**Menander** (/məˈnændər/ ⓘ; [[Ancient Greek language|Ancient Greek]]: Μένανδρος, [[Romanization of Ancient Greek|romanized]]: *Ménandros*; c. 342/341 – c. 290 BC) was a Greek playwright and the best-known representative of Athenian [[Ancient Greek comedy|New Comedy]].[^1] He wrote 108 comedies[^2] and took the prize at the [[Lenaia]] festival eight times.[^3] His record at the [[City Dionysia]] is unknown. He was one of the most popular writers and most highly admired poets in antiquity, but his work was considered lost before the [[Early Middle Ages|early Middle Ages]]. It now survives only in Latin-language adaptations by [[Terence]] and [[Plautus]] and, in the original Greek, in highly fragmentary form, most of which were discovered on [[Papyrus|papyrus]] in Egyptian tombs during the early to mid-20th century. In the 1950s, to the great excitement of [[Classicist|Classicists]], it was announced that a single play by Menander, *[[Dyskolos]]*, had finally been rediscovered in the [[Bodmer Papyri]] intact enough to be performed. ## Life and work Menander was the son of well-to-do parents; his father [[Diopeithes]] is identified by some with the Athenian general and governor of the [[Thracian Chersonese]] known from the speech of [[Demosthenes]] *[[On the Chersonese|De Chersoneso]]*. He presumably derived his taste for comic drama from his uncle [[Alexis (poet)|Alexis]].[^4][^5] He was the friend, associate, and perhaps pupil of [[Theophrastus]], and was on intimate terms with the Athenian dictator [[Demetrius Phalereus|Demetrius of Phalerum]].[^6] He also enjoyed the patronage of [[Ptolemy I of Egypt|Ptolemy Soter]], the son of [[Lagus]], who invited him to his court. But Menander, preferring the independence of his villa in the [[Piraeus]] and the company of his mistress [[Glycera (courtesan)|Glycera]], refused.[^7] According to the note of a scholiast on the *Ibis* of [[Ovid]], he drowned while bathing,[^8] and his countrymen honored him with a tomb on the road leading to Athens, where it was seen by [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]].[^9] Numerous supposed busts of him survive, including a well-known statue in the [[Vatican City|Vatican]], formerly thought to represent [[Gaius Marius]].[^4] His rival in dramatic art (and supposedly in the affections of Glycera) was [[Philemon (poet)|Philemon]], who appears to have been more popular. Menander, however, believed himself to be the better dramatist, and, according to [[Aulus Gellius]],[^10] used to ask Philemon: "Don't you feel ashamed whenever you gain a victory over me?" According to [[Caecilius of Calacte]] ([[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]] in [[Eusebius of Caesarea|Eusebius]], *[[Praeparatio evangelica]]*[^11]) Menander was accused of [[Plagiarism|plagiarism]], as his *The Superstitious Man* was taken from *The Augur* of [[Antiphanes (comic poet)|Antiphanes]],[^4] but reworkings and variations on a theme of this sort were commonplace and so the charge is a complicated one. How long complete copies of his plays survived is unclear, although 23 of them, with commentary by [[Michael Psellus]], were said to still have been available in [[Constantinople]] in the 11th century. He is praised by [[Plutarch]] (*Comparison of Menander and Aristophanes*)[^12] and [[Quintilian]] (*Institutio Oratoria*), who accepted the tradition that he was the author of the speeches published under the name of the Attic orator [[Charisius]].[^13] An admirer and imitator of [[Euripides]], Menander resembles him in his keen observation of practical life, his analysis of the emotions, and his fondness for moral maxims, many of which became proverbial: "The property of friends is common," "Whom the gods love die young," "Evil communications corrupt good manners" (from the *Thaïs*, quoted in [[1 Corinthians 15]]:33). These [[Maxim (literature)|maxims]] (chiefly monostichs) were afterwards collected, and, with additions from other sources, were edited as *Menander's One-Verse Maxims*, a kind of moral textbook for the use of schools.