Μουσῶν σκελετός, ἀηδόνων ἠπιάλος, ὕμνος Ἅιδου,
"Mummy of Muses, ague of nightingales, hymn of Hades." Those who are curious about Greek games will do well to study the description of the cottabos in Plato (Zeus Kakoumenos, fr. 1) and to compare with it a fuller passage from Antiphanes[126] (Aphrodites Gonai). Plato, again, presents us with a lively picture of a Greek symposium (Lacones, fr. 1), as well as a very absurd extract from a cookery-book, whereof the title was Φιλοξένου καινή τις Ὀψαρτυσία, "A new Sauce-science by Philoxenus" (Phaon, fr. 1). From Ameipsias might be selected for passing notice an allusion to Socrates (Konnos, fr. 1) and a scolion in two lines upon life and pleasure, sung to the flute at a drinking-party (Incert. Fab. fr. 1). Finally, Lysippus has spoken the praises of Athens in three burlesque iambics[127] (Incert. Fab. fr. 1): "If you have never seen Athens, you are a stock; if you have seen her, and not been taken captive, a donkey; if you are charmed and leave her, a pack-ass."
On quitting the old for the middle comedy we find ourselves in a different intellectual atmosphere. The wit is more fine-spun, the humor more allusive; language, metre, and sententious reflections begin alike to be Euripidean. The fertility of the playwrights of this period was astounding. Antiphanes, one of the earliest, produced, according to some authorities, 260, and Alexis, one of the latest, 245 comedies on a great variety of subjects. It is doubtful, however, whether the authorship of these plays was accurately known by the Byzantine Greeks, from whom our information is derived. The fragments show that a strong similarity of style marked the whole school of poets, and that the younger did not scruple to pilfer freely from the elder. On the whole, the question of authorship is of less interest than the matters brought to light by such extracts as we possess. It has been remarked above that ridicule of the philosophers and parodies of the tragic poets were standing dishes in the middle comedy. Antiphanes has a fling at the elegant attire of the academic sages (Antaios), while Ephippus describes a philosophical dandy of the same school (Nauagos, fr. 1, p. 493). Their doctrines are assailed with mild sarcasm. A man, when asked if he has a soul, replies: "Plato would tell me I don't know, but I rather think I have" (Cratinus, Pseudupobolimaios, p. 516). In another play some one is gently reminded that he is talking of things about which he knows nothing—like Plato (Alexis, Ankylion, p. 518). Again, Plato is informed that his philosophy ends in knowing how to frown[128] (Amphis, Dexidemides, p. 482). In another place it is discovered that his summum bonum consists in refraining from marriage and enjoying life (Philippides, Ananeosis, fr. 2, p. 670). Other philosophers, the Pythagoreans (Alexis, Tarantini, frs. 1, 2, 3, pp. 565, 566), and Aristippus (Galatea, fr. 1, p. 526), for example, come in for their share of ridicule. The playwrights not unfrequently express their own philosophy, sad enough beneath the mask of mirth. Very gloomy, for example, is the view of immortality recorded by Antiphanes (Aphrodisios, fr. 2, p. 358); while the comparison by Alexis of human life to a mad pastime enjoyed between two darknesses (p. 566) has something in it that reminds one of a dance of death. Very seldom has the insecurity of all things, leading to devil-may-care self-indulgence, been more elegantly expressed than by Antiphanes (Stratiotes, fr. 1, p. 397). Anaxandrides, for his part, formulates theological agnosticism in words memorable for their pithy brevity (Canephorus, p. 422):
ἅπαντές ἐσμεν πρὸς τὰ θεῖ' ἀβέλτεροι
κοὐκ ἴσμεν οὐδέν·
We're all mere dullards in divinity
And know just nothing.
One thing is clear in all such utterances, that the deeper speculations of Plato and Aristotle had taken no hold on the minds of the people at large, and that such philosophy as had penetrated Athenian society was a kind of hedonistic scepticism. Epicurus, in the next age, had nothing to do but to give expression to popular convictions. Take, for one instance more, these lines from Amphis (Gynæcocratia, p. 481):
πῖνε, παῖζε· θνητὸς ὁ βίος· ὀλίγος οὑπὶ γῇ χρόνος.
ἀθάνατος δ' ὁ θάνατός ἐστιν, ἂν ἅπαξ τις ἀποθάνῃ.
Drink and play, for life is fleeting; short our time beneath the sky:
But for death, he's everlasting, when we once have come to die.
Occasionally, the same keen Attic wit is exercised upon old-fashioned Greek proverbs. Simonides had said that health, beauty, and moderate wealth were the three best blessings. Anaxandrides demurs (Thesaurus, fr. 1, p. 421): the poet was most certainly mad; for a handsome man, if he be poor, is but an ugly beast.