Menander (at about the age of 25) produced this play in Athens in the year 317/316 B.C. (about six years after the death of Alexander the Great and of Aristotle).
CHARACTER |
Description |
---|---|
PAN | god of rustic countryside, and garden fertility; genial happy; sometimes the Greek equivalent of a scarecrow. |
KNAIMON | the Misanthrope, divorced, step-father of Gorgias, and of a daughter |
GORGIAS | ex-step-son of KNAIMON, now his next door neighbor. |
SOSTRATOS | a wealthy young man, on a hunting trip. |
KALLIPIDES | the father of Sostratos |
CHAEREAS | a Parasite |
SIKON | a cook |
SLAVES | Pyrrhias, Daos, Getas |
SIMIKE | an old female servant |
CHOROS | revellers, worshippers of the god Pan |
SCENE: the Athenian countryside, at the foot of Mt. Parnes in eastern Attica. There is a cave of Pan nearby. The doors of the skene represent the two houses of Cnaemon and Gorgias.
Act |
Description of Structure of the Act |
Pages |
---|---|---|
PROLOGOS | PAN is annoyed at Cnaemon because of his nasty anti-social character and behavior. His daughter, however, is a saint, and Pan has made the rich Cnaemon fall in love with her. |
p. 59-60 Penguin |
ACT I |
|
p. 60-64 p. 64-68 |
CHORAL INTERLUDE I | [No text for any of the choral interludes] |
|
ACT II |
|
p. 69-74 |
CHORAL INTERLUDE | [No text] |
|
ACT III |
|
pp.77-86 |
CHORAL INTERLUDE | [No text] | |
ACT IV |
|
pp.87-95 |
CHORAL INTERLUDE | [No text] | |
ACT V |
|
96-104 |
John Paul Adams, CSUN
john.p.adams@csun.edu