With the volume ARISTOPHANES - MENANDER, the publishing house completes in this series the dramatic poetry of ancient Greek literature. After the three great tragedians (Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides), this volume presents two great comic poets (they are the only ones from whom some of the many works they wrote have survived).

Aristophanes is the only playwright of whom many works have survived. He represents the so-called "old comedy." The "old" phase is distinguished by its political character, meaning its close connection with political and social current affairs, with intense commentary on the conditions of the overall life of the city.

Menander is a representative of the so-called "new" comedy with very few of his works surviving (and these not entirely intact), while no works of the "middle" phase of comedy have survived.

After the "old" phase of comedy, its "political" character weakens, as does its interest in political and social current affairs; however, the works of this phase reflect social situations, instruct, and served as the basis for the cultivation of the comic genre in literature by Latin poets, such as Terence and Plautus.

The volume, a synthetic work by philologist Theodoros G. Mavropoulos, contains a general introduction to dramatic poetry and the works of the two comedians, a broad summary for each work, translation, commentary, analysis, and topics - questions for further study.