Extract

Menander (1) (Μένανδρος ?344/3–292/1 bce), the leading writer of New Comedy (see comedy (Greek), New), although in his own time less successful (with only eight victories) than *Philemon (2). An Athenian of good family, he is said to have studied under the philosopher *Theophrastus and the playwright *Alexis, and to have been a friend of *Demetrius(3) of Phaleron, the pro-Macedonian regent of Athens from 317 to 307. Making his début probably in 324 or 323, he wrote over 100 plays, many of which must have been intended for performance outside Athens. Nearly 100 titles are known, but some may be alternatives attached to plays restaged (as happened frequently) after Menander's death.Menander's plays were lost in the 7th and 8th cents. ce as a result of Arab incursions and Byzantine neglect, but in modern times many papyri have been discovered, attesting great popularity in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt. These include one virtually complete play, Dyskolos (‘Old Cantankerous’: victorious at the *Lenaea in 316), and large enough portions of six others to permit some literary judgement: Epitrepontes (‘Arbitration’, a mature work half-preserved intact and named after a brilliant scene), Perikeiromene (‘Rape of the locks’, nearly half of its clear plot surviving), Samia (‘Girl from Samos’, four fifths preserved), Aspis (‘Shield’, first half), Sikyonios (‘Sicyonian’, some 180 lines more or less complete, fragments of 250 or so others), and Misoumenos (‘Man She Hated’, tantalizing remains of a popular and exciting comedy, about 175 lines complete or comprehensible).