Menander: Samia (The Woman from Samos)

The first edition for half a century of any play of Menander designed for English-speaking students reading it in Greek.

Menander (Author), Alan H. Sommerstein (Edited by)

9780521735421, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 9 January 2014

376 pages
21.5 x 13.7 x 1.9 cm, 0.47 kg

'… extremely valuable to scholars and students alike: it will enable instruction of Samia, enliven that of Menander, and contribute to the flowering study of New Comedy.' Alexandra Daly, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

For eight centuries after his death Menander was the third most popular poet in the Greek-speaking world, and his plays, through Roman imitations and adaptations, engendered a tradition of European light drama that extends to our own day. But it is only since 1844 that some of the actual texts of Menander's plays have been rediscovered, mostly in Egyptian papyri. Two of these have given us four-fifths of the script of Samia (The Woman from Samos), a play of deception and misunderstanding in which a marriage that everyone desires almost fails to happen, two women and a baby are almost ruined, and a loving father almost loses his only son, because the people at home and the people abroad have both been doing things behind each other's backs - but somehow everything ends happily after all. This is the first full-scale edition with English commentary and is suitable for upper-level students.

Introduction
Samia
Commentary.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], Literary studies: plays & playwrights [DSG], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Theatre studies [AN]