Aristophanic comedy

La comedia antigua puso su atención en todos los aspectos relacionados con la vida en Atenas haciendo gala de una gran libertad de palabra. Uno de sus blancos principales fueron los políticos que regían la ciudad, criticados sin piedad por su actuación pública, así como por sus características físicas y morales.

El teatro, como sostiene Plácido (1997, p. 230), “es, por sus contenidos y sus límites, el género literario que corresponde de modo directo al funcionamiento de la ciudad democrática y que durante la guerra del Peloponeso se mostró, por eso mismo, especialmente sensible a los cambios producidos en las relaciones sociales dentro de esa misma ciudad”. En efecto, la tragedia y la comedia, tal como se desarrollaron en la Atenas del siglo V a.C., no pueden pensarse sin ese marco político y social tan peculiar que le otorgó, precisamente, la pólis; prueba de ello es que, junto con el desmoronamiento de ésta y de su universo político y cultural al final de la guerra del Peloponeso (431-404 a.C.), se verifican también profundas transformaciones en ambos géneros. Por un lado, la tragedia no sólo ya no tendrá exponentes de la talla de Esquilo, Sófocles o Eurípides (como mostró con melancolía el Aristófanes de Ranas), sino que además algunas de las últimas producciones de Eurípides evidencian ...

En el presente artículo se clasifican todos los personajes femeninos de las comedias de Aristófanes, siguiendo las categorías expuestas por Luis Gil (1993; 2012). Se agrupan en personajes de carácter imitativo –de las figuras históricas reales o de origen mítico– y en personajes representativos, ya sean los inventados con una caracterización original, los tipificados de carácter genérico o las personificaciones con sentido alegórico. Seguidamente, de forma concisa, se analiza la invención de cada personaje, su función en la obra y su comicidad.

Reperformance de peças de comédia grega na Antiguidade já era uma
prática existente no século V a. C, seja de forma póstuma, como um modo de honrar seus poetas, seja como experimentação, em que peças passavam por uma revisão para participarem, mais uma fez, das competições dramáticas. No século IV a. C., foi oficializada a reapresentação de peças de comédia a partir de 339 a. C., com
reencenações de produções da fase intermediária e nova do gênero, sendo, para isso, reservado um espaço em que o revival de comédias mostra a formação de um cânone que privilegiará a comédia nova como sendo a referência modelar na produção da poesia cômica, em paralelo com a declarada predileção por esse tipo de comédia nos círculos de erudição. Nosso objetivo é verificar como as mudanças do gênero cômico
marcam sua (des)continuidade. Para isso, conduziremos uma análise do papel das reperformances teatrais ocorridas até o século II a.C., em cotejo com a leitura que alguns críticos antigos fizeram dos textos cômicos que tinham em mãos, observando a importância da expansão do gênero pelas regiões onde até hoje são encontradas, nos resquícios materiais, referências ao fenômeno do teatro cômico grego.

The reference to the 'noses' of the chorus (l. 344) does not refer to their masks, or metaphorically to the sexual organs of the actors, or even to the comic phalli, but serves to characterize Strepsiades as an old rustic incapable of intellectual abstraction as he attempts to make sense, through a familiar kind of comic pun, of the extraordinary sight brought before him by Socrates. The article clarifies or corrects nose-related readings of Hipponax, Plato, Aristotle, Menander, and Aelian, and proposes a new interpretation of an inscription on a cup by Douris.

O artigo discute a relação entre o conceito de cidadania clássica e a participação das mulheres na política brasileira. Apresenta-se o conceito clássico de cidadania, uma discussão sobre as noções de público e privado, de polis e oikos. A pesquisa é exploratória, de abordagem qualitativa, trazendo dados sobre a participação das mulheres na política brasileira que são analisados como evidências das implicações dessa noção clássica, que imputa papéis estereotipados para os gêneros e impõe obstáculos à participação das mulheres na esfera pública, desencadeando a baixa participação feminina na política formal no país.