[^4] The single surviving speech from his early play *Drunkenness* is an attack on the politician [[Callimedon]], in the manner of [[Aristophanes]], whose bawdy style was adopted in many of his plays. Menander found many Roman imitators. *[[Eunuchus]]*, *[[Andria (comedy)|Andria]]*, *[[Heauton Timorumenos]]* and *[[Adelphoe|Adelphi]]* of [[Terence]] (called by [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]] "dimidiatus Menander") were avowedly taken from Menander, but some of them appear to be adaptations and combinations of more than one play. Thus in the *Andria* were combined Menander's *The Woman from Andros* and *The Woman from Perinthos*, in the *Eunuchus*, *The Eunuch* and *The Flatterer*, while the *Adelphi* was compiled partly from Menander and partly from [[Diphilus]]. The original of Terence's *Hecyra* (as of the *Phormio*) is generally supposed to be, not by Menander, but [[Apollodorus of Carystus]]. The *Bacchides* and *Stichus* of [[Plautus]] were probably based upon Menander's *The Double Deceiver* and *Brotherly-Loving Men*, but the *Poenulus* does not seem to be from *The Carthaginian*, nor the *Mostellaria* from *The Apparition*, in spite of the similarity of titles. [[Caecilius Statius]], Luscius Lanuvinus, Turpilius and Atilius also imitated Menander. He was further credited with the authorship of some epigrams of doubtful authenticity; the letters addressed to Ptolemy Soter and the discourses in prose on various subjects mentioned by the *Suda*[^14] are probably spurious.[^4] ## Loss of his work Most of Menander's work did not survive the Middle Ages, except as short fragments. [[Federico da Montefeltro]]'s library at Urbino reputedly had *"tutte le opere"*, a complete works, but its existence has been questioned and there are no traces after [[Cesare Borgia]]'s capture of the city and the transfer of the library to the Vatican.[^15] Until the end of the 19th century, all that was known of Menander were fragments quoted by other authors and collected by [[Augustus Meineke]] (1855) and Theodor Kock, *Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta* (1888). These consist of some 1650 verses or parts of verses, in addition to a considerable number of words quoted from Menander by ancient lexicographers.[^4] ## 20th-century discoveries This situation changed abruptly in 1907, with the discovery of the [[Cairo Codex]], which contained large parts of the *[[Samia (play)|Samia]]*, the *[[Perikeiromene]]*, and the *[[Epitrepontes]]*; a section of the *Heros*; and another fragment from an unidentified play. A fragment of 115 lines of the *Sikyonioi* had been found in the [[Papier mache|papier mache]] of a mummy case in 1906. In 1959, the [[Bodmer papyrus]] was published containing *[[Dyskolos]]*, more of the *Samia*, and half of the *[[Aspis (Menander)|Aspis]]*. In the late 1960s, more of the *Sikyonioi* was found as filling for two more mummy cases; this proved to be drawn from the same manuscript as the discovery in 1906, which had clearly been thoroughly recycled.[^16] Other papyrus fragments continue to be discovered and published.[^17] In 2003, a [[Palimpsest|palimpsest]] manuscript, in Syriac writing of the 9th century, was found where the reused parchment comes from a very expensive 4th-century Greek manuscript of works by Menander. The surviving leaves contain parts of the *Dyskolos* and 200 lines of another piece by Menander, so far unpublished, titled *Titthe*.[^18][^19][^20] ## Famous quotations In his [[First Epistle to the Corinthians]], [[Paul the Apostle]] quotes Menander in the text "Bad company corrupts good character",[^21] which probably comes from his play *Thais*; according to 5th-century Christian historian [[Socrates Scholasticus]], Menander derived this from [[Euripides]].[^22][^23] "He who labors diligently need never despair, for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor." — Menander "Ἀνερρίφθω κύβος" (*anerriphtho kybos*), best known in English as "[the die is cast](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/the%20die%20is%20cast)" or "the die has been cast", from the mis-translated Latin "*iacta alea est*" (itself better-known in the order "*[[Alea iacta est]]*"); a correct translation is "let the die be cast" (meaning "let the game be ventured"). The Greek form was famously quoted by [[Julius Caesar]] upon committing his army to civil war by crossing the River [[Crossing the Rubicon|Rubicon]]. The popular form "the die is cast" is from the Latin *iacta alea est*, a mistranslation by [[Suetonius]], 121 AD. According to [[Plutarch]], the actual phrase used by Julius Caesar at the crossing of the [[Crossing the Rubicon|Rubicon]] was a quote in Greek from Menander's play *Arrhephoros*, with the different meaning "Let the die be cast!".