Epi'genes
（
Ἐπιγένης).
1. An Athenian poet of the middle comedy. Pollux indeed (7.29) speaks of him as
νέων τις κωμικῶν, but the terms "middle" and "new," as Clinton remarks (
F. H. vol. ii. p. xlix.), are not always very carefully applied. (See Arist.
Eth. Nic. 4.8.6.) Epigenes himself, in a fragment of his play called
Μνημάτιον (apud
Ath. xi. p. 472f.) speaks of Pixodarus, prince of Caria, as "the king's son"; and from this Meineke argues (
Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. p. 354), that the comedy in question musth ave been written while Hecatomnus, the father of Pixodarus, was yet alive, and perhaps about B. C. 380. We find besides in Athenaeus (ix. p. 409d.), that there was a doubt among the ancients whether the play called
Ἀργυρίον ἀφανισμός should be assigned to Epigenes or Antiphanes.
These poets therefore must have been contemporaries. [See vol. i. p. 204b.] The fragments of the comedies of Epigenes have been collected by Meineke (vol. iii. p. 537 ; comp. Poll. 7.29; Ath. iii. p. 75c., ix. p. 384a., xi. pp. 469, c., 474, a;, 480, a., 486, c., 502, e.).
