Philemon And Menander: A New Greek Comedy

New Greek Comedy was and will be remembered as the well known and influential form of theatrical performances across ancient Greece in in early 3rd to mid 2nd century BCE. New Greek Comedy came about after the death of Alexander the Great in 323, until around 260 BC, when the reign of the Macedonian rulers in Greece became in effect. It offers a mildly satiric view of contemporary Athenian society, especially in its familiar and domestic aspects. Unlike Old Comedy, which parodied public figures and events, New Comedy showcased countless average fictitious civilian that have no supernatural or heroic implications.

There were many famous playwrights of this genre, such as Philemon, and Diphilus. Philemon and Diphilus who also had many other important factors that helped New Greek Comedy become such an influential component to comedy. Philemon was a comedian that plotted his comedies around the philosophical issues going on around him. While Diphilus was the type of comedian whose comedies were known for broad

humor and farcical violence.Throughout time most of Philemon's comedies have come down to today’s people in fragments but Diphilus' comedies were translated and adapted by Plautus. But, none could compare to one one who’s the most memorable and revolutionary at that time which was Menander.
Menander was born in 342 BCE, he is son of Diopeithes, an Athenian general and governor of Thracian Chersonese. Many of his works, such as Dyskolos, tended to poked fun at philosophers, politicians, and fellow artists. New Greek Theatre started to came about when new playwrights such as Menander begun to evolve into Greek Theatre. Once Menander began to gain popularity, his plays helped turn Greek Theatre into something much more than it once was. Due to his great success and revolutionary writing styles, Menander was the most successful comedian of this time period.
Menander’s comedies help and allow audience a brief hiatus from reality, not only that they also gave them an accurate but not too detailed depiction of life as it appeared to humans during this time. By basing plays with the true realism, Meander’s new comedies plays begun to led many critics of early western civilization to ask if life influenced Menander in the writing of his plays or if it was contrariwise. Menander's comedies had a tendency to be more about the fears and foibles of the ordinary man, his personal relationships, family life and social mishaps rather than politics and public life. They were supremely civilized and sophisticated plays which were less farcical and satirical than the plays before them. This sophistication was what made him more successful than the other Greek comedians who wrote in the same genre.
During Menander’s span of life, his success was very limited; although he wrote more than 100 plays, he won only a few victories at Athenian dramatic festivals.

Menander’s plays were held to the same standards of literary works of western Europe for over 800 years after his death, but tragically at some point his manuscript plays and poems were both lost and/or destroyed, until the end of the 19th Century, all the information that was known of Menander were fragments quoted by other authors who pieced facts together. It is rumored that Menander's work were in the Library of Alexandria at the time during the infamous burning of the library during Caesar's Civil War. Julius Caesar was surrounded at Alexandria in 48 BCE. Many ancient sources describe in detail Caesar setting his own on fire ships and it was stated that the fire that Caesar started spread to all throughout the library, destroying it. Dyskolos, Menander’s only play survived in almost in

entirety.
During this time comedy abandoned public affairs and began to concentrate more on fictitious characters from regular everyday life; the chorus role in the production was to perform in the interludes between acts to give information to the audience on what is going on behind closed doors. Masks worn by the Actor's were maintained but were complex to provide to the audience for the wider range of characters required by a comedy of manners and helped the audience, due this time playbills weren’t available for patrons recognize these characters for what they were.
Menander’s plays during his life span wrote in the same language of the Greek-speaking world that was around him, his plays presented various characters such as the forbidding father's, youthful lovers, greedy nobles, riveting slaves, and others. During these performances, many of the actors wore masks to distinguish themselves as different characters within the play because most of these theatrical performers doubled up as members of the chorus and leading characters. The use of masks in ancient Greek theater was to draw their origin from the ancient Dionysian cult. In Ancient Greek, mask’s or the term for it in Greek prosopon.“The proposons or persona was the character which the actor assumed. In modern naturalistic theatre, actor and roles to some degree merge as the actor finds the role points of connexion his or her own experience.” (Wiles p.71).