Alexis (
Greek: Ἄλεξις;
fl. 350s – 288 BC) was a Greek
comic poet of the
Middle Comedy period. He was born in
Thurii (in present-day Calabria, Italy) in
Magna Graecia and taken early to
Athens,[1] where he became a citizen, being enrolled in the
demeOion (Οἶον) and the tribe Leontides.[2][3] It is thought he lived to the age of 106 and died on the stage while being crowned. According to the Suda, a 10th-century encyclopedia, Alexis was the paternal uncle of the dramatist
Menander and wrote 245 comedies, of which only fragments now survive, including some 130 preserved titles.
Life
He appears to have been rather addicted to the pleasures of the table, according to
Athenaeus.[3][4] He had a son named Stephanus (Στέφανος) who was also a comic poet.[5]
He won his first
Lenaean victory in the 350s BC, most likely, where he was sixth after
Eubulus, and fourth after
Antiphanes. While being a Middle Comic poet, Alexis was contemporary with several leading figures of New Comedy, such as Philippides,
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 5 months, and that he died on the stage while being crowned victor.[6] He was certainly alive after 345 BC, for
Aeschines mentions him as alive in that year. He was also living at least as late as 288 BC,[3] from which his birth date is calculated. According to the Suda he wrote 245 comedies, of which only fragments including some 130 titles survive. His plays include Meropis, Ankylion, Olympiodoros, Parasitos (exhibited in 360 BC, in which he ridiculed
Plato), Agonis (in which he ridiculed Misgolas), and the Adelphoi and the Stratiotes, in which he satirized
Demosthenes, and acted shortly after 343 BC.
Also Hippos (316 BC) (in which he referred to the decree of
Sophocles against the philosophers), Pyraunos (312 BC), Pharmakopole (306 BC), Hypobolimaios (306 BC), and Ankylion.[3]
Because he wrote a lot of plays, the 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] According to
Carytius of Pergamum, Alexis was the first to use the part of the parasite.[8] Alexis was known in
Roman times;
Aulus Gellius noted that Alexis' poetry was used by Roman comedians, including
Turpilius and possibly
Plautus.
Surviving titles and fragments
Only fragments have survived from any of Alexis's plays – about 340 in all, totaling about 1,000 lines. They attest to the author's wit and refinement, which Athenaeus praises.[9] The surviving fragments also show that Alexis invented a great many words, mostly compound words, that he used normal words in an unusual way, and made strange and unusual forms of common words. The main sources of the fragments of Alexis are
Stobaeus and Athenaeus.
The following 139 titles of Alexis's plays have been preserved:
^Athen. vi. p.235, f. This is incorrect, because
Epicharmus had already introduced it 250 years earlier. However, Alexis may have been the first to develop the part into its common form.