Epicharmus (Epicharmos)

Epicharmus; Epicharmos, VI / V cc. BC. e., Greek dramatic poet. Born probably in Syracuse, and according to other sources, in Gibleyskoy Megara in Sicily or on the island of Kos. Estimated period of his life - he was 530-490. And the apex of literary activities were 500-490 gg. - According to the Court Book E. was, along with Form creator Sicilian comedy (especially the Greek drama, "drama" - from the verb dran - "act"), and under the version of Aristotle, he first introduced in these plays plot. We know the 35 titles of plays E. and more than 200 fragments (all he had to write 52 comedies). 18 titles indicate the mythological themes. Frequent hero is Heracles-guzzler, . Many names refer to Homer: Odyssey Runaway (Odysseus automolos), . Cyclops (Kyklops), . The Trojans (Troes). The rest of the play - the popular comedy, . example, . Selyanin (Agrostinos), . Land and sea - that are useful to man (Ga kai thalassa), . Pots (Chytrai) - dreams of a poor woman on the enrichment by selling pots, . that, . however, . broken,
. The mysterious name of Logos kai logina ( "word" or "mind" in the masculine and feminine) emphasized a kind of dialectical themes.

Plays E., short, numbering at most 400 poems were farces rather than the actual comedy, and as close to mime, from whom they waged their origin. In them there is no chorus, there is absolutely no fragments, written lyric meters, but only trimeters iambic, trochaic tetrameter and anapaest. Language comedies E. a literary Doric dialect. These comedies were intended rather for the educated public, at this point many maxims and philosophical arguments in the Pythagorean spirit, as well as parodies of the style of Homer. Many sayings E. entered into general use as proverbs, eg: "Where fear is, there is honor, or attributed to E. - "Hand washes hand". E. had a significant impact on staroatticheskuyu comedy, although it probably did not set in Athens.