List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
Series Preface
Comedy Title Abbreviations
Other Abbreviations
Introduction, Michael Ewans (University of Newcastle, Australia)
1. Form, Gesine Manuwald (University College London, UK)
2. Theory, Caleb M. X. Dance (Washington and Lee University, USA)
3. Praxis, Michael Ewans (University of Newcastle, Australia)
4. Identities, Natalia Tsoumpra (University of Glasgow, UK)
5. The Body, Louise Peacock (De Montfort University, UK)
6. Politics and Power, Isabel Ruffell (University of Glasgow, UK)
7. Laughter, Marcel Lysgaard Lech (University of Southern Denmark, Denmark)
8. Ethics
- Ethics in Greek Comedy, Valeria Cinaglia (University of Exeter, UK)
- Ethics in Roman Comedy, Serena S. Witzke (Wesleyan University, USA)
Notes
References
Index

Michael Ewans is Conjoint Professor of Drama in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Science at the University of Newcastle, Australia.

Drawing together contributions from scholars in a wide range of fields inside Classics and Drama, this volume traces the development of comedic performance and examines the different characteristics of Greek and Roman comedy. Although the origins of comedy are obscure, this study argues that comedic performances were at the heart of Graeco-Roman culture from around 486 BCE to the mid first century BCE. It explores the range of comedies during this period, which were fictional dramas that engaged with the political and social concerns of ancient society, and also at times with mythology and tragedy.
The volume centres largely around the surviving work of Aristophanes and Menander in Athens, and Plautus and Terence in Rome, but authors whose plays survive only in fragments are also discussed. Performances and plays drew on a range of forms, including satire and fantasy, and were designed to entertain and amuse their audiences while also asking them to question issues of morality, privilege and class.
Each chapter takes a different theme as its focus: form, theory, praxis, identities, the body, politics and power, laughter and ethics. These eight different approaches to ancient comedy add up to an extensive, synoptic coverage of the subject.