Menanders Old CantankerousPeriod, Playwright, Play
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Period: Hellenistic Age (326-31 BCE)Rise of Macedonia
[map]Decline of democracyEmergence of philosophyAristotle (384-322
BCE)Theophrastus (ca. 370-288/5 BCE)Stoics, Epicureans, etc. (200s
on)
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Alexanders Empire
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Playwright: Menander (342/1-293/89)Well-to-dostudent of
Theophrastuspro-Macedonian105 plays8 victories
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, O Menander and Life: Which of you has imitated the other?
(Aristophanes of Byzantium)
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Play: Setting, StorySetting3 houses [diagram]Phyle (rural Attica
- [map])Storya boy, a girl, a grouch [the families]
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Stage Setskene (stage building)doorsShrine of Pan and the
NymphsGorgias houseKnemons house
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Extent of Macedonian ConquestsSetting: Phyle, Athenian
countryside
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The FamiliesKnemons HouseholdKnemon"Girl"SimicheGorgias
HouseholdGorgiasMyrrhineDaosKallipides HouseholdKallipidesMother of
SostratosSostratosGetas, slave of
KallipidesOtherChaireasPyrrhiasSikonPan
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Characters: Your ThoughtsKnemonSostratosGorgiasSlaves and low
characters
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Old Cantankerous as New Comedy like / unlike Aristophanes?
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Old versus New ComedyOld
(486-380s)politicalvulgarity-obscenity-sexuallook at all the
wackinessparody/abuse of real personsfantasyNew (330s-200s
)a-politicalfairly tame reliant on plot no personal abuse
realism
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Euripidean Influencesdouble
recognition-reversalPentheusAgavepoetic justicesituational,
suspenseful
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Slave tells lovers the bad news
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Old Woman (figurine, ca. 300 BCE)
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Menander The Possessed Girl
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Philainis (elderly madam)Plangon (Philainis daughter)Pythias
(prostitute, friend)Menander Women at Breakfast
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New Comedy - FormulaDilemmalove thwartedextremes
unmediatedsocial-familial ties weakenedSolutionoften by low
characterCelebrationkomos
CourseClosing Thoughts
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DionysusAriadneKomosTragoidiaWine-Mixing Bowl (krater), ca. 430
BCE
remind you of anything?remind you of anything else??CLA77,
Andrew ScholtzCLA77, Andrew ScholtzCLA77, Andrew ScholtzRise of
MacedoniaDecline of democracy323 death of Alexander322 Macedonian
garrison at Athens, modified constitution (property qualification),
deaths of anti-Macedonian democratsDemetrius of Phaleron, tyrant
governor 318-307PeripateticAristotleTheophrastusfriend of
Menanderoff/on autonomy, off/on democratic revivalsloss of
powermaintenance of prestigeEmergence of philosophyAristotle
(384-322 BCE)Theophrastus (ca. 370-288/5 BCE)influential over
political changes, Demetrius of Phaleron, at AthensStoics,
Epicureans, etc. (200s on)CLA77, Andrew ScholtzCLA77, Andrew
ScholtzCLA77, Andrew ScholtzCLA77, Andrew ScholtzCLA77, Andrew
ScholtzCLA77, Andrew ScholtzHousehold of KnemonKnemon, an old,
grouchy farmer whose wife has left him"Girl" (no name given),
Knemon's daughter, as sweet as he is sourSimiche, Knemon's elderly
female slaveHousehold of GorgiasGorgias, farmer; step-son and
neighbor of Knemon (the "Girl" is his 1/2 sister)Myrrhine
(non-speaking character), mother Gorgias and the "Girl," and
Knemon's estranged wifeDaos, Gorgias' male slaveHousehold of
KallipidesKallipides, father of SostratosMother of Sostratos
(unnamed), she has dreamed that Pan wants to "put fetters" on her
son .... So she seeks to propitiate Pan (i.e., to win his favor) by
sacrificing to him and holding a feastSostratos, in love with
"Girl," and friend of ChaireasGetas, slave of
KallipidesOtherChaireas, friend of SostratosPyrrhias, Chaireas'
slaveSikon, the cookPan, god of the countryside, and speaker of the
prologueprologuepan sets story upact 1chaireas sostratos pyrrhias
(go-betweening). sostratos knemon. sostratos girl (and a jug)
daosact 2gorgias daos (on sostr.). sostr gorg (come to
understanding). sikon getas (moms dream etc.)act 3knemon (wants to
go to work), sostrs mom, getas sikon (door business). sostr getas.
getas simiche knemon (sims dropped hoe down well)act 4simiche sikon
(knemon down well). sostr gorg knemon (post-rescue, introductions,
mild deception, partial softening - sociality over
class-consciousness). kallipides sostr gorgact 5sostr kall (kall
must resist betrothal of daugter to gorg for symmetrys sake. kall
is a bit of a miser, sort of knemon-like. sostr: a real friend is
much better than secret wealth everyone has to prove moral worth to
overcome wealth disparity. but knemon still wont party. simiches
dire prophecy). sikon and getas punish kn (reprise of door bit,
while old mans asleep outside. pretend to want stuff, then make kn
dance - forced sociality, compare bacchae. garlands, torch,
celebrating).CLA77, Andrew ScholtzCLA77, Andrew ScholtzCLA77,
Andrew ScholtzComedy of Mannersi.e., social comedyCLA77, Andrew
ScholtzCLA77, Andrew ScholtzCLA77, Andrew ScholtzCLA77, Andrew
ScholtzCLA77, Andrew ScholtzCLA77, Andrew ScholtzCLA77, Andrew
ScholtzCLA77, Andrew ScholtzCLA77, Andrew Scholtzdichotomiescountry
cityanti-sociality socialityforce persuasionuptight characters
(farmers young and old) versus lax characters (young city
men)quasi-tragic dialecticbut not synthesis-dike anymore, but
aristotlian mediation of extremesvirtue (arete) as moderation in
all thingsethical rather than political and/or moral focusCLA77,
Andrew ScholtzCLA77, Andrew ScholtzHubristic seeingEur. Bacch. p.
108D to P: Come on out, you perverted man, so passionate for what
is not for sight and acts that are not right compare voyeuristic
eros of audience, only Purification plus communal
initiationAristotle Poetics sect.A tragedy, then, is the imitation
with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its
catharsis of such emotionscf. purification of the
viewing-performing area in preparation for performanceGorgias
fragment 23Tragedy is a form of deception in which the deceiver is
more righteous than the non-deceiver, and the deceived wiser than
the undeceivedThuc. 2.22.4 if it be judged useful by those
inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to
the interpretation of the future, which in the course of human
things must resemble if it does not reflect it, I shall be content.
In fine, I have written my work, not as an essay which is to win
the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all
timeAristotle Poetics 9The distinction between historian really in
this: that the one describes things that have actually happened,
and the other a kind the sorts of things that might happen. Hence
poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than
history, since its statements relate to things of universal import,
whereas those of history relate to particularsCLA77, Andrew
Scholtz
