Full Description
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.
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Contents
The Bad-Tempered Man (Dyskolos) ; The Girl from Samos (Samia) ; The Arbitration (Epitrepontes) ; The Shield (Aspis) ; The Girl with the Shaven Head (Perikeiromene) ; The Man she Hated (Misoumenos) ; The Man from Sikyon (Sikyonios) ; Twice a Swindler (Dis Exapaton) ; The Hero (Heros) ; The Lyre-Player (Kitharistes) ; The Farmer (Georgos) ; The Apparition (Phasma) ; The Flatterer (Kolax) ; The Girl Possessed (Theophoroumene) ; The Girl from Leukas (Leukadia) ; The Girl from Perinthos (Perinthia) ; The Man from Carthage (Karchedonios) ; The Women drinking Hemlock (Koneiazomenai) ; Title Unknown ; A Selection of Fragments Quoted by Other Authors ; Fragments of Doubtful Authorship
