Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

342 COMOEDIA. COMOEDIA.
witticisms with which the revellers assailed the ing drunken persons, and were equipped ill other
bystanders (see the description of the phallophori respects in a manner which, if not very decent,
at Sicyon in Athen. xiv. p. 622), just as the chorus was appropriate to the part they had to sustain.
in the Frogs of Aristophanes, after their song to (Athen. 1. c.) It was the iambic improvisations
Iacchus, begin ridiculing Archedemus (417, &c.). of the exarchi of such choruses which gave rise to
This origin of comedy is indicated by the name the later comedy. Antheas of Lindus is spoken
itccLpo2ga, which undoubtedly means " the song of of as a poet who composed pieces for such comnuses
the Ic&cosoS." This appears both from the testimony of phallus-bearers, which were called comedies
of Aristotle that it arose out of the phallic songs (Athen. x. p. 445). Such pieces have been styled
and from Demosthenes (c. Meid. p. 517), where lyrical colmedies by many scholars (as Bbcklh,
-we find mentioned together 6 Kic9os Kal oi KC1, Ico0- Corp. Inscript. No. 1584, note; and Mtiiller, Ifist.
8oh. (Comp. Muller, IHist. of Gr. Lit. vol. ii. p. 4, of the Lit. of Gsrece, vol. ii. p. 5), to distinguish
Dor. iv. 7. ~ 1; Bode, Gesch. der tellen. Dichtk. them from the comedy proper. Lobeck and IHervol. ii. part 2. p. 4, &c.; Kanni esser, die alte mann howzever stoutly deny that there was ally
oo7siselse B iizse aZs Antseo, p. 32.) Other derisa- such thing as lyrical tragedy or comedy distinct
tions of the name were however given even in from dramatical tragedy and comedy, and yet not
antiquity. The Megarians, conceiving it to be the same with dithyrasubs or phallic songs, and
connected with the word cd/6,uI, and to mean cvii- affirm that the tragedies and comedies which we
lage-song," appealed to the name as an evidence hear of before the rise of the regular dranla were
of the superiority of their claim to be considered only a species of dithyramb and phallic song.
as the originators of comedy over that of the (Hermaln,n de Tsvagoedia Comoedicaquze Lyrica, in
Athenians (Arist. Poet. 3). This derivation was Opusc. vol. vii. p. 211, &c.) The dispute is more
also adopted by several of the old grammarians about names than about things; and there seenims
(see Tzetzes, in Cramer's Aeced. Gr. vol. iii. pp. no great objection to applying the term lyrical
335, 337; Anonym. 7repl tcco,uqrLas in Meineke, tragedy or comedy to pieces intended to be perHist. Grit. Comsic. Graec. pp. 535, 538, 558, and in formed by choruses, without any actors distinct from
Bekker's Anecd. Gr. p. 747, where a very absurd the chorus, and having a more dramatic cast than
account of the origin of comedy is given), and other purely lyrical songs. This, apparently, was
has the sanction of Bentley, W. Schneider, and the point to which comedy attained among the
even Bernhardy (Grundlris d. Griech. Lit. vol. ii. Megarians before Susarion introduced it into Atp. 892). tica. It arose out of the union of the iambic
It was among the Dorians that comedy first as- lampoon with the phallic songs of the comus, just
sumed any thing of a regular shape. The Mega- as tragedy arose out of the union of rhapsodical
rians, both in the mother country and in Sicily, recitations with the dithyramb.
claimed to be considered as its originators (Arist. Among the Athenians the first attempts at
Plet. 3), and so far as the comedy of Athens is comedy, according to the alnlost unanimous acconcerned, the claim of the former appears well counts of antiquity, were made at Icaria by Sufounded. They were always noted for their coarse sarion, a native of Tripodiscus in Megara. (Schol.
humour (Aristoph. Vesp. 57, with the schol.; ad Dionys. Thrac. in Bekker's Anecd. Gr. p. 748
Anthol. Pal. xi. 440; Saidas, s. v. yXAcwss; Bode, Aspasius, Ad Aristot. Ethl. Nic. iv. 2. 20. fol.
vol. ii. pt. 2. p. 27), and their democratical con- 53, B.) Icaria was the oldest seat of the worship
stitution, which was established at an early period, of Dionysus in Attica (Athen. ii. p. 40), and
favoured the development of comedy in the proper comus processions must undoubtedly have been
sense of the word. In the aristocratical states the known there long before the time of Susarion.
mimetic impulse, as connected with the laughable Iambistic raillery was also an amusement already
or absurd, was obliged to content itself with a less known in the festivals of Bacchus and Demeter
unrestrained mode of manifestation. The Lace- (Mtiller, tlist. of Lit. of Gs. vol. i. p. 132;
daemonians, who had a great fondness for mimetic Hesychius, s. v. revplzorraei; Suidas, s. o7.'})!euand orchestic amusements, had their esKclXr7.Tati, piewv; Schol. Arist. Achzarn. 708). From the
whose exhibitions appear to have been burlesques jests and banterings directed by the Bacchic coof characters of common life. The favourite per- mus, as it paraded about, against the bystanders,
sonages were the fruit-stealer and the foreign or any others whom they selected, arose the
quack, for the representation of which they had a proverb Ta et aijapls (Schol. Arist. Equit. 544,
peculiar mimetic dance. (Pollux, iv. ~ 105; Athen. N7ub. 296; Suidas, s. v.; Ulpianus ad Demosth.
xiv. p. 621; Plut. Ages. 21. p. 607, d, Apop7htlh. de Cor. p. 268, ed. Reiske; Bode,. c. p. 22;
Lac. p. 212, &c.; Schol. idl Apollon. i. 746; Photius, Lea. s. a. ha &ic crci & V amr). This
Miiller. Dor. iv. 6. ~ 9; Bernhardy, 1. c. p. 894.) amusement continued customary not only at the
Analogous to the 8eUcnlIciral were the PpvaXA. rural Dionysia, but at the Anthesteria, on the,tcTal (Hesych. s. v.). Among the forerunners of second day of the festival [DIoNYvsA]. It wvas in
comedy must be mentioned the Phallophori and the third year of the 50th Olympiadl (B. c. 578),
Ithyphalli at Sicyon. It was here, where at an that Susarion introduced at Icaria comedy in that
early period the dithyramb also was dramatised, stage of development to which it had attained
that the Ic~utos first assurned a more dramatic anong the Megarians (Mar. Par. ep. 40. in
form, and Dionysus was even said to have in- B1bckh's Corpus Inscript. vol. ii. p. 301). It is
vented comedy at Sicyon (Anthol. Pal. xi. 32). not however easy to decide in what his improveThe Phallophori had no masks, but covered their ments consisted. Of course there were no actors
faces with chaplets of wild thyme, acanthus, ivy, beside the chorus or comus; whatever there was
and violets, and threw skins round them. After of drama must have been performed by the latter.
singing a hymn to Dionysus, they flouted and The introduction of an actor separate from the
jeered at any one of the bystanders whom they chorus, was an improvement not yet made in the
selected. The Ithyphalli wore masks represent- drama. According to one grammarian, Susarion was