plays, like those of Menander, contained many imitations of Euripides, and he was so ardent an admirer of that poet, that he declared he would have hanged himself for the prospect of meeting Euripides in the other world, if he could have convinced himself that the departed spirits were really capable of recognizing one another 1. MENANDER, the son of Diopeithes and Hegesistrata', and the nephew of the comedian Alexis, was born at Athens in B.C. 342', while his father was absent on the Hellespont station. He spent his youth in the house of his uncle, and received from him and from Theophrastus instructions in poetry and philosophy: he may have derived from the latter, in some measure, the knowledge of character for which he was so eminent. In 321 B. C. his first Comedy came out'; it was called 'Opyn. He wrote in the whole 105' or 108 10 comedies, and gained the prize eight times: 115 titles of comedies ascribed to him have come down to us; it is not certain, however, that all these are correctly attributed to him". He died at Athens in the year 291 B. C." According to one account he was drowned while bathing in the harbour of the Peiræus 1. It appears from the encomiums which are heaped upon him ", that he was by far the best writer of the Comedy 18 14 1 Fragm. 40, A. p. 48, Meineke; Anthol. Pal. vol. ii. p. 161. Εἰ ταῖς ἀληθείαισιν οἱ τεθνηκότες Αἴσθησιν εἶχον, ἄνδρες, ὥς φασίν τινες, 2 Suidas, Μένανδρος. 4 Clinton, F. H. ii. p. 143. 3 Suidas, "Αλεξις. 5 Comp. Ulpian and Demosth. p. 54, 3, with Dionys. Dinarch. p. 666. • Proleg. Aristoph. p. xxx. Diogen. Laërt. v. 36. 7 Proleg. Aristoph. p. xxx. Apollod. ap. Aul. Gell. xvii. 4. 8 Euseb. ad Olyn. 114, 4. Κηφισιεὺς ὢν ἐκ Διοπείθεος πατρός, Πρὸς τοῖσιν ἑκατὸν πέντε γράψας δράματα 10 Suidas, γέγραφε κωμῳδίας ρη'. 11 Fabricius, ii. p. 460, 468, Harles. 12 Clinton, F. H. ii. p. 181. 13 A line in the "Ibis," attributed to Ovid, is supposed by some to allude to this (591): Comicus ut mediis periit dum nabat in undis. 14 Quintil. x. 1, 69. Plutarch, tom. ix. p. 387, seqq. Reiske, and Dio Chrysost. xviii. p. 255. of Manners among the Greeks. We have a few specimens of the ingenuity of his plots in some of the plays of Terence, whom Julius Cæsar used to call a demi-Menander'. He was an imitator of Euripides', and we may infer from what Quintilian says of him, that his comedies differed from the tragicomedies of that poet only in the absence of mythical subjects and a chorus. Like Euripides, he was a good rhetorician, and Quintilian is inclined to attribute to him some orations published in the name of Charisius. The every-day life of his countrymen, and manners and characters of ordinary occurrence, were the objects of his imitation. His plots, though skilfully contrived, are somewhat monotonous; there are few of his Comedies which do not bring on the stage a harsh father, a profligate son, and a roguish slave. In his person Menander was foppish and effeminate'. He wrote several prose works. A statue was erected to his memory in the Theatre at Athens". 1 Donatus, Vit. Terentii. 2 See the passages compared by Meineke, Fragm. Com. Gr. vol. iv. p. 705, foll. It is interesting to know that it is still doubtful whether the Senarius quoted by St. Paul in 1 Corinth. xv. 33, was not borrowed by Menander, in his Thais, from some lost play of Euripides. It is quoted in Latin by Tertullian, ad Uxor. i. 8. Quisnam cinædus ille in conspectu meo Prorsus si quis Menandrico fluxu delicatam vestem humi protrahat. Tertullian, c. iv. de Pallio. * Suidas, Μένανδρος. 9 Pausan. i. 21, 1. The date of the birth of DIPHILUS is unknown; it is stated that he exhibited at the same time with Menander'. He was born at Sinope', and died at Smyrna. Of one hundred Comedies, which he is said to have written, the names of fortyeight are preserved. The "Casina" of Plautus is borrowed from his Kλngovμevo; and Terence tells us, that he introduced into the "Adelphi" a literal translation of part of the ZvvaTOθνήσκοντες of Diphilus. It appears from a fragment of Machon, that he wrote prologues to his dramas, which were probably very like the prologues of the Latin Comedians, though they were, we think, originally borrowed (like all the New Comedy) from the tragedies of Euripides. APOLLODORUS, of Gela', is also called a contemporary of Menander. The "Phormio" of Terence is a translation from his 'Edikalóμevos, and the "Hecyra," which is said in the didascalia to have been taken from Menander, was, according to Donatus, also borrowed from this poet. POSIDIPPUS, the son of Cyniscus of Cassandreia, wrote thirty comedies; the titles of fifteen of these are known, and some of them were Latinized like those of the three last men 1 Δίφιλος Σινωπεύς, κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν χρόνον ἐδίδαξε Μενάνδρῳ, τελευτᾷ δὲ ἐν Σμύρνη, δράματα δὲ αὐτοῦ ρ'. Proleg. Arist. p. xxxi. 2 Strabo, xii. p. 546. 3 Fabricus, ii. p. 438. Harles. 4 Clerumena vocatur hæc comœdia Græce; Latine Sortientes. Diphilus Hanc Græce scripsit, post id rursum denuo Prolog. Casinæ, 30-32. 5 Synapothnescontes Diphili comoedia 'st: 6 Athen. xiii. p. 580, ▲. ὁ Δίφιλος, “ νὴ τὴν ̓Αθηνῶν καὶ θεοὺς ψυχρόν γ',” ἔφη, 7 On the two comedies of this name see Clinton, F. H. iii. p. 521–2. tioned poets'. He began to exhibit in 289 B.c. two years after the death of Menander". The Greek Comedy properly ends with Posidippus, but there are some writers of a later date called comedians. RHINTHON, of Tarentum, is called a comedian, by Suidas, but his plays seem to have been rather phlyacographies, or tragi-comedies. He flourished in the reign of Ptolemy. The titles of six of his plays are known'. SOPATER, of Paphos, was a writer of the same kind; and also SOTADES, of Crete, who flourished about the year 280 B.C., and wrote in the Ionic dialect'. MACHO wrote comedies at Alexandria about the year 230 B.C. He was a Corinthian or Sicyonian by birth, and the instructor of Aristophanes of Byzantium. APOLLODORUS, of Carystus, who is confounded with the Apollodorus of Gela mentioned above, was a contemporary of MACHO. He exhibited at Athens. Of twenty-four comedies which are mentioned under the name of Apollodorus, four are ascribed to the earlier poet, six to the latter, and four to both. The remaining ten are quoted under the name Apollodorus without any ethnic distinction". 1 Aul. Gell. ii. 23. 3 Clinton, F. H. iii. p. 486. 5 Athenæus, vi. p. 241. E. F. xiv. 664, a. 2 Suidas, Ποσείδιππος. 4 Ibid. p. 500. 6 Clinton, F. H. iii. p. 521. |