Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
no Período Helenístico
e sua Influência na
Literatura Greco
Latina Posterior
Apresentação: esta série destina-se a publicar estudos de fundo sobre um leque variado de
temas e perspetivas de abordagem (literatura, cultura, história antiga, arqueologia, história
da arte, filosofia, língua e linguística), mantendo embora como denominador comum os
Estudos Clássicos e sua projeção na Idade Média, Renascimento e receção na atualidade.
Fernando Rodrigues Junior possui graduação em Letras pela Universidade de São Paulo (2001),
mestrado em Letras (Letras Clássicas) pela Universidade de São Paulo (2005) e doutorado
em Letras (Letras Clássicas) pela Universidade de São Paulo (2010), com estágio de pesquisa
realizado na Universidade de Oxford entre 2008 e 2009. Realizou pesquisa de Pós-doutorado
no King’s College London entre 2013 e 2014. É professor da Universidade de São Paulo desde
2004. É coordenador do grupo de pesquisa Hellenistica, cadastrado no CNPq, voltado ao estudo
da produção literária do período helenístico e responsável pela organização bienal da Semana
de Estudos sobre o Período Helenístico. Tem experiência na área de Letras Clássicas, atuando
principalmente nos seguintes temas: Literatura Helenística, Epopéia, Calímaco, Apolônio de
Rodes, Teócrito, Poesia Bucolica e Epigrama.
Rainer Guggenberger possui Doutorado em Letras Clássicas pela Universität Wien e obteve, pela
mesma instituição, os títulos de Magister em Filosofia, em Italiano e em Letras Clássicas. Desde 2014
é Professor de Língua e Literatura Gregas da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Atua no
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras Clássicas da UFRJ. É membro dos grupos CNPq de pesquisa
ATRIVM–UFMS, Crítica Textual da FBN e Núcleo de Estudos Clássicos da FBN. Tem ênfase no campo
da filosofia antiga, da métrica antiga e da recepção e instrumentalização de textos clássicos nos
discursos literários da antiguidade. Tem experiência no ensino de língua alemã e de cultura austríaca,
coordenando o maior arquivo de literatura austríaca da América Latina, a Coleção Austríaca da UFRJ.
É editor da revista Calíope e responsável pela organização da Jornada de Estudos sobre o Período
Helenístico na UFRJ. Em 2019/2020, foi pesquisador bolsista da Fundação Biblioteca Nacional (FBN).
Série Humanitas Supplementum
Estudos Monográficos
E E
Série Humanitas Supplementum
Estudos Monográficos
ISSN: 2182‑8814
D P
M E
Delfim Leão
Universidade de Coimbra
C C
E B
Leonardo Antunes
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Título Title
A Produção Dramática no Período Helenístico e sua Influência na Literatura Greco‑
‑Latina Posterior
Dramatic Production in the Hellenistic Period and Its Influence on Later Greek‑Latin Literature
Coords. Eds
Fernando Rodrigues Junior, Rainer Guggenberger , Breno Battistin Sebastiani
Filiação Affiliation
Universidade de São Paulo, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Universidade de São Paulo
Resumo
Os textos reunidos neste livro foram apresentados na Sexta Semana de Estudos sobre o Período
Helenístico: a Produção Dramática no Período Helenístico e sua Influência na Literatura Greco-Latina
Posterior, realizada na Faculdade de Filosofia Letras e Ciências Humanas da Universidade de São Paulo,
entre os dias 10 e 11 de março de 2020, e na Primeira Jornada de Estudos sobre o Período Helenístico:
a Poesia Dramática, realizada na Faculdade de Letras da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, entre
os dias 12 e 13 de abril de 2021. Ambos os eventos estão vinculados ao grupo de pesquisa Hellenistica,
fundado em 2011 na Universidade de São Paulo com o objetivo de organizar periodicamente eventos
voltados ao estudo da literatura do período helenístico, reunindo estudiosos brasileiros e estrangeiros que
atuam nessa área.
Palavras-Chave
Poesia Dramática; Literatura Greco-Latina Tardia; Helenismo
Abstract
The texts gathered in this book were presented at two conferences, the Sixth Week of Studies on the
Hellenistic Period: Dramatic Production in the Hellenistic Period and its Influence on Later Greco-Latin
Literature, held at the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences of the University of São Paulo,
between March 10 and 11, 2020; and in the First Journey of Studies on the Hellenistic Period: Dramatic
Poetry, held at the Faculty of Arts of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, between April 12 and 13,
2021. Both events are linked to the Hellenistica research group, founded in 2011 at the University of
São Paulo with the objective of periodically organizing events aimed at the study of literature from the
Hellenistic period, bringing together Brazilian and foreign scholars working in this area.
Keywords
Dramatic Poetry; Late Greco-Latin Literature; Hellenism
Coord.
Rainer Guggenberger
Possui Doutorado em Letras Clássicas pela Universität Wien e obteve, pela mesma instituição, os
títulos de Magister em Filosofia, em Italiano e em Letras Clássicas. Desde 2014 é Professor de Língua
e Literatura Gregas da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Atua no Programa de Pós‑Gra‑
duação em Letras Clássicas da UFRJ, cumprindo, no biênio 2022‑2023, o segundo mandato como
seu coordenador. É membro dos grupos CNPq de pesquisa ATRIVM‑UFMS, Crítica Textual da FBN
e Núcleo de Estudos Clássicos da FBN. Tem ênfase no campo da filosofia antiga, da métrica antiga e
da recepção e instrumentalização de textos clássicos nos discursos literários da antiguidade. Tem expe‑
riência no ensino de língua alemã e de cultura austríaca, coordenando o maior arquivo de literatura
austríaca da América Latina, a Coleção Austríaca da UFRJ. É editor da revista Calíope e responsável
pela organização da Jornada de Estudos sobre o Período Helenístico na UFRJ. Em 2019/2020, foi
pesquisador bolsista da Fundação Biblioteca Nacional (FBN). Desde 2021 é Professor Visitante da
Universidad de Concepción (Chile). Orcid ID: 0000‑0003‑0543‑2606 (rainer@letras.ufrj.br)
Rainer Guggenberger holds a PhD of Classical Philology with master degrees in Philosophy, Italian
and in Classical Philology from the Universität Wien. Since 2014, he is Professor of Ancient Greek
Language and Literature at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). He is a member of
the Programa de Pós‑Graduação em Letras Clássicas of the UFRJ as well as of the research groups
ATRIVM‑UFMS, Crítica Textual of the Brazilian National Library (FBN) and Núcleo de Estudos
Clássicos of the FBN. His research centers on ancient philosophy, ancient metrics and reception and
the instrumentalization of classical texts within the literary discourses of Antiquity. He has experience
in teaching German and Austrian Culture and handles the biggest archive of Austrian contemporary
literature in Latin America, the so called Austrian Collection of the UFRJ. He is editor of the journal
Calíope. During 2019/2020, he has been fellow of the FBN.
6
ces et modèles des historiens anciens (Bordeaux, Ausonius, 2018); é autor de Fracasso e verdade na recepção
de Políbio e Tucídides (Coimbra, Imprensa da Universidade, 2017); traduziu Políbio (Políbio: história
pragmática. Livros I a V. Tradução, introdução e notas, São Paulo, Perspectiva, 2016); e tem escrito
regularmente sobre Tucídides, Políbio, narrativa grecolatina, historiografia grega, pensamento político
antigo e receção de/em textos clássicos. Orcid ID: 0000‑0002‑3777‑6086 (sebastiani@usp.br)
Breno Battistin Sebastiani is Associate Professor of Ancient Greek at the University of São Paulo.
He has a PhD in history from the same university; he co‑edited with O. Devillers (U. Bordeaux
Montaigne) the book Sources et modèles des historiens anciens (Bordeaux, Ausonius, 2018); he is
the author of Fracasso e verdade na recepção de Políbio e Tucídides (Coimbra, Imprensa da Univer‑
sidade, 2017); he translated the complete books of Polybius (Políbio: história pragmática. Livros I
a V. Tradução, introdução e notas, São Paulo, Perspectiva, 2016); and he has regularly written on
Thucydides, Polybius, Greco‑Roman narrative, Greek historiography, ancient political thinking
and reception of/in classical texts.
Pareceristas
Prof. Dr. Alexander Sens (Georgetown University)
Prof. Dr. Alexandre Agnolon (Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto)
Profa. Dra. Ana Maria César Pompeu (Universidade Federal do Ceará)
Prof. Dr. André Malta Campos (Universidade de São Paulo)
Prof. Dr. Artur Costrino (Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto)
Profa. Dra. Flavia Vasconcellos Amaral (University of Toronto)
Prof. Dr. José Eduardo dos Santos Lohner (Universidade de São Paulo)
Prof. Dr. Leonardo Antunes (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul)
Profa. Dra. Lucia Sano (Universidade Federal de São Paulo)
Prof. Dr. Orlando Luiz de Araújo (Universidade Federal do Ceará)
Profa. Dra. Patrizia Mureddu (Università degli Studi di Cagliari)
Prof. Dr. Rafael de Carvalho Matiello Brunhara (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul)
Prof. Dr. Tadeu Bruno da Costa Andrade (Universidade Federal da Bahia)
Dra. Valeria Melis (Università degli Studi di Cagliari)
Dr. William Henry Furness Altman (pesquisador independente)
7
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Introdução 11
9
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Introdução
DOI | https://doi.org/10.14195/978-989-26-2394-8_0 11
(Página deixada propositadamente em branco)
An Encyclopaedia on Stage:
Cooks and Other Professional Types
in Hellenistic Comedy
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
(National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4752-3533
DOI | https://doi.org/10.14195/978-989-26-2394-8_1 13
An encyclopaedia on stage: cooks and other professional types in Hellenistic comedy
1
See e.g. Legrand 1917; Wehrli 1936: 16-55, 70-100; Webster 1974: 13-55; Anderson
1984; Henry 1985; Hunter 1985: 59-113; Brown 1990; Nesselrath 1990: 280-330; Brown 1993;
Rosivach 1998; Konstantakos 2002; Traill 2008.
2
Cf. Webster 1970: 4-6, 117-118, 205-232; Lefèvre 1978: 59-115; Lefèvre 1999: 148-163.
3
On the comedy of Diphilus and Philemon, see Jachmann 1931: 3-127, 225-244; Fantham
1968; Webster 1970: 125-183; MacCary 1973; Handley 1997: 194-196; Bruzzese 2011: 37-221;
Scafuro 2014a: 204-214.
4
On Menander’s refined art of character depiction, see most notably Webster 1974: 17-22,
43-55, 99-110; Hunter 1985: 66-69; Zagagi 1994: 29-41; Petrides 2014: 156-281; Scafuro 2014b:
226-234; Brown 2018; Kiritsi 2019: 1-143; and below, n. 136.
14
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
5
Cf. Arist. Poet. 1449a 14-15; Segal 1973.
6
Gentili 1979: 13-49; cf. Sifakis 1967: 75-80; Hunter 1985: 19-20; Csapo - Slater 1994: 331;
Konstantakos 2005-2006: 64-65.
15
An encyclopaedia on stage: cooks and other professional types in Hellenistic comedy
century BCE. It could thus have become familiar to the Romans and inspired, to
some extent, the musical structure of the Roman palliata and its abundant use
of cantica.
Another possible evolutionary tendency was highlighted by Italo
Gallo. Certain comic dramatists of the mature third century, such as Baton
and Damoxenus, show a propensity towards the satire of contemporary
philosophical schools and their doctrines. In their extant fragments these
poets present burlesque comic figures, such as cunning slaves, greedy parasites,
and bragging cooks, who describe their manner of living or their professional
activity in terms of Epicurean hedonistic philosophy or other contemporary
philosophical theories.7 In this way, current dogmas and trends of thought
are parodied through the viewpoint of ridiculous and low-brow characters of
the comic stage. Baton is even reported to have been a pupil of the Platonic
Academy in Athens and to have been temporarily expelled from the school by
way of penalty, because he ridiculed in his comedies the rival philosophical
positions of the Stoic Cleanthes.8 Regardless of its historical validity, this
anecdote suggests that philosophical themes were a significant part of Baton’s
dramatic productions. During the Hellenistic age Athens became very much a
city of philosophical schools and the major centre of intellectual education in
the Greek world. In that spiritual atmosphere, some comic writers may have
attempted to revive the humorous scenic depiction of philosophical trends and
contemporary thought – a type of play which had been sporadically pursued in
earlier tradition, from Aristophanes’ Clouds to the Middle Comedy satires of
Plato and the Pythagoreans.9
In an earlier study of mine I concentrated on the remains of Machon, a
third-century comic poet active in Alexandria under Ptolemy II and Ptolemy
III.10 As I argued, Machon –and perhaps other comic poets of Hellenistic Egypt,
whose names are attested in local inscriptions, such as Stratagus and Musaeus11–
may have produced a mixed type of drama, in which he amalgamated the
7
See Baton fr. 2, fr. 3, fr. 5, fr. 7; Damoxenus fr. 2; and below, sections 2 and 3, for further
analysis of some of these passages. See Gallo 1981: 9-140; cf. also Dohm 1964: 161-169, 187-
189; Webster 1970: 110-112; Wilkins 2000: 291-292; Belardinelli 2008: 77-92; Konstan 2014:
281-285.
8
Plutarch, Quomodo adulator 55c; Cleanthes fr. 471 Arnim (SVF vol. 1, 104); Philodemus,
Index Stoicorum 22, pp. 74-75 Dorandi. Cf. Gallo 1981: 18-26, 63-67.
9
On philosophical themes and satire in the Greek comic tradition, see most notably
Weiher 1913; Webster 1970: 50-56, 110-113; Carrière 1979: 62-66, 310-337; Sanchis Llopis
1995; Imperio 1998; Carey 2000; Olson 2007: 234-255; Belardinelli 2008; Bruzzese 2011: 58-74;
Konstan 2014.
10
See Konstantakos 2015.
11
See OGIS, vol. 1, 51. 34-36 (Dittenberger 1903: 78-81); Fraser 1972: vol. 1, 619, vol. 2,
870; Csapo - Slater 1994: 248-249; Le Guen 2001: 296-300; Aneziri 2003: 109-118, 240-242,
396-397.
16
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
typical structure of New Comedy with elements drawn from previous phases
of the comic theatre, such as Attic Old Comedy, Doric farces, and the Sicilian
plays of Epicharmus. Machon borrowed certain idiosyncratic ethological types
from these earlier genres, and also revived in his productions the acrid invective
of Old Comedy, in order to ridicule the enemies of his Ptolemaic patrons, for
example, Demetrius Poliorcetes. Apparently, the comic dramatists of Egypt
were supported by the early Ptolemies in an effort to promote Alexandria as an
alternative theatrical centre which could rival Athens, the incontestable capital
of New Comedy. Of course, Machon and his colleagues were working in an
intellectual milieu dominated by the Alexandrian Mouseion, the great library,
and the concomitant philological research. They could have easily acquired
detailed knowledge of the history, texts, and forms of earlier Greek comic
drama, thanks to the scripts available in the library and the literary-historical
studies pursued in the Mouseion. They might have exploited such knowledge in
order to enrich their own plays with themes and materials taken from the entire
history of Greek comedy.
