The 4leeehlpillellt of Greek comedy was parallel that Of tragedy. The name is derived front KI;j4.40t, a band of revelers, or from st5Aut, a village, with 434, n song. The rude jests w ith which the of the morn rustic I)ionystts festivals were enlk•ned led naturally ton dramatie composi tion of the same character. Susarion of Nlegara is said to have introduced comedy into Attica early in the sixth century but before it encour aged at Athens it came to a considerable devel opment elsewhere, particularly among the Do rians of Sicily. flourished Epieharmus and sophron, the inventor of mimes. The his tor• of Athenian comedy is familiarly divided into the three periods of the Old. :Middle. and New Comedy. The best-known writer, of the first were ('rations, Crates. Eupolis. and Aristophanes. who i- it- great exemplar. Organized in a man ner similar to tragedy, but with a chorus of twenty-four and an additional element called the pun/busts. in which the audience was directly addressed, it dealt frankly in personalities. was largely political, and did not hesitate to carica ture the leading men of the day. :Middle Comedy
marks the beginning of a period when freedom of speech was less unlimited, and when the follies and foible- of whole classes rather than of indi viduals furnished the butt of the comedian's ridi cule. 'flue chorus lost its connection with the drama and was dropped. In the so-called New Comedy of Menander and Philemon, at the begin ning of the third century B.C.. the tendency seems to have been brought to its logical development. In-tend of to political questions of the day. the comic writer devoted himself to the exhibition of ridiculous complication, of social life, in a society which with its simplicity had lost much of its virtue. Types were developed which are still familiar upon the stage. such as the gullible old man. the di-sipated son. and the tricky and impu dent servant. who may be called a sort of male prototype of the soubrette. This later Greek comedy is chiefly known to us through the adap tations of the Roman comedians Plautus and Terence.