Xenarchus (comedy poet)

Xenarchus was an ancient Greek comedy poet . He lived in the second half of the 4th century BC. And was a representative of the "middle" comedy.

Only eight titles by Xenarchus and 14 fragments mentioned by Athenaeus have survived. The titles are typical of their time. Some of the fragments that have survived are quite rough and often play in the sexual field. In the first fragment, which was part of a play called Butalion , the eponymous hero - probably a slave - complained that there was no remedy for his master's impotence . In the fourth fragment belonging to the piece The Pentathlon (Πένταθλος, Pentathlos ), a whore landlord sings praises of prostitution and the security of love that can be bought compared to the existence of a moichos (adulterer). Fragment seven with the namePorphyra (Πορφύρα) describes the fishmonger's lazy tricks. Porphyra is possibly the name of a hetaera .

literature

• Christian Orth: Xenarchus. 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 , p. 1048 f.
• 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 (see register p. 395)