It is plain that these words refer to plays by Magnes which were called The Lydians, The Gall-Flies, The Harpists, The Birds, and The Frogs. These titles at once remind us of the animal masks which were so common in the comus (Figs. [12-16]). Of course, state supervision implies a certain amount of serious attention. Nevertheless I think that in this passage Aristotle had a later period in mind.
It was long ago pointed out that Attic comedies were not published before the time of Cratinus. The fact of publication shows that comedy was at last being treated with true seriousness and helps to explain the ignorance, in later times, with respect to certain points. Though the state records gave the names of comic victors from 486 B.C. on, they did not include information upon matters of mere technique. For knowledge of this sort Aristotle (the ultimate source of Tzetzes) and all other ancient investigators were almost entirely dependent upon what they could glean from the editions of Cratinus, Crates, and their successors. Now the earliest texts available revealed the use of characters, prologues, and three actors as well as of the parodus, agon, parabasis, and exodus. Why did Aristotle specifically name the first group and not the second?
In my opinion, Professor Capps[115] has provided the correct answer. He maintains that Aristotle distinguished two kinds of ignorance concerning the history of comedy. In the first place, there was the Egyptian darkness which covered the period previous to 486 B.C. For example, when Aristotle declared that comedy “already had certain forms” (σχήματά τινα) at this time, he could not have specified what these forms were; he was merely surmising that the fact of state supervision presupposed more or less definiteness of form. In the second place, there was the period of semi-darkness immediately after 486 B.C. Tradition must have placed in this period the introduction of characters, prologues, and three actors, and so Aristotle singled them out for mention. But tradition had not handed down also the names of the innovators, and in the absence of texts it was impossible to probe the matter further. Needless to state, the situation regarding the other innovations, whether of this period or earlier, was much worse.
b) Though Thespis is said to have invented the prologue in tragedy, this statement is justly discredited (see [p. 298], below); and no tragedy is actually known to have had one before Phrynichus’ Phoenician Women (476 B.C.). Aeschylus’ Suppliants (about 490 B.C.) and Persians (472 B.C.) have none. It is most unlikely that comedy should have anticipated tragedy in this feature.
c) Capps[116] has plausibly suggested that knowledge of Epicharmus’ achievements in comedy was brought to Athens by Aeschylus, who is known to have been in Sicily ca. 476 B.C., shortly after 472 B.C., and for about two years before his death there in 456 B.C.
d) The third actor was introduced into tragedy between about 468 and 458 B.C., and it is more probable that the use of three actors in comedy was borrowed from tragedy than vice versa.
e) Cratinus won his first victory at the City Dionysia of 452 B.C. and (f) Crates at that of 450 B.C. Doubtless the activity of both men began somewhat earlier.
g) It is incredible that the state should have postponed official control of comedy at the Lenaean festival until about 442 B.C., if the developments which we have been sketching had taken place long before.
h) The earliest comedian to refer to Megarian comedy is Ecphantides, whose first victory was won between 457 and 453 B.C. Whenever Aristophanes “names any writers of ‘vulgar comedy’ who used the stale antics which he repudiates, these writers are his own predecessors and contemporaries of the Attic stage.”[117] This implies that the borrowing was a fairly recent occurrence.