Epitrepontes

Epitrepontes
Written byMenander
CharactersCharisios, Pamphile

Epitrepontes (Greek: Ἐπιτρέποντεϲ, translated as The Arbitration or The Litigants) is an Ancient Greek comedy, written c. 300 BCE by Menander.[1][2] Only fragments of the play have been found, primarily on papyrus, yet it is one of Menander's best-preserved plays.[3]

Fragments of roughly 750 lines, accounting for about half of the play, were found in 1907, alongside Perikeiromene and Samia in the Cairo Codex.[3][4][5][6] Additional fragments of the play have been found since its initial discovery. In 2012, the Michigan Papyrus was published, giving better readings to Acts 3 and 4 of the play.[7][8]

Epitrepontes (Greek: "arbitration") features a conflict - and attempts to resolve that conflict - between two Athenian households, as well as depicting conflicts in a marriage.[9] The play's most famous incident features a comical scene of legal arbitration. Two parties want the court to decide who should take ownership of goods found alongside an abandoned baby. The play gradually reveals the baby's history, and the identity of its parents, in the process of a complex exploration of marriage and family.[9] The play also features sexual assault.[10][2]

  1. ^ Damen, Mark. Reading 5: Greek New Comedy.
  2. ^ a b Gardner, Hunter H. (2013). "Ventriloquizing Rape in Menander's Epitrepontes". Helios. 39 (2): 121–143. doi:10.1353/hel.2013.0008. ISSN 1935-0228.
  3. ^ a b The Plays and Fragments. Oxford University Press. 8 May 2008. p. xxxi. ISBN 978-0-19-954073-0.
  4. ^ Easterling, P. E.; Knox, Bernard M. W. (1989). The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Volume 1, Greek Literature, Part 2, Greek Drama. Cambridge University Press. p. 163. ISBN 978-0-521-35982-5.
  5. ^ Anderson, William. "1997.10.07, Menander, Vol. 2. Pp. x + 501. Loeb Classical Library 459. – Bryn Mawr Classical Review". Bryn Mawr Classical Review.
  6. ^ Römer, Cornelia (2012). "New Fragments of Act IV, "Epitrepontes" 786—823 Sandbach (P. Mich. 4752 a, b and c)". Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. 182: 112–120. ISSN 0084-5388. JSTOR 23849834.
  7. ^ Sommerstein, Alan. "From Mount Sinai to Michigan: the rediscovery of Menander's Epitrepontes (part 4)". University of Nottingham.
  8. ^ Menander: Epitrepontes (Bloomsbury Ancient Comedy Companions) by Alan H. Sommerstein (Author)
  9. ^ a b Furley, William (2021-06-03). New Fragments of Menander's 'Epitrepontes'. ISBN 978-1-914477-40-9.
  10. ^ "310: Reading 5: Menander's Epitrepontes, Classical Drama and Theatre". www.usu.edu. Retrieved 2023-02-09.