Menander's "Aspis" Lloyd-Jones, Hugh Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Summer 1971; 12, 2; ProQuest pg. 175

FOR RICHMOND LATTIMORE! 

Menander's Aspis 
Hugh Lloyd-Jones 

I N 1913 the Florentine palaeographer Girolamo Vitelli2 published 
from a parchment codex of the fifth century eighty-seven lines of a 
play of the New Comedy. Since this could not be identified, it was 

known as the Florentine Comedy; several people tried to reconstruct 
the whole plot of the play, with results which it is now amusing to 

compare with the reality. A much larger part of the same comedy 
proved to be contained in the famous codex of the third century 
bought by the late Martin Bodmer of Geneva, from which the 
Dyskolos-'The Disagreeable Man'-was published, almost complete, 
in 1959. First, in 1967, some thirty lines which had somehow become 
detached from the Bodmer codex were published at Cologne.3 Then 
in 1969 the Swiss scholar Rodolphe Kasser, in collaboration with Colin 
Austin of Cambridge, published large parts not only of the Aspis but 
of the Samian Woman,4 supplementing those contained in the famous 
Menander papyrus in Cairo; soon after, Austin published an excellent 
critical edition and commentary on both plays.5 So we now have some 
560 lines of the Aspis, some fragmentary. Until well into the third of 
the five acts, our text is more or less continuous; small fragments of 
the last two acts help us to see how the plot worked out. Since the play 

1 This essay is the substance of a lecture given at Bryn Mawr College on 24 April 1971 to 
honor Richmond Lattimore, poet and scholar, on the occasion of his retirement. It is offered 
as raw material for a version of one of Menander's most delightful plays, in the hope of 
tempting the distinguished translator of Greek epic, lyric, tragedy and Old Comedy to try 
his hand at New Comedy. 

2 PSI 126. 
3 See R. Merkelbach, ZPE 1 (1967) 103. 
4 PBod. XXV (Menandre, La Samienne) and XXVI (Menandre, Le Bouclier) (Geneva 1969). 
5 Menandri Aspis et Samia I, Textus (cum apparatu critico) et indices; II, Subsidia interpretationis 

[Kleine Texte ISSa,b] (Berlin 1969, 1970). The reader of this article will find it useful to have 
both volumes at hand, and to bear in mind that in some places the second corrects the text 
printed in the first. An Italian translation is offered by F. Sbordone, RendNap 1969, If; a 
German translation, with notes and introduction, by K. Gaiser, Menander: Der Schild oder 
die Erbtochter (Zurich 1971). 

175 



176 MENANDER'S ASPIS 

was probably not more than about 870 lines long, we know the essen­
tials of its action. 

The Florentine Comedy turned out to be Menander's Aspis, 'The 
Shield'. It was called so because it started with a Phrygian slave, Daos, 
appearing before the two Athenian house-doors shown on the stage, 
leading a train of captured slaves from Asia Minor and carrying a 
battered shield. This is the shield of his master Kleostratos, a young 
Athenian of limited means, who, to earn a dowry for his sister, had 
gone off to serve as a mercenary in one of the campaigns in Asia 
Minor which in the time of Alexander's successors were constantly 
taking place. 

"Today," Daos begins (If), "is a very sad day for me, my master, 
and my reckonings are different from the hopes I had when we set 
off.6 Yes, I believed you would come back with glory from the cam­
paign, and would live the rest of your life in splendid style. You would 
have the title of general or of counsellor; and your sister, for whose 
sake you made that expedition, you would marry to a bridegroom 
worthy of her, once you had returned to the home where you had 
been so missed; and for me would come a rest from my long labours 
in old age, in return for my loyalty. But now you are gone, unex­
pectedly snatched from us; and I, your old attendant to school,? 
Kleostratos, have come bringing back the shield which failed to pre­
serve you as you preserved it; for you were a valiant man if ever 
there was one." 

It looks as if Smikrines, the young man's uncle, steps forward at 
this point; he has been listening to Daos, but has not yet been taken 
notice of by him. "What an unlooked-for thing to happen!" he re­
marks. "Terrible!" replies Daos, I fancy rather drily. "But how did he 
perish?" Smikrines asks, "How did it come about?" "A soldier," 
Daos answers, "finds it hard to keep himself safe, but easy to get 
killed." "All the same, Daos, tell me the story!" 

Now Daos launches off on a narration, starting off with an account 
of the locality in the manner inherited by Greek historians from the 

6 Line 3 l'opp,Wp.o{oc ed.pr., l'opp.wp.£v[wv Lloyd-Jones, Sandbach. A third possibility 
is l'opp.wp.£v[ov. 

7 "The pedagogue, or tutor, was a family slave who accompanied the boy child to and 
from school, carried his belongings, made him do his homework, and instructed him in 
proper behaviour"; C. M. Havelock, Hellenistic Art (Greenwich [Conn.] 1970) 135; see the 
Hellenistic statue of an elderly pedagogue in the Louvre which she illustrates (n.121); 
cf H.-I. Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, transl. G. Lamb (New York 1956) 143-44. 



HUGH LLOYD-JONES 177 

epic (23f). The army with which his master was fighting had been 
operating in Lycia, near the River Xanthus, and had won a number 
of battles, so that the local 'barbarians' had taken to the hills. Success 
had made the invaders careless, and they had swarmed out of their 
encampment in large numbers to plunder the unprotected villages 
of the Lycian plain. "How splendid!" says Smikrines when he hears 
this; one other Smikrines, at least, was avaricious, and the Greek 
audience will have known how to construe this comment. His 
master, Daos goes on, had acquired some 600 gold pieces, together 
with a quantity of plate and the slaves now present on the stage, and 
had ordered him-Daos-to convey this property to Rhodes, entrust 
it to a friend, and then return to him. But on the day Daos left, the 
enemy, whose scouts had told them of the situation, occupied unob­
served a hill in front of the camp; and in the evening, when most of the 
Greeks were tipsy,S they delivered a surprise attack. "Very bad!" 
says Smikrines, who would never have allowed himself to get drunk 
while in possession of considerable plunder. Daos, spending the night, 
it seems, in the camp of a neighbouring detachment, was woken about 
midnight by loud noises. His companions now occupied a strong posi­
tion on a hill, where they kept being joined by wounded fugitives 
from the battle. "How lucky for you," says Smikrines, "that you were 
sent off when you were!" 

Daos' companions entrenched themselves in their position, and in 
due course were joined by those who had scattered in pursuit of 
plunder. After three days they learned that the Lycians were carrying 
off their prisoners to the hill villages, so they advanced to the scene of 
the battle. There they found corpses, by now unrecognizable; by one 
of them lay the battered shield of Kleostratos which Daos now carries. 
The bodies were hastily thrown upon a single pyre and burned; and 
Daos set off for Rhodes, and after a few days there sailed home, 
carrying his master's booty. 

