Magnes (c. 460 B.C.), Athenian writer of the Old Comedy, a native of the deme of Icaria in Attica. His death is alluded to by Aristophanes (Equites, 518-523, which was brought out in 424 B.C.), who states that in his old age Magnes had lost the popularity which he had formerly enjoyed. The few titles of his plays that remain, such as the Frogs, the Birds, the Gall flies, indicate that he anticipated Aristophanes in introducing grotesque costumes for the chorus.
See T. Kock, Comicorum atticorum fragmenta, i. (1880); G. H. Bode, Geschichte der hellenischen Dichtkunst, iii. pt. 2 (1840).
