Misūmenos

Misūmenos (‘the hated man’), Greek comedy by Menander; in antiquity it was very popular but only a fragment of it survives from a papyrus, and not sufficient to reconstruct the plot. Thrasonidēs, a professional soldier, holds captive a girl Crateia, with whom he is madly in love, but refuses to force himself upon her because of her hatred for him. Her father Demeas seems to have ransomed her; more than that cannot be ascertained. The chief interest of the play must have lain in the relationship between Thrasonides and Crateia, both of whom are made sympathetic.