Sikyonioi
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''Sikyonios'' or ''Sikyonioi'' ( el, Σικυώνιος/Σικυώνιοι), translated as ''The Sicyonian(s)'' or ''The Man from
Sicyon Sicyon (; el, Σικυών; ''gen''.: Σικυῶνος) or Sikyon was an ancient Greek city state situated in the northern Peloponnesus between Corinth and Achaea on the territory of the present-day regional unit of Corinthia. An ancient mona ...
'', is an
Ancient Greek comedy Ancient Greek comedy was one of the final three principal dramatic forms in the theatre of classical Greece (the others being tragedy and the satyr play). Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods: Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, an ...
by
Menander Menander (; grc-gre, Μένανδρος ''Menandros''; c. 342/41 – c. 290 BC) was a Greek dramatist and the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy. He wrote 108 comedies and took the prize at the Lenaia festival eight times. His rec ...
. About half of the play has survived in fragments of papyrus used to stuff several mummies in the cemetery of Medinet-el-Ghoran in the
Faiyum Faiyum ( ar, الفيوم ' , borrowed from cop,  ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ or Ⲫⲓⲱⲙ ' from egy, pꜣ ym "the Sea, Lake") is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum ...
, where they were discovered in 1901 by
Pierre Jouguet Pierre Jouguet (14 May 1869 – 9 July 1949) was a French Egyptologist and classical philologist. In 1890 he studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, obtaining his agrégation for grammar in 1893. For three years thereafter he was assoc ...
. The first acts are almost completely lost, but the rest, although the manuscript is often corrupt, lacunose and hard to read, allows a fair reconstruction of the plot.


Plot

''Sikyionioi'' takes place in a street in
Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...
, probably in the demos of
Eleusis Elefsina ( el, Ελευσίνα ''Elefsina''), or Eleusis (; Ancient Greek: ''Eleusis'') is a suburban city and Communities and Municipalities of Greece, municipality in the West Attica regional unit of Greece. It is situated about northwest ...
, facing the houses of Kichesias and Smikrines, two Athenians who have reversed their luck, as the once rich Kichesias has grown poor and the poor Smikrines has become rich. In the
prologue A prologue or prolog (from Greek πρόλογος ''prólogos'', from πρό ''pró'', "before" and λόγος ''lógos'', "word") is an opening to a story that establishes the context and gives background details, often some earlier story that ...
speech the divinity has exposed how twelve years earlier the four-year-old Philumene, together with her nurse and the slave Dromon, was kidnapped by pirates from her father's estate on the coast of
Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...
and sold at
Mylasa Milas ( grc, Μύλασα, Mylasa) is an ancient city and the seat of the district of the same name in Muğla Province in southwestern Turkey. The city commands a region with an active economy and very rich in history and ancient remains, the ter ...
in
Caria Caria (; from Greek: Καρία, ''Karia''; tr, Karya) was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia (Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionians, Ionian and Dorians, Dorian Greeks colonized the west of i ...
to a wealthy Sicyonian named Hegemon. The action probably started with a conversation between Theron and his love interest Malthake, during which the audience learns that Theron is the parasite of Stratophanes, a
mercenary soldier A mercenary, sometimes also known as a soldier of fortune or hired gun, is a private individual, particularly a soldier, that joins a military conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any o ...
who has lately arrived from a successful campaign in Asia Minor. In the first act Stratophanes starts his search for a young slave girl who had previously been in his family's custody. Belonging to his late Sicyonian father Hegemon, the girl was educated like a lady and Stratophanes fell in love with her, but now, due to an important lawsuit lost by his father, her fate is uncertain as the property of the slaves is claimed by the
Boeotia Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, Βοιωτία; modern: ; ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its lar ...
n plaintiff. When the girl takes refuge in a temple at
Eleusis Elefsina ( el, Ελευσίνα ''Elefsina''), or Eleusis (; Ancient Greek: ''Eleusis'') is a suburban city and Communities and Municipalities of Greece, municipality in the West Attica regional unit of Greece. It is situated about northwest ...
, the old slave in her company claims that she is an Athenian, and a pale beardless young man offers himself as her protector. But then Stratophanes steps up to declare that she belonged to his family. He implores the Eleusinian assembly to be given more time allowing to prove that she is actually an Athenian, which would save her from the Boeotian, but also make it impossible for the Sicyonian to marry her. Toward the end of act three, however, Stratophanes' slave Pyrrhias reports him the last words of his mother who revealed on her dying bed that he was adopted from an Athenian family. When the slave also brings documents to prove his master's descent, Stratophanes exclaims: "At first I thought I too was a Sicyonian; but here is this man who now brings me my mother's testament and the proofs of my true birth. And I myself believe - if I am to infer from what is written here and to credit it - that I too am your fellow-citizen. Do not yet deprive me of my hope; but if I too am proved to be a fellow citizen of the girl whom I preserved for her father, allow me to ask him for her and to get her. And let none of my antagonists get the girl into his power before he is revealed."Translation by Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Menander's Sikyonios, (1966), p.142. Stratophanes then instructs Theron with the search and the parasite tries to cheat him by paying poor Kichesias to act as her father. At first Kichesias rejects the offer, but then Philumene's slave Dromon arrives to confirm that he is actually the father of the girl. In act five Stratophanes confronts Smikrines and his pale son Moschion, who has been his rival with the girl, but at the end of their quarrel, when the proof for his Athenian birth is produced, the family recognizes that he is actually Moschion's elder brother given away to the Sicyonians by his father Smikrines when he was poor. As Kichesias consents, Stratophanes is finally free to marry his beloved Philumene.


Notes


References


Hugh Lloyd-Jones, ''Menander's Sikyonios''
(1966)
Menander, ''Sikyonioi''
Loeb Classical Library (2000) * ''Ménandre, Les Sicyoniens'', Les Belles Lettres (2009) {{Authority control Plays by Menander