New Kingdom, Egypt pooned the tragedy in a spoof that closely followed the form, costumes, and masks of the tragedy itself Others claim that comedy arose from the rough jests of Dionysian revelers in procession before the performance of the tragedies From either origin, or both, soon entire comic plays arose These are referred to as Old Comedy, referring to comedies performed in the period beginning with Pericles’ establishment of democracy, about 450 b.c.e Notable authors such as Aristophanes (whose Clouds lampooned Socrates) ridiculed, and made satires (a word coming from the satyrs sacred to Dionysus) of all aspects of Greek society, particularly the famous and most upstanding citizens This was in contrast to tragedy, in which the main characters were held up for emulation and found to be very nearly perfect, other than having a tragic flaw In Old Comedy, the main characters were exaggerated buffoons, who spoke and performed every manner of nonsense No aspect of society was sacred in these comedies, and often even the very gods were lampooned The next major evolution in comedy was Middle Comedy, which reduced or eliminated the chorus, ridiculed private personages rather than public ones, and often featured plots that revolved around an intrigue created by the characters This style was prevalent from the end of the Peloponnesian War to the conquest of Greece by Macedonia From about 388 to 322 b.c.e New Comedy evolved from Middle Comedy when Athens’s revolt against Macedonian rule failed, and free speech was lost to the Athenians and their plays New Comedies tended to focus on the role of chance in the average citizen’s daily fight for survival The play would open to find the characters’ lives had become quite tempestuous, but by the final act, chance would have resolved the difficulties in the characters’ favor Mistaken identities, disguises, and comical errors abound in these plays In format New Comedies were typically divided into three or, more often, five acts Frequently there was an interlude between acts of a comedy, such as our modern half-time shows If a chorus appeared anywhere in a New Comedy, the chorus would be strictly limited to such an interlude Menander (342–292 b.c.e.), Philemon (c 368–267 b.c.e.), and Diphilus (c 360–290 b.c.e.) were the three most renowned authors of comical plays in this era Of these authors’ works, only a handful of the Athenian Menander’s 99 plays survive His work Dysklos (The Grouch) was discovered on an Egyptian papyrus found in 1959 Among the many of Menander’s plays that exist in only fragmentary form are such titles as The Farmer, Aspis, Phasma, The Shorn Woman (Perikeiromene), and The Hero Philemon was Menander’s pri- 307 mary rival and was regarded as superior by many contemporary critics Philemon lived to be 99 years old and wrote 97 plays Much of what we know about these three poets comes from Roman scholars who quoted from and commented upon their works, and from Roman playwrights, such as Terence and Plautus, who adapted these Greek comedies to their own culture New Comedy greatly influenced not only the plays of Rome, but also the romantic comedies of the Middle Ages, and also the plays of Shakespeare, which bear a formal resemblance to the plots of the New Comedies See also Greek drama; Greek mythology and pantheon; Greek oratory and rhetoric Further reading: Bates, Alfred, ed The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization London: Historical Publishing Co., 1906; Riu, Xavier Dionysism and Comedy Latham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999 Joseph R Gerber New Kingdom, Egypt This era has been called “Egypt’s Empire,” when Egyptian armies reached and crossed the river Euphrates in the north and marched deep into Nubia The rulers of the Eighteenth Dynasty (1550–1295 b.c.e.) pursued a policy of vigorous expansion, creating an empire that the pharaohs of the Nineteenth Dynasty (1295–1186 b.c.e.) were able to sustain Its focus was commercial rather than military, designed to facilitate control of trade routes and to extract the resources of conquered territories Native princes ruled under the supervision of Egyptian officials; their sons were taken to Egypt to be raised in the royal household and their daughters to the royal harem Nubian gold, the timber and metals of Syria-Palestine, Aegean trade, and regular tribute sustained the Nineteenth Dynasty After the end of the weaker Twentieth Dynasty, Egypt slowly declined into its long twilight In the last phase of the Second Intermediate Period (1650–1550 b.c.e.), a native Egyptian dynasty ruled from Thebes By 1550 b.c.e their influence extended from Qis in Middle Egypt to the First Cataract: The Hyksos prince of Avaris held sway north of Qis, and a native Nubian dynasty ruled from Kerma at the Third Cataract In a replay of the origins of the Middle Kingdom, the foundations of the New Kingdom were laid by Theban rulers, notably Kamose (1555–50 b.c.e.) and his brother Ahmose (1550–25 b.c.e.), the latter recognized as first king of the Eighteenth Dynasty It was Kamose