Antiphanes is one of the most important writers of the Middle Attic comedy. His plays deal with matters connected to mythological subjects, although others referenced particular professional and national persons or characters, while other plays focused on the intrigues of personal life. This volume contains an introduction, a critical text, translation and complete philological, literary and historical commentary on the testimonia and fragments (fr. 1 – 100; Agroikos/The Rustic – Ephesia/The Girl of Ephesus) of Antiphanes.
The aim of this book is to explore the definition(s) of ‘theatre’ and ‘metatheatre’ that scholars use when studying the ancient Greek world. Although in modern languages their meaning is mostly straightforward, both concepts become problematical when applied to ancient reality. In fact, ‘theatre’ as well as ‘metatheatre’ are used in many different, sometimes even contradictory, ways by modern scholars. Through a series of papers examining questions related to ancient Greek theatre and dramatic performances of various genres the use of those two terms is problematized and put into question. Must ancient Greek theatre be reduced to what was performed in proper theatre-buildings? And is everything was performed within such buildings to be considered as ‘theatre’? How does the definition of what is considered as theatre evolve from one period to the other? As for ‘metatheatre’, the discussion revolves around the interaction between reality and fiction in dramatic pieces of all genres. The various definitions of ‘metatheatre’ are also explored and explicited by the papers gathered in this volume, as well as the question of the distinction between paratheatre (understood as paratragedy/comedy) and metatheatre. Readers will be encouraged by the diversity of approaches presented in this book to re-think their own understanding and use of ‘theatre’ and ‘metatheatre’ when examining ancient Greek reality.
This book is a fully-fledged commentary on the fragments of the Greek comic poets Nausicrates and Nicostratus. By reconstructing the text and providing metrical, linguistic, and detailed philological analysis, it makes the work of these neglected authors accessible to all those interested in Greek drama and classical literature at large.
English summary: The series 'Fragmenta Comica' will provide a complete commentary on the fragments of Greek comedy. The aim of the commentary is twofold: on the one hand, it is meant to make accessible these mostly rather challenging texts from a number of different perspectives. On the other hand, it should help in the reconstruction the plays where this is possible, as well as in achieving a literary-historical classification of the authors. The fragments and testimonia will be translated. The results obtained in the commentary will be integrated into general surveys published in the Studia Comica series: on comedy and comedy techniques such as parody and satire as well as on its political function. The project is planned to take fifteen years to complete. German summary: Die Reihe Fragmenta Comica wird die vollstandige Kommentierung der Fragmente der griechischen Komodie bieten. Ziel der Kommentare ist es, einerseits die in der Regel schwierig zu verstehenden Texte unter allen moglichen Gesichtspunkten zu erschlieaen, andererseits, wo dies moglich ist, eine Rekonstruktion der Stucke zu versuchen und eine literaturgeschichtliche Einordnung der Autoren vorzunehmen. Die Fragmente und Testimonien werden ubersetzt. Die in den Kommentaren erzielten Ergebnisse sollen in allgemeine Studien einflieaen, die in den Studia Comica veroffentlicht werden: zur Komik und komischen Techniken wie Parodie, Satire sowie zur politischen Funktion. Prof. Dr. Bernhard Zimmermann leitet die Forschungsstelle Kommentierung der Fragmente der griechischen Komodie an der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften. Die Arbeitsstelle des Projekts ist am Seminar fur Klassische Philologie der Universitat Freiburg angesiedelt. Ein Weblog berichtet aktuell uber den Fortgang des Projekts, das auf 15 Jahre ausgelegt ist. Das Projekt ist international vernetzt und arbeitet mit Zentren zur Erforschung der fragmentarisch erhaltenen griechischen Literatur in Italien, Groabritannien und den USA zusammen.
