Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Sophilus

by Various Authors

SO′PHILUS (Σώφιλος), a comic poet of the middle comedy, was a native of Sicyon or of Thebes, and composed the following dramas (Suid. s. v.): Κιθαρῳδός, Φίλαρχος, Τυνδάρεως ἢ Λήδα, Δηλία. Ἐγχειρίδιον (or Χοιρίδιον, but the other reading is more probably correct), and παρακαταθήκη, to which must be added, from Athenaeus, Συντρέχοντες, and Ἀνδροκλῆς. Diogenes Laërtius (ii. 120) refers to a play of Sophilus, entitled Γάμοι, in which Stilpo was attacked; but the reading of the passage is very doubtful, and Meineke has shown reasons for supposing that the play referred to is the Γάμος of Diphilus or of Philemon. Meineke also remarks that Σώφιλος must not be confounded with Σόφιλος or Σόφιλλος, which was a different name: the father of the poet Sophocles was named Σόφιλος. There are very few fragments of Sophilus remaining. The time at which he flourished is supposed by Meineke to have been about Ol. 108, B. C. 348. (Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. vol. i. pp. 424—426, vol. iii. pp. 581—584; Ed. Min., p. 794, &c.) [P. S.]