New Comedy
New Comedy
This genre is essentially a comedy of manners. That means it is a look at the private affairs of the leisure-class Greeks, mainly lovers. The plays always have a happy ending after five acts of difficulties. Both the characters and the plot are more realistic, although the characters are stock types. The major stock characters are: the parasite, courtesan, loyal slave, knavish slave, boor, foundling, twins, miser, bold adventurer.
MENANDER* - (he wrote over 100 plays) The Greek New Comedy flourishes during the fourth and third centuries BCE. We know
about seventy writers, again, most of them are foreigners. These guys write somewhere around 1400 plays. The one playwright we know something about is Menander* of Athens (ca. 342-291 BCE) whose only surviving works are a play, The Grouch* (Dyskolos*), and a number of fragments. [The play isn't discovered until the 1950's, while parts of three other plays turned up earlier in this century. They are all found in Egypt, which goes to show you that his plays traveled widely.] Menander*'s subjects are the politics of the family. The characters are fathers, sons, mothers, daughters, slaves and courtesans. Almost everything we know about Menander* comes to us from the Romans* who so enjoyed his plays that they imitated at least 9 of them in Latin, so we will wait (a couple centuries) until these turn up to look at the new domestic hero and the characteristic plot.
This theatrical change reflects the change in Athenian* life. Gone are the grand old days when everyone was concerned with noble ideas and civic affairs. Now it's all merchants, This theatrical change reflects the change in Athenian* life. Gone are the grand old days when everyone was concerned with noble ideas and civic affairs. Now it's all merchants,
The gods have been argued out of existence (at least in affairs of the state) and business is the only business of the day. The two big ideas are becoming the mainstays of the Hellenistic philosophy, Stoicism*, and Epicureanism*. These will continue on into the Roman world as dominant ideas.
Stoicism* [actually this is sort of like Buddhism] is into: believing everything is predestined, complete supression of emotions , striving for self-sufficiency, enduring pain and suffering with resignation, accepting whatever happens, trying to free oneself from caring about external circumstances and material things, and trying to develop reason, virtue and inner peace.
Epicureanism* is into: mental calm and tranquility, getting rid of afear of the gods and death by developing knowledge of nature and science (atomic theory), belief that the highest good is pleasure (which is mental calm), physical pleasures shloud be enjoyed in moderation and one should avoid marriage, politics, wealth and power.
They are also building libraries and stuffing them full of the writing of the historians, philosophers and the dramatists. This means there are lots of copies of the great writers' works scattered in these libraries from Spain* to India and especially in Alexandria* (332 BCE) in Egypt*. This will become the cultural center of the universe for scholars.
The new and rebuilt theatre buildings are not that much different from the old ones. The seats stop at a half-circle (instead of extending slightly past) which makes the orchestra a semi- cicrle. This doesn't matter very much because the new plays don't use the orchestra, anyway. There is definitely a raised stage, and this is where the action is. The scene house gets more so, and bigger, two to three stories, with plenty of room for decoration and scenery. The three doors are standard architectural features, with room on each end for another entrance (making five entrances in all). There are a number of these theatres still in good enough shape to put on shows in them and they still show these basic features. One or two are used for regular theatre presentations now.
The Hellenistic Period (323-30 BCE)
Moving To Rome* By Way Of Alexandria* When Alexander* dies in 323 BCE his empire is split up among his generals. The Egyptian
one under General Ptolemy* will last until the death of Cleopatra*. We need a momentary digression here to look at one of the many cities Alexander* founded and named for himself, the Alexandria* in Egypt. Here Ptolemy* carries out Aristotle's ideas of the systematic organization of knowledge. He sets up a museum (meaning a place that was in the service of the Muses) which becomes the first university in the world. It included a college of learned men engaging in research, recording and some teaching. They are terrific in mathematical and geographic work (considering Alexander's* considerable travels, it's not surprising). Some of the big men on campus include: Euclid*, Archimedes*, Eratothenes* (who measured the size of the earth to within fifty miles of its true diameter) and a number of others engaged in things like cataloguing and mapping stars. The medical school is equally famous, boasting the one under General Ptolemy* will last until the death of Cleopatra*. We need a momentary digression here to look at one of the many cities Alexander* founded and named for himself, the Alexandria* in Egypt. Here Ptolemy* carries out Aristotle's ideas of the systematic organization of knowledge. He sets up a museum (meaning a place that was in the service of the Muses) which becomes the first university in the world. It included a college of learned men engaging in research, recording and some teaching. They are terrific in mathematical and geographic work (considering Alexander's* considerable travels, it's not surprising). Some of the big men on campus include: Euclid*, Archimedes*, Eratothenes* (who measured the size of the earth to within fifty miles of its true diameter) and a number of others engaged in things like cataloguing and mapping stars. The medical school is equally famous, boasting the
a standard of professional knowledge is set up. * Ptolemy* also creates the great library*. It combines a state library and a state publishing
industry. The library* is encyclopedic and every unknown book brought to Egypt* is copied for the collection. Keep in mind that a "book" is really a long roll of sheepskin. Many copyists worked making duplicates of all the popular and useful works. One of the scholars, Callimachus*, develops a system for breaking up the long works into "books" or volumes that can be put on separate rolls. This really makes finding a particular spot in a manuscript a lot easier. The library* works as a university press, putting out copies of the scholars' works and selling books. The arrangement and cataloging of the accumulation is systematically worked out. The library* attracts a terrific crowd of students.
Alexandria* becomes a factory of religious ideas. It has the largest Jewish population in the world. In the 200's BCE Buddhist missionaries come from India and there is a colony of Indian traders in the city. The men of this society seem to require deities with an outlook at least as big as Alexander's* empire. With this outlook in mind, Ptolemy* sets up a religious center, the Serapeum*, devoted to a trinity of gods. [This will have a real impact on the much later rise of Christianity]. These gods include Serapis* (that is Osiris* plus Apis*, the sacred bull), Isis* (who is equal to Hathor*, the cow-moon goddess), and Horus*. Almost every other god is identified in one way or another with one of these three aspects of the one god, especially the Sun god Mithras* of the Persians*. The idea of immortality becomes a growing and increasingly important one that reaches far beyond Egypt.*