"Maricas" was the disparaging name given in EUPOLIS' comedy MARIKAS to the DEMAGOGUE, HYPERBOLUS. The name is derived from Old PERSIAN marīka- "menial" (Cassio 1985); Hesychius (μ283) confirms its BARBARIAN origin and servile associations, and glosses it with kinaidos "passive homosexual".
A play by Eupolis in which the demagogue Hyperbolus was caricatured as a barbarian slave, and his mother apparently as a drunken market-woman; the chorus was divided into semichoruses of rich and poor men. Aristophanes alleged that Eupolis had plagiarized his Knights. Part of an ancient commentary survives, but the plot is hard to reconstruct.
Autolycus (PAA 239835), son of LYCON of the deme Thoricus (schol. Plato, Apology 23e; his mother’s name is usually given as Rhodia (schol. Aristophanes, Lysistrata 270), but see Storey Eupolis 91-2) became a celebrity by his victory in the boys’ pankration at the Panathenaea of 422 BCE, in honour of which his wealthy lover CALLIAS (2) gave the banquet, attended by Socrates, at which Xenophon’s Symposium is set.
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