Alexis (Ancient Greek:Ἄλεξις, 394 BC – c. 275 BC) was a Greek comic poet of the Middle Comedy, born at Thurii in Magna Graeca and taken early to Athens,^[1] where he became a citizen, of the deme Oion (Οἶον), and the tribe Leontides.^[2][3]

It was said he had a son, called Stephanus, who also wrote comedies.^[4] He appears to have been rather addicted to the pleasures of the table, according to Athenaeus.^[3][5]

He won his first Lenaean victory in the 350s BC, most likely, where he was sixth after Eubulus, and fourth after Antiphanes.

Being a Middle Comic poet, yet Alexis was comtempoary with several leading figures of New Comedy, such as Philppides, Philemon, Diphilus, and even Menander. There is also some evidence that, during his old age, he wrote plays in the style of New Comedy.

Plutarch says that he lived to the age of 106, and that he died on the stage while being crowned.^[6] He is certain alive after 345 BC, for Aeschines mentions him as alive in that year. It is even most likely that he lived as late as 288 BC According to the Suda, he wrote 245 comedies, of which some 130 titles are preserved. His plays include Meropis, Agkylion, Olympiodoros, and Parasitos, in which he ridculed Plato, was exhibited in 360 BC. Also, Agonis, in which he ridculed Misgolas. And The Adelphoi and the Stoatiotes, in which he satirized Demosthenes, and acted shorted after 343 BC. Also The Hippos, in which he referred to the decree of Sophocles against the philosophers, in 316 BC. Pyraynos (312 BC), Pharmakopole (306 BC), Hyobolimaios (306 BC), Analion.^[3]

Because he wrote a lot of plays, same passages often appear in more than 3 plays. It was said that he also borrowed from Eubulus and many other playwrights in some of his plays.^[7] Accroding to Carytius of Pergamum, Alexis was the first who invented the part of the parasite.^[8]

Only fragments of any of the plays have survived - about 340 in all, totaling about 1,000 lines. They attest to the wit and refinement of the author, which Athenaeus praises.^[9]

The surviving fragments also show that Alexis invented a great deal of words, mostly compound words. They also show that Alexis used normal in a unusual way, or making strange and unormal forms of common words. The chief sources of the fragments of Alexis are Stobaeus and Athenaeus.

The Suda also calls him Zoe's uncle, but an anonymous tractate on comedy more plausibly states that he was the teacher and uncle of Menander (however this statement may be spurious). Alexis was known in Roman times; Aulus Gellius noted that Alexis' poetry was used by Roman comedians, including Turpilius and possibly Plautus.

[edit] References

[edit] Editions of Fragments

• Augustus Meineke. Potarum Graecorum comicorum fragmenta, (1855).
• Theodor Kock. Comicorum Atticorum fragmenta, i. (1880).*Theodor Kock. Comicorum Atticorum fragmenta, i. (1880).#
  • C. Austin and Rudolf Kassel. Poetae Comici Graeci. vol. 1.

[edit] Other sources

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Alexis.

• Arnott, W. Geoffrey. Alexis: The Fragments. A Commentary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.