Poetics (5.3-5.7)

The various stages of tragedy and the originators of each are well known, but comedy remains obscure because it was not at first treated seriously.

Comedy had already taken certain forms before there is any mention of those who are called its poets. Who introduced masks or prologues, the number of actors, and so on, is not known.

Plot making [Epicharmus and Phormis][*] originally came from Sicily,

and of the Athenian poets Crates[*] was the first to give up the lampooning form and to generalize his dialogue and plots.

Epic poetry agreed with tragedy only in so far as it was a metrical representation of heroic action, but inasmuch as it has a single metre and is narrative in that respect they are different.