1. of Thasos, was a comic poet of the old comedy at Athens, but was more celebrated for his
parodies, of which kind of poetry he was, according to Aristotle, the inventor. He was
nicknamed Φακῆ, on account of his fondness for that kind
of pulse. He lived in the time of the Peloponnesian war, and was contemporary with Cratinus
when the latter was an old man, and with Alcibiades. His parody of the
Gigantomachia was the piece to which the Athenians were listening, when the
news was brought to them in the theatre of the destruction of the expedition to Sicily, and
when, in order not to betray their feelings, they remained in the theatre to the end of the
performance. The only comedy of his which is mentioned is the Φιλινη, of which one fragment is preserved by Athenaeus, who also gives some
amusing particulars respecting him. (Aristot. Poet. 2,
and Hitter's note, p. 92; Athen. 1.5b.; iii. p. 108e.; ix. pp. 406,
407; xv. pp. 698, 699 ; Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. pp. 214, 215 ;
Fabric. Bibl. Graec. ii. p. 448.)