"You say you have 600 gold pieces with you?" asks Smikrines (82). 
"Yes." "And some plate too?" "It weighs about forty minas-heir that 
you are !"9 "What? Did you think that was why I asked you? By Apollo! 

8 At 45f the text is difficult; see D. Del Como, ZPE 6 (1970) 213-14. There is much to be 
said for emending Y{V€TIX' in line 47 to 1T{V€Trn. W. G. Arnott, Gnomon 42 (1970) 20, says this 
reading is impossible. As a reading of the papyrus, certainly; but as an emendation? It would 
have to be followed by a full stop. 

9 I incline to the view of the 'complures' mentioned in Austin's note on line 84 (II 11). 



178 MENANDER'S ASPIS 

But the rest was captured, was it?" "Most of it, pretty well, except 
what I had taken away. In there there are garments and military 
cloaks; and all this crowd that you see belongs to the family." "I don't 
care about that!" says Smikrines unconvincingly, "If only he were 
alive!" "If only he were!" says Daos, "Let us go inside to tell the sad 
tale to those I wish could never hear it." "After that," says Smikrines, 
"Daos, I would like to talk with you at leisure. But for the time being 
I think I too will go inside, and think about what will be the gentlest 
way of handling them." The choice of that word <gentlest' reminds 
one of Uriah Heep.l0 

Smikrines goes into his house, Daos enters the house of his master's 
uncle, Chairestratos, and the stage is left empty for the divinity who 
speaks the prologue speech (97f). "If what has happened were really a 
disaster for these people," she begins, "I should not be following after 
them, since I am a goddess." The Greek gods abandoned the unfor­
tunate, as Artemis abandons the dying Hippolytus, or his god aban­
dons Antonius before his suicide.H "As it is," she continues, "they are 
astray and do not know the truth; but whoever attends to what I am 
going to say will learn it." She explains that when the alarm was 
sounded Kleostratos was with a companion, and in the excitement this 
man took Kleostratos' shield. He was killed and his body found by 
Daos; but the real Kleostratos was taken prisoner, and will presently 
return home. "It makes little difference that the report [ofKleostratos' 
death] is false," says a scholar who argues that the said report "spread 
an air of sadness through the first part of the play."12 On the con­
trary, it makes all the difference in the world; and we learn it very 
early in the action. 

The goddess goes on to explain Kleostratos' family circumstances. 
Smikrines is his uncle on his father's side, his father clearly being dead; 
this uncle is "the greatest villain in the world." "He knows no kins-

If Austin's Original division is kept, K>.Tfpov6p.E must be preceded or followed by a dash; a 
vocative cannot stand alone. 

10 There is a point in Smikrines talking of dealing gently with persons, none in his talking 
of dealing so with circumstances; so I disagree with Del Como, op.cit. (supra n.8) 214, who 
wants to take 'TOQ'TOtC as neuter. 

11 Add to Austin's parallels Pluto Vit.Ant. 75, a passage which inspired one of Cavafy's 
finest poems, 'A1TOAEl1TELV 0 (hJc 'AV'T~vtoV. 

12 D. Del Como, AeR N.S. 15, fasc. 2-3 (1970) 66: "Poco conta che la notizia-como ap­
prenderemo-sia falsa." 



HUGH LLOYD-JONES 179 

man or friend," the goddess tells us, "and takes no account of any of 
the things that are considered disgraceful in life, but wants to have 
everything; that is his sole concern. He lives alone, with one old 
woman to look after him." 

The house that Daos has entered, the goddess continues, belongs to 
another uncle of Kleostratos on the father's side, a younger brother 
of Smikrines; his name, we learn later, is Chairestratos. This uncle is a 
great deal nicer than Smikrines; he is also richer. He is married for the 
second time; his wife has a son by her first marriage, whose name, we 
learn later, is Chaireas, and a daughter by Chairestratos himself. 
Being a kind man, and realizing that Kleostratos is likely to be 
away a long time, Chairestratos has arranged that his niece, Kleos­
tratos' sister, shall be married to his own stepson, Chaireas; and he 
is supplying her with a dowry of two talents out of his own 
money. 

Their wedding is on the point of taking place; but the scare that has 
now arisen, the goddess explains, will throw everything into con­
fusion. For the wicked uncle, Smikrines, has cast covetous eyes upon 
the money, plate and slaves brought back by Daos, and he sees a way 
of getting them for himself. Athenian law ordained, oddly enough to 
our way of thinking, that when property had descended to an heiress 
her male relatives should have the option of marrying her to keep it 
in the family, in order of seniority. Also, it permitted marriage be­
tween uncle and niece; so Smikrines, as the oldest surviving male 
member of the family, is legally entitled to oblige the unfortunate 
sister of Kleostratos to marry him. The goddess explains immediately 
that he will not succeed, but will only give himself much trouble and 
expose his depravity in the eyes of all. Like other divine prologue­
speakers of the New Comedy, she has used her knowledge of past and 
future facts hidden from the characters to relieve the apprehension of 
any member of the audience ill enough acquainted with the genre to 
be afraid the plot may turn out badly for the sympathetic characters. 
Finally, the goddess gives her name and vanishes. Prologues of the 
New Comedy are spoken not by major divinities, but by minor gods, 
like Pan in the Dyskolos or the star Arcturus in Plautus' Rudens, 
adapted from the Greek of Diphilus, or by personified abstractions, 
like Ignorance in The Girl Who Has Her Hair Cut, or Help in Plautus' 
Aulularia. This time it is an abstraction very often personified in 
Menander and in the Hellenistic Age generally, Tyche herself. If we 



180 MENANDER'S ASPIS 

translate her name 'Fortune', we must be aware that in Menander 
Tyche does not mean blind chance; fortune in Menander is determined 
by the gods, as I shall argue later. 

Smikrines now emerges from his house, talking to the audience or 
to himself, as the convention of the New Comedy permitted. "In case 
anyone should say that I'm a great miser," he begins (149f), "I never 
enquired how much money he had with him, nor how much silver, 
nor took any count, but let them bring it in here immediately-you 
see, they run me down on every possible occasion; in fact, the exact 
figure will be found, so long as those who carry it in are slaves." That 
looks like a sinister threat that he can always get the truth out of 
slaves, if necessary by torture. "I think," he continues, "that they'll 
abide by law and justice; but if not, no one is going to let them get 
away with it. But I want to warn them not to hold this wedding-feast 
that's going forward. Perhaps it's odd even to say it; but it's no time 
for a wedding, when such news as this has come. Still, I'll knock on 
the door and call out Daos; he's the only one who will take any notice 
of me." Like many people who do not deserve to be taken notice of, 
Smikrines is acutely sensitive to neglect. 

