Menander, The Plays and Fragments

by Menander; Balme, Maurice; Brown, Peter

• ISBN13: 9780192839831
• ISBN10: 0192839837
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-07-18
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Menander was the founding father of European comedy. From Ralph Roister Doister to What the Butler Saw, from Henry Fielding to P. G. Wodehouse, the stock motifs and characters can be traced back to him.The greatest writer of Greek New Comedy, Menander (c.341-290 BC) wrote over one hundred plays but until the twentieth century he was known to us only by short quotations in ancient authors. Since 1907 papyri found in the sand of Egypt have brought to light more and more fragments, many substantial,and in 1958 the papyrus text of a complete play was published, The Bad-Tempered Man (Dyskolos) . His romantic comedies deal with the lives of ordinary Athenian families, and they are the direct ancestors not only of Roman comedy but also of English comedy from the Renaissance to the present day.This new verse translation is accurate and highly readable, providing a consecutive text with supplements based on the dramatic situation and surviving words in the damaged papyri.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. ix
Select Bibliography	p. xxx
Translator's Note	p. xxxi
The Plays and Fragments of Menander
The Bad-Tempered Man (Dyskolos)	p. 3
The Girl from Samos (Samia)	p. 44
The Arbitration (Epitrepontes)	p. 81
The Shield (Aspis)	p. 116
The Girl with the Shaven Head (Perikeiromene)	p. 140
The Man she Hated (Misoumenos)	p. 163
The Man from Sikyon (Sikyonios)	p. 181
Twice a Swindler (Dis Exapaton)	p. 199
The Hero (Heros)	p. 206
The Lyre-Player (Kitharistes)	p. 213
The Farmer (Georgos)	p. 219
The Apparition (Phasma)	p. 226
The Flatterer (Kolax)	p. 232
The Girl Possessed (Theophoroumene)	p. 241
The Girl from Leukas (Leukadia)	p. 246
The Girl from Perinthos (Perinthia)	p. 249
The Man from Carthage (Karchedonios)	p. 252
The Women drinking Hemlock (Koneiazomenai)	p. 255
Title Unknown	p. 257
A Selection of Fragments Quoted by Other Authors	p. 263
Fragments of Doubtful Authorship	p. 281
Explanatory Notes	p. 294
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