Portrait of the poet Diphilus, a Roman copy from the early 1st century
Diphilus (Greek: Δίφιλος), of Sinope, was a poet of the new Attic comedy and a contemporary of Menander (342–291 BC). He is frequently listed together with Menander and Philemon, considered the three greatest poets of New Comedy. He was victorious at least three times at the Lenaia, placing him third before Philemon and Menander.[1] Although most of his plays were written and acted at Athens he died at Smyrna. His body was returned and buried in Athens.[2]
According to Athenaeus, he was on intimate terms with the famous courtesan Gnathaena.[3] Athenaeus quotes the comic poet Machon in support of this claim. Machon is also the source for the claim that Diphilus acted in his own plays.[4]
An anonymous essay on comedy from antiquity reports that Diphilus wrote 100 plays. Of these 100 plays, 59 titles, and 137 fragments (or quotations) survive. From the extant fragments, Diphilus' plays seem to have featured many of the stock characters now primarily associated with the comedies of the Roman playwright Plautus, who translated and adapted a number of Diphilus' plays. Swaggering soldiers, verbose cooks, courtesans, and parasites, all feature in the fragments. In contrast to his more successful contemporaries, Menander and Philemon, Diphilus seems to have had a preference for the mythological subjects so popular in Middle Comedy.[5]
To judge from the imitations of Plautus (Casina from the Κληρούμενοι, Asinaria from the Ὀναγός, Rudens from some other play), he was very skillful in the construction of his plots. Terence also tells us that he introduced into the Adelphi (ii. I) a scene from the Συναποθνήσκοντες, which had been omitted by Plautus in his adaptation (Commorientes) of the same play.[6]
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition:
The style of Diphilus was simple and natural, and his language on the whole good Attic; he paid great attention to versification, and was supposed to have invented a peculiar kind of metre. The ancients were undecided whether to class him among the writers of the New or Middle comedy. In his fondness for mythological subjects (Hercules, Theseus) and his introduction on the stage (by a bold anachronism) of the poets Archilochus and Hipponax as rivals of Sappho, he approximates to the spirit of the latter.[6]
^IG II2 2325. 163
^"Diphilus - Find A Grave Memorial".
^Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae
13.46
^Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae13.43
^Olson, S.Douglas (2007). Broken Laughter: Select Fragments of Greek Comedy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 408–409.
^ abOne or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Diphilus". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 290.
source for the claim that Diphilus acted in his own plays. An anonymous essay on comedy from antiquity reports that Diphilus wrote 100 plays. Of these...
best-known playwrights belonging to this genre are Menander, Philemon, and Diphilus. The playwrights of the New Comedy genre built on the legacy from their...
by Roman playwright Terence, adapted partly from plays by Menander and Diphilus. It was first performed in 160 BC at the funeral games of Aemilius Paulus...
earliest cited in recorded literature. The third century BC physician Diphilus of Siphnus wrote that "[mallow] juice lubricates the windpipe, nourishes...
ISBN 0-415-11620-1, p.189 'ᾠά τάριχα' 'eggs [of fish] preserved by salting', citing Diphilus of Siphnos quoted in Athenaeus III, 121 C. Hughes & Wasson 1947, p. 415...
and quality of flours used to produce bread could also vary, as noted by Diphilus when he declared that "bread made of wheat, as compared with that made...
Flatterer, while the Adelphi was compiled partly from Menander and partly from Diphilus. The original of Terence's Hecyra (as of the Phormio) is generally supposed...
Diphilus, an Athenian comedic playwright who wrote around 100 plays in the style of New Comedy. Athenaeus cites Machon as his evidence for Diphilus'...
poet Aratus, didactic poet Mimnermus, elegiac poet Hipponax, iambic poet Diphilus, one of the greatest poets of New Comedy Chariton, novelist, wrote Callirhoe...
He finally had about 3,000 soldiers. In Babylon, Peithon's commander, Diphilus, barricaded himself in the city's fortress. Seleucus conquered Babylon...
("Earth and Sea") Deukalion ("Deucalion") Dionysoi ("The Dionysuses") Diphilus Elpis ("Hope"), or Ploutos ("Wealth") Heorta kai Nasoi Epinikios Herakleitos...
assumption appears to be on the basis of the inscription of the statute of Diphilus The zeugitae (Ancient Greek: ζευγῖται, romanized: zeugitai) were those...
now lost plays on the subject are mentioned, including the dramatists Diphilus, Cratinus, Aeschylus, and Sophocles and the philosopher Heraclides of Pontus...
were actually his writings or attributions are in dispute. Lost works of Diphilus. He is said to have written 100 comedies, the titles of 50 of which are...
a strategos 443–442 84.2 Lysanias Pericles is a strategos 442–441 84.3 Diphilus Pericles is a strategos 441–440 84.4 Timocles Pericles and Glaucon are...
the angelshark for thousands of years. Ancient Greek authors, such as Diphilus and Mnesitheus, described its meat as "light" and "easily digestible",...
since time immemorial. His father is believed to be the Anthemion, son of Diphilus, that dedicated a statue on the Acropolis in thanks for his rise to class...
of the historical development of comedy from Epicharmus and Magnetes to Diphilus. This is the most frequently quoted work from the Prolegomena de comoedia...
and included the scientist Eratosthenes and the Stoics: Apollophanes, Diphilus, and Miltiades. Aristo engaged in much debate with Arcesilaus, the leader...
century BC Athenian hetaera. Her most famous lover was the comic playwright Diphilus. Laïs (Λαΐς, Λαΐδα), of Corinth late 5th – early 4th century BC Often confused...
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