Daos emerges from Chairestratos' house, still talking to someone 
inside it whom he is trying to comfort (164f). Smikrines accosts him, 
and explains that he wishes that Kleostratos were still alive, but that 
since he is not, and since his brother is always taking advantage of him, 
and is now proposing to marry his niece to someone or other without 
his consent, he will not allow his property to be plundered by these 
people, but will take the advice given him by some of his friends, and, 
in accordance with the law, marry the girl himself. 

At this point the text is damaged, but it seems that Smikrines de­
mands that Daos shall facilitate his plan by urging the other members 
of the family to comply with it. Clearly Daos has great influence with 
Chairestratos, and Smikrines knows this. Daos first reminds him of 
the old Delphic saying "Know thyself," and then explains that he can 
do his duty as a slave by furnishing all possible particulars of the 
affairs of his late master, but cannot be expected to intervene in a 
dispute within the family. "But, tell me," says Smikrines, "do you 
think I'm doing anything wrong?" "I am a Phrygian," answers Daos, 
"many things that are approved of among you seem to me appalling, 
and vice versa. Why do you have to worry about me? You have more 
sense than I, presumably." "Now you seem to be saying something 



HUGH LLOYD-JONES 181 

like <Don't bother me!' ,"IS says Smikrines; and he goes off to the 
agora to try and find one of Chairestratos' family. Left alone, Daos 
calls upon Tyche, the goddess we have just seen on the stage, and 
asks what he has done wrong to make her afflict him with such a 
change of masters. 

Before Daos can reenter the house, out comes a cook, accompanied 
by the slave who is his assistant and soon to be followed by a waiter. 
Greek families did not often eat meat, and on the special occasions 
when they did, cooks were hired in the market-place; these cooks were 
standard figures of fun in New Comedy, usually on account of their 
dishonesty, their curiosity or their boastfulness. "When I do get a 
commission," the cook says (216£), "either someone dies, so that I have 
to take myself without my fee, or some woman in the house who no 
one knew was pregnant has a baby, and suddenly the sacrifice is off, 
and I'm clean gone!14 What miserable luck!" "Do go away, cook!" 
pleads Daos. "Why what do you think I'm doing?" demands the cook. 
Then to his slave: "Take the knives, boy, and be quick about it! I 
came with a contract for ten days at three drachmas a day; I thought I 
had them; some corpse has come from Lycia and snatched them from 
me! When the people in the house have suffered a disaster like that, 
you rascal, when you see the women weeping and beating their 
heads, are you carrying out your oil can empty?15 Remember what a 
chance you've been given! It's not Spinther I have for my assistant, 
it's Aristides-Aristides the Just! I'll see you go without your supper! 
But the waiter is staying for the funeral feast, it seems!" Now the 
waiter emerges, still demanding money from someone in the house 
and in doing so perpetrating a pun which is even feebler in English 
than it is in Greek. At this point the text is damaged,16 but it is prob­
ably this waiter, not the cook, who abuses the loyal Daos for having 
let down the slaves' trade union by bringing back his master's prop­
erty when he could so easily have run away with it. He asks Daos his 

13 See Austin on 210f (II 21); I agree with him, except that I would follow E. W. Handley, 
BICS 16 (1969) 103, in reading 1TpaYJ.l-aT' <~ > TOtoVTChp01T6v Tt' J.l-av(Javw. 

14 When I first read line 218, the thought crossed my mind that perhaps Kleostratos had 
left his cousin, the daughter of Chairestratos, pregnant at his departure. A moment's re­
flexion convinced me that this was impossible, common as such events are in the New 
Comedy. The two things that can cause a feast to be cancelled are death and birth, and that 
must be the cook's point, as at Philemon fr.l07, quoted by Austin on 216f. 

15 I cannot agree with Del Corno's ingenious guess (op.cit. [supra n.8] 216) that the notion 
of K£voTacp£tV is somehow relevant, 

16 Gaiser's equation of line 236 with fr.adesp. 287 (Kock) can hardly be right. 



182 MENANDER'S ASPIS 

nationality, and on learning that he is a Phrygian, replies, "Then 
you're no good for anything, a woman-man. We Thracians are the 
only men; that's why the treadmills are full ofus."17 "Take yourself 
off," says Daos, and then he notices the approach of a crowd of drunken 
revellers, which according to the convention of the New Comedy 
stands for the entry of the Chorus for the first of its incidental dances 
between the acts. "You are wise," Daos sadly remarks to them, 
"Fortune is uncertain; enjoy yourselves while there is time!"18 When 
in the Persians of Aeschylus the ghost of King Darius gives similar 
advice on his parting to his old councillors, an English Victorian com­
mentator calls it "a futile maxim, contemptuously put in the mouth 
of a dead tyrant."19 In fact, it represents the collective wisdom of the 
great age of Greece. 

The second act begins with the two brothers, Smikrines and Chaires­
tratos, meeting in front of their houses. The funeral, Chairestratos 
says, must be taken care of (250f). It shall be taken care of, says his 
brother; after that, let Chairestratos not promise the girl to anyone. 
"It is not your business," he continues, "it is mine. I am older than 
you are; you have at home a wife and daughter, and I must have them 
too." "Smikrines, do you care nothing about common decency?" 
protests his brother. "What do you mean?" "At your age, are you 
going to take a girl in marriage?" "Am I the only man to marry late 
in life?" "Take the thing like a human being, Smikrines, I beg you. 
The girl was brought up with Chaireas, who was going to marry her. 
All right! You shall suffer no disadvantage; take all this property, 
have full rights, we give it to you; but let the girl have a husband of 
the proper age. I'll give two talents of my own money by way of 
dowry." "Tell me," Smikrines replies, "do you think you're talking to 
an idiot? Why, am I to take the property and leave the girl to him, 
so that if they have a child, I'm to be prosecuted for having its prop­
erty?" "Is that what you believe? Drop it!" "Believe, do you say? 
Send Daos to me to give me an inventory of the stuff he brought." 
At this point the text is mutilated, but clearly Smikrines goes off. 
Chairestratos says that he has always hoped that Chaireas would 
marry his niece, Kleostratos would marry his daughter, and the two 

17 M. D. Reeve (ap. Austin II 26, on 244f) may be right in transferring the end of the 
speech from TOLyapofjv to Daos and changing ~p.wv to vp.wv. 

