POSIDIPPUS

Posidippus wrote thirty, or, as some have it, fifty comedies; the titles of fifteen of these are known, and some of them were Latinized. He began to exhibit in 289 B.C., two years after the death of Menander, and was one of the most popular of the new comedians.

Of the new comedy, and of Greek comedy proper, Posidippus was the last exponent. Other writers have indeed been mentioned, as Rhinthon of Tarentum, Sopater of Paphos, and Sotades of Crete, but the tragi-comedy of Rhinthon was called by a name which signifies "meaningless chatter," and the indecency of the Sotadean plays made them a by-word of reproach. All belonged to the age of the Ptolemies, and with the transplanting of Hellenic comedy from Athens to Alexandria, the classic drama of Greece was dead.

• Life a Bane - Complete text of the poem by Posidippus.
• Aristophanes and His Comedies - Biography of the Greek dramatist and analysis of his poetic qualities.
• Chionides - A biographical note on the Greek dramatist Chionides.
• Comic Costumes - A description of the costumes worn by comic actors in ancient Greece.
• Cratinus - A biographical note on the Greek dramatist Cratinus.
• Epicharmus - A biographical note on the ancient dramatist Epicharmus.
• Menander and His Comedies - Biography of the Greek dramatist Menander.
• Middle Comedy - A brief description of middle Greek comedy.
• Magnes - A biographical note on the Greek dramatist Magnes.
• New Comedy - A brief description of new Greek comedy.
• Old Comedy - A brief description of old Greek comedy.
• Origin of Comedy - An examination of the origin of Greek comic drama.
• Philemon - A biographical note on the Greek dramatist Philemon.
• Phormis - A biographical note on the ancient dramatist Phormis.

• Greek and Roman Comedy: Translations and Interpretations of Four Representative Plays
• The Maculate Muse: Obscene Language in Attic Comedy
• Aristophanes: Myth, Ritual and Comedy
• The Comedy of Menander: Convention, Variation, and Originality
• Roman Laughter: The Comedy of Plautus