Hermippus

Hermippus (Greek Ἕρμιππος ), son of Lysis of Athens, was in the 5th century BC, a Greek poet of the Old Comedy. He stood in the succession of Cratinus and was a little older than his later rival Aristophanes and Eupolis.

Hermippus, who was supposedly one-eyed, won 436/35 BC for the first time at the Dionysia, and then four more times at the Lenaea. Of his forty pieces eleven titles have survived that refer in part to the political actuality and are identifiable partly as parodies of mythology or tragedy. The fragments show the seriousness of his contemporary polemic was directed primarily against the leaders of the war party Pericles, and Alcibiades Hyperbolos. The companion of Pericles, Aspasia, was about 433/32 BC, accused him in court of impiety and Kupplerei.

Expenditure

• Theodor Kock: Comicorum Atticorum fragmentary. Volume 1, Teubner, Leipzig, 1880, pp. 224-253 (online).
• Augustus Meineke: poetarum Graecorum comicorum fragmentary, 1855.
• Colin Austin / Rudolf Kassel ( Ed.): poetae Comici Graeci.