18 I take £1Jcppalv£c8' as imperative, but it may be present indicative. 
19 A. Sidgwick, in his useful edition of Aeschylus' Persae (Oxford 1903, repro 1937) ad loco 



HlGH LLOYD-JONES 183 

young couples would inherit his possessions. "May I quit this life as 
soon as possible," he exclaims, "before seeing what I never dreamed 
of happen!" 

At this point Chairestratos returns into his house, where as we learn 
later he collapses into something like a faint, and remains motionless 
for some time.20 His stepson Chaireas, who now enters, laments the 
sudden change in his fortunes in a speech of a standard type com­
monly assigned to young heroes of the genre. Now Daos leaves the 
house, still talking to Chairestratos inside it. "Chairestratos, this is 
not the right behaviour!" he exclaims (299f), "Get up! You can't 
despair, or lie there like that! Chaireas, go and comfort him! Don't 
give in! The fate of all of us depends, pretty well, on him! No, open 
the doors! Show yourself! will you let down your friends, Chairestra­
tos, in this ignoble way?" "Daos, my boy," says his master, <'I'm in a 
bad way; the situation drives me to distraction. In heaven's name, 
I'm not myself; I'm almost off my head, into such a frenzy does my 
admirable brother put me already with his villainy. You see, he means 
to get married himself!" "What, get married?" says Daos, "But will 
he be able to?" "The noble fellow says so," replies Chairestratos," even 
though I am offering him everything that Kleostratos sent back." 
"The villain!" "Villain is the word! I shan't live, by heaven, if I'm to 
see this happen!" "Then how could one get the better of the scoun­
drel?" asks Daos.21 "It would be very hard." "Yes, hard, but it can 
still be done." "Can it? Well, such an achievement would be worth a 
real effort, by Athena!" 

The next five lines are missing or fragmentary, but at the end of 
them Daos is saying that when you see your enemy full of excitement 

20 The movements of Chairestratos from 283 to 305 present a problem, stated by Del 
Como, op.cit. (supra n.8) 21M. My solution is not the same as his. I think Chairestratos enters 
his house at 283; then at 299 Daos enters, talking back into the house and addreSSing 
Chairestratos. Chairestratos is not visible, and the audience learns of his collapse only from 
Daos' words. At 300, Daos asks Chaireas to comfort his stepfather, on whom everything, 
for the whole family (Del Como p.216 is most unconvincing in his treatment of t,p,iv 

a7TaCtv) , depends; p,~ '7T{TP€7T€ is addressed to Chaireas, and means "Don't let him (i.e. 
Chairestratos) get away with it!"' Then he cancels his request to Chaireas with "No, open 
the doors!" (Del Como is right in arguing that this refers to opening the doors from out­
side.) "Show yourself!" If cavTov is right, this means that Chaireas must show himself to 
Chairestratos; but it may be a mistake for aVTov. It should have a full stop after it, for the 
last sentence of the speech is addressed not to Chaireas but to Chairestratos. 

21 The division between speakers is uncertain at this point; see Austin II 32 (on 3I8f) 
and Del Como, op.cit. (supra n.8) 220. 



184 MENANDER'$ ASPIS 

in the expectation of easy victory, then is the time to strike and to get 
the better of him. "He sees and expects nothing except his goal," 
says Daos, "and that makes him a poor judge of reality." "Then 
what is your advice?" asks his master, ''I'm ready to do whatever you 
demand." "You must stage a catastrophe," replies Daos, "People 
must think you've done just as you said just now that you would do; 
that the disaster of Kleostratos and to the girl whom you were giving 
in marriage, and the sight of the extreme despair of Chaireas, whom 
you consider as your son, have driven you to desperation, and that 
you've succumbed to one of those sudden attacks. Most people's worst 
illnesses are caused by grief; and he knows that you're bilious22 and 
melancholic by temperament. Then we'll bring in a doctor talking 
his jargon and saying that the trouble is pleurisy, or inflammation of 
the diaphragm, or anyone of the complaints that take people off 
quickly." "Well?" "All of a sudden, you're dead! We shout, 'Chaires­
tratos is gone!' and beat our heads in front of the doors. You are 
locked away inside, but a dummy corpse, in a shroud, will be put out 
for all to see." "Do you see what he's getting at?" says Chairestratos 
to Chaireas. "No, by Dionysus!" is the reply. "I don't either!" "Your 
daughter," goes on Daos, "becomes an heiress, just like the girl who is 
now being claimed. She has perhaps sixty talents; the other girl has 
only four; and since the old miser bears the same relationship to 
both ... " "Now I understand!" exclaims Chairestratos. "Of course, 
if you're not a blockhead," says Daos-I wonder whether that remark 
is not made sotto voce; "At once he'll be only too glad to give the other 
girl in marriage to the first comer before three thousand witnesses, 
and he'll take your daughter!" "Like hell he will!" "He'll think he's 
going to! And he'll go round the whole house with the keys, putting 
seals on the doors, dreaming a dream of wealth." "What about the 
dummy of me?" "It will lie there, and all of us will sit around it,23 
waiting for him to approach .... " 

The next lines are wholly or partly missing, but it is interesting that 
one of them (367) contains the word 'double'. In Attic law a person 
convicted of theft had to pay double the value of the stolen property, 

22 This medical use of '7T£Kp6c is not noted by LS]; but see their article on 1T'KPOX6>"oc. 
23 Miss Donna Kurtz observes that this seems to confirm the view that the mourners 

shown on Geometric vases that depict funerals were imagined as surrounding the dead 
man; this had been conjectured, but had been doubted on the ground that the effect in 
question might have been due to the absence of perspective. 



HUGH LLOYD-JONES 185 

and it looks as if Daos suggested that, when Smikrines had claimed 
his brother's property and perhaps removed some of it, Chairestratos 
should emerge from hiding and threaten to prosecute him for theft.24 

HI like your idea, Daos," says Chairestratos, "That's after my own 
heart! What revenge could you take on the scoundrel that would be 
more severe?" That remark seems to confirm my suggestion about 
the double penalty for theft; no punishment would hurt Smikrines 
more than a heavy fine. "By Zeus!" says Daos, ''I'll inflict proper 
punishment for any pain he's caused you in the past. It will be a real 
case of the wolf opening his jaws and then having to go away empty!25 
But we must act at once! Do you know a foreign doctor, Chaireas, 
who's clever, but a bit of a fraud?" "No, I'm afraid I don't." "Well, I 
wish you did." "Never mind, I'll fetch one of my friends, and I'll 
ask for a toupee and a doctor's cloak and a stick for him; he'll talk 
like a foreigner as best he can." "Well, fetch him quickly!" "And 
what am I to do?" inquires Chairestratos. "Why, what we planned; 
die, and good luck to you!" "I will." "Don't let anyone go out, but 
keep the secret valiantly." "who is to be in the know?" asks Chaireas. 
"I must tell only my wife and the girls," says his father, "so that they 
don't cry, and let the other people in the house abuse me in the belief 
that I'm a corpse." "You're right!" says Chaireas, "Let someone bring 
the old fellow opposite !"26 "To be sure," Chaireas continues, "he'll 
have a fitting diversion and some worry, if only the catastrophe can 
be set on its feet, and our doctor can achieve some plaUSibility." 

