Menander, Volume 1

In this review I will compare the three volume Loeb edition of Menander's works and the Oxford World's Classics edition. ("Menander" v1,v2,v3 Loeb Classical Library, trans: W.G.Arnott// "Menander: The Plays and Fragments" Oxford World's Classics, trans: Maurice Balme).Loeb edition:Loeb series contain both Greek and English translations. The translation is good. All of Menander's works (with the exception of Dyskolos) are incomplete, fragmented, and there are alot of missing lines. Loeb's approach is to leave the missing lines as they are. Instead Arnott added a note on what the missing lines would be. So from a readability perspective, reading this edition can be very challenging especially for those works that are extremely fragmented. The value of this edition is in the Greek text and the original translation as-is. It will cater better to the purists who want to read the original Greek text.Oxford edition:The translation is equally good. In this edition Balme decided to supply the missing lines with what he thinks should have been there. As a result, it is highly readable and flow very nicely even for those works that are highly fragmented (for example the Sikyonios). For those who are purists, this edition may be higly speculative and may disagree with the supplied missing lines.But, for the rest of us who simply want to enjoy Menander's works, this edition is prefarable to the Loeb edition.