Eupolis

Eupolis was one of the three great poets of Athenian Old Comedy, alongside Cratinus and Aristophanes. He wrote in ancient Greek during the Peloponnesian War. Almost all of his work has been lost, but he matters because his plays show how political satire looked in Athens at the time.

Little is known about his life. He was the son of Sosipolis and, according to ancient tradition, began writing very young. Sources disagree about the year of his first production, but modern historians usually place it around 429 BC, probably at the Lenaia, the lesser festival where newcomers could test themselves before competing at the Dionysia.

His comedy resembles that of Aristophanes in theme and style: a lively wit, a biting tone, and direct attacks on public figures. In Maricas he went after Hyperbolus, and in Flatterers he mocked the spendthrift Callias. Other plays, such as Demes and Cities, dealt with the condition of the state and its allied cities. He is credited with around seventeen comedies, and seven of them won first prize.

His relationship with Aristophanes began well and later soured. In The Clouds, Aristophanes publicly accused him of copying Knights in Maricas, and the two poets traded charges of imitation and plagiarism. Ancient biographies also link him with Alcibiades, whom he is said to have satirized.

The manner of his death is told in several ways. The best-known version, repeated by later authors, says that Alcibiades had him thrown into the sea on the way to Sicily, though the story is not certain. His reputation survives mainly through quotations. Horace, Persius and Macrobius counted him among the leading figures of Old Comedy, and he was admired for a purity of diction rivaling Aristophanes and a command of irony close to Cratinus.