Classical Drama and Theatre

©Damen, 2021

The reason his plays were not copied through a manuscript tradition the way Aristophanes and the classical tragedians were is that Menander as a comic poet naturally employs the type of Greek spoken in his day, the early Hellenistic Age. But because this sort of Greek was later seen as secondary to fifth-century Greek—what Euripides and their peers spoke and wrote—Menander was not included among the canon of standard literary works used in the instruction and study of ancient Greek during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Therefore, not because his drama was considered inferior in quality or reputation, Menander's works were not handed down through the same channels which brought us the texts of the other ancient playwrights.

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