Quick Facts
Biography
Eubulus (Greek: Εὔβουλος, Euboulos) was an Athenian "Middle Comic" poet, victorious six times at the Lenaia, first probably in the late 370s or 360s BC (IG II2 2325.144; just before Ephippus)
According to the Suda (test. 1), which dates him to the 101st Olympiad (i.e. 376/2) and identifies him as "on the border between the Middle and the Old Comedy", he produced 104 comedies and won six victories at the Lenaia. An obscure notice in a scholium on Plato (test. 4) appears to suggest that some of his plays were staged by Aristophanes’ son Philippus. He attacked Philocrates, Callimedon, Cydias, and Dionysius the tyrant of Syracuse.
Eubulus's plays were chiefly about mythological subjects and often parodied the tragic playwrights, especially Euripides.
Surviving Titles and Fragments
150 fragments (including three dubia) of his comedies survive, along with fifty-eight titles:
- Ancylion
- Anchises
- Amaltheia
- Anasozomenoi ("Men Who Were Trying To Get Home Safe")
- Antiope
- Astytoi ("Impotent Men")
- Auge
- Bellerophon
- Ganymede
- Glaucus
- Daedalus
- Danae
- Deucalion
- Dionysius
- Dolon
- Eirene ("Peace")
- Europa
- Echo
- Ixion
- Ion
- Kalathephoroi ("Basket-Bearers")
- Campylion
- Katakollomenos ("The Man Who Was Glued To the Spot")
- Cercopes
- Clepsydra
- Korydalos ("The Lark")
- Kybeutai ("Dice-Players")
- Lakones ("Spartans") or Leda
- Medea
- Mylothris ("The Mill-Girl")
- Mysians
- Nannion
- Nausicaa
- Neottis
- Xuthus
- Odysseus or Panoptai ("Men Who See Everything")
- Oedipus
- Oenimaus or Pelops
- Olbia
- Orthannes
- Pamphilus
- Pannychis ("The All-Night Festival")
- Parmeniscus
- Pentathlos ("The Pentathlete")
- Plangon
- Pornoboskos ("The Pimp")
- Procris
- Prosousia or Cycnus
- Semele or Dionysus
- Skyteus ("The Shoemaker")
- Stephanopolides ("Female Garland-Vendors")
- Sphingokarion ("Sphinx-Carion")
- Titans
- Tithai or Titthe ("Wet-Nurses" or Wet-Nurse")
- Phoenix
- Charites ("The Graces")
- Chrysilla
- Psaltria ("The Harp-Girl")
The standard edition of the testimonia and fragments is found in Kassel-Austin, Poetae Comici Graeci Vol V; Kock numbers are outdated and should no longer be used. Richard L. Hunter offers a careful study of Eubulus’ career and the fragments of his plays in Eubulus: The Fragments (Cambridge, 1983).