The third act starts with the emergence of Smikrines, talking to the 
audience, or to himself. "A fine turn of speed Daos showed in bring­
ing me a list of the property! Great consideration for me he's dis­
played! Daos is in with them. Well, I'm glad he is! I'm delighted to 

24 See Austin II 35, on 366f. 
25 Instances of this proverb are collected by Austin II 35, on 37Zf. I think there is another at 

Epit. 663-64, where Chairestratos, who apparently covets Habrotonon, but at this point 
looks like not getting her, might well be called a wolf who has "gone away" after having 
opened his jaws in vain. Until now the only other Chairestratos known was the young hero 
of Menander's Eunuchus, in Terence called Phaedria (Persius 5.162). But now that the Aspis 
presents us with a Chairestratos in the other age-group, the view that Chairestratos of the 
Epitrepontes is an older man gains in plausibility. Did he at the end get Habrotonon, and 
accord her the same status that Chrysis enjoys in Demeas' household in the Samia? I offer 
this speculation only with great caution. 

26 Del Como, op.cit. (supra. n.8) 221-23, convinces me that €i'cw 7'tC aytTw TOVTOV{ at 387 
must refer to Smikrines, not Chairestratos. Chaireas and Daos between them could surely 
support Chairestratos, however enfeebled, without calling for another person. 



186 MENANDER'S ASPIS 

have a pretext for my dealings with him, so that I need not be kindly 
any more in making my enquiries, but can act according to my 
interest. You see, clearly there is twice as much that he hasn't shown 
me! I know the tricks of that shifty slave." 

Now Daos runs out of Chairestratos' house in an excited state ;27 he 
does not appear to notice Smikrines. "Ye gods!" he cries, "a terrible 
thing has happened! I never would have thought a man could fall 
into such a state so suddenly! A sky-splitting28 thunderbolt has hit 
the house!" "What's the matter with him?" says Smikrines to him­
self. The next four lines cannot be made out; but after them we find 
Daos trying to do justice to the special horror of the situation by 
uttering a series of quotations from tragedy. "<Not every man enjoys 
prosperity'," he quotes from the opening of Euripides' Stheneboea. 
"Very good, again ... ," and then follows another quotation, only 
partially preserved. "Daos, you wretch, where are you rushing to?" 
asks Smikrines. "This, too," says Daos, " <the fate of mortals is For­
tune, not Providence!' Admirable! <A god creates guilt for mortals 
when he wishes utterly to ruin a house'." The former quotation 
comes from the fourth-century tragedian Chairemon; the second 
comes from the celebrated passage of Aeschylus' Niobe quoted by 
Plato and partly preserved in the Florence papyrus.29 "The majestic 
Aeschylus ... ," Daos continues; Smikrines cuts in with, "Are you 
making a collection of aphorisms, you rascal?" "Incredible, illogical, 
terrible!" continues Daos, citing, evidently, another tragedy. "Won't 
he ever stop?" wonders the other. " <But which among the plagues of 
mortals is incredible?' " quotes Daos, "Karkinos says, <For in one day a 
god makes the fortunate man unfortunate'. All those are good, 
Smikrines !"-now at last he has condescended to notice him. "But 
what do you mean?" "Your brother-O Zeus, how can I explain it ?-is 
pretty well dead." "What, the one who was talking with me a moment 
ago? What's the matter with him?" "A bilious attack, some kind of 
stroke of grief, a mental seizure, a choking fit." "Poseidon and the 
gods, what a terrible affliction!" "There is no thing so awful to relate, 
no disaster'," quotes Daos from the opening of Euripides' Orestes. 

27 W. S. Anderson, Phoenix 24 (1970) 229f, rightly recognizes another instance of the 
<running slave'. 

28 CK7]7TTOC ... paySawc (402-03): cf. Soph. fr.478 P., f3po~ S· lppttYT/ S,' aCTpa'1rijc, with 
Pearson's note. 

29 Fr.277 Lloyd-Jones = 273 Mette, 15-16. 



HUGH LLOYD-JONES 187 

"You're killing me!" Smikrines protests. " 'For the gods have ordained 
that afflictions should come unexpectedly'. The first is from Euripides, 
the second from Chairemon; they are no ordinary writers." "But has 
any doctor come?" asks Smikrines. "None," says Daos, "so Chaireas 
has gone to fetch one," "Which doctor?" "Why, this one, it appears," 
says Daos, seeing Chaireas arrive in company with a medical-looking 
person, "Sir, do hurry! ... " After a few missing syllables Daos de­
livers a final quotation: "'their very extremity renders the sick 
testy'." 

At this point Chaireas and Daos, with the supposed doctor, vanish 
into the house, "If they see me," says Smikrines, "they'll at once say 
I've come in satisfaction, that I know for certain; and he himself will 
not be pleased to see me." Then he goes into his own house. 

Now comes a gap in the text. Eighteen lines later, Chaireas and the 
doctor have emerged from the house and are talking outside to 
Smikrines; the doctor speaks in generalised Doric dialect and parades 
the technical terminology of his art. The Spartan antiquary Sosibius30 
remarked that the comic doctor was a stock figure of the ancient Doric 
farce, and this specimen was not the only one in Attic comedy; in a 
fragment of Alexis' comedy The Woman Who Took Mandragora 
someone says that if a native doctor recommends giving a patient 
beetroot, calling that vegetable by its Attic name of T€VTAtov, he is 
despised, but if a foreigner prescribes it, pronouncing it CEVTAov, 

people treat him with respect. "I think it has struck him right in the 
diaphragm,"3l says the doctor, "The name we give this is 'phrenitis'." 
"I see," says Smikrines, "What about it, then?" "There is no hope of 
recovery whatsoever," says the doctor, "If I'm not to offer you false 
comfort, attacks like this are fataL" "Don't comfort me," says Smik­
rines, "Tell me the truth." "It's out of the question that this man can 
live," says the doctor, "He's throwing up part of the bile; his eyes are 
growing dim." The next dozen lines are fragmentary, but there is 
mention of foaming at the mouth, and we find the phrase "looks like 
a funeral." "Let us be going, boy," the doctor says to his assistant. 
Smikrines calls him back; the text is too damaged for us to see what 
he wants to ask him; but since it seems that when Smikrines says that 
many unexpected things happen the doctor accuses him of making 
fun of him, presumably Smikrines has asked once more if there is any 

30 See Austin II 35, on 374f, and also M. Gigante, ParPass 24, fasc. 127 (1969) 302f. 
31 'Diaphragm', not 'brain'; so, rightly, F. H. Sandbach, Entretiens Hardt 16 (1970) 115. 



