Epicharmus

Epicharmus (540-450 B.C.), born at Cos, was a Greek philosopher, a follower of the Pythagorean school, who, after practising philosophy at Megara, came to Syracuse, where he became a dramatist, and is said to have written 52 comedies, which are lost, though 40 of their titles are known. His comedies grew either out of the popular farces of Megara [Comedy] or, perhaps, out of the mimes, to the detached scenes of which he added a mythological plot, and so gave rise to Sicilian, as distinguished from Ionic and Attic, comedy. Fragments of poems, maxims, and discourses remain, and he was admired by both Plato and Cicero.