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Middle Comedy and the "Satyric" Style
- American Journal of Philology
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 131, Number 1 (Whole Number 521), Spring 2010
- pp. 1-22
- 10.1353/ajp.0.0098
- Article
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Although "Middle Comedy" may best serve as a chronological label, the remains of pre-Menandrian, fourth-century comic productions suggest that certain characteristics were more dominant at this time than in earlier or later periods of Greek comedy. The possible sources for these characteristics are wide-ranging, but available evidence indicates that fifth-century satyr drama was one of the most important. Not only do fragments, titles, and plots reveal a significant generic relationship, but Aristotle even seems to link their comic mode. Fifth-century satyr plays, I argue, functioned as an important model for the poets of Middle Comedy.