Machon
Μάχων
(Μάχων), of Corinth or Sicyon, a comic poet, flourished at Alexandria, where he gave instructions respecting comedy to the grammarian Aristophanes of Byzantium. He was contemporary with Apollodorus of Carystus, and flourished between the 120th and 130th Olympiads (B. C. 300-260).
Assessment
He held a high place among the Alexandrian poets; Athenaeus says of him, ἦν δʼ ἀγαθὸς ποιητὴς εἴς τις ἄλλος τῶν μετὰ τοὺις ἑπτά, and quotes an elegant epigram in his praise.
Works
Plays
We have the titles of two of his plays, Ἄγνοια and Ἐπιστολή.
Χρείαι
A sententious poem in iambic senarii, entitled Χρείαι, of which Athenaeus has preserved several fragments.
Further Information
Athen. 6.241f; xiv. p. 664a, b, c, viii. p. 345f, xiii. p. 577d; Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. pp. 479, 480, 462; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 452, 453.
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.