Aristophanes' Old-and-New Comedy: Volume I: Six Essays in Perspective

"The Comedy of Errors" is the story of two identical twins named Antipholus who are separated following a shipwreck 25 years earlier. Antipholus of Ephesus grows up in Ephesus with his mother, while Antipholus of Syracuse grows up in Syracuse with his father. Despite a ban on travel between the two cities, their father, Egeon, travels from Syracuse to Ephesus to try and find his long lost son and wife.

Laughter in stitches. The era of Old Comedy (ca. 485 – ca. 380 BC), when theatrical comedy was created and established, is best known through the extant plays of Aristophanes, but there were many other poets whose comedies survive only in fragments. This new Loeb edition, the most extensive selection of the fragments available in English, presents the work of more than fifty-five poets, including Cratinus and Eupolis, the other members (along with Aristophanes) of the canonical Old Comic triad. For each poet and play there is an introduction, and for many there are brief notes and recent bibliography. Also included are a selection of ancient testimonia to Old Comedy, nearly one hundred unattributed fragments (both book and papyri), and descriptions of thirty vase paintings illustrating Old Comic scenes. The texts are based on the monumental edition of Kassel and Austin, updated to reflect the latest scholarship. The complete Loeb Fragments of Old Comedy is in three volumes.

This text presents the work of 56 poets, including Cratinus and Eupolis, the other members (along with Aristophanes) of the canonical Old Comic triad. For each poet and play their is an introduction, brief notes and select bibliography.

Eupolis was one of the most important of Aristophanes' rivals. He wrote the same sort of topical and often indecent comedy as the surviving plays of Aristophanes. This book provides a translation of all the remaining fragments of his work and an essay on each lost play.