Menander

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Menander bigraphy, stories - Art - Other

Menander : biography

342 BC –

Menander ( Menandros; c. 341/42– c. 290 BC) was a Greek dramatist and the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy. He was the author of more than a hundred comedies, and took the prize at the Lenaia festival eight times.Apollodorus: Chronicle, His record at the City Dionysia is unknown but may well have been similarly spectacular.

One of the most popular writers of antiquity, his work was lost in the Middle Ages and is known in modernity in highly fragmentary form, much of which was discovered in the 20th century. Only one play, Dyskolos, has survived almost entirely.

Famous quotations

The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:33 quotes Menander in the text "Bad company corrupts good character" (NIV) who probably derived this from Euripides (Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, 3.16).

"He who labors diligently need never despair, for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor." — Menander

"The die has been cast," in Latin "Alea iacta est", was famously quoted by Julius Caesar upon committing his army to civil war by crossing the River Rubicon.Alea iacta est The popular form “the die is cast” is from the Latin iacta alea est, a mistranslation by Suetonius, 121 CE. According to Plutarch, the actual phrase used by Julius Caesar at the crossing of the Rubicon was a quote in Greek from Menander’s play Arrhephoros, with the different meaning "Let the die be cast!".Perseus Digital Library

Lewis and Short,, Lewis and Short at the Perseus Project. See bottom of section I. 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 aorist imperative (‘).

Comedies

More complete plays

  • Aspis ("The Shield"; about half)
  • Dyskolos ("The Grouch" or "Old Cantankerous"; the best preserved play)
  • Epitrepontes ("Men at Arbitration"; most)
  • Perikeiromene ("Girl who has her hair cropped"; George Bernard Shaw suggested Rape of the Locks, after Alexander Pope; about half)
  • Samia ("Girl from Samos"; four out of five sections)
  • Sikyonioi or Sikyonios ("Sicyonian(s)"; about half)

Only fragments available

  • Adelphoi ("The Brothers")
  • Anatithemene, or Messenia ("The Woman From Messene")
  • Andria ("The Woman From Andros")
  • Androgynos ("Hermaphrodite"), or Kres ("The Cretan")
  • Anepsioi ("Cousins")
  • Aphrodisia ("The Erotic Arts"), or Aphrodisios
  • Apistos ("Unfaithful", or "Unbelieving")
  • Arrhephoros, or Auletris ("The Female Flute-Player")
  • Auton Penthon ("Grieving For Him")
  • Boiotis ("The Woman From Boeotia")
  • Chalkeia (or Chalkis)
  • Chera ("The Widow")
  • Daktylios ("The Ring")
  • Dardanos ("Dardanus")
  • Deisidaimon ("The Superstitious Man")
  • Demiourgos ("The Demiurge")
  • Didymai ("Twin Sisters")
  • Dis Exapaton ("Double Deceiver")
  • Empimpramene ("Woman On Fire")
  • Encheiridion ("Handbook")
  • 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 ("The Ritual-Basket Bearer")
  • Karchedonios ("The 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 Girl from Leukas")
  • Lokroi ("Men From Locris")
  • Menagyrtes ("Beggar-Priest of Rhea")
  • Methe ("Drunkenness")
  • Misogynes ("The Woman-Hater")
  • Misoumenos ("The Hated Man")
  • 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 Perinthos")
  • Phanion ("Phanion")
  • Phasma ("The Phantom, or Apparition")
  • Philadelphoi ("Brotherly-Loving Men")
  • Plokion ("The Necklace")
  • Poloumenoi ("Men Being Sold", or "Men For Sale")
  • Proenkalon
  • Progamoi ("People About to Get Married")
  • Pseudherakles ("The Fake Hercules")
  • Psophodees ("Frightened By Noise")
  • Rhapizomene ("Woman Getting Her Face Slapped")
  • Stratiotai ("The Soldiers")
  • Synaristosai ("Women Who Eat Together At Noon"; "The Ladies Who Lunch")
  • Synepheboi ("Fellow Adolescents")
  • Synerosa ("Woman In Love")
  • Thais ("Thais")
  • 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")