MENANDER (342291 B.C.)

This article appears in Volume V18, Page 110 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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MENANDER (342291 B.C.) , Greek dramatist, the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

representative of the New comedy, was born at Athens. He 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 De Chersoneso. He doubtless derived his taste for the comic drama from his uncle Alexis (q.v.). He was the friend and associate, if not the pupil, of Theophrastus, and was on intimate terms with Demetrius of Phalerum. He also enjoyed the patronage of

Ptolemy

PTOLEMY (CLAUDIUS PTOLEMAEUS)

Soter

SOTER

, the son of Lagus, who invited him to his court. But Menander, preferring independence and the company of his mistress Glycera in his villa in the Peiraeus, refused. According to the note of a scholiast on the Ibis of Ovid, he was drowned while bathing; his countrymen built him a tomb or the road leading to Athens, where it was seen by Pausanias. A well-known statue in the Vatican, formerly thought to represent Marius, is now generally supposed to be Menander (although some distinguished archaeologists dispute this), and has been identified with his statue in the theatre at Athens, also mentioned by Pausanias.
Menander was the author of more than a hundred comedies, but only gained the prize eight times. His rival in dramatic art and also in the affections of Glycera was Philemon (q.v.), who appears to have been more popular. Menander, however, believed himself to be the better dramatist, and, according to Aulus Gellius, used to ask Philemon: " Don't you feel ashamed whenever you gain a victory over me? " According to Caecilius of Calacte (

Porphyry

PORPHYRY (IlopcPisptos) (A.D. 233-c. 304)

in Eusebius, Praep. evan. x. 3, 13) he was guilty of plagiarism, his AecacSaL uov being taken bodily from the Otwvearis of Antiphanes. But, although he attained only moderate success during his lifetime, he subsequently became the favourite writer of antiquity. Copies of his plays were known to Suidas and Eustathius (loth and 11th centuries), and twenty-three of them, with commentary by Psellus, were said to have been in existence at Constantinople in the 16th century. He is praised by Plutarch (Comparison of Menander and Aristophanes) and Quintilian (Instil. x. 1. 69), who accepted the tradition that he was the author of the speeches published under the name of the Attic orator Charisius. A great admirer and imitator of Euripides, he resembles him in his keen observation of practical life, his analysis of the emotions, and his fondness for moral maxims, many of which have become proverbial: " The property of friends is common," " Whom the gods love die young," " Evil communications corrupt good manners " (from the Thais, quoted in ' Cor. xv. 33). These maxims (chiefly monostichs) were afterwards collected, and, with additions from other sources, were edited as Mev6,vbpov yvWac FcovbariXoc, a kind of moral textbook for the use of schools.
Menander found many Roman imitators. The Eunuchus, Andria, Heautontimorumenos and Adelphi of Terence (called by Caesar " dimidiatus Menander ") were avowedly taken from Menander, but some of them appear to be adaptations and combi- - ,nations of more than one play; thus, in the Andria were combined Menander's 'Avtpia and llepu'OLa, in the Eunuchus the EbvoirXos and K6XaE, while the Adelphi was compiled partly from Menander and partly from Diphilus. The

original

ORIGINAL

of Terence's Hecyra (as of the Phormio) is generally supposed to be, not Menander, but Apollodorus of Carystus. The Bacchides and Stichus of Plautus were probably based upon Menander's Dis'Etanarwv and cftMbeXcoc, but the Poenulus, does not seem to be from the KapXribbvcos, nor the Mostellaria from the 'I o sa, in spite of the similarity of titles. Caecilius Statius, Luscius Lavinius, Turpilius and Atilius also imitated Menander. He was further credited with the authorship of some epigrams of doubtful
authenticity; the letters addressed to

Ptolemy

PTOLEMY (CLAUDIUS PTOLEMAEUS)

