Greek comedy flourished in the fifth and fourth centuries BC, both in and beyond Athens. Aristophanes and Menander are the best-known writers whose work is in part extant, but many other dramatists are known from surviving fragments of their plays. This sophisticated but accessible introduction explores the genre as a whole, integrating literary questions (such as characterisation, dramatic technique or diction) with contextual ones (for example audience response, festival context, interface with ritual or political frames). In addition, it also discusses relevant historical issues (political, socio-economic and legal) as well as the artistic and archaeological evidence. The result provides a unique panorama of this challenging area of Greek literature which will be of help to students at all levels and from a variety of disciplines but will also provide stimulus for further research.

Introduction Martin Revermann; Part I. Setting the Stage (in Athens and Beyond): 1. Defining the genre David Konstan; 2. The rivals of Aristophanes and Menander Zachary P. Biles; 3. Fourth-century comedy before Menander Keith Sidwell; 4. Epicharmus and early Sicilian comedy Kathryn Bosher; 5. The iconography of comedy Eric Csapo; Part II. Comic Theatre: 6. Dramatic technique and Athenian comedy C. W. Marshall; 7. Character types Ian Ruffell; 8. The language(s) of comedy Andreas Willi; Part III. Central Themes: 9. Laughter Stephen Halliwell; 10. Utopianism Ian Ruffell; 11. The Greek 'comic hero' Ralph M. Rosen; 12. Social class David Kawalko Roselli; 13. Performing gender in Greek Old and New Comedy Helene Foley; 14. Divinity and religious practice Martin Revermann; Part IV. Politics, Law and Social History: 15. The politics of Greek comedy Alan Sommerstein; 16. Comedy and Athenian festival culture Edith Hall; 17. Comedy and Athenian law Victoria Wohl; 18. Comedy and the social historian Susan Lape and Alfonso Moreno; Part V. Reception: 19. Attic comedy in the rhetorical and moralising traditions Richard Hunter; 20. Contexts of reception in antiquity Sebastiana Nervegna; 21. The reception of Greek comedy in Rome Michael Fontaine; 22. The transmission of comic texts Nigel Wilson; 23. Snapshots of Aristophanes and Menander: from spontaneous reception to belated reception study Gonda Van Steen.