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Theophrastus 943 THEOPHRASTUS 943 Theophilus Theophilus (PAA 511110) was a mosaic from Pompeii signed by Dioscurides of comic playwright who straddled the periods of Samos (Plate 29), a fresco from Stabia, a fragmen­ Middle Comedy and New Comedy. His flo­ tary mosaic also from the Vesuvian area, a mosaic ruit dates into the second half of the fourth cen­ from Daphne (a suburb of Antioch), and, finally, tury bce. He is first recorded as being victorious a mosaic from Kastelli Kissamou, in Crete with an unknown play at the City Dionysia of ( references in Nervegna, Appendix 2). These 329 (IRDF 2318.1699). His play Pankratiastes monuments do not all reproduce exactly the won fourth place at the City Dionysia of 311 same scene, but they arguably derive from the (IRDF 2323a col. I.15). The one Theophilus men­ same archetype, variously reelaborated and mis­ tioned in IRDF 2322.5 (Lenaea, third quarter of understood (see Csapo 1999; Nervegna 165–67). fourth century bce) was probably an actor. Under As Nervegna (2010) argues, a fragmentary fresco Theophilus’ name there survive twelve fragments from Pompeii reproduces an excerpt of this scene. and nine play titles: Apodemoi (The Emigrants), Boiotia (The Boeotian Woman), Epidaurios See also murals (The Man from Epidaurus), Iatros (The Doctor), Kitharodos (The Cithara Artiste), Neoptolemus, References Pankratiastes (The Pankration Athlete), Proitides Csapo, Eric G. 1999. “Performance and Iconographic (The Daughters of Proetus), and Philaulos (The Tradition in the Illustrations of Menander.” Syllecta Pipe Lover). The doctor figure, the foreign classica, 10: 154–88. Nervegna, Sebastiana. 2010. “Menander’s Theopho­ female, and the element of myth are all common roumene between Greece and Rome.” American features of Middle Comedy. Fragments 11 and 12 Journal of Philology, 131: 23–68. from Philaulos prefigure the kind of love theme that is typical of New Comedy. sebastiana nervegna Further Reading PCG vii 700–707. Theophrastus Theophrastus (ca. 371–287 bce; Papachrysostomou, Athina. 2008. Six Comic Poets: PAA 512720) was a pupil of Aristotle and his A Commentary on Selected Fragments of Middle successor as head of the Lyceum. He wrote on Comedy, 248–81. Tübingen: Narr. many topics (e.g. metaphysics, biology, and logic); athina papachrysostomou his surviving works include two treatises on botany and the Ethikoi charakteres, i.e. Distinctive Marks of Character or simply Characters ( charakter Theophoroumene (Menander) Menander’s in Greek means “imprint,” especially on coins, and Theophoroumene (Possessed) is a fragmentary hence “distinctive mark”). Aristotle had developed play preserved in a few citations by ancient writ­ character analysis in his Rhetoric, illustrating ers and one (possibly two) papyri (PSI xii 1280, the characters of youths, adults, and the elderly, xv 1480; main edition with English translation: as well as of the noble, rich, and powerful Arnott Menander ii 49–79). The protagonist of (1389a3–1391b7); in the Nicomachean Ethics this comedy is a maiden who is either possessed he analyzed virtues and vices, defining virtue as by a god or, most likely, pretending to be. In the the mean between two vices, one of deficiency text preserved by PSI xii 1280, two young and one of excess. In his Characters (composed men named Lysias and Kleinias put the girl to between 330 and 319), Theophrastus developed the test by playing music. This papyrus was this inquiry but described “real” individuals (his ascribed to Theophoroumene by comparison with models being his fellow Athenians) rather than the inscribed Theophoroumene mosaic from abstract virtues and vices as did Aristotle. Mytilene, which includes two male figures The Characters, in the version transmi tted labeled Lysias and Kleinias. The Mytilene to us, is interpolated with a proem as well as mosaic is only one of the extant illustrations of introductions and epilogues added to some Theophoroumene. This play is also reproduced on descriptions; these additions provide a moraliz­ a total of five monuments dating from the late ing interpretation to the treatise, but, once they second century bce to the fifth century ce: a are removed, the treatise’s original purpose is 944 THEOPHRASTUS unclear. The descriptions have been interpreted 5.36, who quotes Pamphile of Epidaurus, a as extracts from different works of Theophrastus, first‐century ce female historian), is not secure models for orators, preparatory notes for a work and might have been created to explain these on ethics, a series of examples to use in lectures on similarities. Since Menander wrote his comedies ethics, or even as stemming from Theophrastus’ when interests in psychology and ethical behav­ interest in comedy (he wrote works On Laughter iors were flourishing (thanks to the