Menander Rhetor ( el, Μένανδρος Ῥήτωρ), also known as Menander of
Laodicea ( el, Μένανδρος ὁ Λαοδικεύς), was a
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
rhetorician and
commentator of the 3rd or 4th century AD.
Two incomplete treatises on epideictic speeches have been preserved under his name, but it is generally considered that they cannot be by the same author.
Bursian attributes the first to Menander, whom he placed in the 4th century, and the second to an anonymous rhetorician of
Alexandria Troas, who possibly lived in the time of
Diocletian. Others, from the superscription of the Paris manuscript, assign the first to
Genethlius Genethlius ( el, Γενέθλιος, Genéthlios) was a 3rd-century Arab sophist from Petra, Arabia Petraea. His father was also named Genethlius.
He was a pupil of the Greek sophists Minucianus ( grc, Μινουκιανός) and Agapetus ( grc, ...
of
Petra in
Palestine.
In view of the general tradition of antiquity, that both treatises were the work of Menander, it is possible that the author of the second was not identical with the Menander mentioned by the ''
Suda''; since the name is of frequent occurrence in later
Greek literature
Greek literature () dates back from the ancient Greek literature, beginning in 800 BC, to the modern Greek literature of today.
Ancient Greek literature was written in an Ancient Greek dialect, literature ranges from the oldest surviving writte ...
. The first treatise, entitled ''Division of Epideictic Styles'' (Διαίρεσις τῶν Ἐπιδεικτικῶν), discusses the different kinds of epideictic speeches; the second, ''On Epideictic Speeches'' (Περὶ Ἐπιδεικτικῶν), has special titles for each chapter.
Text in
L Spengel's ''Rhetores graeci'', iii
329446, and in C Bursian's "Der Rhetor Menandros und seine Schriften" in ''Abhandl. der bayer. Akad. der Wissenschaften'', xvi. (1882); see also
Wilhelm Nitsche
Wilhelm may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* William Charles John Pitcher, costume designer known professionally as "Wilhelm"
* Wilhelm (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname
Other uses
* Moun ...
, ''Der Rhetor M. und die Scholien zu Demosthenes'';
JE Sandys, ''Hist. of Classical Scholarship'' (1906), i. 338;
Wilhelm von Christ
Wilhelm von Christ (2 August 1831 – 8 February 1906) was a German classical scholar.
Biography
He was born in Geisenheim in Hesse-Nassau. From 1854 till 1860 he taught in the Maximiliansgymnasium at Munich, and in 1861 was appointed professor ...
, ''Gesch. der griechischen Litteratur'' (1898), 550.
See also
*
Byzantine rhetoric Byzantine rhetoric refers to rhetorical theorizing and production during the time of the Byzantine Empire. Byzantine rhetoric is significant in part because of the sheer volume of rhetorical works produced during this period. Rhetoric was the most ...
References
* Heath, Malcolm ''Menander: A Rhetor in Context''. Oxford:
OUP
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 2004. Secondary study.
* Russell, D.A. and N.G. Wilson (edd.) ''Menander Rhetor''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981. Text, translation and commentary.
*
{{Authority control
Ancient Greek rhetoricians