[^24] See discussion at "[the die is cast](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/the%20die%20is%20cast)" and "*[[Alea iacta est]]*". > He \[Caesar\] declared in Greek with loud voice to those who were present 'Let the die be cast' and led the army across. ([[Plutarch]], *Life of Pompey*, 60.2.9)[^25] *[[Lewis and Short]]*,[^26] citing Casaubon and Ruhnk, suggest that the text of Suetonius should read *Jacta alea esto*, which they translate as "Let the die be cast!", or "Let the game be ventured!". This matches Plutarch's third-person perfect passive imperative ἀνερρίφθω κύβος (**anerrhiphtho kybos**). According to Gregory Hays' translation of *Meditations* by Marcus Aurelius, Menander is also known for the quote/proverb: "a rich man owns so many goods he has no place to shit." (Meditations, V:12)[^27] Another well known quote by Menander is "Whom the gods love dies young".[^28] ## Comedies Menander's comedies were very different from the Old Comedies of Aristophanes. New Greek Comedies usually would have two lovers, a blocking character, and a helpful servant. They typically ended with a wedding or happy ending. They were much more of a "higher brow" comedy than Old Greek comedy. They were also more realistic. ### More-complete plays - *[[Aspis (Menander)|Aspis]]* ("The Shield"; about half) - *[[Dyskolos]]* ("The Grouch" or "Old Cantankerous"; best preserved play) - *[[Epitrepontes]]* ("The Arbitration"; about half) - *[[Misoumenos]]* ("The Hated Man"; about a third) - *[[Perikeiromene]]* ("The Girl with her Hair Cut Short" or "Rape of the Locks"; about half) - *[[Samia (play)|Samia]]* ("The Girl from [[Samos Island|Samos]]"; most) - *[[Sikyonioi]]* or *Sikyonios* ("The [[Sicyon|Sicyonian]](s)"; about a third) ### Only fragments available - *Adelphoi* ("The Brothers") - *Anatithemene*, or *Messenia* ("The Woman From [[Messene]]") - *Andria* ("The Woman From [[Andros, Greece|Andros]]") - *Androgynos* ("Hermaphrodite"), or *Kres* ("The Cretan") - *Anepsioi* ("Cousins") - *Aphrodisia* ("The Erotic Arts"), or *Aphrodisios* - *Apistos* ("Unfaithful", or "Unbelieving") - *Arrhephoros* ("[[Arrephoros|The Bearer of Ritual Objects]]"), or *Auletris* ("The Female Flute-Player") - *Auton Penthon* ("Grieving For Him") - *Boiotis* ("The Woman From [[Boeotia]]") - *Chalkeia* ("The Chalceia Festival"), or *Chalkis* ("The Copper Pot") - *Chera* ("The Widow") - *Daktylios* ("The Ring") - *Dardanos* ("Dardanus") - *Deisidaimon* ("The Superstitious Man") - *Demiourgos* ("The Demiurge") - *Didymai* ("Twin Sisters") - *[[Bacchides (play)|Dis Exapaton]]* ("Double Deceiver") - *Empimpramene* ("Woman On Fire") - *Encheiridion* ("The Dagger") - *Epangellomenos* ("The Man Making Promises") - *Ephesios* ("The Man From Ephesus") - *Epikleros* ("The Heiress") - *Eunouchos* ("The Eunuch") - *Georgos* ("The Farmer") - *Halieis* ("The Fishermen") - *Heauton Timoroumenos* ("Torturing Himself") - *Heniochos* ("The Charioteer") - *Heros* ("The Hero") - *Hiereia* ("The Priestess") - *Hippokomos* ("The Horse-Groom") - *Homopatrioi* ("People Having The Same Father") - *Hydria* ("The Water-Pot") - *Hymnis* ("Hymnis") - *Hypobolimaios* ("The Changeling"), or *Agroikos* ("The Country-Dweller") - *Imbrioi* ("People From [[Imbros]]") - *Kanephoros* ("[[Kanephoros|The Ritual-Basket Bearer]]") - *Karchedonios* ("The [[Carthage|Carthaginian]] Man") - *Karine* ("The Woman From [[Caria]]") - *Katapseudomenos* ("The False Accuser") - *Kekryphalos* ("The Hair-Net") - *Kitharistes* ("The Harp-Player") - *Knidia* ("The Woman From [[Cnidos]]") - *Kolax* ("The Flatterer" or "The Toady") - *Koneiazomenai* ("Women Drinking Hemlock") - *Kybernetai* ("The Helmsmen") - *Leukadia* ("The Woman from [[Lefkada|Leukas]]") - *Lokroi* ("Men From [[Locris]]") - *Menagyrtes* ("The Beggar-Priest of [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]]") - *Methe* ("Drunkenness") - *Misogynes* ("The Woman-Hater") - *Naukleros* ("The Ship's Captain") - *Nomothetes* ("The Lawgiver" or "Legislator") - *Olynthia* ("The Woman From [[Olynthos]]") - *Orge* ("Anger") - *Paidion* ("Little Child") - *Pallake* ("The Concubine") - *Parakatatheke* ("The Deposit") - *Perinthia* ("The Woman from [[Marmara Ereğlisi|Perinthos]]") - *Phanion* ("Phanion") - *Phasma* ("The Phantom, or Apparition") - *Philadelphoi* ("Brotherly-Loving Men") - *Plokion* ("The Necklace") - *Poloumenoi* ("Men Being Sold", or "Men For Sale") - *Proenkalon* ("The Pregnancy") - *Progamoi* ("People About to Get Married") - *Pseudherakles* ("The Fake [[Hercules]]") - *Psophodees* ("Frightened By Noise") - *Rhapizomene* ("Woman Getting Her Face Slapped") - *Storfiappos* ("The Spinner") - *Stratiotai* ("The Soldiers") - *Synaristosai* ("Women Who Eat Together At Noon"; "The Ladies Who Lunch") - *Synepheboi* ("Fellow Adolescents") - *Synerosa* ("Woman In Love") - *Thais* ("[[Thaïs]]") - *Theophoroumene* ("The Girl Possessed by a God") - *Thesaurus* ("The Treasure") - *Thettale* ("The Woman From [[Thessaly]]") - *Thrasyleon* ("Thrasyleon") - *Thyroros* ("The Doorkeeper") - *Titthe* ("The Wet-Nurse") - *Trophonios* ("[[Trophonius]]") - *Xenologos* ("Enlisting Foreign Mercenaries") ## Standard editions The standard edition of the least-well-preserved plays of Menander is Kassel-Austin, *Poetarum Comicorum Graecorum vol. VI.2*. For the better-preserved plays, the standard edition is now Arnott's 3-volume Loeb. A complete text of these plays for the [[Oxford Classical Texts]] series was left unfinished by [[Colin François Lloyd Austin|Colin Austin]] at the time of his death;[^29] the OCT edition of [[Harry Sandbach]], published in 1972 and updated in 1990, remains in print.[^30] ## Further reading - Cox, Cheryl Anne. (2002). "Crossing Boundaries Through Marriage in Menander’s *Dyskolos*." *Classical Quarterly* 52: 391–394. - Csapo, E. (1999). "Performance and Iconographic Tradition in the Illustrations of Menander." *Syllecta Classica* 6: 154–188. - Frost, K. B. (1988). *Exits and Entrances in Menander.* Oxford: Clarendon. - [[Allison Glazebrook|Glazebrook, Allison]]. (2015). "A Hierarchy of Violence? Sex Slaves, Parthenoi, and Rape in Menander's Epitrepontes." *Helios*, 42(1): 81–101. - Goldberg, Sander M. (1980). *The Making of Menander’s Comedy.* Berkeley: Univ. of California Press. - Gutzwiller, Kathryn, and Ömer Çelik. (2012). “New Menander Mosaics from Antioch.” *American Journal of Archaeology* 116:573–623. - Nervegna, Sebastiana. (2013). *Menander in Antiquity: The Contexts of Reception.* Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. - Papaioannou, Sophia and Antonis K. Petrides eds., (2010). *New Perspectives on Postclassical Comedy. Pierides, 2.* Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. - Traill, Ariana. (2008). *Women and the Comic Plot in Menander.* Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press. - Walton, Michael, and Peter D. Arnott. (1996). *Menander and the Making of Comedy.* Westport, CT: Greenwood. ## Notes [^1]: Konstan, David (2010). *Menander of Athens*. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 3–6\. [[ISBN (identifier)|ISBN]] 978-0199805198. [^2]: Suidas μ 589 [^3]: Apollodorus: *Chronicle*, [fr.43](https://www.attalus.org/translate/apollodorus.html#43) [^4]: One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the [[Public domain|public domain]]: Freese, John Henry (1911). "[Menander](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911%20Encyclopædia%20Britannica/Menander%20(dramatist))". In [[Hugh Chisholm|Chisholm, Hugh]] (ed.). *[[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|Encyclopædia Britannica]]*. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 109–110. [^5]: 'A Short History of Comedy', [[Prolegomena de comoedia|Prolegomena De Comoedia]], 3 [^6]: Phaedrus: *Fables*, [5.1](http://www.mythfolklore.net/aesopica/phaedrus/51.htm) [^7]: Alciphron: *Letters*, [2.3–4](http://www.elfinspell.com/Alciphron2.html#79) [^8]: Scholiast on [Ibis.591](https://www.attalus.org/poetry/lives.html#menander5) [^9]: Pausanias, *Description of Greece*, [1.2.2](https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+1.2) [^10]: Gellius: *Noctes Attica*, [17.4](https://www.attalus.org/translate/chronicles.html#244.43) [^11]: Eusebius: *Praeparatio Evangelica*, [Book 