Soter

SOTER

and the discourses in prose on various subjects mentioned by Suidas are probably spurious.
Till the end of the 19th century, all that was known of Menander were the fragments collected by A. Meineke (1855) and T. Kock, Comicorum atticorum fragmenta, iii. (1888). They consist of some 165o verses or parts of verses, in addition to a considerable number of words quoted expressly as from Menander by the old lexicographers. From 1897 to 1907 papyri were discovered in different parts of Egypt, containing fragments of considerable length, amounting to some 1400 lines. In 1897, about eighty lines of the rEwpy6s; in 1899, fifty lines of the IIEpiKeLpOOPn; in 1903, one hundred lines (half in a very mutilated condition) from the Kbaa ; in 1906, two hundred lines from the middle of the HEpu sipop. v, , the part previously discovered containing the denouement; five hundred lines from the 'Eiirpi rovri, generally well preserved; sixty-three lines (the prologue,

list

of characters, and the first scene), from the "Hews; three hundred and forty lines from the Eata (the identification of the two last plays is not considered absolutely certain); and twenty lines from an unknown comedy. Subsequently, part of a third copy of the HEpucsipop. vat was found in Egypt, some one hundred and forty lines, half of which were already known, while the remainder were new (Abhandlungen der konigl.-sachsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften,

Leipzig

LEIPZIG

), 1908.
It is doubtful whether these fragments, which are of sufficient length to afford a basis for the consideration of the merits of Menander as a writer of comedies, justify the great reputation enjoyed by him in ancient times. With the exception of a scene in the 'EaLrpeaovrsc, which would appeal to the litigious Athenians, they contain little that is witty or humorous; there is little variety in the characters, the situations are conventional, and the plots, not of a highly edifying character, are lacking in originality. Menander's

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

excellences seem to be facility of language, accurate portrayal of manners, and naturalness of the sentiments which he puts into the mouth of his dramatis personae. It is remarkable that the maxims, which form the chief part of the earlier collections of fragments, are few in the later.
On Menander generally see monographs by C. Benoit (1854) and G. Guizot (1855) ; J. Geffcken, Studia zu Menander (1898) ; H. Lake, Menander and seine Kunst (1892); J. Denis, La Comedie grecque' (1886), vol. ii. ; H. Weil, Etudes sur l'antiquite grecque (1900). Editions of the fragments: rswpy6s, by J.

Nicole

NICOLE, PIERRE (1625–1695)

, with translation and 'notes . (1898) and by B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt, with revised text and
translation (1898) ; the "Hpws, 'EFLrpi rovrsS, HEpLKELpoJ iv ], Eata,
by G. Lefebvre and M. Croiset, with introduction, notes and translation (Cairo, 1907); J. van Leeuwen, with Latin notes (2nd ed., 1908) ; L. Bodin and P. Mazon, Extraits de Menandre (Samia and Epilreponies, 19o8); E. Croiset, L'Arbitrage, critical ed. and translation (1908); C. Robert, Der new Menander (text reconstructed, 19o8); Wilamowitz-Miillendorff, " Der Menander von Kairo" in Neue Jahrbiicher fiir das klassische Altertum (1908), pp. 3462; German trans. by Robert, Szenen aus Menander (1908); English by Unus Multorum (1909). See also Wilamowitz-Mollendorff, " Der Landmann des Menandros " in Neue Jahrbitoher (1899), p. 513 ; C. Dziatzko, "Der Inhalt des Georgos von Menander," in Rhein. Mus. liv. 497, Iv. 104; F. Leo, Der Neue Menander " in Hermes, xliii. 120; E. Capps, " The Plot of Menander's Epitrepontes " in Amer. Journ. of Philology (1908), p. 41o; A. Kretschmar, De Menandri reliquiis nu per repertis (1906); F. G. Kenyon in ?Sept. arterly Review (April, 19o8); The Times Literary Supplement (20, 1907);

Athenaeum

ATHENAEUM

(Oct. 23,1897 ; Aug. 1, 1908; Oct.24, 1908) ; and

list

of articles in

periodicals

PERIODICALS

in Van Leeuwen's
edition. (J. H. F.)

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