Epicharmus of Cos

Epicharmus of Cos (also known as Epicharmus of Kos, Epicharmus Comicus, or Epicharmus Comicus Syracusanus) was a Greek dramatist and philosopher active from around 550 to 460 BC. He is frequently recognized as one of the earliest comedic writers, credited with creating the Doric or Sicilian style of comedy.

Most details about his life come from later authors like Athenaeus, the Suda, and Diogenes Laërtius, with additional fragments and comments scattered across many other ancient texts. The standard collection of his fragments was compiled by Kaibel in 1890, with later additions and corrections. Papyrus finds have yielded longer passages, but these are often too damaged to interpret clearly. Plato mentions Epicharmus in his dialogues *Gorgias* and *Theaetetus*; in the latter, Socrates calls him "the prince of Comedy" and Homer "the prince of Tragedy," calling both "great masters of either kind of poetry." Aristotle, in his *Poetics*, notes that Epicharmus and Phormis invented comic plots. The 12th-century philosopher Constantine of Nicaea also cites him.

All biographical information about Epicharmus is considered unreliable. His birthplace is unknown, though late and questionable ancient sources offer several possibilities. The Suda says he was either Syracusan by birth or from the Sikanian city of Krastos. Diogenes Laërtius claims he was born in Astypalea, the ancient capital of Kos on the Bay of Kamari, near modern Kefalos. Diogenes also states that his father was the prominent physician Helothales, who moved the family to Megara in Sicily when Epicharmus was a few months old. Though raised in the Asclepiad medical tradition, Epicharmus became a follower of Pythagoras as an adult.

It is most likely that after 484 BC, he lived in Syracuse, Magna Graecia, working as a poet for the tyrants Gelo and Hiero I. His poetry covered a wide range of subjects, from warnings against drunkenness and laziness to mythological burlesque, as well as philosophy, medicine, natural science, linguistics, and ethics. Among his teachings was the idea that continuous practice of virtue could overcome heredity, meaning anyone could become a good person regardless of birth. He died in his nineties—Lucian records he was ninety-seven.

Diogenes Laërtius mentions a bronze statue dedicated to him in Syracuse by the inhabitants, for which Theocritus composed an inscription comparing Epicharmus to the sun and sea. The scientist and traveler Alexander von Humboldt made Epicharmus the protagonist of his only published literary work, "Die Lebenskraft oder der Rhodische Genius," which appeared in 1795 in Friedrich Schiller's journal *Horen*, portraying him as a natural philosopher and art interpreter.

Epicharmus wrote between thirty-five and fifty-two comedies, most now lost or surviving only in fragments. Along with his contemporary Phormis, he was both praised and criticized for mocking great mythical heroes. At the time, presenting comedies like those in Athens—which attacked authorities—would have been dangerous in Syracuse, so his plays were designed not to offend the ruler. They were either mythological travesties or character comedies. His two most famous works are *Agrōstīnos* ("The Country-Dweller"), a humorous look at rustic life, and *Hebes Gamos* ("The Marriage of Hebe"), which portrayed Heracles as a glutton. He also depicted Odysseus as an unheroic burlesque figure in *Odysseùs Autómolos* (Ulysses the Deserter), parodying Homer.

A mid-4th century BC accusation by Alcimus, preserved by Diogenes Laërtius, claims that Plato plagiarized several of Epicharmus's ideas, listing ways Plato "employs the words of Epicharmus." Some works attributed to Epicharmus in antiquity were considered forgeries by the writer Axiopistus.

Notable quotations from Epicharmus include: "A mortal should think mortal thoughts, not immortal thoughts"; "The best thing a man can have, in my view, is health"; "The hand washes the hand: give something and you may get something"; "Then what is the nature of men? Blown-up bladders!"; and "Don't forget to exercise incredulity; for it is the sinews of the soul."