Menander (c.343–c.291 BCE) was a Greek comic dramatist and poet celebrated for his realistic portrayal of situations and characters. Ancient critics considered him the utmost poet of Greek New Comedy, the ultimate flourishing of Athenian stage comedy.
During his life, Menander’s success was limited—although he wrote more than 100 plays, of which only Curmudgeon survives entirely, Menander accomplished only eight wins at Athenian dramatic festivals. His comedies were more successful with cultivated than with popular audiences, but the rhetorician Quintilian admired him, and the playwright Terence emulated him meticulously.
Facts of Menander’s life are scarce. Born in Athens, he was supposedly prosperous and of good family, and a pupil of the philosopher Theophrastus, a disciple of Aristotle. He possibly spent most of his life in Athens and is said to have refused invitations to Macedonia and Egypt. He allegedly drowned while swimming at Piraeus, the port of Athens.
In 321 BCE, Menander produced his first play, Orgē (“Anger.”) In 316 BCE, he won a prize at a festival with the Dyscolus and gained his first victory at the Dionysia festival the next year. By 301, Menander had written more than 70 plays.
Only a few fragments of his work were known until 1906 when the French Egyptologist Gustave Lefebvre discovered in Egypt a papyrus containing 1,328 lines from four different plays. In 1957, however, the complete text of the comedy Dyscolus (Eng trans. 1960) was brought to light in Geneva.
Menander’s works were much adapted by the Roman writers Plautus and Terence, and, through them, Menander influenced the development of European comedy from the Renaissance on.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Menander
A man in good health is always full of advice to the sick.
—Menander
Topics: Health
He that lends an easy and credulous ear to calumny, is either a man of very ill morals, or he has no more sense and understanding than a child.
—Menander
No just person ever became quickly rich.
—Menander
Topics: Wealth
Never ask the Gods for life set free from grief, but ask for courage that endureth long.
—Menander
Topics: Bravery, Courage
Man must be prepared for every event of life, for there is nothing that is durable.
—Menander
Topics: Change, Events
To live is not to live for one’s self alone; let us help one another.
—Menander
Even God lends a hand to honest boldness.
—Menander
Topics: Self-reliance
Fortune is no real thing.
But men who cannot bear what comes to them
In Nature’s way, give their own characters
The name of Fortune.
—Menander
Topics: Fame
He who labors diligently need never despair; for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor.
—Menander
Topics: Perseverance, Persistence, Action
Know thyself is a good saying, but not in all situations. In many it is better to say “Know others.”
—Menander
Topics: Knowledge
Sleep is a healing balm for every ill.
—Menander
Topics: Health
It costs a man only a little exertion to bring misfortune on himself.
—Menander
Topics: Misfortune
We live, not as we wish to, but as we can.
—Menander
Topics: Life and Living
Nothing is more useful than silence.
—Menander
Topics: Silence
The man who cannot blush, and who has no feelings of fear, has reached the acme of impudence.
—Menander
Men are taught virtue and a love of independence, by living in the country.
—Menander
Topics: Country
The person who has the will to undergo all labor may win any goal.
—Menander
Topics: Goals
In many things it is not well to say, “Know thyself” it is better to say, “Know others.”
—Menander
Topics: Knowledge
I am a man: nothing human is foreign to me.
—Menander
Topics: Humanity
Whom the gods love die young.
—Menander
A joke without a point, inane and bald, itself a joke on joking may be called
—Menander
Topics: Jokes
Health and intellect are two blessings of life.
—Menander
Topics: Health
It must be that evil communications corrupt good dispositions.
—Menander
Topics: Evil, Associates, Communication
Know thyself means this, that you get acquainted with what you know, and what you can do.
—Menander
Topics: Knowledge
Whoever blushes seems to be good.
—Menander
Do not fight against Providence; nor bring more heavy weather to the storm. Face what is already there.
—Menander
Topics: Determination
The school of hard knocks is an accelerated curriculum.
—Menander
Topics: Experience
Never ask the Gods for life set free from grief, but ask for courage that endureth long.
—Menander
Topics: Courage, Bravery
Nay, Georias, I call him the bravest man,
Who knows to suffer the most injuries
With patience. All this swiftness of resentment
Is proof of a little mind.
—Menander
He that is conscious of crime, however bold by nature, becomes a coward.
—Menander
Topics: Conscience
He whom the gods love, dies young.
—Menander
Topics: Death
A daughter is an embarrassing and ticklish possession.
—Menander
Man must be prepared for every event of life, for there is nothing that is durable.
—Menander
Topics: Events, Change
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