Synopses & Reviews
Spectacular new finds, many of them in Egypt at Oxyrhynchus, have dramatically expanded the extant work of Menander since Allinson's one volume Loeb edition was published in 1921. This new Loeb Menander is three times the size of the Allinson volume. W. G. Arnott, internationally recognized Menander expert, brings us all of the work of the great Hellenistic comic playwright that is now available. A Greek text based on careful study of the discovered papyri faces a skillful translation that fits today's tastes, with full explanatory notes.
Volume II contains the surviving portions of ten Menander plays. Among these are the recently published fragments of Misoumenos ("The Man She Hated"), which sympathetically presents the flawed relationship of a soldier and a captive girl; and the surviving half of Perikeiromene ("The Girl with Her Hair Cut Short"), a comedy of mistaken identity and lovers' quarrel.
So influential in antiquity--his plays were adapted for the Roman stage by Plautus and Terence--Menander's comic art can at last be fully known and enjoyed again. It is a comedy that focuses on the hazards of love and trials of family life--as is typical of New Comedy, a style of which Menander is the leading writer.
Review
An excellent guide to Menander...Arnott has given us fine texts, clear translations, brief and useful introductions, and the help that is needed to make sense [of the] fragments. David Konstan
Synopsis
The master of New Comedy.
Menander (?344/3-292/1 BC) of Athens, the leading playwright of the New Comedy, wrote more than 100 plays. Many of his comedies were adapted by Roman dramatists. By the middle ages, however, his works were lost. Then, at the end of the nineteenth century, papyrus texts, preserved from antiquity by the dry heat of Egypt, began to be discovered. These have yielded so far one play virtually complete (Dyskolos), large continuous portions of four more (Aspis, Epitrepontes, Perikeiromene, Samia), and sizable chunks of many others. Menander remains a paradox: artificial plots based on unlikely but conventional coincidences, enlivened by individualized characters, realistic situations, and at times deeply moving dialogue.
Volume I of Geoffrey Arnott's three-volume edition of Menander contains six plays, including Dyskolos (The Peevish Fellow), which won first prize in Athens in 317 BC, and Dis Exapaton (Twice a Swindler), the original of Plautus' Two Bacchises. Ten plays are in Volume II, among them the recently published fragments of Misoumenos (The Man She Hated), which sympathetically presents the flawed relationship of a soldier and a captive girl; and the surviving half of Perikeiromene (The Girl with Her Hair Cut Short), a comedy of mistaken identity and lovers' quarrel. Volume III begins with Samia (The Woman from Samos), which has come down to us nearly complete. Here too are the very substantial extant portions of Sikyonioi (The Sicyonians) and Phasma (The Apparition), as well as Synaristosai (Women Lunching Together), on which Plautus' Cistellaria was based.
Synopsis
Menander (?344/3-292/1 BCE), the dominant figure in New Comedy, wrote over 100 plays, of which one complete play, substantial portions of six others, and smaller but interesting fragments have been recovered. The complete play, Dyskolos (The Peevish Fellow), won first prize in Athens in 317 BCE.
About the Author
W. G. Arnottis Emeritus Professor of Greek, <>University of Leeds, and a Fellow of the <>British Academy.
Table of Contents
Preface
Supplementary Bibliography
Heros (The Guardian Spirit)
Theophoroumene (The Demoniac Girl)
Karchedonios (The Man from Carthage)
Kitharistes (The Lyre Player)
Kolax (The Fawner)
Koneiazomenai (Women Drinking Hemlock)
Leukadia (The Girl from Leucas)
Misoumenos (The Hated Man)
Perikeiromene (The Girl with Her Hair Cut Short)
Perinthia (The Girl from Perinthus)