The present essay focuses on another dramaturgical area in which post-
Menandrian playwrights seem to have diverged from the earlier practices of
classic New Comedy and to have broken new ground. This is the treatment of
professional character types, in other words, the comic figures whose dramatic
identity is defined on the basis of the activity they pursue for a living. From
among the various types included in this broad category, three in particular –the
cook, the parasite, and the hetaira– were selected for innovative transformation
in the comedies of the third, second, and first century BCE. Several long
tirades of cooks and parasites, together with a few passages pertaining to
hetairai, have survived from the comic dramas of those times. As transpires
from the comparative examination of these texts, the portrayal of the three
aforementioned scenic types in the later Hellenistic age was marked by a new
tendency, which appears for the first time in the fragments of post-Menandrian
comic poets, at least as far as the surviving materials of the Greek comic
tradition allow us to judge.
This newly emerging tendency may be termed “encyclopaedism” or “quasi-
encyclopaedism”: the term is used here in the sense of an all-embracing overview
and combination of a wide range of diverse contents. The professional figures
of the Hellenistic comic stage are so constructed as to reflect and amalgamate,
within the frame of their stage personality, an ample variety of didactic materials
and characterological aspects; and all these various elements have individually
quite distinct provenance and constitution, like the disparate pieces of lore
that one may find assembled in an encyclopaedia or a general handbook. No
trace of this kind of “encyclopaedic” construction can be found in the cooks,
parasites, or hetairai who appear in the remains of Middle Comedy and of the
datable comic productions of Menander’s time. This is noteworthy, given that
17
An encyclopaedia on stage: cooks and other professional types in Hellenistic comedy
all three figures are well documented in the corresponding periods with many
and often extensive textual fragments, which are spoken by them or associated
with them. Under these conditions, it seems unlikely that the first manifestation
of this particular artistic tendency in post-Menandrian comic theatre should be
merely an accident of transmission or a mirage produced by lack of sufficient
evidence.
The propensity of late Hellenistic professional types towards multi-
collectivity and comprehensiveness may be seen to operate on two levels,
the thematic and the dramaturgical one. In thematic terms, the collection of
multifarious cognitive materials and forms of expert discourse permeates the
contents of the comic characters’ speeches and marks the intellectual sources
of their statements. The cooks of post-Menandrian comedy, above all, are often
portrayed as live encyclopaedias of learning; they exploit a wide spectrum of
scientific fields and terminologies in order to describe and exalt their culinary
activities. On the other hand, in the domain of dramaturgy, the tendency of
survey and assemblage affects the ethological constitution of the personages,
the plot-schemes and dramatic storylines developed around them, and their
relation to the overall traditions of the comic stage. Cooks, parasites, and hetairai
collect and conflate, within the boundaries of a single theatrical personality,
the characterological traits and dramatic roles of various stock figures of the
comic tradition. In this way, they function as composite repertoires of dramatic
ethology and patterns of plot. In the following sections both these levels of
“encyclopaedic” construction of characters will be investigated and illustrated
by means of specific examples, all of them selected from among the remains of
comic poets who lived and worked in the ripe Hellenistic age, from the third to
the first century BCE.
18
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
the preparation of food.12 Menander attempted to sever his ties with that earlier
tradition, which had grown rather hackneyed and tedious by the last decades
of the fourth century, and undertook to reform the cook’s role. He cut out the
gastronomic descriptions and food lists, reduced the cook’s part to a minimum,13
or strove to organically integrate the mageiros into the action and make him a
functional factor of plot development.14
After Menander, however, the loquacious mageiros was reinstated on the
comic stage, this time with a vengeance and with a new set of boastful capacities.
In the plays of the third and second century the cook reverts to the delivery
of long monologues, in which he assembles multifarious materials from an
ample range of areas of knowledge. The mageiros now compares or assimilates
his culinary tasks to a series of expert scientific disciplines, from astronomy
and medicine to musical theory, geometry, architecture, philology, and social
anthropology.15 He uses specialized concepts and technical jargon from all these
fields in order to describe the mechanisms and paraphernalia of his cooking job.
Such is the case of the cook in a comedy by Damoxenus, The Foster-Brothers
(Syntrophoi). Damoxenus’ career thrived in the earlier part of the third century;
as indicated by his place in the Dionysian victors’ list (IG II2 2325. 75, test.
12
On the typology of the cook’s role and his scenic functions in Middle and New Comedy,
see Ribbeck 1882: 18-26; Rankin 1907: 12-92; Legrand 1917: 98-100, 222-223, 226; Giannini
1960; Dohm 1964: 59-210; Argenio 1965; Lowe 1985; Nesselrath 1990: 297-309; Arnott 1996:
115-116, 362; Roselli 2000; Wilkins 2000: 87, 362-414; Dobrov 2002; Olson 2007: 134-137,
274-284; García Soler 2008; Bruzzese 2011: 183-221; Tartaglia 2019: 97-99.
13
See, for example, the cook of the Aspis (216-233): instead of a long culinary monologue,
he is only awarded a brief scene, in which he complains exactly because he lacks sufficient
dramatic time and the concomitant opportunities to display his talents. Cf. Handley 1970:
14-16; Gomme - Sandbach 1973: 25, 80-81; Nesselrath 1990: 307; Krieter-Spiro 1997: 87-88,
122, 145, 190; Bruzzese 2011: 187.
14
See Sicon in the Dyskolos, who serves as a foil and stooge in order to bring out the
burlesque aspects of the misanthropic protagonist, but also functions in the finale as a salutary
assistant for reintegrating the solitary hero into the happy society of the play. See also the
cook of the Samia (283-295, 357-390), who is willy-nilly entangled in the main intrigue of the
plot, the complex cluster of misunderstandings between the protagonistic duo of Demeas and
Chrysis. Cf. Giannini 1960: 185-191; Dohm 1964: 86-87, 211-243, 251; Gomme - Sandbach
1973: 25, 572, 581-583; Hunter 1985: 54-55; Krieter-Spiro 1997: 86, 90, 93-94, 145-146,
196-199; Wilkins 2000: 412-414; Bruzzese 2011: 188-190. On Menander’s cooks and their
innovative presentation generally, see Handley 1970: 3-17; Krieter-Spiro 1997: 26-34, 86-88,
120-123, 136-138, 145-146, 162-166, 173-174, 185-186, 196-200, 236-239; Bruzzese 2011:
187-192.
15
On this tendency of the Hellenistic comic cook, see Ribbeck 1882: 20; Rankin 1907:
74-76; Treu 1958: 220-222; Giannini 1960: 165-168; Dohm 1964: 70, 137, 160-203; Gallo 1981:
84-85, 96-130, 135-140; Nesselrath 1985: 36, 233-235; Nesselrath 1990: 303, 306-308; Wilkins
2000: 383-384, 398-400, 403-406; Belardinelli 2008: 77-92, 95, 100-102; García Soler 2008: 150-
152, 156-157; Bruzzese 2011: 192; Stamatis 2014: 31-33, 131-177; Konstantakos 2015: 19-20.
19
An encyclopaedia on stage: cooks and other professional types in Hellenistic comedy
Ἐπικούρου δέ με
ὁρᾷς μαθητὴν ὄντα τοῦ σοφοῦ, παρ’ ᾧ
ἐν δύ’ ἔτεσιν καὶ μησὶν οὐχ ὅλοις δέκα
τάλαντ’ ἐγώ σοι κατεπύκνωσα τέτταρα.
(Β.) τοῦτο δὲ τί ἐστιν; εἰπέ μοι. (Α.) καθήγισα. 5
μάγειρος ἦν κἀκεῖνος †οὐκ ᾔδει θεοί†
(Β.) ποῖος μάγειρος; (Α.) ἡ φύσις πάσης τέχνης
ἀρχέγονόν ἐστ’. (Β.) ἀρχέγονον, ὦλιτήριε;
(Α.) οὐκ ἔστιν οὐθὲν τοῦ πονεῖν σοφώτερον,
ἦν τ’ εὐχερὲς τὸ πρᾶγμα τοῦ λόγου τριβὴν 10
ἔχοντι τούτου· πολλὰ γὰρ συμβάλλεται.
διόπερ μάγειρον ὅταν ἴδῃς ἀγράμματον
μὴ Δημόκριτόν τε πάντα διανεγνωκότα,
{μᾶλλον δὲ κατέχοντα καταγέλα ὡς κενοῦ}
καὶ τὸν Ἐπικούρου Κανόνα, μινθώσας ἄφες 15
ὡς ἐκ διατριβῆς. τοῦτο δεῖ γὰρ εἰδέναι,
τίν’ ἔχει διαφορὰν πρῶτον, ὦ βέλτιστε σύ,
γλαυκίσκος ἐν χειμῶνι καὶ θέρει, πάλιν
ποῖος περὶ δύσιν Πλειάδος συνειδέναι
ἰχθὺς ὑπὸ τροπάς τ’ ἐστὶ χρησιμώτατος. 20
αἱ μεταβολαὶ γὰρ αἵ τε κινήσεις κακὸν
ἠλίβατον ἀνθρώποισιν ἀλλοιώματα
ἐν ταῖς τροφαῖς ποιοῦσι, μανθάνεις; τὸ δὲ
ληφθὲν καθ’ ὥραν ἀποδίδωσι τὴν χάριν.
τίς παρακολουθεῖ ταῦτα; τοιγαροῦν στρόφοι 25
καὶ πνευμάτια γινόμενα τὸν κεκλημένον
ἀσχημονεῖν ποιοῦσι. παρὰ δ’ ἐμοὶ τρέφει
τὸ προσφερόμενον βρῶμα καὶ λεπτύνεται,
ὀρθῶς τε διαπνεῖ. τοιγαροῦν εἰς τοὺς πόρους
16
Testimonia and fragments of comic poets cited in this article are numbered according to
the standard edition of Kassel - Austin 1983-2001, unless otherwise stated.
17
See Dohm 1964: 161-162; Webster 1970: 116; Hofmann - Wartenberg 1973: 15-16; Gallo
1981: 69-72, 78-82; Olson 2007: 408; Millis - Olson 2012: 165, 169. The references to Epicurus
in the past tense in fr. 2. 62-64 seem to presuppose the philosopher’s death, which would place
this comedy after 270 BCE.
18
Concerning the dialogue between the cook and his customer, its comic structure and
dramatic function, see Dohm 1964: 75-76, 87, 90-92, 102-104, 137-203; Nesselrath 1990: 299-
300, 303-305, 308; García Soler 2008: 148-149; Bruzzese 2011: 184.
20
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
(A.) You see in me a student of the intellectual Epicurus, with whom in less
than two years and ten months I consolidated four talents. (B.) What does
that mean? Tell me. (A.) Holy offerings. He was a cook too – although perhaps
he didn’t know it. (B.) What do you mean, a cook? (A.) Nature is the chief
conceiver of every art... (B.) “Chief conceiver”, eh? You criminal! (A.) Nothing
21
An encyclopaedia on stage: cooks and other professional types in Hellenistic comedy
is more intellectual than labour, and the task was easy for one who was
practised in this field: much is done by deduction. That is why whenever you
see a cook who hasn’t read all of Democritus, and the Canon of Epicurus, tell
him “Beat it, shit-face”. He’s not part of the school. You have to know first, my
good man, how a baby shark differs from summer to winter; then recognize
when the Pleiad sets, or at the solstice, what sort of seafood is appropriate.
Alterations and upheavals produce differences in food, you know, a scorching
nuisance for mankind; but what’s taken in season brings joy. But who follows
these precepts? The indigestion and flatulence that result may cause the guest
considerable embarrassment. But the edibles served by me are nourishing
and digestible, and he does his exhaling out the right end. The result is that
the humours are mixed homogeneously into the arteries. (B.) Humours? (A.)
Democritus says so; and blockages don’t occur to induce gout in the customer.
(B.) You seem to have some medical training also. (A.) So does everyone
who is involved with Nature! As for today’s cooks, just observe how ignorant
they are: When you see them making a combined stock from fish that are at
odds with each other – even rubbing sesame into it! Then you should take
every last one of them and fart in their faces. (B.) I should? You’re putting
me on! (A.) What good can come when the individuality of one is mingled
with another and weaves into it touches of discord? It’s not washing plates or
stinking of soot that is the goal of our innate art, but understanding this. You
see, I never work at the oven. (B.) But why not? (A.) I sit nearby and observe;
others perform the labour. (B.) What do you do? (A.) I expound causes and
effect: “Ease up, the base is sharp”. (B.) He’s a maestro, not a cook! (A.) “Get
moving, the flame needs a more even tempo. The first casserole isn’t cooking
in tune with the next ones”. You see what I mean? (B.) Good God! (A.) And it
looks like an art? Besides, I serve no food without due deliberation, you see,
but all in a harmonious blend. (B.) How does that work? (A.) Some of them
are major combinations, some minor, some diminished. I distribute them at
the right intervals, interweave them right into different courses. Sometimes I
stand by with advice: “What leads into it? What do you mean this to mix with?
Hey! You’re adding something out of tune. Leave it out. Bravo!” That is how
Epicurus consolidated pleasure: he masticated carefully – he alone realized
what “the highest good” is. The boys in the Stoa are still looking, but they
don’t have a clue. Therefore, what they don’t possess, and don’t apprehend,
they couldn’t communicate to another. (B.) I agree with you. So let’s skip the
rest; it’s long been obvious.19
19
Translation by David Konstan. For detailed discussion of this fragment and its
philosophical and scientific references, see Dohm 1964: 161-169, 173-189, 196-198; Gallo
1981: 72-74, 84-130, 135-140; cf. Bignone 1917; Diano 1935: 245-249; Giannini 1960: 167-168;
Webster 1970: 111-112; Carrière 1979: 336-337; Roselli 2000: 159-160, 168-169; Wilkins 2000:
403-405; Belardinelli 2008: 78-79, 81-84, 89-92; García Soler 2008: 150-152, 156; Konstan
2014: 281-283.
22
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
The cook begins with philosophy, the mother of all learning. He claims
to be a pupil of the philosopher Epicurus and expounds his cooking art with
characteristic key-terms and maxims of the Epicurean hedonistic philosophy
(1-6, 15, 62-64). He also applies a smattering of Democritus’ physics and biology,
referring to the Democritean theory of the humours of the body (13ff., 30-31).
Eventually, he ends up criticizing the ignorance of the Stoics concerning the
highest good (64-67). Next to this series of philosophical references, the cook
uses expert terminology and concepts from a variety of scientific and technical
disciplines. He is well versed in astronomy and meteorology; he knows about the
movements of the constellations, the astral signs, and the variations of climate,
which make different foods suitable to each season (16-24). Furthermore, he
understands the principles of medicine; he takes care that his gastronomic
creations preserve the balance of humours in the body, and thus protects his
customers from indigestion, flatulence, gout, and other ailments (29-34). He
is also a connoisseur of harmony and musical theory. He compares the blend
of the different ingredients of a culinary dish to the harmonious concord of
sounds in a musical composition. The taste of the food must not be sharp like a
shrill tune. The fire needs to be applied with a rhythmical tempo. The courses of
the meal must be served in appropriate intervals, like the harmonic intervals of
tones in a piece of music (48-61).
