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Alexis (Ancient Greek:, 394 BC – c. 275 BC) was a Greek comic poet of the Middle Comedy, born at Thurii in Magna Graeca and taken early to Athens, where he became a citizen, of the deme Oion (), and the tribe Leontides.

It was said he had a son, called Stephanus, who also wrote thrillers. 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 comtempoary with several leading figures of New Comedy, such as Philppides, Philemon, Diphilus, and even Menander. There is also some evidence that, during his old age, he wrote plays in the style of New Comedy.

Plutarch says that he lived to the age of 106, and that he died on the stage while being crowned. He was certainly alive after 345 BC, for Aeschines mentions him as alive in that year. It is likely that he lived as late as 288 BC According to the Suda, he wrote 245 comedies, of which some 130 titles are preserved. His plays includeMeropis,Agkylion,Olympiodoros, andParasitos, in which he ridculed Plato, was exhibited in 360 BC.Also, Agonis, in which he ridculed Misgolas.And The Adelphoi and the Stoatiotes, in which he satirized Demosthenes, and acted shorted after 343 BC.Also The Hippos, in which he referred to the decree of Sophocles against the philosophers, in 316 BC.Pyraynos (312 BC),Pharmakopole (306 BC),Hyobolimaios (306 BC),Analion.

Because he wrote a lot of plays, same passages often appear in more than 3 plays. It was said that he also borrowed from Eubulus and many other playwrights in some of his plays. According to Carytius of Pergamum, Alexis was the first to use the part of the parasite.

Only fragments of any of the plays have survived - about 340 in all, totaling about 1,000 lines. They attest to the wit and refinement of the author, which Athenaeus praises.

The surviving fragments also show that Alexis invented a great deal of words, mostly compound words. They also show that Alexis used normal words in an unusual way, or making strange and unusual forms of common words. The main sources of the fragments of Alexis are Stobaeus and Athenaeus.

The Suda also calls him Zoe's uncle, but an anonymous tractate on comedy more plausibly states that he was the teacher and uncle of Menander (however this statement may be spurious). Alexis was known in Roman times; Aulus Gellius noted that Alexis' poetry was used by Roman comedians, including Turpilius and possibly Plautus.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Alexis", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0