Taking a fresh look at mistaken identity in the work of an author who helped to introduce the device to comedy, Professor Traill shows how the outrageous mistakes many male characters in Menander make about women are grounded in their own emotional needs. The core of the argument derives from analysis of speeches by or about women, with particular attention to the language used to articulate problems of knowledge and perception, responsibility and judgment. Not only does Menander freely borrow language, situations, and themes from tragedy, but he also engages with some of tragedy's epistemological questions, particularly the question of how people interpret what they see and hear. Menander was instrumental in turning the tragic theme of human ignorance into a comic device and inventing a plot type with enormous impact on the western tradition. This book provides new insights into his achievements within their historical and intellectual context.
Sappho has notoriously been many things to many audiences since antiquity but Athenians may be the only ones who found her funny. Something about the archaic poet appealed to their sense of humour. The comic poets Amipsias, Amphis, Antiphanes, Diphilus, Ephippus, and Timocles all wrote a Sappho. We also know of two Phaons and five (or possibly six) Leucadias, including one by Menander which was later adapted by Turpilius. 2 Unfortunately, little beyond the title of most of these plays survives. What exactly did 'the Athenian comic mud-slingers and scandal-mongers who did so much to spoil her good name' see that was so funny in Sappho? 3 We actually have one illuminating but overlooked allusion at Miles 1216-83, the scene where the meretrix Acroteleutium pretends to be madly in love with the soldier Pyrgopolynices. 4 Her bravura performance, identified as 'Sapphic' at line 1247, draws on such stock details of the Sappho legend as her suicidal passion and Phaon's pride. It also directly spoofs faí netaí moi (fr. 31 L-P and Campbell). This passage is not only our most extensive evidence for how Sappho appeared on the comic stage; it is also an example much earlier than Catullus of 1 A version of this paper was delivered at the Classical Association of Canada annual meeting in Quebec City, 18 May 2004. My thanks to the audience for their suggestions, and to Maryline Parca, David Sansone, and Danuta Shanzer for their comments on earlier drafts. 2 Plato Comicus' Phaon and Menander's Leucadia are discussed below. Antiphanes' Phaon may have treated the starving Pythagorean mentioned at Alexis 223.15 K-A (a suggestion by Kock, cited
At Miles 692-4, the old man Periplectomenus reels off a list of female 'psychics', as he mimics an imaginary wife's demands for money: da quod dem quinquatribus praecantrici, coniectrici, hariolae atque haruspicae. flagitiumst, si nil mittetur quae supercilio spicit The passage has been something of a puzzle. The references are unmistakably Roman (and it is a Roman festival, the Matronalia, that calls for the gifts), but it is not clear how much of the list is a joke. 1 Women are well attested as witches and sorceresses, but not as soothsayers or interpreters of dreams or prodigies. In fact, religious consultation is notably absent from studies of female employment in Rome and, perhaps surprisingly, from studies of women and religion. 2 Yet we should not be too quick to dismiss these diviners as fictional. Stylistic considerations suggest we should take some of them seriously, as does the picture Plautus and his contemporary, Ennius, paint of informal private divination. In a period that is not well documented, Periplectomenus' casual reference offers a valuable glimpse into littleknown activities of middle-and lower-class women. Plautus loved humorous lists. 3 The usual pattern in these jokes is to set the audience up with 'straight' items and then move into exaggerated or nonsensical items. This is a basic joke-telling technique, illustrated in the following examples (gag items in bold): Pistoclerus lists the 'gods' who dwell in Bacchis' house:
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