Classics 351
February 22, 2022

Response #1: due Tuesday, March 1

GROUP PROJECTS: Thursday, March 3, 15 mins. presentation on a post-classical reception (in film, etc.) of a Plautus or Terence play we've read (Casina, Pseudolus, Truculentus, Eunuchus, Self-Tormentor, Amphitryon, Menaechmi, Captivi)

Plautus's Menaechmi

• title: after Menaechmus of Syracuse (Sicily), 4th century BCE mathematician who solved “the problem of doubling the cube”; early play of Plautus; primary source for Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors (1594)
  
  
• doubles comedy: threats to unique identity (Doppelgänger); ontological confusions; audience enjoys superior perspective; final confrontation & resolution/recognition (Scene 23)
  
  
• prologue: no information about source-play; background of separated identical twins (Syracuse, Sicily > Tarentum, S. Italy; kidnapped twin Sosicles (1123) renamed Menaechmus = Menaechmus II by grieving grandfather; kidnapper leaves estate to Menaechmus II (wife with dowry in Epidamnus)
  
  
  
  
• setting in Epidamnus (Plautus's bilingual punning, e.g., 51: “City of Loss” = Greek preposition epi (“to”, “for”) + Latin damnum, "loss") > play's economic focus; renamed Dyrrhachium by Romans (229 BCE)
  
  
  2nd century CE Roman Amphitheater at Dyrrhachium = Durrës (Albania)
  
  Menaechmi 72-76 (prologist on theatrical artifice > all the world's a stage)
  While this play is being staged, this city’s going to be Epidamnus;
  When it’s time to stage another play, it’ll be another town.
  The same thing happens with houses and households:
  One minute a pimp lives here, another minute a young man does,
  Or an old man, a pauper, a beggar, a king, a parasite, a fortune-teller …

• brothers (opposites?); Menaechmus I of Epidamnus, "master" of dysfunctional relationships with social subordinates (Matrona, Peniculus, Erotium), social failures visually highlighted in Scene 13 “lock-out” over pashmina & failed plan for a “day of play” (596) at Erotium's house; relationships marked by failed gifts/exchanges of property (marriage, dowry); Romanized figure (e.g. Roman patronage song, Scene 12)
  
  
  L: Funerary Sculpture of Roman Married Couple; R: Flavian Portrait Bust of Roman aristocratic woman (80-90s CE)
  
  Menaechmi 119-22 (Menaechmus I to Matrona)
  It’s clear I’ve spoiled you, so here’s the new program:
            Seeing as I lavish you with personal slaves, household provisions,                 
        Wool, a wardrobe, cash, and fancy accessories, the smart thing for you to do
        Is to stop spying on your husband. So get with it now!
  And do you know what? To reward you for all your spying,
  I'll be having dinner out today—with my favorite whore.
  
  Menaechmi 202-3 (Menaechmus I delivers the pashmina to Erotium)
  ... Take it, it's yours,
  Since you’re the only woman in the world who knows what I like.

• Menaechmus II of Syracuse: more savvy, suspicious of Menaechmus I’s subordinates (cf. his relationship with Messenio); clever improviser (e.g. feigned madness to Matrona & Senex, Scene 15); in search of his alter-ego/"other half"
  
  Menaechmi 242-6 (Menaechmus II to Messenio)
  Well then I’ll keep searching until I know that for certain,
  And I find someone who knows that he’s dead.
  Once that happens, I’ll never again expend an ounce of energy in search of him.
  But in the meantime, I’ll never stop looking for him as long as I’m breathing.                 
  I’m the only one who understands the place he holds in my heart.
  
  
• character of Erotium? Peniculus (the missed lunch, 521)?
  
  
  **GROUPS**
  
  
  Portrait of Republican Man (ca. 50 BCE)
  

• happy ending for twins: reunion, Menaechmus I's dissolution of Epidamnian ties & auction; “rebirth” in Syracuse?