SOURCE: Murray, Gilbert. “Menander, and the Transformation of Comedy.” In Aristophanes: A Study, pp. 221-63. 1933. Reprint. New York: Russell & Russell, Inc., 1964.

In the following excerpt, originally published in 1933, Murray explains that recognition of the devastating change inflicted upon fifth-century Athens is crucial to the full appreciation of Menander's New Comedy.

Menander, son of Diopeithes, the chief poet of the Athenian New Comedy, is a figure difficult to estimate. He was born in the year 342 b.c., only some forty years after the death of Aristophanes, but into an Athens which was greatly changed. He must have heard Aristotle; he was on friendly terms with Epicurus. He lived practically all his life under the rule of the Macedonians, and died in 290 when the first Ptolemy was already king in Egypt and the first Seleucus in Syria. His fame was immense. He is constantly quoted by later authors, including of...