In Plu. Thes. 29.4-5, Plutarch narrates the recovery of the corpses of the Argives who died in the war against Thebes. This paper will analyse the data that Plutarch transmits about this story: the versions of Aeschylus (in his play Eleusinians, which hasn't survived) and Euripides (in his Suppliants) about the end of the conflict, as well as the claim that mythological figures like Theseus and Heracles were the authors of the truces of recovery of the corpses in battlefield (σπονδαί περὶ νεκρῶν ἀναιρέσεως).

During the time of Euripides and Aristophanes, innovative pedagogical ideas were discussed in an equally innovative man-ner. The intellectuals of that era played a significant role in cre-ating an ironic pedagogical triangle consisting of Euripides, Aris-tophanes, Socrates, and the sophists in classical Athens. Employ-ing tragedy and comedy in varying degrees, Euripides and Aris-tophanes drew attention to the contrast between traditional and sophistic education, portraying it as a complex problem that could not be easily resolved by an average person. A comparative historical and pedagogical analysis of Euripides' tragedy “Me-dea” and Aristophanes' comedy “Clouds” revealed another direc-tion for studying the possibilities of mutual penetration of gen-res. Through the depiction of families with children who were divided into speakers and listeners in the spatial coordinates of the city and home, Euripides and Aristophanes participated in the ongoing debate regarding Socrates and the sophists. Euripides and Aristophanes include in their works agons between the advo-cates of just (non-sophistic) and unjust (sophistic) speeches, which touch upon educational issues. The main characters lose in these agons and realize that their problems cannot be solved even when they use sophistic techniques. This comprehension compels them to transition from words to actions, resorting to criminal acts to demonstrate the perilous consequences of sophistic educa-tion to the polis. A simultaneous historical and pedagogical anal-ysis of Euripides' tragedy “Medea” and Aristophanes' comedy “Clouds” is accompanied by references to other works of Euripi-des and Aristophanes, as well as by Plato and Xenophon, which contain explicit or implicit references to the teaching methods of Socrates and / or the sophists.

De lenae in comoedia figura De lenonis in comoediafigura, título con el que O. Stotz publica su trabajo de doctorado 1 , es uno de los numerosos estudios tipológicos que se han ocupado de definir los rasgos característicos de las diferentes figuras de Ia Comedia Griega, en Ia que, como ya mostró W. Süß 2 , se halla el origen de no pocas figuras del teatro occidental. Y aunque al estudio de Süß siguieron otros e ineluso antes, como afirma Stotz, 1, «Summa diligentia multi viri docti Theophrasti xctQCX>CTfJQac et exponere et explere iam conati sunt», hay algunas figuras, sin embargo, que por el carácter singular que Ia escasez de restos les confiere 3 o por cualquier otra razón, o no han sido tratadas como tales o, en el mejor de los casos, han sido consideradas muy parcialmente dentro de otra figura, Una de ellas es Ia figura de Ia lena 4. No hay que buscar Ia razón en las dificultades derivadas de las peculiaridades del corpus conservado: sus dimensiones, reducidas, si se compara con Ia abundante producción cómica griega, y su estado, muy fragmentario Ia mayor parte, así como Ia desproporción que presenta dicho corpus, ya se considere

En las últimas tragedias de Sófocles hay un replanteamiento de sus posiciones, percepy en su relación con los dioses. En Antígona y Traquinias, obras tempranas, a través de sus coros vemos las diferentes formas de concreción de Eros-Afrodita. En Edipo en Colono se sirve otra vez de Afrodita, pero en una forma y sentido singulares.

Étude des vers 658-693 des Nuées et de la leçon de féminisation lexicale que Socrate y donne à Strepsiade. Si l’on remarque qu’Aristophane est bien conscient des principales stratégies de féminisation des substantifs, les incompréhensions répétées de Strepsiade transforment la recherche de la justesse des mots de la part de Socrate en festival des préjugés et des stéréotypes de genre.

