MENAN'DER (Lat.. from Gk. Never(Ipor, Mcnandros) (me. 342-c.291). One of the greatest poets of the Attie New Comedy, horn at Athens of a distinguished family. By his uncle, Alexis, the eminent poet of the Aliddle Comedy, he initiated into the dramatist's art;'his philosoph iesl education he received from association with Theophrastus and Epicurus. He was handsome and fond of luxury. The greater part of his time he spent at his villa in the Peirieus with his beloved Glycera. When Ptolemy Soter gave him a flattering invitation to his Court, .demander declined, preferring his native city and easy in dependence to royal favor. About B.C. 291 he was drowned while swimming in the harbor of the Peirieus. Menander is said to have won a vic tory on the comic stage at the age of twenty-one. Yet during his lifetime he was less a favorite than his contemporary Philemon (q.v.). Of his 105 or 108 plays but eight. won the highest place.
After his death, however, he became the favorite above all other comic poets of his time, and was much read and quoted far into the Christian Era. We are unfortunately obliged to form our opin ions of his comedies chiefly from the adaptations of them by Plautus and Terence. According to ancient critics he was distinguished for his wit, the refinement and perfection of his language, and his ingenious plots. Over a thousand frag ments of his plays remain and a considerable col lection of gnomes attributed to him. The latter collection has, however, suffered greatly from additions. The fragments are best published by Kock. Coinicarnin Atticum Fragment'', vol. iii. (Leipzig, 1888). Two leaves of papyrus contain ing new fragments were published by Nicole, Le laboratcur de Menandrc (Basle, 1898), by Oren fell and llunt (Oxford, 1898).