Nicochares

Nicochares (Greek: Νικοχάρης, died ca. 345 BC) was an Athenian poet of the Old Comedy, son of the comic playwright Philonides and contemporary with Aristophanes. The titles of Nicochares' plays, as enumerated by Suidas, are, Αμυμωνη (Amymone), Πελοψ (Pelops), Γαλατεια (Galatea), Ηρακληs Γαμων (Hercules Getting Married), Ηρακληs Χορηγος (Hercules the Play-Producer), Κρητες (Cretans), Λακωνες (The Laconians), Λημνιαι (Lemnian Women), Κενταυροι (Centaurs), and Χειρογαστορες (Those Living Hand-to-Mouth). Although, as Augustus Meineke had ingeniously conjectured, the two first titles may merely be two different names from the same comedy, considering the fact that Πελοψ does not occur in its alphabetical place, and, in reference to the latter, the name "Oenomaüs" occurs in quotations from Αμυμωνη mentioned by Athenaeus.

From the extant fragments of Nicochares' work, one can only infer that he treated in the style of the Old Comedy—occasionally rising into tragic dignity. It is also evident that his comedies were influenced by the legends and local traditions of his country, and, undoubtedly, served to ridicule the peculiarities of the neighboring states.

In Aristotle's Poetics, Aristotle states: Homer, for example, makes men better than they are; Cleophon as they are; Hegemon the Thasian, the inventor of parodies, and Nicochares, the author of the Deiliad, worse than they are.