The Arbitration (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Menander
- First Published: 304
- Type of Work: Play
- Type of Plot: Comedy of manners
- Time of Work: Fourth century
- Setting: A suburb of Athens
- Genres: Drama, Comedy
- Subjects: Parents and children, Love or romance, Slavery or slaves, Marriage, Mistaken or secret identity, Fathers, Adoption or adopted children, Orphans or orphanages, Greek or Roman times, Greece or Greek people
- Locales: Athens, ancient, Greece, ancient
Characters Discussed
Pamphila (PAM-fih-luh), Smicrines’ daughter. She is ravished by an unknown, drunken young man who leaves his signet ring at the scene. She later marries her ravisher, Charisius, and bears his child. The baby is left exposed in the hills, along with the signet ring. The baby, found by peasants, is identified by the ring and returned to its rightful parents.
Charisius (kay-RIH-see-uhs), an upright young Athenian. During a drunken revel, he ravishes Pamphila, whom he later marries without remembering her as his victim. Disavowing the child he learned...
[The entire page is 509 words long]
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