Fig. 20.—Actors of Dorian Comedy upon a Corinthian Crater in Paris
With actors, impersonation became possible for the first time in Attic comedy. Besides the nondescript chorus and chorus leaders, there were now performers who could assume the identity of real or imaginary characters and carry a rôle or, by a change of mask, several rôles through the play. The importance of all this is too obvious to require amplification. It marked the birth of dramatic comedy at Athens. Through the introduction of actors, comedy became amenable to several other influences. Tragedy could at once make itself felt. A histrionic prologue could now be added, the comic prologue corresponding in length and function to the tragic prologue and first episode combined.[108] A real agon of actors now became possible, whatever use may have been made previously of the chorus leaders for this purpose. Furthermore, the new Megarian burlesque episodes (5) would naturally be separated by stasima (6) in imitation of tragedy. It would also be possible to insert an episode[109] between the parodus and the agon, as is done in Aristophanes’ Plutus, vss. 322-486; or between the agon and the parabasis, as in Aristophanes’ Knights, vss. 461-97; or to compose a second parabasis and to insert an additional episode between them, as in Aristophanes’ Peace, vss. 1039-1126, etc. In addition to all this, tragedy would exert a constant influence in elevating and standardizing all parts of comedy alike.
Fig. 21.—Actors of Dorian Comedy upon a Corinthian Vase
But the restricted and even disconnected method of elaboration employed in earlier comedy, with its invective, lampoons, and obscene jests, would not suffice to fill so ample a framework. Therefore, it became necessary to broaden and deepen the plots; in fact, now for the first time in Attic comedy was it possible to have a plot worthy of the name. All this is implied in the words which have already been quoted from Aristotle ([p. 35], above): “Developing a regular plot was a Sicilian invention, but of the Athenians the first to abandon the ‘iambic’ or lampooning form and to begin to fashion comprehensive themes and plots (καθόλου ποιεῖν λόγους καὶ μύθους) was Crates.” The reference in the first half of this sentence is to Epicharmus, whose name actually appears in Aristotle’s text at this point but without grammatical construction. Epicharmus was a resident of Megara Hyblaea in Sicily, whence he migrated to Syracuse about 485 B.C. Like the Megarians on the Greek mainland, also the Sicilian Megarians laid claim to the honor of having invented comedy.[110] They based their pretensions on the fact that Epicharmus flourished and won his reputation before 486 B.C., which was the terminus post quem for the beginning of the official careers of Magnes and Chionides, who were the first poets of state-supported (as opposed to volunteer) comedy, at the City Dionysia in Athens. Epicharmus raised the Dorian mime in Sicily to literary importance, and seems to have improved upon the detached or but loosely connected scenes of his predecessors by stringing them together upon the thread of a common plot-interest. His plays had no chorus and did not touch upon his contemporaries or politics. Now Aristotle’s words concerning Crates must certainly be understood as indicating a resemblance between him and Epicharmus in at least some of these particulars. The expression which I have translated “to fashion comprehensive themes and plots” has been rendered “generalized his themes and plots” by Butcher, “to frame stories of a general and non-personal nature, in other words, Fables or Plots” by Bywater, and “composed plots or fables of a ‘universal’ character” by Cornford (op. cit., p. 217). Whatever other meaning may inhere in this phrase, I think that it must be taken to mean, first of all, that Crates, like Epicharmus, made all or, at least, most of the parts of his plays subservient to one connecting idea or plot; and it seems to me that the previous clause which refers to his abandonment of the “iambic” or lampooning form looks in the same direction. In my opinion, the invective of his predecessors had been episodic and unrelated to its context by any sequence of thought, often being expressed in passages like the following:
Shall we all a merry joke
At Archedemus poke,