A similar accumulation of scientific knowledge characterizes the cook
of the comedy Eileithyia by Nicomachus (fr. 1). This comic poet was active in
the decades of 260 and 250 and enjoyed a far-reaching career and fame, which
extended beyond his native Athens to several islands of the Aegean.20 A dialogue
of the cook with his employer (1-10) offers again the opportunity for a display
of multifarious technical and specialized learning (11ff.):
20
A series of inscriptions from Delos and Samos attest Nicomachus’ activity in the late
260s and the 250s: he presents plays in festivals of Delos in 263 and 259 (IG XI.2 113 and 115,
test. 1 and 2) and is honoured by the Delians and the Samians for his services (IG XI.4 638 and
Habicht 1957: 224-226, test. 3 and 4). See Sifakis 1967: 27, 150-151, 158.
23
An encyclopaedia on stage: cooks and other professional types in Hellenistic comedy
(A.) The complete cook is made on a different plan. You must acquire many
arts held in high esteem, which anyone that wishes to learn them properly
should not approach offhand; no, you must first grasp the art of painting. Then
there are other arts, too, which you must learn before the art of cookery, and
which it would have been better for you to know about before you spoke to me.
They are astronomy, geometry, and medicine. For from these you will learn
the potencies and the tricks of fishes; you will carefully observe the seasons,
to see when any fish, in each case, is served untimely or in season. For in
pleasures the divergences are important. Sometimes a boax proves to be better
than a tunny. (B.) That may be so. But what business have you with geometry?
(A.) We regard the kitchen as a globe. We must divide it into segments, and
after finding one locus separate it into specific parts as the advantage of the art
decrees. These are processes borrowed from geometry. (B.) Stop! I believe you
even if you don’t tell me the rest. (A.) Now, about medicine. There are foods
which in some cases cause winds and dyspepsia and bring dire vengeance, not
nourishment. Every one who dines on hostile food becomes quarrelsome and
loses his self-control. For such foods, then, you must find the antidote in the
art of medicine, and it’s a borrowing of art. Again, it is a matter of military
tactics as well – this use of reason and harmony, the knowing just where in
cookery each unit is to be posted in number and in quantity. In that respect no
one else can be enrolled as my equal. (B.) Now listen to a few things I answer
24
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
in my turn. (A.) Say on. (B.) Don’t bother yourself about me, but go spend the
rest of the day at your ease!21
Astronomy is the first discipline that this mageiros claims to have mastered.
The science of the calendar and the careful observation of the seasons enable
him to determine the best time for serving every single species of fish (18-23).
He also studies geometry and applies its principles to the arrangement of his
kitchen. The oven is like a sphere, which must be divided in quadrants, and each
part of it must be apportioned to a specific culinary task (24-28). Furthermore,
the cook is an adherent of medicine; he discovers which foodstuffs are harmful
and cause indigestion, and which ones may be used as medicaments against
disease (30-36). Finally, he envisages cookery as a branch of tactics and strategic
theory. The various dishes must be arranged on the table like soldiers or army
contingents on the battlefield. Also, the cook needs to ascertain the number of
the diners and prepare his courses accordingly, like a general who calculates the
forces of the enemy (37-39).22
The comic poet Sosipater is only known from a single excerpt preserved
in Athenaeus (9. 377f-379a) and coming from his comedy The False Accuser
(Katapseudomenos). There is no other testimonium or information concerning
his career and chronology. The transmitted fragment consists again in a dialogue
between a comic cook and another man called Demylus, presumably the cook’s
hirer, in the course of which the cook offers an interminable exposition of his
culinary expertise. Given the close similarities between this tirade and the speeches
of Damoxenus’ and Nicomachus’ cooks, it may be surmised that Sosipater was a
near contemporary of those poets, active in the early or middle decades of the third
century. Sosipater’s cook mentions Chariades as one of the few worthy colleagues
in his profession (fr. 1. 11), and the same Chariades is praised as one of the seven
wisest cooks of the world in a play by Euphron (fr. 1. 7), who also flourished around
270 BCE. The chronological indications tally with one another.23
Sosipater’s mageiros provides another anthology of specialized disciplines,24
which he has been taught by his master Sicon, the legendary founder of the art
of cookery (fr. 1. 13ff.):
(Α.) τὸ διδασκαλεῖον ἡμεῖς σῴζομεν
τὸ Σίκωνος· οὗτος τῆς τέχνης ἀρχηγὸς ἦν.
ἐδίδασκεν ἡμᾶς πρῶτον ἀστρολογεῖν u ‒ 15
21
Translation by C.B. Gulick, adapted.
22
Cf. Giannini 1960: 164-165; Dohm 1964: 192-195; Belardinelli 2008: 79-81, 84-85,
87-88, 91-92; García Soler 2008: 151.
23
See Stamatis 2014: 24-33.
24
For detailed discussion of the scientific references and materials of this fragment, see
Dohm 1964: 190-198; Belardinelli 2008: 80-81, 84-85, 91-92; Stamatis 2014: 31-33, 94-181.
25
An encyclopaedia on stage: cooks and other professional types in Hellenistic comedy
***
ἔχω γε τὸν μάγειρον. ἡ τάξις σοφὸν 45
ἁπανταχοῦ μέν ἐστι κἀν πάσῃ τέχνῃ,
ἐν τῇ καθ’ ἡμᾶς δ’ ὥσπερ ἡγεῖται σχεδόν.
τὸ γὰρ παραθεῖναι κἀφελεῖν τεταγμένως
ἕκαστα καὶ τὸν καιρὸν ἐπὶ τούτοις ἰδεῖν,
πότε δεῖ πυκνότερον ἐπαγαγεῖν καὶ πότε βάδην, 50
καὶ πῶς ἔχουσι πρὸς τὸ δεῖπνον, καὶ πότε
εὔκαιρον αὐτῶν ἐστι τῶν ὄψων τὰ μὲν
θερμὰ παραθεῖναι, τὰ δ’ ἐπανέντα, τὰ δὲ μέσως,
τὰ δ’ ὅλως ἀποψύξαντα, ταῦτα πάντα < u >
ἐν τοῖς στρατηγικοῖσιν ἐξετάζεται 55
μαθήμασιν. (ΔH.) †τίς δή τι† παραδείξας ἐμοὶ
τὰ δέοντ’ ἀπελθὼν αὐτὸς ἡσυχίαν ἄγε
26
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
25
Translated by David Konstan.
27
An encyclopaedia on stage: cooks and other professional types in Hellenistic comedy
the dining guests, and furthermore how to pace the sequence of the courses and
regulate their temperature; all this is an essential part of culinary strategy (18,
44-56).
It is worth remembering that all these discourses have reached us as
excerpts in Athenaeus’ Deipnosophistae. There is no indication whether the
extracts selected and cited by Athenaeus represent the complete speeches of
the corresponding comic chefs, as they were set out in the original scripts of
the comedies. Although these extracts are quite large and the cooks’ speeches
extend to tens of verses, it is not unlikely that their full tirades in the original
plays were even longer and more comprehensive. The cook’s interlocutor, at
the end of all three passages, tries to put the loquacious chef off, either bidding
him to be quiet or ordering him to go away.26 But there is no guarantee that
this command would have been obeyed in the context of the original comic
episode. The interlocutor’s attempt to silence the mageiros need not be taken
to function as an effective marker of the end of the dialogue or the scene. It
might simply represent another fruitless intervention by the hirer or his slave,
which interrupts only momentarily the cook’s flow of words, like several other
such interjections at preceding moments of the scene (e.g. Nicomachus fr. 1. 29;
Sosipater fr. 1. 20, 24). The chef might ignore the admonition, as he did in the
preceding cases, and continue his prattle. Thus, each one of these mageiroi may
have continued his monologue after the end of Athenaeus’ citation, and may
have referred to further scientific fields as models for his gastronomic activity.
There is no way of calculating with exactitude the length or the acceptable
limits of the cook scenes in these Hellenistic dramas. If the role of the boastful
chef entertained the audience, as it apparently did, the poets would have no
qualms about prolonging this character’s bragging and his ruminations on his
art, for as long as the spectators would enjoy them. In theory, nothing prevents
us from thinking that some of these plays may have actually been constructed
around the mageiros and his demonstrations. The same seems to have happened
earlier with certain works of Middle Comedy, which are named after the
cook’s figure, such as Anaxilas’ Mageiroi and Nicostratus’ Mageiros, or have a
cook’s personal name or sobriquet as their title (e.g. Aristophanes’ Aeolosicon,
Anaxandrides’ Nereus, possibly Eubulus’ Sphingocarion). In such plays the
cook is the title-hero and hence, by definition, the protagonist of the play; his
figure must have occupied a central place in the storyline, and his activities and
26
“So let’s skip the rest; it’s long been obvious” (Damoxenus fr. 1. 68); “Don’t bother
yourself about me, but go spend the rest of the day at your ease” (Nicomachus fr. 2. 41-42);
“You’ve shown me all I need; you can stop talking and go away now” (Sosipater fr. 1. 56-57). Cf.
Giannini 1960: 168; Dohm 1964: 189; Nesselrath 1985: 283; García Soler 2008: 149; Stamatis
2014: 178-181.
28
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
culinary productions would have taken up a large part of the stage action.27
Something analogous may have been true of the Hellenistic plays discussed
above or others like them. The cook’s speeches and activities, far from being
peripheral or incidental to the plot, could have constituted the central focus of
the play, the core of the stage action and the chief source of comic effect – in the
same way as the slaves’ celebrations furnish the main stuff of Plautus’ Stichus.
The love adventures, domestic affairs, social situations, or other plot elements,
which typically occur in the scenarios of New Comedy, might simply provide an
elementary framework, so that the great dinner party would be engineered and
the mageiros would have the opportunity to exhibit his talents.
If one collects and combines the various scientific fields invoked by these
Hellenistic cooks, an impressive list is created: philosophy, ethics, physics and
biology, medicine and pharmacology, astronomy and meteorology, harmony
and musical theory, geometry, architecture, military theory and tactics – a
veritable university curriculum of superior studies. To these disciplines another
one may be added, on the basis of two further comic fragments: philology and
Classical scholarship, especially the exegesis of the Homeric poems.
Already Philemon, the famous poet of New Comedy and major rival of
Menander, presented in one of his plays a mageiros who spoke in Homeric
vocabulary and style. Athenaeus (14. 659b-c) transmits under Philemon’s name
(fr. 114) the first four verses of the speech of an indignant householder, who
has hired and brought into his house this erudite cook but now complains that
he cannot understand a word of his riddle-like, highfalutin discourses. The
same verses, along with the rest of the hirer’s protesting oration, are preserved
on an early comic papyrus (P.Cair. 65445, from the third century BCE), which
provides a lengthy description of the cook’s Homeric enunciations and the
misunderstandings produced between him and his desperate employer. In
another passage of the Deipnosophistae (9. 382b-383b) Athenaeus transmits
a fuller version of the same tirade, which includes several more verses, not
preserved on the papyrus. Athenaeus attributes this more expanded version
to the comedy Phoenicides by Straton (fr. 1), a minor dramatist who seems to
have been active at approximately the same period, in the end of the fourth
century.28 There has been much discussion about the possible relations between
27
See Giannini 1960: 149-150, 152, 158; Nesselrath 1990: 301-302; Wilkins 2000: 390;
Bruzzese 2011: 184; Tartaglia 2019: 99-100. I cannot agree with the view that the cook would
have been almost always a peripheral figure appearing in episodic scenes (see e.g. Dohm 1964:
85-86; Nesselrath 1990: 297-298; Stamatis 2014: 89-90).
28
The Suda (σ 1184) calls Straton “a poet of Middle Comedy”, but a fragment of the
inscription of the Didascaliae, recording the comedies performed at the City Dionysia, seems
to cite Straton’s name as a participant in the festival of 303/2 or 302/1 BCE (IG II2 2323a, col.
2. 14-15, as restored by Wilhelm 1906: 45, 50; Straton test. 2). The reference to the philological
works of the Hellenistic scholar-poet Philitas (ca. 340-285 BCE) in fr. 1. 43 also indicates
29
An encyclopaedia on stage: cooks and other professional types in Hellenistic comedy
the papyrus text and the plays of Philemon and Straton. A plausible theory is
that Philemon is the author of the papyrus text and was the first inventor of the
Homerizing mageiros; Straton subsequently imitated and expanded Philemon’s
scene in his own play.29 Here is the version of the papyrus, which includes the
main points:
that the comedy belongs to the end of the fourth or the beginning of the third century. See
Nesselrath 1990: 62-63; Dobrov 2002: 179; Spanoudakis 2002: 23-24; Millis - Olson 2012:
70-75.
29
On this and other theories, see Treu 1958: 215-216, 221-222; Dohm 1964: 198-199;
Webster 1970: 116, 145; Kassel 1974: 124-127; Nesselrath 1990: 306; Di Marco 2010: 37;
Bruzzese 2011: 203-207; Rusten 2011: 618.
30
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
I’ve taken a male Sphinx into my house, not a cook! For, by the gods, I don’t
understand a single word he says. He’s here with a full supply of strange
vocabulary. The minute he entered the house, he immediately looked me in
the eye and asked in a loud voice: “How many meropes have you invited to
dinner? Tell me!” “I’ve invited the Meropes to dinner? You’re crazy; do you
think I know these Meropes?” “Isn’t a single daitymon going to be present?”
“Philinus is going to come, and Moschion, and Niceratus, and so-and-so,
and so-and-so”. I went through them, name by name; I didn’t have a single
Daitymon among them. He got irritated, as if he was being treated badly
because I hadn’t invited Daitymon. Very strange. “Aren’t you sacrificing an
earthbreaker?” “No, I’m not”, I said. “A bull with a wide forehead?” “I’m not
sacrificing a bull, you miserable creature”. “Are you making a sacrifice of
mela?” “No, by Zeus, I’m not”. “Well, mela are sheep”. “Apples are sheep? I
don’t know anything about any of this, cook”, I said, “and I don’t want to. I’m
quite unsophisticated; so talk to me very simply”. “Bring the oulochytai here!”
“What’s that?” “Barley”. “Why then, you idiot, do you talk in riddles?” “Is any
pegos available?” “Pegos? Suck me! Will you say what you want to say to me
more clearly?” “You’re an ignoramus, old man”, he says. “Bring me salt; that’s
what pegos is. Let me see it”. A basin was there. He made the sacrifice and said
countless words of the sort no one, by Earth, could have understood: mistylla,
moirai, diptycha, obeloi. The result was that you would have had to get Philitas’
books to understand everything he said. But now I took a different tack and
began to beg him to talk a bit like a human being. Persuasion herself would
never have convinced him if she were standing right there next to him. I
suspect the bastard’s been the slave of some sort of rhapsode ever since he was
a boy, and has got stuffed full of Homeric vocabulary.30
Philemon’s and Straton’s cook uses poetic words from the Homeric epics to
describe the circumstances of the dinner party, the foodstuffs, and the cooking
equipment. He calls the guests μέροπες (a poetic epithet for mortal men in
the Homeric dialect) and styles each one of them individually with the word
δαιτυμών (applied in the Odyssey only in the plural to the participants in a
banquet). He attributes the typical epic epithet εὐρυμέτωπος (“wide-fronted”)
to oxen and calls sheep μῆλα, the common Homeric noun for sheep and
30
Translation by S. Douglas Olson, slightly adapted.
