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
It costs a man only a little exertion to bring misfortune on himself.
—Menander
Man must be prepared for every event of life, for there is nothing that is durable.
—Menander
Topics: Events, Change
Sleep is a healing balm for every ill.
—Menander
Topics: Health
The person who has the will to undergo all labor may win any goal.
—Menander
Topics: Goals
No just person ever became quickly rich.
—Menander
Topics: Wealth
In many things it is not well to say, “Know thyself” it is better to say, “Know others.”
—Menander
Topics: Knowledge
He who labors diligently need never despair; for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor.
—Menander
Topics: Persistence, Action, Perseverance
Health and intellect are two blessings of life.
—Menander
Topics: Health
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