The Birth of Comedy: Texts, Documents, and Art from Athenian Comic Competitions, 486–280

Aside from the well-known plays of Aristophanes, many of the comedies of ancient Greece are known only through fragments and references written in Greek. Now a group of distinguished scholars brings these nearly lost works to modern readers with lively English translations of the surviving texts. The Birth of Comedy brings together a wealth of information on the first three generations of Western comedy. The translations, presented in chronological order, are based on the universally praised scholarly edition in Greek, Poetae Comici Graeci, by R. Kassel and C. A. Austin. Additional chapters contain translations of texts relating to comedy at dramatic festivals, staging, audience, and ancient writers on comedy. The main text is supplemented by an introduction assessing the fragments' contributions to the political, social, and theatrical history of classical Athens and more than forty illustrations of comic scenes, costumes, and masks. A glossary of komoidoumenoi-the ancient word for "people mentioned in comedies"-provides background information on the most notorious comic victims. A full index includes not only authors, play titles, and persons mentioned, but themes from the whole Greek comic sphere (including politics, literature and philosophy, celebrities and social scandals, cookery and wine, sex, and wealth).

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments Symbols and Abbreviations Introduction Fragments of Comedy Principles of This Selection How to Use This Book List of Translators and Sections Plays and Fragments of Special Interest Sources of the Comic Fragments A Short History of Athenian Comedy Attested Dates of Athenian Comedies, 486–280 BCE Part I. Beginnings 1. Proto-Comedy 2. Epicharmus of Sicily Part II. Athenian Old Comedy Introduction 3. Festivals, Competitions, and Victory Lists 4. The First and Second Generations (except Cratinus) 5. Cratinus 6. Eupolis 7. Aristophanes 8. Phrynichus and Platon 9. Other Authors, ca. 420–390 BCE 10. Theater, Audience, Actors, Chorus, and Costume of Old and Middle Comedy 11. Scenes from Old or Middle Comedy on Fourth-Century South Italian Vases Part III. Middle Comedy Introduction 12. Anaxandrides, Eubulus, and Ephippus 13. Antiphanes 14. Timocles and Nicostratus 15. Alexis 16. Other Authors Part IV. Athenian New Comedy Introduction 17. Masks, Actors, Staging, and Scenes from New Comedy 18. Philemon 19. Menander 20. Diphilus of Sinope 21. Other Authors Epilogue 22. Survival of Comedy in Hellenistic Greece and Republican and Imperial Rome 23. Ancient Theories of Comedy and Laughter, and Ancient Writers on Comedy Komoidoumenoi Bibliography Illustration Credits Index

About the Author :
Jeffrey Rusten is a professor of classics at Cornell University. Jeffrey Henderson is William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of Greek Language and Literature at Boston University. David Konstan is John Rowe Workman Distinguished Professor of Classics and the Humanistic Tradition and professor of comparative literature at Brown University. Ralph Rosen is Rose Family Endowed Term Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Niall W. Slater is Dobbs Professor of Latin and Greek at Emory University.

Review :
A unique resource for the serious study of comedy, this book is vast in scope and of incalculable value for those who do not read Greek. Choice This book is a landmark, which has come to stay. -- Antonis K. Petrides Bryn Mawr Classical Review A valuable scholarly enterprise. -- Simone Beta Classical Journal This volume, which is aimed at general readers... and whose generous dimensions rival the size of an Oxford Classical Dictionary, will be an essential resource for anyone who wants to inquire into what is known of Athenian comedy beyond the surviving plays of Aristophanes and Menander... Rusten offers a concise and balanced account. -- Kenneth Rothwell, Jr. New England Classical Journal The Birth of Comedy is a singularly ambitious and very welcome work. -- Matthew Leigh Times Literary Supplement A true reference book, to be dipped into when certain facts or information are required and thoughtfully arranged in an accessible style. Scholarly and academic in both approach and scope, this is a valuable resource for anyone interested in or researching not only Ancient Greek comedy but also the history of comic plays, theatre and drama. After twenty years spent compiling the material it is a resource that will not date and one that should provide for interesting scholarly debate and research outcomes. -- Louise Ellis-Barrett Reference Reviews It will certainly be appearing on my reading lists in future. Journal of Hellenic Studies