Menander 'Misoumenos' or 'The Hated Man', 143: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary

Menander's Misoumenos, or The Hated Man, is one of his most popular plays to have survived from classical times. Dating to approximately 300 BCE, it tells the story of a mercenary soldier and the captive girl he acquires while on campaign in Cyprus. The play follows the soldier's growing despair as the girl spurns his advances and slowly turns against him, culminating in his suicidal thoughts.

The play belongs to the ancient genre of New Comedy, of which Menander was the acknowledged master. This edition presents a significantly updated text and the fullest English language translation of the play to date. It aims to restore as much as possible of the action of Misoumenos, reconstructing the language, stagecraft, and theatrical dialogue of the original based on hypothesis and reconstruction. Some sections can be restored nearly in full, permitting access to brilliantly original theatrical dialogue which had been lost for over two millennia. Apart from meter and sophisticated idiom, the themes of love, despair, and sadness that Menander treats are utterly timeless.