Editing Hermippus

{{Short description|5th-century BC Athenian poet}}
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'''Hermippus''' ({{langx|grc|Ἕρμιππος}}; fl. 5th century BC) was the one-eyed [[Athenian]] writer of the [[Old Comedy]], who flourished during the [[Peloponnesian War]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Life==
He was the son of Lysis, and the brother of the comic poet Myrtilus. He was younger than [[Telecleides]] and older than [[Eupolis]] and [[Aristophanes]]. According to the [[Suda]], he wrote forty plays,<ref>Suda ε 3044</ref> and his chief actor was Simeron, according to the [[scholia]]st of Aristophanes. The titles and fragments of nine of his plays are preserved. He was a bitter opponent of [[Pericles]], whom he accused (probably in the ''Moirai'') of being a bully and a coward, and of carousing with his boon companions while the [[Lacedaemon]]ians were invading [[Attica]]. He also accused [[Aspasia]] of impiety and offences against morality, and her acquittal was only secured by the tears of Pericles ([[Plutarch]], ''Pericles'', 32). In the "Female Bread-Sellers", he attacked the [[demagogue]] [[Hyperbolus]]. The "Mat-Carriers" contains many parodies of [[Homer]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Surviving titles and fragments==
Ninety-four fragments of Hermippus' work survive, along with the following nine titles:

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* ''Athenas Gonai'' ("Birth of Athena")
* ''Artopolides'' ("Female Bread-Sellers")
* ''Demotai'' ("Citizens")
* ''Europa'' ("[[Europa (mythology)|Europa]]")
* ''Theoi'' ("Gods")
* ''Kerkopes'' ("[[Cercopes]]")
* ''Moirai'' ("Fates")
* ''Stratiotai'' ("Soldiers")
* ''Phormophoroi'' ("Mat-Carriers")
{{div col end}}

Hermippus also appears to have written scurrilous [[iambus (genre)|iambic]] poems after the manner of [[Archilochus]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref>Douglas E. Gerber, ''Greek Iambic Poetry'', Loeb Classical Library (1999), p. 9</ref> Other types of works written by Hermippus cited by ancient writers include [[trimeter]]s and [[tetrameter]]s.

==Fragments==
* Theodor Kock. ''Comicorum Atticorum fragmenta'', i. (1880).
* [[Augustus Meineke]]. ''Poetarum Graecorum comicorum fragmenta'', (1855).
* C. Austin and Rudolf Kassel. ''[[:de:Poetae Comici Graeci|Poetae Comici Graeci]]''.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Hermippus|volume=13|page=371}}

{{Authority control}}
[[Category:5th-century BC Athenians]]
[[Category:Ancient Athenian dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Old Comic poets]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek iambic poets]]
[[Category:5th-century BC Greek poets]]
[[Category:Athenians of the Peloponnesian War]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]
[[Category:Culture in Classical Athens]]

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