31
An encyclopaedia on stage: cooks and other professional types in Hellenistic comedy
goats, which is, however, identical with the familiar Greek word for “apples”
and thus causes funny confusion to the host. The cook also employs many
other characteristically Homeric terms, calling the roasting spits ὀβελοί, the
sacrificial barley-groats οὐλοχύται, the folds of animal fat δίπτυχα; he designates
the carving of the meat with the verb μίστυλλον; he even ridiculously
misunderstands the epic adjective πηγός (“thick, solid”), which is used as an
attribute of the swelling waves of the sea, and uses it as a word for salt.31
In short, the cook talks like a lexicon of Homeric glossai, a glossary of
idiomatic terms of the poetic dialect of the Archaic epics; it is as though he
copies his expressions and manner of speech from a commentary on the
Homeric poems, one of the great scholarly hypomnemata on the Iliad and the
Odyssey compiled by the Alexandrian grammarians from the early Hellenistic
age onwards, which included explanations of the meaning, use, and etymology
of difficult words of the Homeric texts. The employer himself perplexedly
compares the cook’s discourse to the philological books of Philitas of Cos, a
well-known scholar-poet at the end of the fourth and the beginning of the third
century, who wrote an interpretative glossary of Homeric terms and other rare
words.32 Comic authors of later times might have paralleled such a mageiros
with the writings of famous Alexandrian librarians and Homerists, such as
Zenodotus, Aristarchus, or Aristophanes of Byzantium.33 Indeed, the chef ’s
elocution is an amusing parody of the central intellectual activity of Hellenistic
scholars and grammarians, the lexicographical and philological interpretation
of Classical Greek poetry.34
In general, the encyclopaedic erudition of these comic mageiroi may be
read as a mocking reflection and a stage parody of the intellectual spirit of the
Hellenistic age, especially as it was cultivated in the multidisciplinary research
centre of the Alexandrian Mouseion.35 This ground-breaking Ptolemaic
31
On the Homeric vocabulary exploited in this comic text, see Giannini 1960: 164; Dohm
1964: 198-200; Kassel 1974: 122-124; Livrea 1980; Spanoudakis 2002: 261, 401-403; Bing 2003:
345-346; Olson 2007: 164-168; García Soler 2008: 154-155; Di Marco 2010.
32
See Pfeiffer 1968: 90-92; Tosi 1994: 146-149; Spanoudakis 2002: 31, 261, 347-400; Bing
2003.
33
See the overviews of Pfeiffer 1968: 106-119, 171-177, 197-203, 210-233; Fraser 1972:
vol. 1, 450-451, 459-467; Richardson 1994: 19-25; Tosi 1994: 151-168; Montana 2015: 91-106,
118-126, 130-143.
34
Cf. Pfeiffer 1968: 91; Livrea 1980; Tosi 1994: 156; Wilkins 2000: 406-408; Dobrov
2002: 180-181; Spanoudakis 2002: 261, 401-403; Bing 2003: 343-346; Fantuzzi - Hunter 2004:
246-247; Di Marco 2010: 38. Some scholars have read the fragment as a parody of culinary
literature composed in epic or high poetic style (e.g. the poems of Archestratus and Matron or
Philoxenus’ dithyrambic Deipnon): see Ribbeck 1882: 22; Giannini 1960: 164-165; Dohm 1964:
198-201; Kassel 1974: 127; Bruzzese 2011: 205. I think, however, that Alexandrian Homeric
scholarship is also an important target of satire.
35
Cf., from a more limited point of view, the remarks of Belardinelli 2008: 100.
32
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
36
See Fraser 1972: vol. 1, 312-319, 336-553; Richardson 1994; Montana 2015: 76-82.
37
On Eratosthenes’ vast intellectual interests and his multifarious scholarly and scientific
writings, see Pfeiffer 1968: 152-170; Fraser 1972: vol. 1, 409-415, 456-458, 482-483, 525-539;
Jacob 1992; Geus 2002; Cusset - Frangoulis 2008.
38
Timon of Phlius, Silloi, SH 786 (fr. 12 Diels, 60 Wachsmuth, 12 Di Marco): πολλοὶ μὲν
βόσκονται ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ πολυφύλῳ / βιβλιακοὶ χαρακῖται ἀπείριτα δηριόωντες / Μουσέων ἐν
ταλάρῳ (“In the populous land of Egypt many are they who get fed, cloistered bookworms,
endlessly arguing in the bird-cage of the Muses”). Cf. Di Marco 1989: 140-143; Bing 2001:
76-77.
33
An encyclopaedia on stage: cooks and other professional types in Hellenistic comedy
other people. The Hellenistic cook-scholar is not nurtured in a cage but himself
nourishes his customers in the play with rich edibles and his audience in the
theatre with a profusion of words.39 The savants of Alexandria produced food
for the mind; their comic avatar prepares foodstuffs for our belly.
39
As already noted, the tirades of all these Hellenistic cook-scholars are transmitted
in Athenaeus’ Deipnosophistae, like the vast majoriy of the fragments related to mageiroi
throughout the history of Greek comedy. The particular framework and thematic orientation
of Athenaeus’ work was evidently an important factor for the selection and preservation of
these monologues: the Deipnosophistae is itself an enormous dialogue between characters
who are encyclopaedic polymaths and show keen interest in culinary pleasures and matters
of cuisine. It was natural for Athenaeus to excerpt and highlight the speeches of the scholarly
and scientific cooks, who effectively serve as intratextual reflections or parodic reduplications
of the personages of his main narrative. The “dinner-sophists” of Athenaeus’ fiction readily
search out and cite the discourses of their comic Doppelgängers, the polymathic mageiroi
– those other sophists of dinners, who are the “Deipnosophistae” of the theatrical stage. It
is therefore noteworthy that Athenaeus quotes such encyclopaedic cooks’ speeches chiefly
from plays of later Hellenistic comic dramatists (with the sole exception of Philemon fr. 114,
which is an idiosyncratic case: not a truly encyclopaedic discourse but a dialogue limited to
a single specialist discipline, Homeric philology). Clearly, Athenaeus did not find passages of
such polymathic content in the cook scenes of Middle Comedy and of the Menandrian age,
although he had access to the corresponding comic scripts and amply cites tirades of mageiroi
from them. Had he discovered texts of this kind in earlier comic production, he would
doubtless have excerpted them as well, since they would have been ideal for the literary agenda
and thematic goals of his compilation. This observation enhances the proposition forwarded
in this chapter, that the phenomenon of encyclopaedic cooks was peculiar to post-Menandrian
Hellenistic comedy.
34
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
For example, the cook may display the features of the gluttonous parasite,
undertake tricky schemes typical of the crafty slave, or even assimilate himself
to a desirable hetaira that charms her customers. Both the cook and the parasite
may pose as braggart soldiers and envision their tasks in military terms.
They also appropriate the persona of the conceited philosopher, use obscure
theoretical jargon, and expound their worldview in terms of philosophical
doctrines. Furthermore, apart from assuming the roles of other stock comic
types, each one of these professional characters may have encounters and
adventures with various typical figures of the comic tradition (e.g. the boastful
captain, the pretentious doctor, the ascetic philosopher, the prodigal young
man, the insipid senex, the stingy moneylender, the rich merchant). Thus, the
account of his or her experiences with all these personages collectively reads
like a survey of diverse storylines, dramatic scenarios, or forms of plot which
are common in the repertoire of the Greek comic theatre, especially in Middle
and New Comedy.
Through these techniques of dramaturgical conflation, a single
professional character ends up embodying a repertory of typical comic
personae and recurrent plot structures. Ultimately, such a multi-collective
personage functions as a kind of personified epitome of the entire theatrical
tradition of New Comedy. He or she becomes a kind of dramaturgical Aleph,
in Borges’ sense: a single, limited dramatic construction which nevertheless
contains within itself virtually the whole of the theatrical tradition to which it
belongs.
It is interesting to compare and contrast, in this respect, Menander’s favourite
method for renewing traditional dramatic figures with the practice followed by
the later Hellenistic comic dramatists, as described above. Menander tried to
breathe new life into the stock characters of the comic tradition by playfully
undermining or upturning their standard features and thwarting the spectators’
usual expectations about them. He brought on stage soldiers endowed with
deep sensibility, parasites who fall in love and forget about food, virtuous and
kind-hearted meretrices, reticent cooks, and slaves full of artifices which prove
useless. The post-Menandrian playwrights achieved the same result of character
renovation in another way, by compiling the features of different stock figures
into a unique dramatic personality. Menander’s practice was playful but austere
and exclusive; he stripped the stock characters of their emblematic traits and
left them ethologically naked or turned them into the reverse of their typical
scenic idiosyncrasy. His epigones went to the opposite direction and became
all-inclusive and welcoming. Every one of their professional types could turn
into someone else, put on the characteristic traits of other figures, and compile
in his person a populous gallery of personages.
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I am a gourmand: this is the cornerstone of our art. He who would not spoil
the materials handed over to him must feel some affection for them. For if
he has given heed to his own taste, he will not be a bad cook. Further, when
your organs of sense are clear, you cannot go wrong. Boil and taste frequently.
It does not have enough salt: add some. It still requires something else; keep
tasting it again and again, until the flavour is pleasant. Tune it like a lyre, until
it becomes well tempered. Then, when you think that everything is finally in
harmony, bring it in with the concord of an octave.41
40
Athenaeus (6. 241f-242a and 14. 664a) provides all the relevant biographical information:
Machon was a contemporary of Apollodorus of Carystus, one of the most prominent poets
of New Comedy in the generation following Menander, and died at Alexandria in old age.
He also tutored the young Aristophanes of Byzantium in matters pertaining to comedy; since
Aristophanes was born around 257 BCE, this apprenticeship must have taken place in the late
240s or later. See Gow 1965: 3-11; Fraser 1972: vol. 1, 621, vol. 2, 844, 878; Gallo 1981: 141-
142; Konstantakos 2015: 13-15.
41
The translation is mine.
36
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
42
On the meaning of opsophagos, see Davidson 1995; Davidson 1997: 20-34, 143-147;
Olson - Sens 2000: xlix-lii; Wilkins 2000: 69-70, 346-347.
43
See Konstantakos 2015: 20-33.
44
See Giannini 1960: 139; Dohm 1964: 19; Wilkins 2000: 87, 372, 375, 379-380;
Konstantakos 2015: 21-24.
45
On the comic parasite as a keen and passionate eater, see Ribbeck 1883: 13-19, 34-36;
Legrand 1917: 73-74; Argenio 1964: 243-246; Nesselrath 1985: 29-36, 42-46, 484-485;
Nesselrath 1990: 309-317; Brown 1992: 98-101; Arnott 1996: 546-547, 660-662; Damon 1997:
25-29; Wilkins 2000: 71-72, 78-86; Tylawsky 2002: 2-3, 7-9, 15-18, 71-76, 82, 89-90, 101-103;
Antonsen-Resch 2004: 9-13, 59-67, 93, 132-136, 149-150, 206-226; Corner 2013: 51-55, 58-61,
72-75, 233.
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important thing in life (Hegesippus fr. 2, Plaut. Pers. 352-354, Stich. 626-628, cf.
Alexis fr. 190) and wishes to die of overeating (Alexis fr. 233). He will perform
any kind of act for a good meal, from undertaking all forms of hardship for his
patron’s benefit (Antiphanes fr. 193, Alexis fr. 205, Timocles fr. 8, Aristophon fr.
5 and fr. 10) to tolerating mockery, insults, and blows (Nicolaus fr. 1. 27-39) and
even selling his own offspring (Saturio in Plautus’ Persa).
These illustrative examples of the comic parasite’s dominating passion for
food emblematize his addiction to eating. This is the kind of character that one
would expect to display the irresistible attachment to food consumption, which
distinguishes Machon’s mageiros. In essence, this latter cook, with his gluttonous
urge to consume his own culinary creations, assumes the parasite’s persona. He
bridges the distance between kitchen stand and dinner table and finds himself
at once on both sides of the food chain.
46
The mageiros in Euphron fr. 10 (on which see below) is proud to have been the pupil
of a certain Soterides and praises a meal of mock-seafood which this Soterides supposedly
prepared for King Nicomedes I of Bithynia. Nicomedes reigned from 279 until about 255 BCE.
Since the speaker claims to have been a disciple of Nicomedes’ cook, the dramatic date of fr. 10
should be set some time after Nicomedes’ ascension to the throne. See Dohm 1964: 97.
47
On the scenes between the cook and his pupil, a standard routine in comedy, see Rankin
1907: 77-78; Dohm 1964: 69-70, 89-90, 102, 125-137; Nesselrath 1990: 305; García Soler 2008:
148; Bruzzese 2011: 184-185; Scafuro 2014a: 211-212; Stamatis 2014: 125-126; Konstantakos
2015: 19.
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Ioannis M. Konstantakos
Realizing that so much had been anticipated, I became the inventor of the
sort of pilfering that no one hates me for, but they all hire me. You, then,
seeing I’d anticipated this, invented a special refinement, one that’s all yours:
Four days ago the people of Tenos, a big crowd, after a long sea voyage, were
holding a sacrifice, a little, scrawny goat. The contract read “no leftover meat
for Lycus or his teacher”, but you made them get two extra goats; while they
kept inspecting the liver, you sneaked one hand down and quickly tossed the
kidney into the sink. What a commotion! “It’s missing its kidney!” they cried,
and bent down to view the damage. They slaughtered another, but once again
I saw you – you gobbled up this one’s heart. You’re one of the greats, that’s
for sure, the founding father of never-go-hungry-ology. Two skewers with
intestines, sought for days, raw yesterday, you extinguished in the fire, and
hummed along to the lyre. I was your audience. The earlier performance was
theatre, but this was magic!48
The master cook of Euphron’s play claims to have invented the art of
theft, so as to pilfer edibles from the goods provided by his employers for the
preparation of the meal. He steals the foodstuffs in such an artful manner, that
no-one can discover and detest him for his misdemeanours, and therefore he is
well loved and hired by customers. His pupil Lycus, however, has developed this
thieving craft to an even more refined and sublime degree, and he is praised by
his teacher for his ingenuity and his display of showmanship. On the occasion
48
Translation by David Konstan.
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When you are working for a common-man’s dinner, Carion, you mustn’t fool
around, or do the tricks I’ve taught you. Yesterday you took too many chances.
Not a single goby fish had a liver, they were all cleaned out. The brains were
tampered with. It’s your job, Carion, when you meet a mob like this, Dromon
or Cerdon or Soterides, who pay whatever wage you ask for, to be absolutely
straight. But where we are going now, to a wedding feast – be ruthless! If you
understand this, you’re a true student of mine, and no common cook. It’s the
chance we’ve prayed for: make some money! The old man is greedy, the pay
is poor: if I don’t find you are gobbling up the very charcoals, you’re dead.50
In this case too, Carion has learned from his master chef the techniques
for pilfering edibles, but unlike the pupil of The Brothers, he is not so well
49
On the problems of text and meaning in Euphron fr. 1. 32-34 and their possible
solutions, see Dohm 1964: 132-134; Kassel - Austin 1983-2001: vol. 5, 284-285.
50
Translation by David Konstan.
40
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
versed in the art of avoiding detection and overplays his hand. The speaker thus
warns him to apply his stealing talents with discretion and tact. On a previous
occasion Carion dangerously exaggerated: he grabbed for himself the livers of
all the fishes and tampered with the brain of the sacrificial victim; larceny on
such scale put him in risk of being caught. This time, however, the master cook
and Carion are hired to prepare a marriage banquet, that is, a lavish feast with
abundant provisions for the many guests. They must therefore take advantage of
the opportunity and ruthlessly steal a good deal of foodstuffs.
