Editing Menander (section)

==Life and work==

[[File:Relief with Menander and New Comedy Masks - Princeton Art Museum.jpg|thumb|Roman, [[Roman Republic|Republican]] or [[Roman Empire|Early Imperial]], ''Relief of a seated poet (Menander) with masks of New Comedy'', 1st century BC – early 1st century AD, [[Princeton University Art Museum]]]]

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]] ''De Chersoneso''. He presumably derived his taste for comic drama from his uncle [[Alexis (poet)|Alexis]].<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911 |wstitle=Menander (dramatist) |display=Menander |volume=18 |page=109–110 |first=John Henry |last=Freese |inline=1}}</ref><ref>'A Short History of Comedy', [http://www.attalus.org/poetry/lives.html#menander1][[Prolegomena de comoedia|Prolegomena De Comoedia]]<span>, 3</span></ref>

He was the friend, associate, and perhaps pupil of [[Theophrastus]], and was on intimate terms with the Athenian dictator [[Demetrius Phalereus|Demetrius of Phalerum]].<ref>Phaedrus: ''Fables'', [http://www.mythfolklore.net/aesopica/phaedrus/51.htm 5.1]</ref> 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.<ref>Alciphron: ''Letters'', [http://www.elfinspell.com/Alciphron2.html#79 2.3–4]</ref> According to the note of a scholiast on the ''Ibis'' of [[Ovid]], he drowned while bathing,<ref>Scholiast on [http://www.attalus.org/poetry/lives.html#menander5 Ibis.591]</ref> and his countrymen honored him with a tomb on the road leading to Athens, where it was seen by [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]].<ref>Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+1.2 1.2.2]</ref> Numerous supposed busts of him survive, including a well-known statue in the [[Vatican City|Vatican]], formerly thought to represent [[Gaius Marius]].<ref name=EB1911/>

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]],<ref>Gellius: ''Noctes Attica'', [http://www.attalus.org/translate/chronicles.html#244.43 17.4]</ref> 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]]''<ref>Eusebius: ''Praeparatio Evangelica'', [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/eusebius_pe_10_book10.htm Book 10], Chapter 3</ref>) Menander was accused of [[plagiarism]], as his ''The Superstitious Man'' was taken from ''The Augur'' of [[Antiphanes (comic poet)|Antiphanes]],<ref name=EB1911/> 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'')<ref>Plutarch: ''Moralia'', [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Aristophanes_and_Menander*.html 853–854]</ref> 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]].<ref>Quintilian: ''Institutio Oratoria'', [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Quintilian/Institutio_Oratoria/10A*.html#1.69 10.1.69]</ref>

[[File:Menander fresco Pompeii Italy.jpg|thumb|[[Roman portraiture|Seated portrait]] of Menander, [[Roman art|Roman fresco]] from the [[Casa del Menandro]] in [[Pompeii]]]]
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.<ref name=EB1911/>

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.{{citation needed|reason=According to whom?|date=August 2018}}

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''<ref>Suda, [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 M.589]</ref> are probably spurious.<ref name=EB1911/>