188 MENANDER'S ASPIS 

hope. Then he says to Smikrines, "You don't look at all well yourself; 
you are sickening for a wasting disease. Why, you look altogether like 
death!" With that, he leaves. "To be sure," says Smikrines, "The 
women are plundering the house as if it were enemy territory.32 
Instructions are being given to the neighbours through the water­
pipes." When a death occurred in a house, its inmates could not 
approach other people for fear of ritual pollution; presumably that 
explains the last remark. Daos seems to come out of Chairestratos' 
house at this moment; he says aside that he will give Smikrines a 
shock, but then the text breaks off. 

Now comes our biggest gap, which covers about 205 lines. The next 
portion of the text that we possess is scanty remains of two scenes at 
the end of the fourth act. The first contains part of a conversation; 
one speaker is Smikrines, but we do not know who are the others. A 
few lines after the speech of Smikrines, we find the words, "Betrothal 
is perhaps ... when such a ... has happened to you ... I am ready ... 
everything he orders ... in front of you" (484-90). It seems possible 
that the ruse has had one of its desired effects in inducing Smikrines 
to betroth Kleostratos' sister to the first applicant, who would of 
course be Chaireas. Next comes a scene in which Kleostratos appears 
before the door of Chairestratos' house (491f). Like someone return­
ing home in a tragedy, he salutes his native country, or, possibly, the 
door of the house. He wonders whether Daos has got back safely. 
When he finally knocks, Daos from inside asks, "Who is there?" "I 
am." "Who are you looking for? The master of the house is dead ... " 
"Dead? Alas ... " "Go away and don't disturb people who are mourn­
ing ... " "Ah me! Uncle, what a ... " A gap is followed by the words 
"You wretch"; then Daos starts to address Kleostratos with "Young 
man" and now at last puts his head out of the door. "0 Zeus!" he 
exclaims. "What do you mean, Daos," begins the answer of Kleo­
stratos. Soon after Daos says, "I have you," a classic formula in 
recognition scenes, found in the Electras of both Euripides and So­
phocles.33 Eleven lines after that, the fourth act ended. It seems clear 
that, as in each of the Menandrian plays which we know well enough 
to decide this question, the working out of the plot was complete at 

32 I follow Sandbach ap. Austin II 43, on 465. Gaiser, op.cit. (supra n.5) 73-74, gives the 
whole of 465~7 to Daos. He may be right, but €7n'Ta'T'T£'Tcx, does not mean 'wird gemeldet'. 

33 It is also in the recognition scene of Menander's Misoumenos (214). 



HUGH LLOYD-JONES 189 

the end of the fourth act, and the fifth simply showed the final happi­
ness of the sympathetic characters. It centred on the komos, the scene 
of revelry inherited from the Old Comedy, which in this play, as 
often, will have taken the form of the feast held to celebrate the 
double wedding. 

Of the fifth act we have only portions of the first twenty -nine lines; 
after that, about ninety lines are missing. Near the beginning of the 
part preserved there is mention, as we should expect, of a double 
wedding; then of "his daughter" and "his niece"; then of "all the 
property." Near the end of the fragment, we find what may be the 
formula of betrothal so common in the final acts of the New Comedy. 

What happened in the last ninety or so lines? I think we may safely 
assume that the loyalty and intelligence of Daos, the Admirable 
Crichton among the slaves of extant New Comedy, were rewarded 
with the gift of freedom and the competence he had said goodbye 
to the hope of in the opening lines of the play. At the end of the 
Dyskolos, the slave Getas and the cook take advantage of the license 
that attends the komos to subject Cnemon, the disagreeable man who 
gives the play its name, to merciless ragging. In that case the cook, as 
well as the slave, had a personal grudge against the victim; we do not 
know that the cook of this play had a complaint against Smikrines, 
but he was no doubt recalled when it was known that far from there 
being no wedding there were to be two. What we see of him in the 
first act says that he would make a good assistant for the resourceful 
Daos in bullying Smikrines, who deserves much worse things than 
the not wholly disagreeable Cnemon. 

We get very little from four fragments preserved in quotations. 
In one, the speaker says how unenviable are those who guard fortresses 
or citadels, since they are always afraid someone may steal up with a 
dagger. We cannot even be sure that this refers to the anxiety of 
Smikrines about the booty deposited in his house; nor can we find 
here a historical allusion precise enough to yield an indication of the 
date.34 

Many years ago it was suggested35 that the Florentine Comedy 
might be one of the two comedies to which Menander gave the title 
Epikleros-The Heiress. Many of his works have two alternative titles; 
so the suggestion now made that this old guess may, after all, be right, 

34 See Del Como, op.cit. (supra n.8) 224--25. 

35 By R. Herzog, Hermes 51 (1916) 315f. 



190 MENANDER'S ASPIS 

is not impossible. However, none of the eight fragments printed in the 
Teubner edition coincides with the fairly extensive portion of the 
text we now have. There is, it is true, a fragment about hens cackling 
and a female person shooing them away;36 and in Plautus' Aulularia, 
a play often stated, though on insufficient evidence,37 to have a 
Menandrian original, a miser kills a cock so that its crowing will not 
betray the whereabouts of his treasure. Euclio, the miser in the 
Aulularia, resents even the smoke escaping from his house, and so, 
according to a late writer, does a Menandrian miser called Smikrines. 
It has therefore been suggested38 that, since the smoke story seems 
to be told of both Euclio and Smikrines, accordingly the hen, or cock, 
story may be a second link between them. This argument amounts 
to very little, and the attempt to make out a prima facie case for re­
garding The Heiress as a second title of the Shield falls a long way short 
of success. 

