Axionicus

This article is about the 4th-century BCE playwright. For the 3rd-century CE Gnostic, see Axionicus of Antioch.

Axionicus (Ancient Greek: Ἀξιόνικος) was an Athenian poet of the Middle Comedy period of Ancient Greek comedy. He lived around the middle of the 4th century BCE.^[1][2]

Some fragments of the following plays have been preserved by Athenaeus:^[3]

• The Etruscan (Τυρρηνός or Τυρρηνικός)
• The Euripides Fan (Φιλευριπίδης)
• Philinna (Φίλιννα)
• The Chalcidean (Χαλκιδικός)

The Euripides Fan was a play that dealt with fans' obsessive devotion to the plays of the late Euripides as a kind of mental disorder.^[4]

While he has historically been considered an Athenian, modern scholars question whether he was actually an Athenian citizen, though we know he was certainly active in Athens at least.^[1]