Статтю присвячено розгляду рис відкритої форми як
визначальних для композиційної своєрідності комедій Шекспіра і
Арістофана. Близькість принципів організації драматичних творів
узгоджується з аналогіями у світоглядних засадах та концепціях
комічного, які неодноразово відзначалися у світовому науковому
дискурсі. Аналогії на ідейному та композиційному рівнях комедій
дозволяють розглядати типологічний зв'язок між творами
Арістофана та Шекспіра. Разом з тим з‟являється підґрунтя для
сприйняття формування і розвитку комедії, в якій домінує відкрита
форма драматичного конструювання, як однієї з магістральних
стратегій у становленні канону та антиканону комедійного жанру.

After Plutus’s recovery of his eyesight and the subsequent redistribution of wealth, an old woman, probably a hetaira, is suddenly abandoned by her young lover, who is now financially solvent and in no more need of her (Aristophanes’ Plutus, ll. 959-1096). The expression of her complaints —in front of Chremylus, the comic hero, and also of the young man, who approaches the hero’s house in order to express his gratitude to the god— results in an episodic scene devoted to the exposition of material precariousness of her decayed body. Behind this comic denigration, usual against old and ugly persons, there are also exposed various forms of body apprehension very subtly, on which this paper intends to explore. We refer to the affective and sensitive construction of corporality, to the dynamics of body language, to the physiological imprint of immateriality (such as pleasure or pain), among several aspects that prove the author’s special interest in the body.

Hostility against informers is characteristic of Aristophanes’ comedy – evident in denigrating expressions towards his figure or as a form of insult – and there are three comedies that have him among his characters: Acharnians, Birds and Plutus. In this last one, the informer is given the possibility of expressing his claims more extensively, as well as arguing and defending his way of life, to which he remains faithful, immune to any transformation. We propose a Spanish translation of the scene where he intervenes (ll. 550- 958), enriched with notes, and subsequent analysis of its most important aspects.

En la Antigüedad clásica, donde el teatro era un ámbito masculino, se producía un desdoblamiento de género: un dramaturgo varón escribía un personaje femenino, con un discurso convencionalizado para reflejar, desde una perspectiva masculina, la idea de la feminidad imperante en la sociedad. Dicho personaje era luego interpretado por un actor varón, que abrazaba la contradicción de que dicho personaje femenino proyectara una visión negativa de la sociedad patriarcal. En este artículo se analiza un montaje de estética contemporánea, Prometeo (2010) de Carme Portaceli, y otro de ambientación atemporal, Antígona (2015) de Miguel del Arco. Se estudia, en particular, la transgresión de las convenciones dramáticas sobre género en la tragedia griega, y la transformación dramatúrgica de personajes masculinos en personajes femeninos, para observar qué sucede en la actualidad, y qué se quiere transmitir desde el escenario, cuando hay mujeres interpretando papeles tradicionalmente masculinos. Puede usarse esta perspectiva de género para actualizar la tragedia introduciendo una lente feminista reivindicativa, como en Prometeo, o se puede feminizar el personaje para reformular, como en Antígona, el conflicto de género, subrayando otros.

Abstract. This paper deals with the study of the particle combination εἰ μὴ … γε that we have qualified as “εἰ μὴ … γε replicative”. This combination of particles and with this specific value of replicative is located preferably in the dialogues of plays by Euripides and Aristophanes, but also in the dialogues of Plato and, later, in some writings of Xenophon, until reaching Lucianus and Libanius, already much more sporadically and without the freshness and spontaneity of Attic drama. In terms of conversational analysis (CA), it is considered to be an SPP (second pair par) that is offered as a dispreferred response to a FPP (first pair par) in an adjacent dialogic pair, in terms of strong and severe protest and rectification of what has just been said, with its appropriate consequences in terms of linguistic (im)politeness. Due to its syntactic independence, it is also included in the field of insubordination, that is, the conventionalized main clause use of what, on prima facie grounds, appear to be formally subordinate clauses. Finally, its probably exclamatory character is pointed out.

