopes'' ("
Cercopes")
*''Moirai'' ("Fates")
*''Stratiotai'' ("Soldiers")
*''Phormophoroi'' ("Mat-Carriers")
Hermippus also appears to have written scurrilous
iambic poems after the manner of
Archilochus
Archilochus (; grc-gre, Ἀρχίλοχος ''Arkhilokhos''; c. 680 – c. 645 BC) was a Greek lyric poet of the Archaic period from the island of Paros. He is celebrated for his versatile and innovative use of poetic meters, and is the ea ...
.
[Douglas E. Gerber, ''Greek Iambic Poetry'', Loeb Classical Library (1999), page 9] Other types of works written by Hermippus cited by ancient writers include
trimeters and
tetrameters.
Fragments
*Theodor Kock. ''Comicorum Atticorum fragmenta'', i. (1880).
*
Augustus Meineke. ''Poetarum Graecorum comicorum fragmenta'', (1855).
*C. Austin and Rudolf Kassel. ''
Poetae Comici Graeci''.
References
Sources
*
5th-century BC Athenians
Ancient Greek dramatists and playwrights
Ancient Greek poets
Old Comic poets
Iambic poets
5th-century BC writers
5th-century BC poets
Athenians of the Peloponnesian War
Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown
Culture in Classical Athens
{{AncientGreece-writer-stub