September 15, 1957
MENANDER: Paris – For the first time, an entire work by the Greek comic poet Menander, who lived in the 4th century BC (from 340-290 BC) has been discovered. The discovery, important because only excerpts of his work had previously been found, was announced by Professor Victor Martin of Geneva University who found the manuscript in the Geneva library of a collector of rare books who had in recent years been buying papyri. The papyrus had been bought from a trader in antiquities and its origins are completely unknown, as is usual in these cases. It consists of several pages, on one of which 70 lines have been drawn. If these pages are numbered correctly, then it means that one page is missing. However, the text appears to be complete and therefore there must be a mistake in the numbering of the pages… The work is prefaced by the title «Difficult.» In the list of persons appearing on stage (12 in all), there is a brief summary and a note which informs the reader of the manuscript that the play was performed for the first time in Athens in 316 BC during the rule of the archon Demogenes.
