Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/466

444 444 HISTORY OF THE arrived at a sort of passionless rest and moderation ; * though it is possible that in actual life Menander placed his happiness less in the painless tranquillity "which Epicurus sought, than in various kinds of moderate gratification. It is known how much he gave himself up to intercourse with the hetcerce, not merely with the accomplished Glycera, but also with the wanton Thais ; and his effeminate costume, according to a well-known story,t offended even Demetrius of Phalerus, the regent of Athens under Cassander, who however led a sufficiently luxurious life himself. Such a philosophy of life as this, which places the summum bonum in a well-based love of self, could very well dispense with the gods, whom Epicurus transferred to the intermundane regions, because, according to his natural philosophy, he could not absolutely annihilate them. Agreeing entirely with his friend on this point, Menander thought that the gods would have a life of trouble if they had to distri- bute good and evil for evecy day. t It was on this account that the philosopher attributed so much to the influence of chance in the creation of the world and the destinies of mankind. Menander also exalts Ti>x 7 l (Fortune) as the sovereign of the world ; § but this no longer implies the saviour daughter of almighty Zeus, but merely the causeless, incalcu- lable, accidental combinations of things in nature and in the life of man. It was, however, precisely at such a time as this, when all relations were dislocated or merged in licentiousness, that comedy possessed a power, which, though widely different from the angry flashes of the genius of Aristophanes, perhaps produced in its way more durable effects : this power was the power of ridicule, which taught people to dread as folly that which they no longer avoided as vice. This power was the more effective as it confined its operations to the sphere of the actual, and did not exhibit the follies which it represented under the same gigantic and superhuman forms as the old comedy. The old comedy, in its necessity for invention, created forms in which it could pourtray with most prominent features the characteristics of whole classes and species of men ; the new comedy look its forms, in all their individual peculiarities, from real life, and did not attempt to signify by them more than individuals of the particular class. || On this account more importance was attached by the writers of the new comedy to the invention of plots, and to their dramatic complication and solution, Mcineke, Menandri frciffm., p. 166. f Phsedrus, fab., v. 1. In a fragment which has recently come to light from the commentary of David on Aristotle's Categories. See Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Grcec, p. 454. ^ Meineke, Menandri fraam., p. 168.
 * The reader will find characteristic expressions of this luxurious philosophy in
 * Hence the exclamation : Z V/aayhi xtc) pit.