- published: 01 Dec 2014
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Alexis (Ancient Greek: Ἄλεξις, c.394 BC – c.288 BC) was a Greek comic poet of the Middle Comedy period. He was born at Thurii (in present day Calabria, Italy) in Magna Graecia and taken early to Athens, where he became a citizen, being enrolled in the deme Oion (Οἶον) and the tribe Leontides. It is thought he lived to the age of 106 and died on the stage while being crowned. According to the Suda, a 10th century encyclopedia, Alexis was the paternal uncle of the dramatist Menander and wrote 245 comedies, of which only fragments now survive, including some 130 preserved titles.
It was said he had a son, called Stephanus, who also wrote comedies. He appears to have been rather addicted to the pleasures of the table, according to Athenaeus.
He won his first Lenaean victory in the 350s BC, most likely, where he was sixth after Eubulus, and fourth after Antiphanes. While being a Middle Comic poet, Alexis was contemporary with several leading figures of New Comedy, such as Philippides, Philemon, Diphilus, and even Menander. There is also some evidence that, during his old age, he wrote plays in the style of New Comedy.