That this play is enjoyable is evident, I hope, even from the bald 
and unliterary presentation of it which I have offered. But in virtue of 
what qualities do we enjoy it? First and foremost, we enjoy it for its 
plot. It is easy enough to point out that this contains many of the 
regularly recurring elements found in plays of the New Comedy. 
It is based upon the ruse of a cunning slave, a feature which Plautus 
in his adaptations so much expanded and exaggerated; it contains 
two pairs of young lovers, and ends with a double wedding; it con­
tains two elderly Athenians, one sympathetic and the other com­
parable with, though more distasteful than, the <grouch' of the 
Dyskolos, the miser of the Aulularia, and the close-fisted father of the 
Epitrepontes; it contains the familiar cook and the not quite so familiar 
but well-attested comic doctor, in this case a bogus practitioner; one 
young man, like the hero of the Sicyonian, serves in Asia Minor; a 
slave in a farcical scene deluges the audience with quotations from 

38 Frs. 155-56 Koerte-Thierfelder (II p.64). 
37 Sandbach, op.cit. (supra n.31) 97-98, has done well to remind us that it is not certain 

that the Aulularia had a Menandrian original. If we did not know that the original of 
Terence's Hecyra was by Apollodorus of Carystus, people would no doubt argue from its 
resemblances to the Epitrepontes that its original must have been Menandrian. Since we 
have hardly any idea at all of the distinctive characteristics of other poets of the New 
Comedy, any argument that presupposes that we can isolate what is distinctively Menan­
drian starts under a disadvantage. 

38 By Gaiser, op.cit. (supra n.7) 9-12. A. Borgogno, RivFC 98 (1970) 274f, is more cautious, 
and with reason. 



HUGH LLOYD-JONES 191 

tragedy,39 a recognition scene has obvious affinities with such scenes 
in tragedy. But what matters most is the way in which these elements 
fit together in an unique and highly entertaining plot, centring upon 
the great stratagem of Daos. This plot's requirements determine 
the form which each standard element assumes in this play. 

What kind of pleasure does this plot give us? At the beginning Daos 
is in the deepest despondency. His narrative of battle, recalling 
accounts of similar episodes in Xenophon, strikes a serious note; and 
the evident satisfaction of his hypocritical companion makes matters 
worse. But the divine speaker of the prologue does not allow our 
anxiety to last long. From her opening words, we learn what anyone 
familiar with the genre will have already guessed, that Kleostratos is 
not really dead; and when she has explained the situation, she tells 
us that we shall see Smikrines thoroughly discomfited. When he re­
turns for his second talk with Daos, our knowledge of what is in store 
for him enables us to sit back without undue anxiety and enjoy the 
touches that display his meanness; and even the superb callousness of 
the cook and waiter leave us not indignant, but amused. Just so in 
the second act we can calmly notice the excessive quickness to despair 
of Chairestratos, who, sympathetic as he is, is characterised as 7TLKpOC 
Ka~ JL€'\aYX0'\tKOC, a manic depressive, and in contrast the loyalty and 
resourcefulness of Daos. The plotting scene-a standard type of scene 
in the New Comedy-displays the ruse of Daos in all its beautiful 
simplicity; and in the third act we see the beginning of its execution. 
In a realistic comedy Daos would hardly convey his distress and 
astonishment at his master's sudden affliction by uttering a series of 
quotations from tragedy, particularly since he aims to convince 
Smikrines that his brother really is on the point of death. But this is 
light comedy, and this particular scene, like many in Menander, is 
farcical. Smikrines is not only a miser but an ass, and in this scene his 
asininity is ruthlessly exposed. The exposure is continued in the scene 
with the pretended doctor; this person acutely notices that Smikrines, 
who thinks always of himself, is filled by the news of his brother's im­
minent demise with fear that the same thing might happen to him, 
and manages to make him believe that he himself shows dangerous 
symptoms. At that point our detailed knowledge of the plot ends, 
but even without the scraps of the last two acts which we possess, we 

39 Cf Epit. 759-73, where Sandbach, ProcCambPhilSoc 193 (1967) 44f, has convincingly 
argued that the quoter is not Sophrone but Onesimos. 



192 MENANDER'S ASPIS 

could easily have imagined the return of Kleostratos and the conclud­
ing double wedding. My chief regret is that we do not know what was 
done to Smikrines. 

We are often told, very truly, that Euripidean tragedy had an im­
portant influence on the New Comedy. Anyone can see that Menan­
der's plots owe much to those of Euripides; the standard motives of 
the exposed child, the arbitration, the recognition scene, for instance,4o 
all come to him from this source. But when people go further and 
claim that the actual content of Menander's comedies has a tragic 
element, they are on dangerous ground. 

First, the resemblance between certain scenes of Menander and 
tragic scenes to which they contain allusions is not reducible to mere 
imitation. The Sicyonian contains a long messenger speech,41 with 
more than one allusion to the famous messenger speech of Euripides' 
Orestes. That also describes how a debate in an assembly decided the 
fate of a man and a woman, and a distinguished scholar has described 
the Menandrian speech as being 'modelled' on the Euripidean.42 It 
seemed to me that the expression 'modelled' is calculated to obscure 
what is artistically the most important feature of the relationship 
between the two speeches. Not all of Menander's original audience 
will have taken the allusion. Those who missed it will not have been 
conscious of missing anything; they will have perceived a certain 
solemnity of tone, and will have sensed-if they were intelligent-

'0 R. Kannicht ap. Gaiser, op.cit. (supra nS) 18, thinks the motive of Chairestratos' pre­
tended death is taken from Euripides' Helen. Perhaps, but we can hardly be so specific; 
the motive of the hero's pretended death figures in Sophocles' Electra, where Orestes says 
that he knows many past instances (62f), and the belief that Odysseus is dead plays a part in 
a still older work, the Odyssey. Odysseus, it is true, did not contrive the rumour of his own 
death; but as Hartung saw, the case is none the less more relevant to that of Orestes than 
those of Zalmoxis and Pythagoras, which Jebb and Kaibel have preferred to dwell on. 

u 176f Kassel. 
U E. W. Handley. BIGS 12 (1965) 42; I differed, GRBS 7 (1966) 141. At Entretiens Hardt 16 

(1970) 23, Handley no longer uses the words 'modelled on', but singles out as especially 
important two effects of the Euripidean echo. It points, he says, to the analogy of situation 
between the slave and girl of theSicyonian and the heroic Electra and Orestes of the tragedy; 
and it "does something to justify dramatically the long uninterrupted speech, by placing 
it in a tradition in which Orestes was a classic case ... " He mentions also, as a subsidiary 
effect, that the echo gives the audience the pleasure of recognizing the allusion. What 
matters most is that the effect of the audience's pleasure in recognition, combined with the 
perception of the analogy and the "placing of the speech in a tradition," is a humorous effect. 
Sandbach,op.dt. (supra n.31) 133, has observed that only a minority of the first audience 
will have recognized it. 