There are authors that are not strongly tied to a specific geographical area, be it their birthplace, the town they are settled in, or the country they have chosen as their spiritual home. The work of such authors comfortably spans a wide range of lands and cultures; their stories and heroes move around the world and feel at ease in various regions and with different peoples. Their writing is like a large map that extends over broad territories (consider e.g. Herodotus and Umberto Eco, al-Tabari and Nabokov). Other writers, by contrast, are closely bound with a particular place, usually their city of birth or an area of long-time residence, which provides the scenery of their plots and the inescapable milieu of their heroes. In the case of such an author, the network of streets and crossroads of his home town, the landmarks and landscapes of his district shape the very ways of his storytelling, condition the pace and flow of his narrative, and structure his consciousness and his worldview. Even when the place of action in his stories remains nameless, there is no doubt about its identification. Even when this writer constructs elaborate imaginary worlds, secondary literary universes, utopian societies, or fantastic wonderlands, these bear clearly the marks of his native land or his favourite domicile; they have been created by analogy or imitation, by distortion or perversion of the author’s familiar locality (take, for example, Dante and Joyce, Borges and Kafka, Pessoa and Cavafy).

Aristophanes was an author of this type with regard to ancient Athens. His oeuvre is inextricably tied to the life and the fate of his native city . The history, the political issues, and the people of Athens have always provided the central themes of his comic fictions. In his works, this poet pictured the multiform panorama of Attic life in the urban centre and the rural demes.

Aristophanes exploits the materials of fairy tale and fantasy, following the themes and tendencies of the Märchenkomödie, which had been intensely cultivated by earlier comic dramatists such as Crates and Pherecrates. However, Aristophanes invests the fabulous fictions of the fairy-tale comedy with political meanings and uses them as aesthetic means for large-scale satire and criticism of the political leaders and affairs of Athens. The storyteller thus becomes a teacher of the demos.

Aristophanes was an enemy of extreme democracy and advocated a more moderate constitution, which should be ruled by well-educated aristocrats. He defended the conservative leaders of his time and attacked the radical populist demagogues, such as Cleon and his collaborators. His stance on the Peloponnesian War is inextricably connected with his political ideology and his upper-class origins. At first glance, Aristophanes adopted the viewpoint of the ordinary farmers and smallholders of Attica, who were severely afflicted by the war and wished for peace. In reality, Aristophanes himself probably belonged to an aristocratic family of rich landowners and shared the deep conservatism and the antipathy towards radical demagogy that were typical of his class.

The amalgamation of fantasy and politics is very well seen in Aristophanes' two greatest masterpieces, the Birds and the Frogs. In the former comedy, Nephelokokkygia, the fantastic city of the birds in mid-air, is a satirical parable about contemporary Athenian reality, a projection of the radical, democratic, and imperialistic Athens onto the aerial heterotopia. The phantasmagorical polis of the birds, which finally subdues the gods and the men and triumphantly dominates over the universe, looks like a magnificent and grotesque parody of the irrepressible ambitions of Athenian imperialism. In the latter play, the god Dionysus re-enacts the fabulous mythical pattern of the Nekyia, in order to bring back from Hades a great poet, who will write magnificent dramas and inspire the polis in the time of adversity. The true theme of the comedy is the salvation of Athens, and the comic poet strives to transmit to his audience a message for unity and patriotism in face of the common danger. To attain salvation from the impendng catastrophe of the war, Athens needs to find again its old Aeschylean self; the city must recover the spirit of civic concord and self-sacrifice which dominated at the time of Aeschylus and the Persian Wars.

