Demophius
2. An Athenian comic poet of the new comedy. The only mention of him is in the Prologue to the Asinaria of Plautus, who says, that his play is taken from the Ὀναγός of Demophilus, vv. 10-13,
"Huic nomen Graece est Onagos Fabulae. Demophilus scripsit, Marcus vortit barbare. Asinariam volt esse, si per vos licet. Inest lepos ludusque in hac Comoedia."
Meineke observes that, judging from the "lepos ludusque" of the Asinaria, we have no need to regret the loss of the Ὀναγός. (Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. i. p. 491.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.