Peripatetics), and On Comedy). Theophrastus’ Characters and he could have been influenced by them without New Comedy have indeed often been connected: necessarily belonging to the Peripatetic school. aside from being contemporary, Theophrastus’ Additionally, while starting from “psychological” sketches and comedy characters share undeniable types, Menander goes beyond them, making his similarities. Yet connections between comedy characters more complex than Theophrastus’ and philosophy date back to Aristotle: in Nico­ sketches: in Dyskolos Knemon starts as a mix machean Ethics (1108a19–26) he had described of different Theophrastean types (Characters 4, four “excessive” types: the “boaster” (alazon; 10, 18, 24) but evolves and becomes a different see alazones), the “self‐deprecator” (eiron), person by the end of the comedy. Scholars (e.g. the “buffoon” (bomolochos), and the “rustic” Ussher 1977) have even suggested that Theo­ (agroikos). The same characters (except the “rus­ phrastus’ characters find more similarities in tic”) are listed in the Tractatus coislinianus Old Comedy, with its “fixed” comic types, than on comedy (ch. 12) and can be found already in in New Comedy: the comic heroes of Aris­ Aristophanes: in Acharnians Lamachus is tophanes, such as Dicaeopolis, Strepsiades, a “boaster,” while in Clouds Strepsiades is a Trygaeus, and the Sausage‐Seller, all lack “buffoon.” These four comic types have famously psychological development and are character­ been used to discuss a modern theory of comedy ized by constant “rusticity” (agroikia) (Characters (Frye 1957, 171–76). Theophrastus includes more 4), “senselessness” (aponoia) (Characters 6), and “vicious” sketches (thirty in total) than Aristotle, “coarseness” (bdeluria) (Characters 11). Comedy which find parallels in New Comedy; for example, by nature satirizes and ridicules deviant behav­ Antiphanes, Menander, and Philemon (1) iors, the same vices described by Theophrastus wrote comedies entitled Rustic (Agroikos) (Char­ and before him by Aristotle. A more direct link acters 4); Menander’s titles also include a Distrust­ than this between Theophrastus and Menander ful Man (Apistos) (Characters 18), a Superstitious remains unproven yet not excluded; however, the Man (Deisidaimon) (Characters 16), and a Toady “philosophical” connection between Peripatetic (Kolax) (Characters 2); Antidotus authored an psychological interests and both Old and New Ungrateful Man (Mempsimoiros) (Characters 17). Comedy is certainly important. In addition, the “boaster” (Characters 23) is pre­ sent in many comedies as the braggart soldier, References while Menander’s Knemon mixes characteris­ Frye, H. Northrop. 1957. Anatomy of Criticism: Four tics of the “rustic” (Characters 4), the “skinflint” Essays. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (mikrologos) (Characters 10), the “distrustful Barigazzi, Adelmo. 1965. La formazione spirituale di man” ( Characters 18), and the “arrogant man” Menandro [The Making of Menander’s Mind]. Turin: (huperephanos) (Characters 24); finally, Daos in Bottega d’Erasmo. Menander’s Perikeiromene (375) is accused of Ussher, Robert G. 1977. “Old Comedy and ‘Character’: Some Comments.” Greece & Rome, 24: 71–79. “senselessness” (aponoia) (Characters 6). Other similarities between Menander and Theophrastus have been found in ideas concerning Further Reading Steinmetz, Peter. 1960. “Menander und Theophrast” ethical and religious behavior and a similar use [“Menander and Theophrastus”]. Rheinisches of the word charakter (Men. fr. 72). However, Museum, 103: 185–91. these similarities do not necessarily imply that Gaiser, Konrad. 1967. “Menander und der Peripatos” Menander was “the poet of the Peripatos,” as [“Menander and the Peripatos”]. Antike und Abend­ claimed by Barigazzi (1965). Even the ancient tra­ land, 13: 8–38. dition that Menander was a pupil of Theophrastus, Diggle, James. 2004. Theophrastus: Characters. originating from a late source (Diogenes Laertius Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. THEORIC FUND 945 Casanova, Angelo. 2014. “Menander and the Peripatos: (– ∪ –), which gave rise to this particular meter New Insights into an Old Question.” In Menander in being dubbed Theopompean (cf. fr. 39). Contexts, edited by Alan H. Sommerstein, 137–51. London: Routledge. References francesca schironi Rusten, Jeffrey S. 2011. “Other Authors, ca. 420– 390 bce.” In Rusten Birth 354–98. Theopompus Theopompus (PAA 509465), the Further Reading son of Theodectes/Theodorus or Teisamenus, PCG vii 708–49. was an Athenian comic dramatist of the late fifth Nesselrath AMK 203–4. and early fourth centuries bce. Victor lists carl a. shaw indicate that he won once at the City Dionysia (IRDF 2325C.36) and twice at the Lenaea (IRDF 2325E.20). His first Lenaean victory
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