After the Frogs, full-scale political comedy declined, and this must have been partly due to its conservative and anti-democratic political agenda. For half a century, from the 450s to the end of the Peloponnesian War, this kind of drama served as a means of propaganda in the hands of the elite, transmitting messages against the enlarged power of the demos and the leaders who supported it. Ultimately, the brainwash of the people by the comic poets tended towards the same purpose as the other strategies of the Athenian conservatives: to facilitate the change of regime, the return to a more reserved form of constitution and the restriction of political power to the select few. The comic poets tried to influence the public opinion in this direction and persuade the people that this was the only means of salvation of Athens. In the end, the Athenian elite managed to bring about the desired constitutional change in the final years of the Peloponnesian War. However, the regime of the Thirty, though supported by some of the most talented conservatives of Athens, evolved into a nightmare of bloody persecutions, oppressive autocracy, and total corruption. Political comedy had been a means in the process of bringing about the oligarchic revolution. Therefore, after the restoration of democracy, there was no desire to revive the political variety of comic drama, which had borne a share of the responsibility for those awful adventures of the state. The Athenian audience was disillusioned with the genre, and no poet wished or dared to take it up again.

Nevertheless, this was not the final chapter in the history of Attic political comedy. The most recent and most fascinating chapter is written in our own age, with the performances of Aristophanic comedies in the present-day world. Since the 1960s at least, when productions of ancient comic drama started proliferating in mainstream theatre, both in Greece and internationally, the plays of Aristophanes have been used to transmit the most progressive, liberal, democratic, and socially sensitive messages. This often involves, of course, a complete ideological reorientation of the authentic content of the comedies, a reversal of the poet’s conservative point of view, in order to adapt it to the progressive agenda of modern reception. It is a notable process of artistic transformation, which shows how the works of great poetry may preserve a diachronic value, beyond their primary culture-specific boundaries: they can be made to suit the intellectual needs and the historical conditions of any particular time and society through the centuries, regardless of the poet’s original ideological aspirations.

By reviewing the whole exodos of Lysistrata and more specifically the three songs alternatively performed by Spartans and Athenians, this paper tries to highlight the dramatic framework adopted by Aristophanes in order to promote peace between the two poleis. Il contributo mira a analizzare, tramite una rilettura dell'esodo della Lisistrata e in particolare dei tre canti alternativamente eseguiti da Spartani e Ateniesi, la strategia drammaturgica escogitata da Aristofane per promuovere il processo di pace tra le due poleis.

La ripresa e discussione all'interno di Repubblica V e Politico di elementi contenuti in Ecclesiazuse e Lisistrata può essere considerata un esempio della Kreuzung der Gattungen operata da Platone nella trasmissione del suo pensiero; più precisamente come esempio dell’influenza esercitata dalla commedia ed in particolare da Aristofane sulla messa in scena del dialogo. Le coincidenze a livello intertestuale tra le opere in esame, sono infatti indizio di una più profonda dipendenza transtestuale , legata al riuso ed impiego da parte di Platone – così secondo la prospettiva del presente contributo – di alcuni elementi della “grammatica” aristofanea contenuti negli agoni di Lisistrata ed Ecclesiazuse in alcune sezioni di Repubblica V e Politico: la progettualità comica nel segno dell’utopia, la drammatizzazione metaforica. Nel primo capitolo di questo contributo, dedicato alla ripresa in esame della vexata quaestio legata al rapporto tra Ecclesiazuse e Repubblica V, si è voluto racc...