Food theft is a common characteristic of the cooks of New Comedy.
Already the mageiroi of Menander (Aspis 226-232, Colax fr. 1 Arnott) and
Diphilus (fr. 42. 40-41) display in passing their habit of purloining edibles while
they perform their job, or mention it briefly.51 More rarely, the cook’s thieving
activities are described at greater length, but in a rather arid and colourless
manner. Dionysius of Sinope, a poet at the border between Middle and New
Comedy, active towards the end of the fourth century, presented in his play The
Namesakes (Homonymoi) a mageiros who instructs his disciple on methods of
stealing portions of food (fr. 3). The cook’s speech takes the form of a dry list
of practical guidelines for a series of tricks: boil the meat slices to melting point
and confuse their number; purloin the entrails of a big fish and cut a slice from
it; make mincemeat of the offal and other such pieces and carry them away with
you; bribe the doorkeeper, so as to extract easily your booty out of the house. The
enumeration is humourless, and the artifices, in themselves, entail no particular
ingenuity or originality. The same happens in an anonymous comic fragment,
preserved on the same papyrus which transmits Straton’s fr. 1 (see above) and
presumably belonging to a play of New Comedy (Adesp. com. fr. 1073). In this
case the cook enumerates a series of culinary items which he purloined on a past
occasion. His narration takes again the form of a tedious, asyndetic catalogue of
particular instances of theft, devoid of wit and piquancy: “I misappropriated
the brain. They counted the slices of meat; I made them smaller but left their
number intact. There was a skewer with a sausage; I subtracted three slices from
its middle and then brought together the remaining outer parts. I gave them the
fish, but put away its belly as a share for myself. I broke a piece from a cheese.
51
Cf. also Poseidippus fr. 2, discussed below. On the comic cook as a stealer of food, see
Ribbeck 1882: 24-25; Treu 1958: 216-219, 222-239; Giannini 1960: 150, 163, 168-171, 177-180,
195-196, 200-201, 205, 209; Dohm 1964: 92-93, 129-134, 141-142, 150-153, 245, 258; Lowe
1985: 75, 86-90, 94, 100; Nesselrath 1990: 305, 307; Krieter-Spiro 1997: 23-24, 31, 165; Wilkins
2000: 400-402, 409; Olson 2007: 135; García Soler 2008: 145-146; Bruzzese 2011: 194-195;
Konstantakos 2015: 21-22. Plautus’ cooks are also portrayed as accomplished thieves; the
Roman playwright has inherited this motif from his Greek models, but greatly expands it with
jokes of his own.
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An encyclopaedia on stage: cooks and other professional types in Hellenistic comedy
I grabbed some fat, I poured out some oil, I took along some honey; I used a
sponge to absorb some silphium, cumin, and mustard”.52
The motif was so usual that it became a topos in Hellenistic comic theatre,
and authors could even play self-conscious literary games with the stealing
cook’s figure. In an anonymous comedy preserved on another fragmentary
papyrus (Adesp. com. fr. 1093. 221-234) a mageiros complains for the treatment
of his profession by comic poets: they standardly present cooks as petty
thieves, who pilfer small quantities of foodstuffs, cutting a piece of meat in two,
subtracting slices from the middle of a sausage, or sucking oil and honeyed wine
with sponges.53 The scene is amusing because of the humorous metatheatrical
and self-referential dimension: a theatrical personage, a cook of the comic stage,
speaks like a spectator who has seen the comic representations of his colleagues
in the theatre and comments on their conventional and hackneyed dramatic
portrayal. Behind this facetious mise en abyme, however, one discerns again the
arid catalogue of the same trite and unimaginative devices of theft.
Euphron’s mageiroi, on the other hand, expand this typical theme to
much greater length and illustrate it with vivid colours and comic brio. They
do not limit themselves to short incidental mentions of their illicit booty, like
the figures of Menander and Diphilus, but devote long and colourful tirades
to expounding in extenso their larcenous artifices. Furthermore, they do not
offer merely a dry catalogue of brief individual ploys or instances of stealing,
but highlight the narration of the thieving artifices with lively humour and
picturesque comic imagination. The mageiroi in Euphron’s plays do not
reproduce the rudimentary and hackneyed procedures of food theft that are
familiar from the other fragments, e.g. those of Dionysius or the anonymous
Hellenistic comedies. They create their own, more inventive artifices, and
pursue their ultimate consequences on practical reality with keen attention
to circumstantial detail. One of them removes the kidney or the heart of the
sacrificial victim, while his employers are preoccupied with the ritual, and
therefore causes bewilderment to the participants, who are obliged to bring and
sacrifice one animal after the other. He also hides the skewered sausages in the
fireplace, and as a result these items are deemed lost and are fruitlessly sought
after for days. Another one purloins the livers of all the fishes, and this attracts
the employers’ suspicions. Furthermore, Euphron’s cooks take advantage of the
abundance of provisions in a marriage feast, so as to steal items without being
detected. The master mageiros regards untraceable food theft as a true display
of wisdom and a capital contribution to gastronomic art, equal to the creation
of the most popular dishes. Euphron clearly had a penchant for the figure of
52
Cf. Treu 1958: 216-217, 224-228, 234-239; Giannini 1960: 177-180; Dohm 1964: 92-93.
53
See Treu 1958: 228-239; Giannini 1960: 177-180; Bain 1977: 217-219, 223-226.
42
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
the cunning cook who steals food; he relished the portrayal of this particular
characteristic and highlighted it as the core of his cooks’ personalities.54
In this regard, as a central and determinative quality, the theft of the boss’
food provisions pertains rather to another type of comic personage: the crafty
and deceitful slave.55 Especially in the comic theatre of the earlier fourth century,
from Aristophanes’ Plutus to the burlesques of Middle Comedy, the slave is
the primary thieving character; it is he who purloins food from his master’s
supplies, both for satisfying his own hunger and for the pure joy of trickery.
To mention a couple of characteristic examples, Carion in Aristophanes’ Plutus
repeatedly boasts about his abilities to pilfer meat, pies, and soup from the
pantry of the house or even from the god’s shrine during a nocturnal incubation
ritual (318-321, 672-695, 1139-1145, cf. 26-27). In a comic scene illustrated on
an Apulian bell-krater (ca. 400-380 BCE), a slave labelled Xanthias is pictured
next to the elderly couple of his masters, who are holding up between them a
small table laden with sweetmeats. Xanthias has stealthily grabbed a flat cake
and is shown hiding it in his lap and running away to enjoy it at ease. As is
usual with such Apulian vases, the scene must belong to an Attic comedy which
was exported and produced in Magna Graecia in the first decades of the fourth
century.56 Already in Old Comedy the theft of food was regarded as a typical
vice of household slaves, as implied by a long-suffering kneading slave in the
prologue of the Peace (13-14). In the Knights the political leaders of Athens
are travestied as douloi in the house of the personified Demos and compete in
stealing foodstuffs from the cellar or from each other, so as to stuff their own
bellies or to gain Demos’ favour with costless gifts (50-60, 101-102, 715-718,
1192-1225).57
Euphron’s cooks, as inveterate stealers of foodstuffs, adopt a typical
behaviour pattern of the comic slave. Poseidippus, another poet of third-
century New Comedy, created a similar characterological amalgam in his play
The Excluded Woman (Apokleiomene): a household slave who is also a cook (cf.
Athenaeus 14. 658f, 659c) and claims that this time his master will not catch
him stealing meat during the performance of his service (fr. 2).58 Once again the
figures of the slave and the cook merge in their designs of stealthy food theft.
54
On Euphron’s stealing cooks, cf. Treu 1958: 222, 226; Giannini 1960: 168-169; Dohm
1964: 130-134; García Soler 2008: 145.
55
Cf. the remarks of Giannini 1960: 205.
56
PhV2 45 (Trendall 1967: 38). See Trendall - Webster 1971: 132-134; Taplin 1993: 42, 112;
Storey 2011: 439-440; Rusten 2011: 444.
57
Cf. Legrand 1917: 109; Murphy 1972: 174, 187-189; De Martino 1998: 52-56; Akrigg -
Tordoff 2013: 50, 69-73, 129, 165-167; Konstantakos 2020: 13-15.
58
On Poseidippus’ amalgamation of the roles of cook and slave, see Giannini 1960: 170-
171, 205; Dohm 1964: 67-68; Webster 1970: 71; Lowe 1985: 75. Cf. more generally Krieter-
Spiro 1997: 27-28; Dobrov 2002: 174-175.
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Euphron’s mageiroi have also absorbed another feature of the comic slave’s
role, namely, the complaints against the master’s unreasonable and unfavourable
attitude. In both of Euphron’s comedies the chef comments on the stinginess and
miserliness of his employers: they offer him small pay (fr. 9. 12-15) or supply a
meagre animal for the sacrifice and forbid him to take any portion of the meat
as an honorarium for himself (fr. 1. 20-21). Such grievances against the master’s
thriftiness are a staple ingredient of the discourses of comic slaves. From the
time of Old Comedy until the dramas of Menander, the slave is a constantly
grumbling personage: he protests against his master’s eccentric or idiosyncratic
behaviour; he complains about the punishments he receives and the hardships
he suffers in his boss’ service.59 In Middle and New Comedy, in particular, the
slave’s tribulations often include the lack or insufficiency of nourishment, due
to his owner’s stingy attitude. The slave grumbles because the master shops very
parsimoniously so as to cut down expenses (Ephippus fr. 15). He complains that
his owner is a terrible miser who lives like an ascetic and never buys substantial
edibles to bring into the house (Antiphanes fr. 166). He is filled with indignation
if he is not allowed to have a share of the leftovers of a hearty meal (Antiphanes
fr. 89, Epicrates fr. 5). He is afraid that the food provisions are barely enough
for the guests of the banquet and that nothing will be left for him to eat (Men.
Dysk. 563-570).60 Euphron’s cooks imitate this stock trait of the comic slave
and transplant it to their own relationship with their tight-fisted hirers, who
similarly provide meagre culinary materials and threaten to leave the mageiros
hungry.
59
See e.g. Ar. Peace 1-109; Wasps 1292-1325; Frogs 1-34, 107, 115, 165-169, 526-533, 741-
753; Wealth 1-50; Men. Dysk. 402-426, 546ff.; Perik. 172-180, 354-360. Cf. Akrigg - Tordoff
2013: 66-68, 114, 123, 128-129, 142, 155; Papachrysostomou 2021: 163.
60
Cf. Nesselrath 1990: 287-288, 294-296; Akrigg - Tordoff 2013: 155, 165-167.
61
Cf. Giannini 1960: 207; Hofmann - Wartenberg 1973: 51, 57.
44
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
What I have made out of this art no actor has come close to achieving. This art
is nothing short of aromatic mastery! I was sauce maker for Seleucus; then I
was the first to invent, for Agathocles of Sicily, his official lentil soup. But I’ve
saved the best for last: when a certain Lachares was entertaining his friends, in
the time of the famine, I saved the day by providing the capers!65
62
Cf. Legrand 1917: 96-97; Hofmann - Wartenberg 1973: 16-17, 55, 58, 125-130;
Konstantakos 2000: 217; Diggle 2004: 435.
63
See Giannini 1960: 173; Dohm 1964: 138-139; Webster 1970: 107; Wilkins 2000: 402.
64
Fr. 1 of The Areopagite mentions Lachares’ tyranny in Athens and the siege of the city by
Demetrius Poliorcetes in 295 BCE. The earliest possible date for the production of the comedy
is therefore 294 BCE, which places Demetrius’ activity in the 290s. The reference to Agathocles
of Syracuse tallies with this chronology. See Seltman 1932; Webster 1970: 107.
65
Translation by David Konstan.
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(A.) I was a pupil of Soterides. He’s the one who, when Nicomedes once had
to have fried whitebait, though he was twelve days from the sea, in the midst
of winter, was the first, by god, to put it on his plate, to universal acclaim. (B.)
How is that possible? (A.) He got a fancy turnip, sliced it long and smooth,
mimicking exactly the look of whitebait, boiled it, poured on some oil, salted
it tastefully, sprinkled about two thousand black poppy seeds over it; and
so, though they were in Scythia, he satisfied the king’s desire. And when
Nicomedes tasted the turnip, he pronounced the “whitebait’s” praises to his
friends.66
Like the braggart soldiers of the comic stage, these cooks maintain that
they have performed great feats in the wars waged by their patron rulers. The
only difference is that the cooks’ feats are not of a military but of a culinary
nature, not valorous deeds on the battlefield but ingenious stratagems in the
kitchen. Demetrius’ mageiros undertook to prepare a feast for the tyrant
Lachares and his friends, while Athens was besieged by Demetrius Poliorcetes
and there was famine in the city. The ingenious cook managed to feed the entire
company with a meal of capers. Euphron’s master chef was accompanying King
Nicomedes to a campaign in inland Scythia, twelve days away from the sea, in
the midst of winter, when the king suddenly felt a craving to eat whitebait. The
cook took a turnip and cut it in long and soft slices imitating the shape of the
small fishes; then he seasoned the slices with oil and salt, and thus prepared a
66
Translation by David Konstan.
46
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
67
See e.g. Men. Asp. 23ff.; Col. fr. 2 Arnott; Men. fr. 26; Philemon fr. 15; Plaut. Miles 42-44,
52; Curc. 329-340, 438-444; Truc. 84, 202, 392, 472, 530, 536, 539. Cf. Süss 1905: 47; Boughner
1954: 5-6, 62, 110, 261-264; Hofmann - Wartenberg 1973: 29-30, 93-96, 101-103, 117-118, 139;
Konstantakos 2016: 124-128.
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the succession of meal courses; εὔκαιρον, denoting the opportune moment for
an attack, is now applied to the timely instance for serving a particular course
(Nicomachus fr. 1. 37; Sosipater fr. 1. 44-45, 48, 50, 52, 55).68
Similarly, the braggart soldiers of comedy, from the Aristophanic
Lamachus to Terence’s Thraso and Sosias, the captain’s cacula in Menander’s
Perikeiromene, pepper their speeches with the vocabulary of army tactics and
military operations. These captains of the stage envisage every kind of tension
in their everyday civilian life as a mock battle or an armed campaign. Lamachus
in the Acharnians (567-574), rushing to help the Chorus of Acharnian elders in
their conflict against the spirited comic hero, is described as though managing
an operation of reinforcements that are sent to a battered unit on the battlefield.
Thraso in Terence’s Eunuch, when he is closed out of the door of the meretrix
he loves, assimilates his experience to the siege of a fortified citadel: he prepares
to storm the woman’s house, arranges his slaves like forces surrounding a
beleaguered city, and assigns them the titles of army ranks and units (771-788).
Menander (Perikeiromene 467-484) transfers the same motif to the soldier’s
slave Sosias, who has taken over many of the standard traits of the miles
gloriosus. On Sosias’ lips, the abortive attack on the house of the soldier’s rival in
love is compared to a siege and described with a series of terms borrowed from
military discipline and siege warfare.69 This common behaviour pattern of the
braggart captain is transplanted by the comic cook to the tasks of the kitchen.
