Comedy

For the first time, love became a principal element in the drama. The New Comedy relied on stock characters, such as the senex iratus, or "angry old man", the domineering parent who tries to thwart his son or daughter from achieving wedded happiness, and who is often led into the same vices and follies for which he has reproved his children, and the bragging soldier, newly returned from war with a noisy tongue, a full purse, and an empty head. The new comedy depicted Athenian society and the social morality of the period, presenting it in attractive colors but making no attempt to criticize or improve it.