Comic papyri and Menander of Athens (ca. 342/1-291/0 BC).
18 Março 2019, 18:00 • Maria Cristina de Castro Maia de Sousa Pimentel
a. Summary
The main aim of the seminar was to introduce the students to current research approaches to the work of the Athenian comic poet Menander (ca. 342/1-291/0 BC), with particular emphasis on the text of his works and on the contribution of papyri to our knowledge of it. The contribution of papyri to our knowledge of the poet’s ancient reception was also explored.
The familiarization of the students with this material and methodological issues relevant to it was achieved mainly through the discussion of a case study: the contribution of new papyri to our knowledge of the first scene of Act IV of Menander’s play Epitrepontes – particularly the scene’s very beginning (see below, under iv-v).
Guidance to bibliography and to other research tools (particularly papyri databases) was also offered.
b. Issues explored
i. Menander’s ancient reception: his popularity in the ancient Hellenistic and Roman worlds. Specific points: a. contexts of reception: theatres, symposia, education; b. evidence (e.g. archaeological/iconographical, papyri).
ii. Our access to the text of Menander’s work: not through Byzantine manuscripts; a. comments of/quotations in ancient and Byzantine authors (indirect tradition); b. collections of maxims (gnomologia); c. adaptations of Menander’s works by the Roman comic poets Plautus and Terence; d. papyri.
iii. The main Menandrean papyri: a. Cairo codex; b. Bodmer codex; c. P. Sorbonne; d. P. Oxy. 3705 (papyri as evidence for performance)
iv. The case of Menander’s Epitrepontes Act IV: the contribution of gradually and continuously published papyri to a. our knowledge of the text, b. our knowledge of the play’s ancient reception
v. More on the case study: Menander’s Epitrepontes, very beginning of Act IV: from papyrus to the production of an edition – methodological issues arising in the process.