10](https://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/eusebius_pe_10_book10.htm), Chapter 3 [^12]: Plutarch: *Moralia*, [853–854](https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Aristophanes_and_Menander*.html) [^13]: Quintilian: *Institutio Oratoria*, [10.1.69](https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Quintilian/Institutio_Oratoria/10A*.html#1.69) [^14]: Suda, [M.589](http://www.stoa.org/sol-bin/search.pl?db=REAL&search_method=QUERY&login=guest&enlogin=guest&user_list=LIST&page_num=1&field=adlerhw_gr&searchstr=mu%2C589) [^15]: [[Jacob Burckhardt]], *[[The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy]]*, 1860. [Paragraph 8 of this subchapter](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The%20Civilization%20of%20the%20Renaissance%20in%20Italy/Part%203), but see print editions (such as Irene Gordon's (Mentor 1960) p. 158) for Burckhadt's footnote speculating on future rediscoveries. [^16]: Menander: *Plays and Fragments*, tr. [[Norma Miller (classicist)|Norma Miller]]. Penguin 1987, p.15 [^17]: [[Alan Sommerstein|Sommerstein, Alan]] (6 December 2012). ["From Mount Sinai to Michigan: the rediscovery of Menander's Epitrepontes (part 4)"](https://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/ancientdrama/2012/12/06/from-mount-sinai-to-michigan-the-rediscovery-of-menanders-epitrepontes-part-4/). *University of Nottingham*. [^18]: [Dieter Harlfinger, *Warten auf Menander im Vatikan. 400 griechische Komödienverse in einer syrischen Palimpsest-Handschrift entdeckt*, in: Forum Classicum, 2004](http://www.forum-classicum.de/archiv104.htm#harlfinger) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20090508043006/http://www.forum-classicum.de/archiv104.htm#harlfinger) 8 May 2009 at the [[Wayback Machine]]. See [here](https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=1515) for an English translation. [^19]: F. D’Aiuto: *Graeca in codici orientali della Biblioteca Vaticana (con i resti di un manoscritto tardoantico delle commedie di Menandro)*, in: *Tra Oriente e Occidente. Scritture e libri greci fra le regioni orientali di Bisanzio e l’Italia*, a cura di Lidia Perria, Rom 2003 (= Testi e studi bizantino-neoellenici XIV), S. 227–296 (esp. 266–283 and plates 13–14) [^20]: Miles, Sarah (2014) 'Menander. C. Austin (ed.) Menander. Eleven Plays. (Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society, Supplementary Volume 37.) Pp. xviii + 84. Cambridge : The Cambridge Philological Society, 2013. Paper, Classical review., 64 (02). pp. 409–411. [^21]: [1 Cor 15:33](https://bible.oremus.org/?passage=1%20Corinthians%2015:33&version=nrsv) [^22]: Socrates Scholasticus, *Ecclesiastical History*, Book 3, Chapter 16 [^23]: [*intertextual.bible/text/menander-thais-218-1-corinthians-15.33*](https://intertextual.bible/text/menander-thais-218-1-corinthians-15.33) [^24]: Perseus Digital Library [Plut. Pomp. 60.2](https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plut.+Pomp.+60.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0123) [^25]: See also Plutarch's *Life of Caesar* 32.8.4 and *Sayings of Kings & Emperors* 206c. [^26]: [Online Dictionary: *alea*](https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3D%231776), *Lewis and Short* at the Perseus Project. See bottom of section I. [^27]: Marcus Aurelius. ["Meditations"](https://web.archive.org/web/20150727073425/http://seinfeld.co/library/meditations.pdf) (PDF). Archived from [the original](http://seinfeld.co/library/meditations.pdf) (PDF) on 27 July 2015. [^28]: Menander, Monosticha – Sententiae, 425 [^29]: ["Colin Austin obituary"](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/sep/06/colin-austin-obituary). *[[The Guardian]]*. 6 September 2010. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20230726120937/https://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/sep/06/colin-austin-obituary) from the original on 26 July 2023. [^30]: [OUP Edition of Menander](http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/academic/series/classicalstudies/oct/9780198147374.do) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20150526010315/http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/academic/series/classicalstudies/oct/9780198147374.do) 26 May 2015 at the [[Wayback Machine]]