Sententiae Menandri [Maxims of Menander]

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Vaios Liapis (Open University of Cyprus)

Ed. by Vaios Liapis, Open University of Cyprus, William John Dominik, University of Otago
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.1: Greek Writing and Culture: Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Imperial, -800--100.
Vol. editors: Jonathan Burgess (University of Toronto), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Vaios Liapis (Open University of Cyprus), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Mali Skotheim (Ashoka University), Laura Swift (The Open University)

Dates

Date of occurrence c.-250-700

Places

Ancient Greece (Location)

Genres and Modes

Aphorisms/ Maxims/ Proverbs

Resources

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In ancient Greek education, textbooks were an integral part of the acculturation process of what was in many cases (especially in Egypt) a culturally and ethnically diverse student body. School manuals in antiquity very often took the form of

gnômologia

, i.e. anthologies of gnomic sayings, and were used, among other things, as chrestomathies to improve reading and writing skills. Traces of

gnômologia

have been identified as early as the third century B.C., and it may even be that comparable manuals were already in use by sophists in the fifth century B.C.

Possibly the best-known of these gnômologia is the so-called Sententiae Menandri (Greek: Menandrou Gnômai Monostikhoi), or Maxims of Menander. This is the collective title conventionally attributed to several collections of pithy

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1070 words

Citation: Liapis, Vaios. "Sententiae Menandri [Maxims of Menander]". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 December 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=5763, accessed 23 April 2024.]

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