A partir de la complejidad que el mito entraña y de nuestro propio interés en “hacerlo hablar”, el proyecto de la presente comunicación consiste en pensar el concepto de temporalidad al interior de la lógica del mito. Para ello debemos entender al mito como una dación de sentido, como un logos explicativo, y, desde allí, recorrer algunas características del mismo para comprender su estructura interna, para, en un segundo momento, relevar el tema del tiempo al interior de su lógica

Аннотация: Комедия Аристофана «Женщины в народном собрании» начинается с апострофы. В паратрагическом стиле героиня обращается к лампе таким образом, как если бы она была солнечным божеством. Второй стих комедии должен содержать характеристику, которая служит восхвалению лампы, однако в рукописях присутствует текстологическая проблема, которая не позволяет понять смысл содержащегося в стихе образа. Издателями и комментаторами комедии было предложено несколько конъектур и основанных на них интерпретаций, однако ни одно из предложенных исправлений не дает ясного смысла и не кажется уместным при восхвалении лампы, уподобляемой солнечному божеству. В статье предложены текстологические аргументы и содержательный анализ начала комедии, на основании которых делается выбор в пользу чтения κάλλιστ' ἐν εὐσκόποισιν ἐξηυρημένον-«…прекрасно изобретенный так, чтобы оказаться среди хорошо видящих [светил]».

Aristophanes’ comedy “Assemblywomen” begins with an apostrophe. In paratragic style, the character addresses the lamp as if she were a solar deity. The second verse of the comedy should contain a characterization that praises the lamp. However, there is a textological problem in the manuscripts that does not allow us to understand the idea of this verse. Editors and commentators of the comedy proposes several conjectures and interpretations, but none of the proposed corrections gives a clear meaning and does not seem appropriate in praising the lamp as a solar deity. The article offers textological arguments and analysis of the beginning of the comedy and the author claims that the best reading is κάλλιστ’ ἐν εὐσκόποισιν ἐξηυρημένον —“...beautifully devised so as to be among the well-seeing [luminaries].”

Las cerámicas pintadas de la Antigua Grecia son portadoras de variados mensajes, el creador se dirige a una audiencia en particular, el espectador recibe el contenido y lo interpreta según su capacidad de comprensión. Las posibilidades de interacción entre el autor, la obra y el usuario se multiplican si le agregamos la performance teatral en la cual se inspiró el artista. El proceso de recepción es, en esta instancia, complejo e intrincado: debemos considerar el modo en que el pintor – como espectador del drama – percibió una determinada escena, la demanda del mercado, la respuesta del cliente que adquirió la pieza, el uso que se le dio a la cerámica a lo largo del tiempo y la apreciación y decodificación contemporánea de estudiosos o simplemente admiradores del objeto en el museo.

El Pintor de las Coéforas debió presenciar los dramas de Esquilo en algún teatro suritálico pues en varias ocasiones pintó el encuentro de Electra y Orestes ante la tumba de Agamenón. Es autor, además, de un Orestes en Delfos acompañado de las Erinias y quizás de una composición que refiere a Persas. No se trata de meras ilustraciones de las tragedias; los ceramógrafos tenían sus propias convenciones, su vocabulario específico y su imaginación que les permitió modificar ciertos aspectos de la trama al igual que los dramaturgos transformaron los mitos tradicionales.

Como continuacion y complemento de un trabajo anterior en el que se estudian las metaforas agonisticas que emplea Aristofanes con doble sentido erotico, en el presente articulo el autor analiza otros numerosos pasajes de las comedias aristofanicas en los que el poeta utiliza lexico deportivo con valor metaforico.

Los escolios son el resultado de un método filológico-exegético aplicado durante siglos al comentario de los textos clásicos, de manera que representan un testimonio magnífico para conocer la aplicación práctica de la teoría literaria que los fundamenta.

This thesis has as corpus the plays Assemblywomen and Wealth, which are attributed to Aristophanes, who performed his comedies between the late 5th century and the early 4th century BC. The goal of this research is to prove that the reduction of the role of the chorus in the drama brings about a change in the configuration of the characters and the composition
of the comedies in question. Taking as a basis the theatre semiotics, in combination with discourse analysis, the dramatic and scenic elements that determine the transitional comedy are analysed to show that these two plays share some traces that distinguish them from the others.

