Who" Invented" Comedy? The Ancient Candidates for the Origins of Comedy and the Visual Evidence (original) (raw)

The formal beginning of comedy is firmly dated to the Dionysia of 486 b.c.e. 1 For what preceded it there were at least three ancient candidates: phallic processions, Doric comedy and Susarion. Each is supported by visual evidence of the sixth century b.c.e., each explains certain features of Old Comedy, but all have some anomalies as well. Striking is how many forms of performance attested in the sixth century contained comic elements. All these other forms ceased with the introduction of comedies to the Dionysia in 486 b.c.e., which coincides with the ascendancy of the demos; yet it was not until forty years later that comedy becomes unabashedly political. there is certainly no lack of recent scrutiny of the murky early stages of tragedy and dithyramb. 2 Less studied recently is the same process of comedy, for which, in contrast to tragedy and dithyramb, a fortunate combination of epigraphic and literary evidence allows us to date the official beginnings in Athens quite precisely: 3 the first competition at the Dionysia in Athens was in 487/6 b.c.e., and Chionides was