recognised, or to give themselves a more grotesque appearance. Hence comedy came to be called τρυγῳδία, or lee-song. Others connected the name with the circumstance of a jar of new wine (τρύξ) being the prize for the successful poet. It was, however, in Sicily, that comedy was earliest brought to something like perfection. Epicharmus was the first writer who gave it a new form, and introduced a regular plot. In his efforts he appears to have been associated with Phormis, a somewhat older contemporary. The Megarians in Sicily claimed the honour of the invention of comedy, on account of Epicharmus having lived in Megara before he went to Syracuse. In Attica, the first comic poet of any importance whom we hear of after Susarion is Chionides, who is said to have brought out plays in B.C. 488. Euetes, Euxenides, and Myllus were probably contemporaries of Chionides; he was followed by Magnes and Ecphantides. Their compositions, however, seem to have been little but the reproduction of the old Megaric farce of Susarion, differing, no doubt, in form, by the introduction of an actor or actors, separate from the chorus, in imitation of the improvements that had been made in tragedy.--That branch of the Attic drama which was called the _Old Comedy_, begins properly with Cratinus, who was to comedy very much what Aeschylus was to tragedy. The old comedy has been described as the comedy of caricature, and such indeed it was, but it was also a great deal more. As it appeared in the hands of its great masters Cratinus, Hermippus, Eupolis, and especially Aristophanes, its main characteristic was that it was throughout _political_. Everything that bore upon the political or social interests of the Athenians furnished materials for it. The old Attic comedy lasted from Ol. 80 to Ol. 94 (B.C. 458-404). From Cratinus to Theopompus there were forty-one poets, fourteen of whom preceded Aristophanes. The later pieces of Aristophanes belong to the Middle rather than to the Old Comedy. The chorus in a comedy consisted of twenty-four. [CHORUS.] The dance of the chorus was the κόρδαξ, the movements of which were capricious and licentious, consisting partly in a reeling to and fro, in imitation of a drunken man, and in various unseemly and immodest gestures. Comedies have choric songs, but no στάσιμα, or songs between acts. The most important of the choral parts was the Parabasis, when the actors having left the stage, the chorus, which was ordinarily divided into four rows, containing six each, and was turned towards the stage, turned round, and advancing towards the spectators delivered an address to them in the name of the poet, either on public topics of general interest, or on matters which concerned the poet personally, criticising his rivals and calling attention to his merits; the address having nothing whatever to do with the action of the play. The parabasis was not universally introduced: three plays of Aristophanes, the Ecclesiazusae,