( and Χιονίδης), an Athenian comic poet of the old comedy, whom Suidas (s. v.) places at the head of the poets of the old comedy (πρωταγωνιστὴν τῆς ἀρΧαίας κωμωδίας), adding that he
exhibited eight years before the Persian war, that is, in B. C. 487.
(Clinton. sub ann.) On the other hand, according to a passage in the
Poetics of Aristotle (100.3), Chionides was long after
Epicharmus. [EPICHARMUS.] On the strength of this passage Meineke
thinks that Chionides cannot be placed much earlier than B. C. 460;
and in confirmation of this date he quotes from Athenaeus (xiv. p. 638a.) a passage from a
play of Chionides, the ΠτωΧοί, in which mention is made
of Gnesippus, a poet contemporary with Cratinus. But we also learn from Athenaeus (l.c. and iv. p. 137e.), that some of the ancient critics considered the
Πτωχοί to be spurious, and with respect to the passage
of Aristotle, Ritter has brought forward very strong arguments against its genuineness. (For
the discussion of the question see Wolf, Proleg. ad Hom. p. lxix.;
Meineke, Hist. Grit. pp. 27, 28; Grysarius, de Com.
Doric. pp. 152, 153; Ritter, Comm. in Aristot. Poet. 3.) However
this may be, the difference of some twenty years in the date of Chionides is of little
consequence compared with the fact, attested by Suidas and implied by Aristotle, that
Chionides was the most ancient poet of the Athenian old comedy,--not absolutely in order of
time, for Susarion was long before him [SUSARION], and, if the
passage of Aristotle be genuine, so were Euetes, Euxenides, and Myllus; but the first who gave
the Athenian comedy that form which it retained down to the time of Aristophanes, and of which
the old comic lyric songs of Attica and the Megaric buffoonery imported by Susarion were only
the rude elements.
We have the following titles of his Comedies: --Ἥρωες
(a correction for Ἥρωες), ΠτωΧοί (see above), Πέρσαι η̈, Ἀσσύριοι. Of the last not a fragment remains: whether its title
may be taken as an argument for placing Chionides about the time of the Persian war, is of
course a mere matter of conjecture. The ΠτωΧοί is
quoted by Athenaeus (l.c., and iii. p. 191e.), the Ἥρωες by Pollux (10.43), the Antiatticista (p. 97), and Suidas
(s. v.Ἄγνος). The poet's name occurs in Vitruvius. (vi.
Praef.)