Test Your Knowledge on Ancient Greek Comedy

Ancient Greek literature: Genre of ancient Greek comedy

• Ancient Greek comedy is one of the final three principal dramatic forms in classical Greek theatre.
• Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods: Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy.
• Old Comedy is largely preserved in the form of the eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes.
• Middle Comedy is generally seen as differing from Old Comedy in three essential particulars.
• New Comedy followed the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and lasted throughout the reign of the Macedonian rulers, ending about 260 BC.
• The three best-known playwrights belonging to this genre are Menander, Philemon, and Diphilus.
• Menander's comedies not only provided their audience with a brief respite from reality but also gave audiences an accurate picture of life.
• The New Comedy influenced much of Western European literature, primarily through Plautus and Terence.
• Horace claimed Menander as a model for his own gentle brand of Roman satire.
• The 5-act structure later to be found in modern plays can first be seen in Menander's comedies.
• Much of contemporary romantic and situational comedy descends from the New Comedy sensibility.
• Some dramatists overlap into more than one period.