Hegemon

(Ἡγήμων).

1. of Thasos, was a comic poet of the old comedy at Athens, but was more celebrated for his parodies, of which kind of poetry he was, according to Aristotle, the inventor. He was nicknamed Φακῆ, on account of his fondness for that kind of pulse. He lived in the time of the Peloponnesian war, and was contemporary with Cratinus when the latter was an old man, and with Alcibiades. His parody of the Gigantomachia was the piece to which the Athenians were listening, when the news was brought to them in the theatre of the destruction of the expedition to Sicily, and when, in order not to betray their feelings, they remained in the theatre to the end of the performance. The only comedy of his which is mentioned is the Φιλινη, of which one fragment is preserved by Athenaeus, who also gives some amusing particulars respecting him. (Aristot. Poet. 2, and Hitter's note, p. 92; Athen. 1.5b.; iii. p. 108e.; ix. pp. 406, 407; xv. pp. 698, 699 ; Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. pp. 214, 215 ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. ii. p. 448.)

2. An Athenian orator of the time of Demosthenes, and one of those who were induced by the bribes of Philip to support the Macedonian party. He was capitally accused by Aristogeiton, and at last shared the fate of Phocion. According to Syrianus, he was one of those orators who attained to eminence by practice, without having studied the art of rhetoric. (Dem. ad v. Aristog. i. p. 784; Pseud. Aeschin. Epist. xii.; Liban. i. p. 471b.; Harpocrat. s. v.; Plut. Phocion, 33, 35.)

3. An epic poet, who celebrated in verse the exploits of the Thebans under Epaminondas in the campaign of Leuctra. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Ἀλεξάνδρεια.) Aelian quotes Hegemon ἐν τοῖς Δαρδανικοῖς μέτροις. [P.S]

(Ἡγέμων), an epigrammatic poet, one epigram of whose is in the Vatican MS. of the Greek Anthology (p. 274). Nothing more is known of him. (Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. xiii. pp. 649, 900.) [P.S]

(Ἡγήμων). A native of Thasos and author of satyric dramas in the age of Alcibiades who was his friend, and managed to get him freed from an accusation that had been brought against him. A parody by this poet, entitled Γιγαντομαχία, was being presented when the news arrived of the defeat of Nicias in Sicily. This Hegemon was called Phacé (φακῆ, “lentil”), conferred on him as a nickname. He wrote also a comedy entitled Φίλιννα.