Susarion of Megara (Σουσαρίων ὁ Μεγαρεύς) is a semi-legendary figure traditionally credited with inventing Attic comedy. Ancient sources, like the Parian Marble, record that he introduced the comic chorus in the Attic deme of Icaria around 581/0 BCE [1]. Conflicting traditions identify him as from Icaria, Attica, or from Tripodiscus in Megara, reflecting an ancient debate over whether comedy originated in Attica or was imported from the Dorian Peloponnese [2, 3]. He is thus viewed as a name attached to the early, pre-classical phase of comic drama.

No specific plays survive. The scant remains consist of brief fragments, most notably a single iambic trimeter line preserved in the Tractatus Coislinianus: "Women are an evil, yet, O inhabitants, one cannot set up house without evil" [2].

Susarion’s significance is historiographical. He represents the foundational starting point for the literary genealogy of Athenian comedy in ancient scholarship, embodying the contested origins of the genre between Attic and Dorian cultural claims [1].

Sources 1. Parian Marble, Ep. 39 (Ashmolean Museum): https://www.ashmolean.org/marble-parian-chronicle 2. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics: Susarion: https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-6156 3. Suda, Sigma 1666 (Suda On Line): https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/sigma/1666