Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Ameipsias
AMEI′PSIAS (Ἀμειψίας), a comic poet of Athens, contemporary with Aristophanes, whom he twice conquered in the dramatic contests, gaining the second prize with his Κόννος when Aristophanes was third with the "Clouds" (423 B. C.), and the first with his Κωμασταί, when Aristophanes gained the second with the "Birds." (414 B. C.; Argum. in Aristoph. Nub. et Av.) The Κόννος appears to have had the same subject and aim as the "Clouds." It is at least certain that Socrates appeared in the play, and that the Chorus consisted of Φροντισταί. (Diog. Laert. ii. 28; Athen. v. p. 218.) Aristophanes alludes to Ameipsias in the "Frogs" (v. 12—14), and we are told in the anonymous life of Aristophanes, that when Aristophanes first exhibited his plays, in the names of other poets, Ameipsias applied to him the proverb τετράδι γεγονώς, which means "a person who labours for others," in allusion to Heracles, who was born on the fourth of the month.
Ameipsias wrote many comedies, out of which there remain only a few fragments of the following:—Ἀποκοτταϐίζοντες, Κατεσθίων (doubtful), Κόννος, Μοιχοί, Σαπφώ, Σφενδόνη, and of some the names of which are unknown. Most of his plays were of the old comedy, but some, in all probability, were of the middle. (Meineke, Frag. Com. i. p. 19.9, ii. p.70l.)
[P. S.]