Nico'stratus
literary.
1. The youngest of the three sons of Aristophanes, according to Apollodorus.
He was himself a comic poet. By Athenaeus (xiii. p. 597d.) he is expressly called a poet of the middle comedy.
But he belonged also in part to the new comedy. Harpocration (p. 266) speaks of his play called
Ὀρνιθευτής, as belonging to that species of comedy; and some of the characters which he introduced in other dramas demonstrate the same.
In his
Βασιλεῖς he introduced a boasting soldier (
Athen. 6.230d.); in his
Τοκιστής, an avaricious money-lender (
Athen. 15.685f.) and a vaunting cook (
Athen. 14.664b.). Photius (
Phot. Bibl. 190, p. 153, ed. Bekk.) has got a story that Nicostratus being inflamed with a mad passion for some one named Tettigidaea, leapt off the Leucadian rock.
The titles of nineteen of the plays of Nicostratus have come down to us. Three of these, the
Ἀντυλλος (
Ath. 3.108, 118 e.), the
Οἰνοτίων (
Athen. 4.169e. vii. p. 280d.; Suidas,
s. v. Φιλέταιρος), and the
Πάνδροσος (
Athen. 13.587d. xv. p. 693a. b.) were also attributed to Philetaerus, who, according to some authorities (Schol.
ad Plat. Apol. Socr. p. 331), was the third son of Aristophanes [PHILETAERUS].
The remaining plays of Nicostratus were: 7.
Ἱεροφάντης. 8.
Κλίνη 9.
Ἅβρα. 10.
Ἡσίοδος. 11.
Διάβολος. 12.
Ἀντερωσα. 13.
Ἐκάτη. 14.
Μάγειρος. 15.
Ὦτις. 16.
Πλοῦτος. 17.
Σύρος. 18.
Ἀπελαυνόμενος. 19.
Ψευδοστιγματίας. (Fabric.
Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 472; Meineke,
Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. pp. 346, &c.; Bode,
Gesch. der Hellen. Dichtkunst, vol. iii. part. ii. p. 410.)
