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Story Idea …

Story Idea …. Boy Meets Girl … Fall in Love … Marry …. Menander, Old Cantankerous. The Mirror of Comedy. Menander. Theater at Epidaurus. Menander’s Old Cantankerous. Period, Playwright, Play. Period: Hellenistic Age (326-31 BCE). Rise of Macedonia [map] Decline of democracy

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Story Idea …

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  1. Story Idea … Boy Meets Girl … Fall in Love … Marry …

  2. Menander, Old Cantankerous The Mirror of Comedy Menander Theater at Epidaurus

  3. Menander’s Old Cantankerous Period, Playwright, Play

  4. Period: Hellenistic Age (326-31 BCE) • Rise of Macedonia [map] • Decline of democracy • Emergence of philosophy • Aristotle (384-322 BCE) • Theophrastus (ca. 370-288/5 BCE) • Stoics, Epicureans, etc. (200s on)

  5. Playwright: Menander (342/1-293/89) • Well-to-do • student of Theophrastus • pro-Macedonian • 105 plays • 8 victories

  6. Ὦ Μένανδρε καὶ βίε, πότερος ἄρ᾽ ὑμῶν πότερον ἐμιμήσατο; “O Menander and Life: Which of you has imitated the other?”(Aristophanes of Byzantium)

  7. Play: Setting, Story • Setting • 3 houses [diagram] • Phyle (rural Attica - [map]) • Story • a boy, a girl, a grouch [the families]

  8. Characters: Your Thoughts • Knemon • Sostratos • Gorgias • Slaves and “low” characters

  9. Old Cantankerous as“New Comedy” … like / unlike Aristophanes?

  10. Old (486-380s) political vulgarity-obscenity-sexual “look at all the wackiness” parody/abuse of real persons fantasy New (330s-200s ) a-political fairly tame reliant on plot no personal abuse realism “Old” versus “New” Comedy

  11. Euripidean Influences • double recognition-reversal • Pentheus • Agave • “poetic justice” • situational, suspenseful

  12. Slave tells lovers the bad news …

  13. Old Woman(figurine, ca. 300 BCE)

  14. Menander The Possessed Girl

  15. Plangon (Philainis’ “daughter”) Philainis (elderly madam) Pythias(prostitute, friend) Menander Women at Breakfast

  16. New Comedy - Formula • Dilemma • love thwarted • extremes unmediated • social-familial ties weakened • Solution • often by “low” character • Celebration • komos

  17. Themes and Message The Golden Mean …

  18. Cantankerous: Themes, Message • basing marriage on love and material considerations • sociality • persevere ands work hard!! • let loose, enjoy, don’t work so hard

  19. mēden agan“Nothing to Excess”

  20. Course Closing Thoughts

  21. Ariadne Dionysus Komos Tragoidia Wine-Mixing Bowl(krater), ca. 430 BCE

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