Poseidippus, a well-known third-century poet who made his theatrical
debut three years after Menander’s death (that is, in 290 BCE: Suda π 2111),70
was particularly fond of this amalgamation of roles. In his play The Dancing
Women (Choreuousai) the cook compares his trade to the command of
mercenary troops (fr. 28. 3-15):
τῶν ἡδυσμάτων
πάντων κράτιστόν ἐστιν ἐν μαγειρικῇ
ἀλαζονεία· τὸ καθ’ ὅλου δὲ τῶν τεχνῶν 5
ὄψει σχεδόν τι ‒ u τοῦθ’ ἡγούμενον.
ξεναγὸς οὗτος, ὅστις ἂν θώρακ’ ἔχῃ
φολιδωτὸν ἢ δράκοντα σεσιδηρωμένον,
ἐφάνη Βριάρεως, ἂν τύχῃ δ’ ἐστὶν λαγώς.
ὁ μάγειρος ἂν μὲν ὑποδιακόνους ἔχων 10
68
On the military terminology used in these comic passages, see Dohm 1964: 193-194;
Hofmann - Wartenberg 1973: 51, 57; Stamatis 2014: 171-177; cf. Belardinelli 2008: 84-85.
69
See Konstantakos 2016: 119-120 with full discussion and analysis of the military
vocabulary. See also Legrand 1908: 56, 70; Gomme - Sandbach 1973: 502-505; Hofmann -
Wartenberg 1973: 127-129; Goldberg 1980: 48-50; Lamagna 1994: 235-242; Barsby 1999: 230-
238.
70
See Olson 2007: 416; Rusten 2011: 682.
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Ioannis M. Konstantakos
Best of all the sauces in the art of cooking is braggadocio. In general you’ll
see that this practically governs all the arts. He’s the commander who wears
a breastplate of mail or a serpent done in iron, he seems a Briareus, but it may
be he’s a hare. If a cook, taking his assistants, approaches a layman and his
disciples and calls everyone cumin-cutters or starvelings, each immediately
cowers: but if you expose your true self, you’ll go away flayed besides. So as I
was explaining, give room to vanity.
ἰδιώτης μέγας
αὐτοῖς ὁ Σεύθης. οἶσθας, ὦ βέλτισθ’, ὅτι
ἀγαθοῦ στρατηγοῦ διαφέρειν οὐθὲν δοκεῖ.
οἱ πολέμιοι πάρεισιν· ὁ βαθὺς τῇ φύσει
στρατηγὸς ἔστη καὶ τὸ πρᾶγμ’ ἐδέξατο. 5
πολέμιός ἐστι πᾶς ὁ συμπίνων ὄχλος.
κινεῖ γὰρ ἁθρόος οὗτος· εἰσελήλυθεν,
ἐκ πεντεκαίδεχ’ ἡμερῶν προηλπικὼς
τὸ δεῖπνον, ὁρμῆς μεστός, ἐκκεκαυμένος,
τηρῶν πότ’ ἐπὶ τὰς χεῖρας οἴσει τις. νόει 10
ὄχλου τοιούτου ῥαχίαν ἠθροισμένην
Seuthes is a great amateur to them. You know, my good man, that one should
differ in no way from a good general. The enemy approach: a general who’s
deep by nature stands and bears the brunt. The whole crowd of drinkers is the
enemy. For it moves in a mass: it invades, having anticipated the dinner for
71
On this cook’s alazoneia, cf. Rankin 1907: 73-74; Giannini 1960: 171; Dohm 1964: 135-
136; Hofmann - Wartenberg 1973: 55; García Soler 2008: 157; Stamatis 2014: 84.
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72
The translations of both of Poseidippus’ fragments are by David Konstan.
73
On the military terms, see the apparatus of Kassel - Austin 1983-2001: vol. 7, 576; cf.
Hofmann - Wartenberg 1973: 55-56.
74
Already in Antiphanes fr. 80 the parasite claims to be “an extremely good soldier”
(στρατιώτης ἀγαθὸς εἰς ὑπερβολήν) in his patron’s service. On the parasite’s military qualities,
cf. Nesselrath 1985: 35, 40-42.
75
A comic actor Nicolaus is recorded on the inscription of the Didascaliae (IG II2 2323.
506, 520) as having performed at the Dionysia of 158/7 (in which he won the actor’s prize)
and 155/4 BCE. It is often assumed that he is identical with the comic poet Nicolaus, to whom
three fragments are attributed by Athenaeus and ancient lexica. See Wilhelm 1906: 79; Millis
- Olson 2012: 100-101, 106.
76
On the parasite as a companion of a great dynast, see Ribbeck 1883: 43-54, 82-92; Brown
1992: 102-103; Arnott 1996: 337-338; Corner 2013: 63-64.
77
Cf. Legrand 1917: 96-97; Hofmann - Wartenberg 1973: 125-127, 129-130; Pernerstorfer
2009: 126.
50
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
It is not for every man to sail to the table. First of all he must have a strong side
for the job, an audacious face, a colour that remains unchanged, an untiring
jaw which is ready to endure blows at any moment. These are the constituents
of our art as a whole.78
The parasite has strong sides and jaws, so as to withstand the blows he
receives in sympotic quarrels.79 The soldier must be endowed with analogous
courage and stamina, in order to endure the strokes of the enemies in combat.
The captains of comic theatre standardly display the scars of the wounds they
have supposedly sustained in warfare, as ostensible signs of their endurance and
martial valour (see Phoenicides fr. 4. 4-6; Ter. Eun. 482-483; Men. fr. 607 and
Col. fr. 7 Arnott; cf. Men. fr. 662).80
3.4. The cook and the parasite as a comic philosopher and scientist
Another role that Hellenistic cooks love to undertake is that of the
so-called alazon doctus, the pretentious know-all or pseudo-learned quack. The
usual scenic embodiment of this type is the conceited philosopher or scientist,
who poses as a profound and omniscient thinker but is in fact a charlatan
without access to real learning. This is a stock figure of the Greek comic tradition,
from the Socrates of the Clouds and the Meton of the Birds to the Pythagorean,
Academic, and Stoic philosophers satirized in Middle and New Comedy.81 The
cook reproduces the inane theories, abstruse terminology, and intellectual
superciliousness of these comic thinkers. He presents his culinary occupation as
a philosophical method or a branch of scientific knowledge and uses specialized
theoretical and technical vocabulary pertaining to these disciplines. He claims to
have followed an arduous curriculum of studies in order to achieve mastery in
78
The translation is mine.
79
On this motif, cf. Ribbeck 1883: 37-39, 64; Nesselrath 1985: 39-42; Damon 1997: 29-31,
54-55; Wilkins 2000: 78-79; Tylawsky 2002: 65-66; Antonsen-Resch 2004: 202; Olson 2007:
138; Corner 2013: 54-55.
80
See Konstantakos 2016: 132-133. Cf. also Legrand 1917: 96; Hofmann - Wartenberg
1973: 23, 48, 55; Kassel - Austin 1983-2001: vol. 6.2, 314, 333; Brown 1992: 96-97; Pernerstorfer
2009: 121-122.
81
On the alazon doctus, the conceited intellectual in the comic tradition, see Ribbeck
1882: 10-18; Süss 1905: 8-45; Cornford 1914: 156-163; Imperio 1998; and above, section 1 and
n. 9.
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his field of expertise, as though a famous man of erudition, and gives the names
of his teachers or his spiritual predecessors in the art of cookery, creating the
impression that he belongs to a great school of gastronomic thought. He presents
the products of his cooking as important contributions to the history of culture,
as though they were seminal philosophical ideas or valuable discoveries and
inventions of science. In all these ways, comic poets highlight the pompousness,
self-complacency, and arrogance of the cook as a false intellectual.
The encyclopaedic mageiroi surveyed above in section 2 often include
philosophical dogmas and theories in the range of their studies. The chef of
Damoxenus’ Foster-Brothers introduces himself as a disciple of Epicurus, shows
familiarity with Democritus’ physics and biology, and indulges in polemics
against the ethics of the Stoic school (fr. 2. 1-15, 30-31, 62-67).82 Both this
cook and his colleague in Nicomachus’ Eileithyia advertise their knowledge
of medicine, by virtue of which they can use foods as medications, preserve
the healthy balance of humours in the body, and prevent all kinds of diseases
(Damoxenus fr. 2. 29-34; Nicomachus fr. 1. 30-36).83 This claim parallels them
with another popular representative of the alazon doctus type, the jargonizing
medical doctor.84 The latter was a well-exploited figure of the comic repertoire,
from the primitive farces of Doric areas to the classic Attic comedies of the fifth
and fourth century, and appeared in plays by Epicharmus, Crates, Ameipsias,
Alexis, Antiphanes, Menander, and many others. On the comic stage the
medical doctor pompously advertises his medicaments and pharmacological
concoctions, diagnoses the supposed diseases of ailing characters with puffed-up
authority, and prescribes therapies for treatment.85
Other poets created similar characters. Already in The Wrapped-up Man
(Enkalyptomenos) by Anaxippus, a near-contemporary of Menander,86 the cook
82
See Bignone 1917; Diano 1935: 245-249; Giannini 1960: 167-168, 207; Dohm 1964: 161-
169, 178-179, 187-189; Carrière 1979: 336-337; Gallo 1981: 72-74, 95-115, 128-130; Roselli
2000: 168-169; Wilkins 2000: 291-292, 404-406; Belardinelli 2008: 78-79, 82-85, 89; García
Soler 2008: 152; Konstan 2014: 281-283.
83
See Treu 1958: 219-221; Giannini 1960: 160; Dohm 1964: 173-181; Gil - Alfageme 1972:
73; Gallo 1981: 111-116; Wilkins 2000: 399-400, 405; García Soler 2008: 150-151, 156-157; cf.
more generally Arnott 1996: 115, 366-374, 521-522; Roselli 2000.
84
Cf. Roselli 2000: 156-159.
85
See e.g. Sosibius, FGrHist 595 F 7 (from Athen. 14. 621d-e, on primitive Spartan
farces); Crates fr. 46; Ameipsias fr. 17; Phrynichus fr. 64, fr. 66; Antiphanes fr. 6; Alexis fr.
146; Euphron fr. 3; Men. Asp. 439-464; Plaut. Men. 889-956; cf. the plays named Iatros by
Antiphanes, Aristophon, Theophilus, and Philemon. On the doctor as a stock comic character,
see Süss 1905: 29-33; Gigante 1969; Gil - Alfageme 1972; Rossi 1977; Arnott 1996: 431-432;
Imperio 1998: 63-75; Imperio 2012; Ingrosso 2016.
86
According to the Suda (α 1991), Anaxippus had his floruit at the time of Antigonus I
Monophthalmus (382-301 BCE) and his son Demetrius Poliorcetes (337-283 BCE); this places
his activity roughly between the 320s and the 280s. See Hofmann - Wartenberg 1973: 12;
Olson 2007: 404.
52
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
Only Agis of Rhodes has brought roast fish to perfection, and Nereus of Chios
boiled an eel fit for the gods. For fig leaves with white stuffing, Chariades
from Athens. Black broth belonged to Lamprias first. Sausages, Aphthonetus;
Euthynus, bean soup, the way to make lunches for pay-your-way guests.
You know those illustrious ancient sophists? Well, these are our new seven
sages. Realizing that so much had been anticipated, I became the inventor of
pilfering.89
The presentation of the cook as a sophist lived on into the first century
BCE, in the hands of Athenion, one of the latest New Comedy poets of whom
87
καὐτὸς φιλοσοφῶ καταλιπεῖν συγγράμματα / σπεύδων ἐμαυτοῦ καινὰ τῆς τέχνης ... τὸν
ὄρθρον ἐν ταῖς χερσί μ’ ὄψει βυβλία / ἔχοντα καὶ ζητοῦντα <τὰ> κατὰ τὴν τέχνην. / οὐθὲν
Διοδώρου διαφέρω τἀσπενδίου (“And I myself am an intellectual, my project being to pass on
my own modern, scientific treatise ... You’ll see me at dawn, with books in my hands, engaged
in scientific research. I’m just like Diodorus of Aspendus”). Cf. Treu 1958: 219-220; Roselli
2000: 160-164; Belardinelli 2008: 78, 88, 101; García Soler 2008: 152; Scafuro 2014a: 211-212.
88
Cf. Giannini 1960: 168; Imperio 1998: 50.
89
Translation by David Konstan.
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90
The single surviving fragment of Athenion is cited by Athenaeus (14. 660e), who found
it in a work by Juba the King of Mauretania (ca. 48 BCE-AD 23, FGrHist 275 F 86). In another
passage (8. 343e-f) Athenaeus states that the tragic actor Leonteus, a pupil of Athenion’s, had
been a servant of King Juba. This seems to anchor Athenion’s career in the second half of the
first century BCE. See Jacoby 1964: 350; Rusten 2011: 703.
91
Cf. Giannini 1960: 173-174; Dohm 1964: 99, 169-173; Carrière 1979: 312-317; Wilkins
2000: 410-412; Belardinelli 2008: 100-101; Sumler 2014: 95-97.
92
See Archelaus, 60 A 1 and A 4 Diels-Kranz; Democritus, 68 B 5 Diels-Kranz; Critias,
Sisyphus fr. 19 Snell-Kannicht (88 B 25 Diels-Kranz); Plat. Prot. 320c-322d; Resp. 358e-359c;
[Aesch.] Prom. 442-506; Eur. Suppl. 195-218; Diod. Sic. 1. 6. 3-1. 8. 10; Lucr. 5. 772-1104. On
this intellectual trend see e.g. Kerferd 1981: 140-142; Kahn 1981; Triebel-Schubert 1989; Kahn
1997; Hourcade 2000; Manuwald 2006: 98-102; Beresford 2013: 140-146; Kouloumentas 2018:
134-137.
93
As reported by Philodemus (Index Stoicorum 22, pp. 74-75 Dorandi) and Plutarch
(Quomodo adulator 55c), Baton was a member of the Platonic Academy under Arcesilaus (who
54
Ioannis M. Konstantakos
When he could have been at dinner with a beautiful woman and taken two
potfuls of wine from Lesbos. Now this is your man of sense, this is “the good”.
Everything I’m saying to you is what Epicurus said: if everyone lived the kind
of life I do, there wouldn’t be a single bad man or adulterer.
I summon here the prudent philosophers who never allow themselves the
slightest enjoyment, searching for a man of intelligence in the Stoa and the
gathering places, as if he were a runaway slave. You sinner, why, if you can pay
became head of the school around 268 BCE) and satirized in his plays the Stoic Cleanthes
(leader of the Stoa from 262 BCE). See Gallo 1981: 17-26; Olson 2007: 407.
94
See Weiher 1913: 72-73; Gallo 1981: 34-37, 40.
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your share of the bar bill, do you refuse to drink? Why commit such a crime
against the gods? Why, man, have you decided that money is more valuable
than it really is? By drinking water, you harm the city economically: you harm
the farmer and the merchant, whereas I get drunk and keep their incomes
high.95
Epicurus the wise was once asked by someone to tell him what was the good
that people constantly seek: his reply was, “pleasure”. Well done, you wisest
and best of men! You see, there is no greater good than eating; and the good is
an attribute of pleasure.98
More generally, the parasite in Nicolaus fr. 1 (see above, section 3.3)
parallels his profession to a philosophical apprenticeship. The aspiring parasite
needs to become the pupil of a great master of his discipline and learn from
him, like a philosopher’s disciple. He must adhere to a particular doctrine and
live according to its dogmas, as though he were a member of a philosophical
school (14-25):99
95
Both fragments are translated by David Konstan. Cf. Gallo 1981: 30-42; Olson 2007:
253-254; Konstan 2014: 283-285, 289-290.
