Eubulus
Εὔβουλος
(Εὔβουλος), an Athenian, the son of Euphranor, of the Cettian demus, was a very distinguished comic poet of the middle comedy, flourished, according to Suidas (s. v.), in the 101st Olympiad, B. C. 376/5. If this date be correct (and it is confirmed by the statement that Philip, the son of Aristophanes, was one of his rivals), Eubulus must have exhibited comedies for a long series of years; for he ridiculed Callimedon, the contemporary of Demosthenes. (Athen. 8.340d.) It is clear, therefore, that Suidas is wrong in placing Eubulus on the confines of the Old and the Middle Comedy. He is expressly assigned by the author of the Etymologicon Magnum (p. 451. 30) and by Ammonius (s. v. *e)/ndon) to the Middle Comedy, the duration of which begins very little before him, and extends to a period very little, if at all, after him.
Works
His plays were chiefly on mythological subjects. Several of them contained parodies of passages from the tragic poets, and especially from Euripides. There are a few instances of his attacking eminent individuals by name, as Philocrates, Cydias, Callimedon, Dionysius the tyrant of Syracuse, and Callistratus. He sometimes ridicules classes of persons, as the Thebans in his Ἀντιόπη.
His language is simple, elegant, and generally pure, containing, few words which are not found in writers of the best period. Like Antiphanes, he was extensively pillaged by later poets, as, for example, by Alexis, Ophelion, and Ephippus.
Titles
Suidas gives the number of the plays of Eubulus at 104, of which there are extant more than 50 titles, namely: Ἀγκυλίων Ἀγχίσης Ἀμάλθεια Ἀνασωζωζόμενοι Ἀντιόπη Ἄστυτοι Αὔγη Βελλεροφόντης Γανυμήδης Γλαῦκος Δαίδαλος Δαμαλίας is a corrupt title (Suid. s. v. Ἀσκωλιάζειν), for which Meineke would read Δαμασίας Δευκαλιων Διονύσιος, in which he appears to have ridiculed the confusion which prevailed in all the arrangements of the palace of Dionysius Διόνυσος, or, according to the fuller title Σεμέλη ἢ Διόνυσος Δόλων Εἰρήνη Εὐρψ́πη Ἠχὼ Ἰξίων Ἴων, Καλαθηφόροι Καμπυλίων (doubtful) Κατακολλώμενυς (doubtful) Κερκῶπες Κλεψύδρα Κορυδαλός Κυβευταί Λάκωνες ἢ Ἴδα Μήδεια Μυλωθρίς Μυσοί Νάννιον Ναυσικάα Νεοττίς Ξοῦθος Ὀδυσσεύς ἢ Παρνόπται Οἰδίπους Οἰνόμαος ἢ Πέλοψ Ὀλβία Ὀρθάνης Πάμφιλος Παννυχίας Παρμενίσκος Πλαγγών Πορνοβοσκός Προκρίς Προσουσία ἢ Κύκνος Στεφανοπώλιδες Σφιγγοκαρίων Τιτθαί Τιτᾶνες, Φοίνιξ Χάριτες Χρυσιλλα Ψάλτρια.
Edition
Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. vol. i. pp. 355-367, vol. iii. pp. 203-272.
Further Information
Clinton, Fast. Hell. sub ann. B. C. 375; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. pp. 442-444.
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.