Editing Plautus (section)

===Father–son relationships===
One main theme of Greek New Comedy is the father–son relationship. For example, in Menander's ''Dis Exapaton'' there is a focus on the betrayal between age groups and friends. The father-son relationship is very strong and the son remains loyal to the father. The relationship is always a focus, even if it's not the focus of every action taken by the main characters. In Plautus, on the other hand, the focus is still on the relationship between father and son, but we see betrayal between the two men that wasn't seen in Menander. There is a focus on the proper conduct between a father and son that, apparently, was so important to Roman society at the time of Plautus.

This becomes the main difference and, also, similarity between Menander and Plautus. They both address "situations that tend to develop in the bosom of the family".<ref name="Sutton57"/> Both authors, through their plays, reflect a [[patriarchal society]] in which the father-son relationship is essential to proper function and development of the household.<ref>Sutton 1993, p. 59.</ref> It is no longer a political statement, as in Old Comedy, but a statement about household relations and proper behavior between a father and his son. But the attitudes on these relationships seem much different—a reflection of how the worlds of Menander and Plautus differed.