96
The manner in which “the wise Epicurus” is mentioned in Hegesippus fr. 2 implies that
the great philosopher is dead, forever sanctioned in the great pantheon of Greek thought. The
poet was therefore writing after 270 BCE. See Körte 1912; Olson 2007: 411.
97
Cf. Webster 1970: 111; Nesselrath 1985: 293, 311; Belardinelli 2008: 88-89; Antonsen-
Resch 2004: 19; Olson 2007: 252-253; Konstan 2014: 283.
98
Translation by David Konstan.
99
Cf. Giese 1908: 28-29.
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Ioannis M. Konstantakos
I would like to chastise bitterly –if you allow me freedom of speech, by god–
those uninvited men who choose to dine on someone else’s expense without
having laboured at all. You, man – yes, you: what do you think, in the name of
the gods, when you want to become a parasite? Have you made any contribution
to communal life? Anything at all? Tell me, it would be worthwhile to know.
Whose pupil have you been? Which doctrine do you pursue? What dogmas
do you take as basis to venture to be a parasite? We have spent our entire life to
learn all this stuff with great difficulty, and even now we cannot find an open
door, because of all those who gobble other people’s food without ever having
run a mile!
(Α.) ἢν δὲ δὴ λάβω
τὰ δέοντα καὶ τοὐπτάνιον ἁρμόσωμ’ ἅπαξ,
ὅπερ ἐπὶ τῶν ἔμπροσθε Σειρήνων, Σύρε, 20
ἐγένετο, καὶ νῦν ταὐτὸ τοῦτ’ ὄψει πάλιν.
ὑπὸ τῆς γὰρ ὀσμῆς οὐδὲ εἷς δυνήσεται
ἁπλῶς διελθεῖν τὸν στενωπὸν τουτονί·
ὁ δὲ παριὼν πᾶς εὐθέως πρὸς τὴν θύραν
ἑστήξετ’ ἀχανής, προσπεπατταλευμένος, 25
ἄφωνος, ἄχρι ἂν τῶν φίλων βεβυσμένος
τὴν ῥῖν’ ἕτερός τις προσδραμὼν ἀποσπάσῃ.
(ΣΥ.) μέγας εἶ τεχνίτης. (Α.) ἀγνοεῖς πρὸς ὃν λαλεῖς·
πολλοὺς ἐγὼ σφόδρ’ οἶδα τῶν καθημένων,
οἳ καταβεβρώκασ’ ἕνεκ’ ἐμοῦ τὰς οὐσίας 30
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(A.) Once I get what I need, and set out the chef’s kitchen, you’ll see it like
it was in the old days of the Sirens. Its aroma allows absolutely no one to
walk down the lane; every single passer-by stands open-mouthed at the door,
transfixed, speechless, until someone else with his nose plugged up runs in to
drag him away. (Syr.) You are a mighty artist! (A.) You don’t know who you are
talking to! I know that quite a lot of the people in the audience have devoured
their worldly goods because of me.
In this passage, the cook’s figure displays certain traits which recall above all
the character of the comic hetaira, the beautiful seductress who lures young and
elder heroes in so many scenarios of Middle and New Comedy. The mageiros
claims that people cannot resist the desire for his appetizing dishes, and many
have consumed their entire property in order to pay for them (fr. 1. 29-30). This
is a standard attribute of the hetaira in comic theatre: the profligate young men
are often said or shown to waste their patrimony, in order to satisfy her financial
demands, shower her with lavish gifts, or offer her magnificent feasts, and
thus win her favour. The hetaira herself is frequently portrayed as a rapacious
creature that constantly aims at profit; she uses her powers of seduction in order
to consume all the money of her lovers, and abandons them when they have
nothing else to offer her.100 Hegesippus’ cook substitutes his culinary creations
for the prostitute’s erotic charms; men fall in love with the mageiros’ meals and
are willing to spend a fortune for his sake.
Furthermore, the cook describes how passers-by, when they walk into the
alley outside his kitchen and smell his food, are so bewitched by the aromas
that they stand transfixed in front of the house door. This image brings to mind
again the prospective lovers of a courtesan, who wait outside her door like
exclusi amatores in a perennial paraklausithyron. The enamoured young men of
comedy often find themselves in an analogous situation, lingering and longing
outside the house-door of their beloved hetaira, with more, less, or occasionally
no hope of being admitted inside.101
It is also noteworthy that Hegesippus’ cook compares himself to the
mythical Sirens, who attracted mariners with their alluring song, in the same
way as he entices passers-by with the odours of his concoctions. The Sirens
are sometimes used, in comedy and related humorous genres, as a metaphor
or simile for ravishing and dangerous hetairai who seduce, entrap, and destroy
100
See e.g. Anaxilas fr. 22; Antiphanes fr. 27. 10-11; Aristophon fr. 4; Timocles fr. 25;
Alexis fr. 103. 1-3; Amphis fr. 23; Epicrates fr. 2, fr. 3; Men. Dis Ex. 91-102; Men. fr. 163, fr. 164;
Plaut. Asin. 127-248; Men. 335-445; Trin. 230-270, 402-413; Truc. 22-90, 209-222, 292-314. Cf.
Legrand 1917: 79-88; Gil 1975: 66-69; Henry 1985: 34-38, 41; Arnott 1996: 273-275; Rosivach
1998: 107-139; Auhagen 2009: 66-70, 78-79, 82-85, 120, 138-151, 155-161, 174-176, 197-199.
101
See e.g. Timocles fr. 25; Plaut. Asin. 127-242; Curc. 1-215; Truc. 77-208, 893ff.; cf. the
artful inversion of the motif in Men. Mis. 1-100.
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Ioannis M. Konstantakos
their lovers, stripping them of their property: see Anaxilas fr. 22. 20-21, and
cf. how the same imagery is developed in a Hellenistic satirical epigram by
Hedylus (Anth. Pal. 5. 161) and in a rationalizing tale of the paradoxographer
Heraclitus (Περὶ ἀπίστων 14), which may have been influenced from comic
poetry. In Theopompus’ mythological comedy The Sirens the monsters of
the title were similarly presented as female aulos-players entertaining the
guests at a symposium with rather old-fashioned tunes (fr. 51). Such women
musicians were often also prostitutes, hired out by a pimp not only for musical
accompaniment of the banquet, but also with a view to offering erotic services
to the male participants.102
102
On the presentation of comic hetairai as alluring Sirens, see Scarcia 1964: 32-34; Kaiser
1964: 121-123; Farioli 2001: 131-132; Casolari 2003: 215-217; Sumler 2014: 88-91.
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Apart from the idiosyncrasies of these comic types per se, their relations
and transactions with the speaking character are also described. Thus, the
speaker’s monologue unfolds not only a repertoire of stock stage figures but
also a dramaturgical inventory of standard comic routines or plot patterns. The
text offers a series of summaries or vignettes, each one of which encapsulates
the scenario of a different kind of comic play. In this respect, the professional
character’s tirade reads like a manual of comic poetics and dramaturgical
practice, somewhat like the anthologies of scenarii that were compiled by actor-
managers of the commedia dell’arte,103 or like the collections of plot summaries
(hypotheseis) of tragedies and comedies prepared by the philologists of
Alexandria.104 The encyclopaedic and review-like constitution of the professional
characters of Hellenistic comedy is thus clearly highlighted. These personages
embody on stage a “reader’s digest” of comic drama.
The most celebrated example of this technique is the hetaira’s speech in a
comedy by Phoenicides, a poet of the early third century, who was competing in
Athenian festivals in the 280s and 270s.105 In the surviving extract the courtesan
recounts her amorous relationships with a succession of three men (fr. 4):
103
See Alberti 1996; Cotticelli - Goodrich Heck - Heck 2001; Testaverde 2007; Andrews
2008.
104
See e.g. the alphabetically arranged collection of narrative hypotheseis to Euripides’
tragedies, parts of which are preserved in a number of papyri (PSI 1286, P.Oxy. 2455, 2457,
3650, 3651, 3652, 4017 etc.); and the compilation of summaries of Menander’s comedies in
P.Oxy. 1235 and 2534. See Budé 1977: 48-60; van Rossum-Steenbeek 1998: 1-52; also Körte
1918; Zuntz 1955: 134-145.
105
On the inscription of the Didascaliae Phoenicides is recorded to have competed in the
Lenaia of 285/4 and perhaps also of 286/5 BCE (IG II2 2319. 56 and 65, test. 4 and 5). His name
is also included in the list of victorious comic poets at the City Dionysia (IG II2 2325C. 76,
test. 3), coming after Poseidippus, Apollodorus of Carystus, Philemon Junior, and Damoxenus.
His relative place in the catalogue, in view of the chronology of the preceding poets, indicates
that Phoenicides must have won his first victory at the Dionysia around the mid-270s. See
Hofmann - Wartenberg 1973: 54; Olson 2007: 415; Millis - Olson 2012: 108-110, 165, 169.
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Ioannis M. Konstantakos
By Aphrodite, I’d rather not put up with working as a courtesan any longer,
Pythias; to hell with it! Don’t talk to me about it. I failed; it’s not for me; I
want to put an end to it. As soon as I took up the trade, I had a lover who was
a soldier. He was constantly talking about his battles and showing off his scars
as he talked. But he didn’t produce any income. He claimed he was getting
a grant of some sort from the king, and he was always talking about it. And
because of this grant I’m describing, the bastard was granted me as a gift for
a year. I got rid of him and got someone else, a doctor. He brought quite a few
people into the house and performed surgery or cauterized them. He was a
beggar and an executioner, and he seemed worse than the other one to me;
the first told a tall tale, whereas the second produced corpses. Fate linked me
with a third lover, a philosopher, who had a beard, an inexpensive robe, and
an argument to make. I got into obvious trouble; indeed, I fell right into it.
Because he used to give me nothing ... he said that money’s no good. “All right,
it’s bad – so give it to me, throw it to me!” He didn’t listen.106
The first of the hetaira’s lovers was a boastful soldier who displayed some
of the most emblematic traits of the milites gloriosi of comedy: he continuously
narrated his heroic battles, showed off the scars of his war wounds, and waited
in vain for a rich grant from the king he had served.107 The mercenary captains
of New Comedy are similarly fond of ostentatiously displaying their riches
and boasting about them.108 As a rule, however, their wealth is real; the comic
106
Translation by S. Douglas Olson.
107
For the first trait of the comic soldier (narration of battles), see e.g. Ar. Ach. 1190-1226;
Mnesimachus fr. 7, fr. 8; Plaut. Miles 1-57; Poen. 470-498; Epid. 431-434, 442-457; cf. the funny
inversion of the stock motif in Truc. 482-496; and see Ribbeck 1882: 36-40; Legrand 1917:
95-96, 221; Duckworth 1952: 264-265; Hilgar 1982: 250-253. For the second trait, see above,
section 3.3 and n. 80, on comic soldiers showing off the scars of their (supposed) wounds. For
the third one, see again above, section 3.3, on captains who pride themselves on their close
relationship with kings or potentates.
108
See e.g. Men. fr. 24, fr. 26, and cf. Col. fr. 2 Arnott; Diphilus fr. 81; Hipparchus fr. 1;
Nicostratus fr. 8; Damoxenus fr. 1; Plaut. Miles 1063-1065; Curc. 439-441; cf. Theophrastus’
alazon (Characters 23. 2) and the captain in Luc. Dial. mer. 9, who clearly betrays the influence
of comedy.
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soldiers do possess plenty of financial resources, thanks to the opulent spoils and
rewards they have acquired from their participation in various campaigns.109
In this respect, they differ from the poor devil of Phoenicides’ play, who is
penniless and vainly expects a remuneration from the monarch.
Nevertheless, the case of Phoenicides’ captain is not unique in the comic
canon. Several soldiers of New Comedy are said to have gone through periods of
great poverty, until they gained wealth thanks to their mercenary employment
(see Men. Col. 29-52; Sic. fr. 6 Arnott; cf. Asp. 8ff. and the later reworking of
the motif in Lucian’s Dialogues of Courtesans 9).110 A few passages of comic
literature even offer an alternative, tougher picture of the common soldier as an
indigent and badly remunerated professional: he receives very low wages (Men.
Perik. 380-382); he has no money to grant to his girlfriend but always waits to
receive a pension or salary (Luc. Dial. mer. 15. 3). Phoenicides’ captain belongs
to this latter category of penurious servicemen.111
The second lover of Phoenicides’ heroine was a medical doctor who kept
killing off his patients with ineffective surgical operations and cauterizations.
He represents another well-known figure of the ancient theatre, as already noted
above.112 In the comic tradition doctors are regularly represented as incompetent
quacks who, instead of curing their patients, bring them to greater harm or even
cause their death.113
Finally, the courtesan had an affair with a philosopher, who sported a long
beard, wore a rough cloak (tribon), and talked a lot; he despised money and
led a life of asceticism. This is a fair specimen of the pretentious philosopher
of the comic stage. The shabby clothing and the ascetic lifestyle are standard
characteristics of the docti and thinkers of comedy. From the Socrates of the
Clouds to Plato and the Pythagoreans, as lampooned in Middle Comedy, and
the Stoics who are ridiculed in Hellenistic plays, the comic philosophers dress
in poor clothes, are averse to sensual pleasures, and restrict themselves to a very
109
See e.g. Men. Asp. 32-90; Col. 16, 43-51, E231-235; Mis. 39-40; Perik. 516-525; Sic.
13-15, 139, 386-395, 415; Philemon fr. 15; Plaut. Curc. 343-348; Epid. 153-155, 299-301, 449-
451, 463-473; Miles 980-982, 1099-1100, 1204-1205, 1338, 1349-1350; Truc. 522-550, 893-913,
952; Ter. Eun. 135-136, 266-283, 447, 1055-1057, 1078; Luc. Dial. Mer. 9. On this motif see
Ribbeck 1882: 36, 41-46; Legrand 1917: 96-97, 221-222; Hofmann - Wartenberg 1973: 5, 9-11,
16-17, 19-29, 31, 43, 51, 53, 91-96, 142; Gil 1975: 76, 79-80, 87-88; Brown 2004: 2, 7-8, 13;
Konstantakos 2016: 122-123.
110
See Hofmann - Wartenberg 1973: 28-31, 43; Brown 2004: 13; Pernerstorfer 2009: 91-92,
123; Konstantakos 2016: 123.
111
Cf. Gil 1975: 88.
112
See Gil - Alfageme 1972: 81-87; and above, section 3.4 and n. 85.
113
See e.g. Philemon Junior fr. 3; Adesp. com. fr. 727; Philemon fr. 122; further
Aristophanes fr. 132, fr. 723; Antiphanes fr. 259; Philemon Junior fr. 2; Men. Sent. 699 Jaekel;
Gil - Alfageme 1972: 43-44, 54-55, 63-64, 68, 73-79, 81-82; Imperio 1998: 75; Ingrosso 2016:
18.
