Antiphanes

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the locust genus of the same name, see Antiphanes (genus) .

Antiphanes (* 408/404 BC; † probably after 320 BC in Chios or Kios ) was a Greek comedy poet . Even in antiquity, he was considered one of the most important authors of the "medium" comedy or even its main representative.

The information about the origin of the antiphanes vary; he is said to have been Athenian, but after the Suda it was also claimed that he came from Kios, Smyrna or Rhodes . He began his career as a poet in the 380s. It lasted an unusually long time, namely until around 320 BC. Chr. Or maybe longer. In the list of winners at the Lenaen competition, however, he was entered relatively late, so he had to wait a long time for his first victory at this festival. His position in the Lenaene list is after Anaxandrides and before Alexis, that is, his first success falls in the second quarter of the 4th century BC. It does not appear until around or after 320 BC. To have died; the body was brought to Athens and buried there.

The number of his works was extraordinarily high; he probably wrote a total of 260 pieces, 138 or 140 work titles are known. From this, 318 certainly authentic, partly longer fragments have come down to us - most of them in Athenaeus - as well as a number of dubious ones. About nine tenths of the titles refer to people (usually the respective protagonists), the rest to objects, places or events. The title characters include named gods, mythological figures and hetaera ; Some people appearing in the titles are named only after their occupation, their occupation or origin or after their characteristics, for example The Painter , The Charioteer , The Parasite , The Peasant or The Mute .

In ancient times, the comedies of Antiphanes were very popular. The fragments that have been preserved do not reveal the course of the plot, but testify to an elegance and originality that shows the high appreciation of the poet among the ancient theater and reading audience.

literature

• Christian Orth: Antiphanes. In: Bernhard Zimmermann , Antonios Rengakos (Hrsg.): Handbook of the Greek literature of antiquity. Volume 2: The Literature of the Classical and Hellenistic Period. CH Beck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-61818-5 , pp. 1012-1022
• Heinz-Günther Nesselrath : The Attic medium comedy. Your position in ancient literary criticism and literary history. De Gruyter, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-11-012196-4 , p. 193 f. (For the individual pieces, see the register on p. 378 f.)
• Georg Kaibel : Antiphanes 15 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 2, Stuttgart 1894, Col. 2518-2521 (outdated).

Web links

• Literature by and about Antiphanes in the catalog of the German National Library