Editing Hipponax (section)

===Transmission and reception===
Few fragments of his work survived through the Byzantine period despite his earlier popularity with Alexandrian poets and scholars. The Christian fathers disapproved of his abusive and obscene verses and he was also singled out as unedifying by [[Julian the Apostate]], the pagan emperor, who instructed his priests to "abstain not only from impure and lascivious acts but also from speech and reading of the same character...No initiate shall read Archilochus or Hipponax or any of the authors who write the same kind of thing."<ref>''Ep.'' 48, translated by B.M. Knox, 'Elegy and Iambus: Hipponax' in ''The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Greek Literature'', P. Easterling and B. Knox (eds.), Cambridge University Press (1985), page 158</ref> Moreover, Hipponax's Ionic dialect and his extensive use of foreign words made his work unsuited to an ancient education system that promoted [[Attica|Attic]], the dialect of classical Athens. Today the longest fragment of complete, consecutive verses comprises only six lines.<ref>B.M. Knox, 'Elegy and Iambus: Hipponax' in ''The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Greek Literature'', P. Easterling and B. Knox (eds.), Cambridge University Press (1985), page 158</ref> Archeologists working at [[Oxyrhynchus]] have added to the meagre collection with tattered scraps of papyrus, of which the longest, published in 1941, has ''parts'' of over fifty [[choliambics]].<ref>David A. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric Poetry'', Bristol Classical Press (1982), page 373</ref>

[[Old Comedy]], as a medium for invective and abuse, was a natural successor to [[Iambus (genre)|iambus]] from the viewpoint of [[Aristotle]]<ref>''Poetics'' 1449a2ff, cited by E.W. Handley 'Comedy' in ''The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Greek Literature'', P. Easterling and B. Knox (eds.), Cambridge University Press (1985), note 2 page 363</ref> and Aristophanes, the master of Old Comedy, certainly borrowed inspiration from Hipponax: "Someone ought to give them a Bupalus or two on the jaw—that might shut them up for a bit" the men's chorus says about the women's chorus in [[Lysistrata]],<ref>Lysistrata lines 360–61, translated by Alan H. Sommerstein, ''Aristophanes: Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds'', Penguin Classics (1973), page 194</ref> and "Wonderful poet, Hipponax!" Dionysus exclaims in [[Frogs (play)|Frogs]], while trying to disguise the pain inflicted on himself during a flogging.<ref>Frogs line 660, translated by David Barrett, ''Aristophanes: The Frogs an Other Plays'', Penguin Classics (1964), page 180</ref> A quote attributed to Hipponax by [[Stobaeus]] actually appears to have been composed by a [[New Comedy]] poet.<ref group="nb">"The best marriage for a sensible man is to get a woman's good character as a wedding gift: for this dowry alone preserves the household&nbsp;..." —fr. 182, translated and annotated by Douglas Gerber, ''Greek Iambic Poetry'', Loeb Classical Library (1999), page 497</ref>