Menander of Athens

"In ancient times Menander (341-290 BC) was the most admired and the most quoted of the writers of Attic New Comedy. He wrote over a hundred plays but until this century 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, of his plays and in 1958 the papyrus text of a whole play was published, The Bad-tempered Man. His plays are romantic comedies, dealing with the life of ordinary Athenian families, the direct ancestors not only of Roman comedy but also of English comedy from Sheridan to Ayckbourn. This new verse translation with explanatory notes and introduction follows the text of Menander closely but attempts to fill some of the gaps by supplements based on the dramatic situation and surviving words in the damaged papyri, so that the reader has, as far as possible, a consecutive text."--Jacket.

reissue of Murray's 1948 translation

These comedies by Menander reveal that the oft-employed theme of mistaken identity is as old as the Great Dionysia. Teachers and students will find that this edition remains loyal to the Greek originals without confining itself to the literalism that has made many previous translations unusable in the classroom and inaccessible to general readers. These translations promise to become the standard for decades to come, introducing readers to the timelessness of the human experience brilliantly depicted in classical Greek drama.

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.