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Wordplay in a fragment of Menander

Updated: Mar 20


Ostrakon with Menander's Sentences in Coptic (NY Metropolitan Museum. Public Domain)
Ostrakon with Menander's Sentences in Coptic (NY Metropolitan Museum. Public Domain)


Menander is not really known for wordplay. But there is one in the following fragment that is not attributed to any play (572 K.-T.), See if you can find it before turning to the translation.


οἰκεῖον οὕτως οὐδέν ἐστιν, ὦ Λάχης,
ἐὰν σκοπῇ τις, ὡς ἀνήρ τε καὶ γυνή.

Laches, there is nothing so oikeion,

if you really look at it, than man and wife.


The pun turns on the double-sense of the word oikeion, which means "that which belongs to the household; domestic" and "that which is fitting or proper". So that, the verse means: "there is nothing so fitting or proper as man and wife" and "there is nothing that's as part of a household as man and wife." Pretty subtle, and not necessarily a laugh-line, but...that's Menander.


 
 
 

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