Menander

1. ?160 bc--?120 bc, Greek king of the Punjab. A Buddhist convert, he reigned over much of NW India

2. ?342--?292 bc, Greek comic dramatist. The Dyskolos is his only complete extant comedy but others survive in adaptations by Terence and Plautus

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Menander

Born circa 343 B.C.; died circa 291 B.C. Ancient Greek dramatist; a founder of the Greek New Comedy.

Menander belonged to the well-to-do elite of Athenian society. In his plays he focused on everyday life, especially family conflicts. His humanism is revealed in his defense of women and of children’s rights, his exposure of the seamy side of everyday life, and his sympathy for slaves. The names of Menander’s heroes have become epithets. Classical critics praised him highly as a stylist. The New Greek Comedy influenced Roman drama and, consequently, European drama primarily through Menander’s plays.

WORKS

Menandri quae supersunt, parts 1-2. Edited by A. Koerte and A. Thier-felder. Leipzig, 1957-59.
In Russian translation:
Nenavistnik. Translation and introduction by A. A. Takho-Godi. In the collection Pisatel’ i zhizn’ [Moscow] 1963.
Komedii. Moscow, 1964.

REFERENCES

Tronskii, I. M. Istoriia antichnoi literatury, 3rd ed. Leningrad, 1957.
Istoriia grecheskoi literatury, vol. 3. Edited by S. I. Sobolevskii et al. Moscow, 1960.
Webster, T. B. L. Studies in Menander. Manchester, 1960.
Durham, D. B. The Vocabulary of Menander. Amsterdam, 1969.

V. G. BORUKHOVICH

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References in periodicals archive

Menander, a king of Indo-Greek line, ruled north western India.

Menander's coin

Caption: 10a and b Menander i drachm (2nd century BC) prototype: Obv.

The Sakra Sites and Their Enigmatic Coins

In the bazaars of Lahore as well as the Punjab after Menander the gold coins stamped with the portrait of the next Greek ruler, Philoxenus Anicetus, became common.

HARKING BACK: Amazing story of my grandmother's phooti cowrie

In Menander's comedy Epitrepontes, Pamphile has been abandoned by her husband Charisios.

Loyalty: the missing virtue in classical thought

The primary sources for our study of Phoenicia have traditionally been Josephus and Menander of Ephesus (who quote extinct "Annals of Tyre"), the Old Testament, and the Greek and Roman historians Herodotus, Xenophon, Diodorus Siculus, Arrian, Eusebius of Caesarea, and Philo of Byblos.

Ancient Phoenicia: An Introduction

For instance, guidelines for appropriate conduct in ceremonies occurring in the later Roman and Byzantine periods, as reflected in Menander (c.

Epideictic Rhetoric

The Greek historian Menander tersely proclaimed: The strong take what they can, the weak must give what they must.

War and diplomacy

Some of the portraits on view are of known individuals, such as the comic playwright Menander, while the identities of others are now lost to time.

Hixenbaugh Ancient Art Presents the Face of Antiquity