Abstract

ALVAREZ SALAS, Omar. Epicarmo e Senofane: tessere di una polemica. Nova tellus [online]. 2007, vol.25, n.2, pp.85-136. ISSN 0185-3058.  https://doi.org/10.19130/iifl.nt.2007.25.2.230.

In this article the testimonies concerning the polemical relationship linking the comic writer Epicharmus to the poet-philosopher Xenophanes are surveyed, a polemic that is indeed but a particular aspect of the interaction between the Sicilian Epicharmus and leading intellectuals of the VI-V centuries b.C., i.e. the Presocratics. After the general traits of Epicharmus’ anti Xeno-phanean polemic have been outlined based on extant doxographical accounts (Aristotle’s and his commentators’, whose probable source in Hippias of Elis is also discussed), further scorn fragments by Epicharmus are conjecturally connected to it. Finally, the mechanisms used by Epicharmus in overturning doctrinal statements by other people are investigated: it turns up for the Sicilian comic writer the use of highly sophisticated critical tools forestalling those typical of the Sophists; this in its turn enables one to see in him a very subtle-witted “Aristophanes” ante litteram.

Keywords : ancient doxography; Epicharmus; Greek comedy; presocratic philosophy; satire; sophistic crafts; Xenophanes.