Plato (comic poet)

thumb|If the world all lived the happy life I live myself, there would not be one wicked man on earth. Plato (fl. c. 420–410 BC), called "Plato the Comic" (Greek: Πλάτων Κωμικός; Latin: Plato Comicus), was an Athenian comic poet and a contemporary of Aristophanes. None of his plays survive intact, but the titles of thirty of them are known, including a Hyperbolus (c. 420–416 BC), Victories (after 421), Cleophon (in 405), and Phaon (probably in 391). The titles suggest that his themes were often political. In 410 BC, one of his plays took first prize at the City Dionysia. Quotes Greek text cited from R. Kassel, C. Austin, Poetae Comici Graeci, vol. VII (Berlin-Boston, 1989), whose numbering is also followed. τὰ δ᾿ ἀλλότρι᾿ ἔσθ᾿ ὅμοια ταῖς παροψίσι· βραχὺ γάρ ⟨τι⟩ τέρψαντ᾿ ἐξανήλωται ταχύ. Stolen delights are just like side-dishes, Sweet but soon finished. Frg. 190 K.-A., Phaon (tr. J. M. Edmonds, 1957) Misattributed ἄρ᾿, ὡς ἔοικε, δὶς γένοιτ᾿ ἂν παῖς γέρων. The old man then, it seems, becomes a boy again. (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897) Lightly adapted from Plato (the philosopher), Laws 646a: ἄρ᾿, ὡς ἔοικεν, ὁ γέρων δὶς παῖς γίγνοιτ᾿ ἄν. Originally cited from Plato by Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, VI.2.19. In turn, cited from Clement by Marcus Musurus, who mistook the quotation for a verse by the comic poet. Included in Meineke's edition (Meineke 1839:686), though the confusion had already been detected by Lodewijk Caspar Valckenaer Valckenaer (Holwerda, D., Koster, W.J.W., Scholia in Aristophanem, vol. I.3.1 Scholia vetera in Nubes [Groningen, 1977], pp. 281–282; Cobet 1840:199–200). Compare Aristophanes, Clouds 1417; Cratinus, frg. 28 K.-A. ἐξὸν γυναῖκ᾿ ἔχοντα κατακεῖσθαι καλὴν καὶ Λεσβίου χυτρῖδε λαμβάνειν δύο· ὁ φρόνιμός ἐστι ⟨τοῦτο,⟩ τοῦτο τἀγαθόν. Ἐπίκουρος ἔλεγε ταῦθ᾿ ἃ νῦν ἐγὼ λέγω. εἰ τοῦτον ἔζων πάντες ὃν ἐγὼ ζῶ βίον, οὔτ᾿ ἄτοπος ἦν ἂν οὔτε μοιχὸς οὐδὲ εἷς. The man who has a chance to pay his courtTo a fair woman, and at eve to drinkTwo bottles full of richest Lesbian wine,Must be a wise man; these are real goods.These things I speak of are what EpicurusTells us are real joys; and if the worldAll lived the happy life I live myself,There would not be one wicked man on earth. Baton of Athens, frg. 3 K.-A. (tr. C. D. Yonge, 1854); misattributed to Plato due to a confusion in in Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, VII.9. External links Category:BCE births Category:BCE deaths Category:Playwrights from Greece Category:Poets from Greece Category:People from Athens