HUGH LLOYD-JONES 193 

that it was not a solemnity to take wholly seriously. Those who did 
take the allusion will have seen that from the contrast between the 
heroic age and modern life, between a world prone to disaster and a 
world cushioned against it, the poet finds a gentle, ironic humour 
that will increase their pleasure. Just when the action of the play 
comes nearest to being serious, the more sophisticated hearers are 
reminded that this will not really happen; tragedy is present only at a 
distance, and the effect obtained is far from tragic. 

Still less is Menander's comedy influenced by tragedy in the sense 
that it may border on tragedy, or have a tragic element. A good 
scholar has claimed that in the Aspis Menander has among his themes 
"the tragic accent of death" and that the report of Kleostratos' death 
"suffices to diffuse an air of tragedy through the first part of the play." 
"It matters little," he writes, "that the news-as we shall learn-is 
false."43 On the contrary, it matters a great deal. The moment the 
opening scene between Daos and Smikrines is over, Tyche appears to 
speak her prologue. Her first words reassure the audience; Kleostratos 
is not dead, in case any person present was so naif or so ignorant of 
the genre as to suppose he was. We know from the start that he will 
return and that his wicked uncle will get what he deserves, so that we 
can sit back comfortably and observe how the thing happens. Another 
good scholar writes, "The image that has imprinted itself most 
forcibly on my mind from this year's Menander is that of the three­
day corpses bloated unrecognizable under the Mediterranean sun, 
and a bent and buckled shield."44 To say that is to concentrate on a 
trivial part and to ignore the whole. The ancient audience knew that 
Kleostratos was safe, and could enjoy an entertainment whose whole 
tone was kept distinct from that of tragedy. 

As always in Menander, the characterization is skilful; but it is 
noticeably less complicated than seems usual in this author. We meet 
here the most complete villain, and also the most loyal and intelligent 
slave, known to us from the specimens of the genre, in Greek and 
Latin, which we possess. From Chaireas we have a single speech be­
longing to a standard type, often uttered by the jeunes premiers of the 
New Comedy, claiming that the speaker is the most miserable person 
in the world. Chairestratos, with his constitutional pessimism, is a 
degree more unusual. Sympathetic as they are, he and his stepson do 

43 Del Como, op.cit. (supra n.12). 
H w. G. Arnott, University of Leeds Review 13 (1970) 18. 



194 MENANDER'S ASPIS 

not seem tremendously intelligent; here they are contrasted with 
Daos, who at one moment betrays his impatience with their mental 
slowness (353). Smikrines is skilfully portrayed; Menander has no­
ticed that extreme selfishness, carried to a point where it outweighs the 
fear of strong public disapproval, often originates in resentment at 
supposed neglect. But even this portrayal scarcely goes deep; the plot 
does not require it. The characters are, as always in Menander, made 
carefully to fit the requirements of the plot; but as in tragedy accord­
ing to Aristotle, the characters are there for the plot and not the plot for 
the characters. These characters are by no means such as to encourage 
those learned persons who talk as if a prime motive of Menander as a 
dramatist was to recommend the ethical doctrines of Peripatetic 
philosophy by exemplifying the theories of human character put 
forward by Menander's teacher, Theophrastus, and by his master, 
Aristotle. 

The reader who knows Greek will derive continuous pleasure from 
the elegance, variety and aptness of Menander's language. In his 
contribution to the new Menander volume of the Fondation Hardt,45 
F. H. Sandbach has admirably shown how this poet adapts his lan­
guage to each speaker and to each situation. 

In the same volume (pp.71f), Walther Ludwig has made excellent 
remarks about the function of the gods in Menandrian comedy. He 
rightly argues that it is a convention of this genre that poetic justice is 
always done, and that it is done with the aid of the gods. As always, 
the Greek gods do not act by miraculous interference with the course 
of nature; they act through nature, and in particular through the 
minds of human beings.46 This play, which has Fortune as its pro­
loguizing divinity, is no exception. Tyche and TO aUT6JLaTOV playa great 
part in Menander; but in his work neither means <Chance'. TO aUT6p.aTov 

refers to things that happen by themselves, without deliberate human 
intervention;47 notice the word <human'. In some Hellenistic writers 
Tyche came to have the sense of blind chance; but in the classical age 
it normally means 'whatever happens'. In Sophocles' satyr-play The 

45 Op.cit. (supra n.31) 113f. 
46 See my book The Justice of Zeus (Sather Lectures 41, Berkeley 1971) passim. 
47 See Arist. Phys. II 197a36f, and cf Pluto De fato 571E. In Aristotle's view TVXTJ is applied 

to the movements of rational animals,who act KaTd.7Tpoa{p€CLV, TO a~T6JLaTovto the movements 
of non-rational animals and of objects. Here, as often, Aristotelian usage coincides with that 
of ordinary language. See F. Solmsen, Aristotle's System of the Physical World (CornStCP 33, 
Ithaca 1960) 102-08. 



HUGH LLOYD-JONES 195 

Searchers a character invokes "Divine Tyche and guiding daimon"; 
the irrational element in human affairs was set down not to blind 
chance, but to the working, perhaps incomprehensible to man, of 
a divine agency.48 In this respect Menander's usage is classica1.49 

Whether he himself in private life believed in poetic justice I do not 
know, for our only evidence comes from his plays; in these, the con­
vention of poetic justice is regularly observed. The good are rewarded, 
the bad are punished; the young lovers marry, with a secure income, 
the greedy old man is ridiculed. This is not surprising, for the plays 
are quite distinct from philosophy, from tragedy, and from social 
criticism. They happen to be light comedies, with a decided element 
of farce. 

Incomplete as it is, and despite what some people find this distres­
sing lack of profundity, the Aspis seems to me one of the most attrac­
tive pieces of Menander among those lately recovered. So far, English 
translations of the new Menander have been undistinguished; no 
wonder, since despite his appearance of simplicity, he is not easy to 

translate. 

CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD 

April, 1971 

48 Ichneutai 50 Page, (}€OC TVXTJ Ka~ SaLj.LOV l(}vvT~P!€; for the reading (}€OC, see E. Fraenkel, 
Aeschylus, Agamemnon III (Oxford 1950) 675 n.2. 

49 Euripides frequently plays with the notion of Tyche as an independent and capricious 
power; see the material collected by Gerda Busch, Untersuchungen zum Wesen der Tyche in 
den Tragodien des Euripides (Diss. Heidelberg 1937). But even in EUripides the operations of 
Tyche are, at least on the conceptual level, set down to the will of the gods, a will that may 
be inscrutable to mortals. A. Spira, Untersuchungen zum Deus ex machina bei Sophokles und 
Euripides (Diss. Frankfurt, Kallmiinz 1960), is relevant here; and see The Justice of Zeus 
(supra n.46) 144f.