En el Estásimo IV de Edipo Rey, los coreutas reflexionan sobre la vida de Edipo, manifiestan además su fidelidad y agradecimiento hacia el rey. En un tono reposado, ellos exponen una concentración de conceptos interesante de revisar. El Coro contribuye con la simetría compositiva pues tanto el Estásimo II como el Estásimo IV conciernen a la obra pero se dirigen al público. Ambos miran hacia los ciudadanos. Desde este punto de vista, realizamos el análisis filológico-literario del Estásimo y lo relacionamos con el co-texto. A su vez, indagamos una vez más en el pensamiento de Sófocles.In the Oedipus Tyrannus Fourth Stasimon, the Chorus thinks about Oedipus’ life, expressing both his fidelity and thankfulness to the king. In a quiet tone, the elder men express a concentration of concepts interesting to review. The Chorus contributes with the compositional symmetry, since both Stasima, the Second as well as the Forth, concern to the play but are directed to the public. Both of them loo...

The text is a kind of report of reading in comic means used in one of Aristophanes’ best comedies – Frogs. The autor presents an outline of his own research method, quotes some examples of types of comic means in this play and confronts his results with important (Polish and foreign) philological works devoted to the general problem of comism in Aristophanes

At Thesmophoriazusae 101-29 Agathon sings a choral song about the fall of Troy. The choice of this theme serves two purposes. First, it connects this scene to the larger plot of the comedy by alluding to the role that Euripides envisions for Agathon, namely that of his “Trojan Horse” at the Thesmophoria. Second, it enables Aristophanes to make fun of Agathon by calling to the audience’s mind a famous failure of his, as the later testimony of Aristotle demonstrates.

Aristophanes' Ecclesiazusae is our major source on fourth-century Assembly proceedings in Athens, so its reference to the vermilion-dyed rope (377-379) is key to our understanding of the use of the device in the years of the restored democracy. Based on that reference, while in the fifth century the vermilion-dyed rope was used to drive Athenians from the Agora into the Pnyx, scholars have assumed that in the fourth century its function shifted. This study argues that this assumption is untenable and that Ecclesiazusae in fact suggests that the vermilion-dyed rope retained its function across the centuries.

EUPOLI (Εὔπολις, Eupŏlis).-Ateniese, figlio di Sosipoli, poeta della cosiddetta commedia antica, rivale di Aristofane e di Cratino. Fiorì intorno al 429-411, ma non si conoscono con precisione né la data di nascita né quella della sua morte: alcuni aneddoti lo fanno morire in Egina e Suida informa che all'età di 17 anni presentò al pubblico la prima sua commedia. Compose diciassette drammi e riportò ben sette vittorie sui rivali. La commedia sua come quella di Aristofane e di Cratino aggrediva uomini in vista del suo tempo, e trattava di argomenti politici e letterarî. Noi conosciamo frammenti dell'Autolykos in due redazioni perché rappresentato forse due volte (420); nel 421 alle grandi Dionisie i suoi Adulatori vinsero sulla Pace di Aristofane; dello stesso anno è il Maricante, feroce satira di Iperbolo come lo è Cleone negli Acarnesi di Aristofane; di pochi anni prima, del 425, sono i Novilunî, e di anni dopo, del 416, i Βάπται contro Alcibiade. Quattordici sono in tutto i titoli che noi conosciamo, dei quali meritano ricordo le Capre, perché satira contro la musica contemporanea, le Città, dove comparivano le città alleate di Atene, e la Razza d'oro, che era una satira contro Cleone. Nel 1907 col Menandro cairense fu scoperto anche un frammento dei Demi (Δῆμοι) di Eupoli molto interessante perché parte della parabasi, e perché da Platonio (II, 15) si sapeva già che Eupoli richiamava ἐξ "Αιδου νομοϑετῶν πρόσωπα, Solone, Milziade, Aristide, Pericle in una vivacissima commedia politica che è appunto questa riesumata dagli scavi in Egitto.