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frugal diet.114 In particular, the tribon, a rough coat of poor men in Classical
Athens, was worn by Socrates in Ameipsias’ Konnos (Diog. Laert. 2. 28, citing
fr. 9) and later becomes the typical cloth of Pythagoreans in Middle Comedy
(Aristophon fr. 9. 3, fr. 12. 9). The long beard (pogon) is also displayed by the
student of the Platonic Academy portrayed in Ephippus fr. 14. 7.115 The aversion
to money recurs as a trait of the Stoic philosopher satirized by Theognetus, who
goes about exclaiming that “wealth is alien to man, as transient as morning
frost” (fr. 1. 3).116
In short, this hetaira narrates her successive affairs with three well-known
types of Greek comedy, each one of whom is assigned the standard qualities
that characterize his role in the comic tradition. Braggart captain, inefficient
doctor, and ascetic philosopher, all seem to come out of the production of a
New Comedy play.117 In essence, Phoenicides’ courtesan summarizes a series
of virtual stereotyped plots of the ancient comic repertoire. Each one of her
affairs could form the core of a different comedy, starring respectively the miles
gloriosus, the quack doctor, and the abstinent thinker in the role of the hetaira’s
lover.
The same kind of structure is found in the tirades of some comic cooks.
Already in Diphilus’ The Painter (Zographos) the mageiros, in the course of an
extensive lesson to his assistant, describes a number of social or professional
classes of people who may be potential clients. He instructs his assistant how
each one of these types of client must be treated (fr. 42. 4ff.):118
114
See e.g. Clouds 102-104, 175-186, 412-422, 497, 834-837, 856-858; Ameipsias fr. 9;
Antiphanes fr. 133, fr. 158, fr. 166, fr. 225; Alexis fr. 201, fr. 223; Aristophon fr. 8, fr. 9, fr.
10, fr. 12; Philemon fr. 88; Poseidippus fr. 16. On the asceticism and frugality of the comic
philosophers, see Carrière 1979: 328-329; Sanchis Llopis 1995: 71-84; Imperio 1998: 105-111,
121-126; Totaro 1998: 161-164; Olson 2007: 243-251; Zanetto 2010: 143-149; Konstan 2014:
284, 288-290. On their shabby costume, see Süss 1905: 24-26, 36-40; Keramari 2020: 106-115,
125-131.
115
On the tribon, see Stone 1981: 162-163; Patzer 1994: 61-62; Totaro 1998: 162; Olson
2007: 236; Keramari 2020: 110. Both the tribon and the beard will later become standard
features of the inane philosophers in the works of Lucian, Alciphron, and other satirists. Cf.
Süss 1905: 38-40; Nesselrath 1985: 451-453, 459; Sanchis Llopis 1995: 71; Totaro 1998: 162;
Papachrysostomou 2021: 155.
116
On this motif, cf. Nesselrath 1985: 464-466.
117
Cf. Gil - Alfageme 1972: 81; Hofmann - Wartenberg 1973: 55; Hunter 1985: 74-75;
Henry 1985: 43; Olson 2007: 347.
118
Cf. Rankin 1907: 79-83; Giannini 1960: 174-175; Dohm 1964: 135, 209; Webster 1970:
158; Wilkins 2000: 394-396; García Soler 2008: 154; Scafuro 2014a: 210-212.
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For I don’t go first unless I screen who is sacrificing, or where the dinner
comes from, or which people he has invited. I have a catalogue of all the
crowds, which kinds I should hire myself to or be wary of. For example,
the crowd at the market, if you will: some shipowner is sacrificing to pay a
vow, after he’s lost his mast or shattered the rudder of a ship, or tossed out
the cargo when he became swamped. I let this kind go. For he does nothing
gladly, but just for custom’s sake. Along with the libations he calculates and
sets down what share goes to his fellow seafarers, and each one eats his own
innards. But another one has sailed in from Byzantium on day three, without
mishap, successful, overjoyed to have come out at ten and twelve on the dollar,
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Ioannis M. Konstantakos
babbling about fares and belching out loans, having sex with whorish queers:
this one I bow down to as soon as he’s disembarked, slip him my right hand,
mention Zeus the Saviour, am set to do service. Such is my method. Again,
a boy in love is gobbling up and spinning away his inheritance: up I march.
Others, let’s say, are meeting for a pay-your-way dinner, by Zeus, and burst
into the pottery † half-clothed, clutching their hems and shouting, “Who
wants to prepare a cheap little meal?” I let them holler. For if you go there you
can receive a beating on top of serving the whole night. For if you ask for your
due wages, “First bring me a chamber pot”, he says. “The lentil soup didn’t
have vinegar”. You ask again: “You’ll howl aloud, tops among cooks”, he says.
I could recount thousands of other such things. But where I’m taking you now
is a whorehouse, a courtesan celebrating the festival of Adonis expensively
along with other whores. You’ll go away stuffing yourself plenty and your
pockets too.119
119
Translation by David Konstan.
120
Cf. the comedies titled Emporos (“merchant”) by Epicrates, Diphilus, and Philemon,
which may also have referred to seafaring traders. Charinus in Plautus’ Mercator (based on
Philemon’s play) is indeed engaged in transporting merchandise with a ship and selling the
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In the next lines the mageiros proceeds to enumerate other customers. The
profligate young man, who falls in love and squanders his father’s property with
his amorous pursuits, is another typical figure of the love-plots of Middle and
New Comedy. In many plays the plot revolves around such a prodigal adulescens,
his expensive affair with a hetaira, and his stingy father’s concerns about the
resulting waste of family money.121 A related category of personages follows: the
company of youngsters who are organizing a communal symposium and pester
the cook with their exaggerated caprices. This situation reflects a usual episode
in comic plots of the fourth century: young men gather together in order to
have a banquet and enjoy themselves in each other’s company (see e.g. Alexis fr.
15; Men. Perik. 174-177; Ter. Eun. 539-614).
The final customer mentioned represents the cook’s actual contract: he has
been hired by a hetaira who wants to have an expensive feast in her brothel, in
the company of other prostitutes. The banquet of the hetairai is a recurrent motif
in domestic and love-centred comic dramas, ever since Pherecrates’ Korianno in
the fifth century (fr. 73-76) and up to the initial scene of Menander’s Synaristosai
(fr. 1, fr. 4, fr. 8, fr. 10 Arnott) and its adaptation in Plautus’ Cistellaria (1-119).122
Thus, all the clients described by this mageiros are typical personages of fourth-
century and Hellenistic comedy; and the situations they are placed in are
common incidents in comic plots. Once again, the cook’s speech is an inventory
of standard materials of comic dramaturgy.
Similarly, the cook in Anaxippus’ Wrapped-up Man (see above, section 3.4)
describes the different ways in which he treats particular categories of clients, all
of whom are typical figures of the comic stage (fr. 1. 28-47):123
goods overseas to Rhodes, where he becomes involved with a hetaira. See in general Arnott
1996: 335-336; Dunsch 2007.
121
See e.g. Alexis fr. 110, fr. 248; Plaut. Bacch. 368-384, 405-498, 1087-1207; Merc. 40-79;
Most. 15-83, 970-1180; Pseud. 415-555; Legrand 1917: 129-130; Wehrli 1936: 50-55, 70-75; Gil
1974: 156-159; Hunter 1985: 75-76, 95-109; Maurice 2007: 154-160. If love-affairs are replaced
with horse-breeding and chariot-racing (another extremely expensive hobby of the Athenian
aristocracy), the same essential plot pattern can be traced back to the Clouds, where the spoiled
young son Pheidippides wastes his father’s money on horses and chariots and plunges him into
serious debts. Cf. Gil 1974: 156; Hunter 1985: 96-97; Davidson 1997: 185-186.
122
Other such banquets of women (probably hetairai) may have been presented in
Theopompus’ Nemea (fr. 33) and Pamphile (fr. 41, fr. 42); Antiphanes’ Mystis (fr. 161, fr. 163,
cf. Athen. 10. 441c, 11. 494c-d); Eubulus’ Kampylion (fr. 41, fr. 42); Diphilus’ Theseus (fr. 49);
and in Sophron’s mimes (fr. 14-17). Cf. Webster 1970: 22; Bowie 1995: 115-119; Wilkins 2000:
60-62, 233-234; Henderson 2002: 82-83; Konstantakos 2005a: 194-198; Auhagen 2009: 49-57,
116-120, 126-127, 131-132.
123
Cf. Giannini 1960: 172; Dohm 1964: 157-160; Roselli 2000: 164-166; Wilkins 2000: 405;
García Soler 2008: 154; Scafuro 2014a: 211-212.
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Ioannis M. Konstantakos
I don’t always offer the same foods to everyone; I’ve arranged them just
according to their lifestyles, different things for lovers, or philosophers, or tax
collectors. Now, a youth with a girlfriend, who is bankrupting his father, him
I serve cuttlefish and squid and, with an accompaniment of nice dips, some
little bits of rockfish. You see, he isn’t there to have dinner, he has his mind on
love. The philosopher I serve ham or pigs’ feet – the creature takes hunger to
an extreme. For the tax collector there’s bluefish, eel, and bream. And when
the wintry month approaches, I prepare lentil soup, and make life’s funeral
banquet glorious. Old men’s palates are different; they are much more dull
than youths’. For them I serve mustard, and make flavours that have a pungent
nature, so they can agitate and blow out the gas.124
The prodigal young man, who is totally absorbed in his love for his
girlfriend and consumes his father’s property by carousing with her, occupies
the first place in the list (31-37).125 The philosopher follows, described here as
an extremely voracious fellow (38-40). The philosophers of the comic stage,
as noted above, are standardly depicted as famished and restricted to a very
poor diet. Perhaps this is why this particular representative of the type displays
such gluttony when he actually enjoys the services of a cook: he has not
eaten substantial food for ages. In several comic passages it is similarly stated
that philosophers eat very greedily, if they can find good food, and that their
124
Translation by David Konstan.
125
Cf. Dohm 1964: 261-262; and above, section 3.5, and nn. 100 and 121.
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Someone hides the true number of his years or even uses cosmetics and wishes
to look handsome, because he is crazy with love in spite of his age. Call him a
Ganymede who has been received among the gods. Gratify your patron with
your speech, to his own detriment. Someone else narrates at dinner how he
126
Cf. Dohm 1964: 158; Webster 1970: 53; Nesselrath 1985: 371-373; Tylawsky 2002:
82; Zanetto 2010: 145-146, 149; Konstan 2014: 284, 289-290. The character described in
Antiphanes fr. 87, who grabs large handfuls of food and eats them quickly and voraciously,
may also be a philosopher, to judge from Athenaeus’ introduction of this passage (4. 161d).
127
Cf. Dohm 1964: 158. See the obolostates in Antiphanes fr. 166; Alexis’ and Nicostratus’
Tokistes; Plautus’ Faeneratrix and Caecilius’ Obolostates or Faenerator; Misargyrides in Plaut.
Most. 532-654; the Danista in Epid. 621-647; and the tarpezita Lyco in Curc. 371-554. Cf.
Legrand 1917: 102-103; Duckworth 1952: 261-262, 274-277; Andreau 1968; Arnott 1996: 655-
656; Konstantakos 2000: 134-135.
128
Cf. Duckworth 1952: 153-155, 163-165, 242-245, 322; Segal 1987: 117-122; Petrone
2007: 109-110.
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Ioannis M. Konstantakos
arranges his forces and kills everyone in battle. Sneer at him silently and let
your rancour be manifested on the table.
The first one of the figures described –the old man who has madly fallen
in love and tries to hide his advanced age and beautify himself with cosmetics–
exemplifies the well-known type of the senex amator, one of the most ridiculous
characters of comic theatre. The elderly fellow who becomes belatedly
enamoured of a young hetaira, in spite of his years, is standardly discomfited
and humiliated on stage for his indecorous and undignified passion. This type
runs through the history of ancient comedy, from Aristophanes’ Wasps (1326-
1449), Pherecrates’ Korianno (fr. 77, fr. 78), and Plato Comicus’ Phaon (fr.
195), via Middle Comedy (Philetaerus fr. 6-9, Alexis fr. 236-237), to Menander,
Diphilus, Philemon, and the Plautine adaptations (Nicobulus and Philoxenus in
Bacchides 1120-1210, Lysidamus in Casina, Demipho in Mercator, Demaenetus
in Asinaria).129 In the Casina the old infatuated Lysidamus profusely adorns and
perfumes himself, in order to please the young girl he loves (225-227), similarly
to the elderly man in Nicolaus.
The second character, who narrates at dinner how he arranges his forces
in battle and slays all the enemies (fr. 1. 37-38), is the typical braggart soldier.
As noted above, one of the most emblematic aspects of the comic miles consists
in his exaggerated narrations of his purported heroic battles.130 Usually, the
blowhard completes his narrative by parading the great number of enemies he
is supposed to have killed on the battlefield, exactly like the boaster of Nicolaus
fr. 1. Pyrgopolynices claims credit for having slain seven thousand enemies of
various nationalities within a single day (Plaut. Miles 42-46). Antamoenides
(Poen. 470-487) raises his own record of slaughter to sixty thousand men in a
one-day fight. Under the influence of New Comedy, the motif is taken over in
one of Lucian’s Dialogues of Courtesans (13): a braggart soldier falsely purports
to have annihilated a fair number of barbarians in a cavalry battle and to
have decapitated a terrifying satrap in single combat.131 As in the speeches of
the other professional characters analyzed above, Nicolaus’ parasite becomes
the epicentre of a group of typical stage personages and epitomizes a series of
stereotyped comic plotlines.
129
See Wehrli 1936: 56-66, 70-73; Duckworth 1952: 245-247; Conca 1970; Gil 1974: 161-
163; Cody 1976; Walker 1980; Ryder 1984; Bianco 2003: 55-138; Petrone 2007; Maurice 2007:
147-154.
130
See above the discussion of Phoenicides fr. 4, and n. 107.
131
Cf. Hanson 1965: 57-58.
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132
On the composite plot structure of the Truculentus, cf. Konstan 1983: 145-162; Lefèvre
1991: 176-189, 195-198; Anderson 1993: 83-87; Hofmann 2001: 14-15; Papaioannou 2008;
Auhagen 2009: 138-151; Sharrock 2009: 138-140; Fantham 2011: 144-156; Pentericci 2019.
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Ioannis M. Konstantakos
drains her suitors of their property, and the young profligate lover wastes his
fortune on her.133
As the comedy progresses, Diniarchus is also involved in another
emblematic plot pattern of New Comedy, a story of rape, illicit birth of an infant,
and final recognition. The young man is discovered to have raped a citizen
maiden, the daughter of his neighbour Callicles; the girl became pregnant and
eventually gave birth to a boy, which her mother smuggled out of the house with
the help of a servant, in order to conceal the scandal. The infant was handed
over to the meretrix Phronesium, who wanted to use it in one of her schemes, in
order to deceive another lover of hers, a braggart soldier (see below). However,
Callicles discovers the affair, has the implicated servants flogged, and extracts
the truth from them. He thus learns that Diniarchus is the rapist and father of
the child. Diniarchus himself is obliged to confess his guilt; he willy-nilly asks
the maiden in marriage and the wedding is arranged. Diniarchus asks his baby
back from Phronesium and prepares to become a family man (770-883).
The basic tenets of this scenario are extremely familiar from Graeco-Roman
comic drama. Already some critics in the Hellenistic age observed that rapes
of maidens, supposititious babies, and recognitions are the central constituting
motifs of the plots of New Comedy.134 Many extant plays confirm this, from
Menander’s Epitrepontes, Perikeiromene, Samia, and Georgos to Plautus’
Aulularia and Terence’s Andria. In fact, the same essential storyline was already
well developed in Middle Comedy and is attested, among others, in plays by
Anaxandrides (Suda α 1982) and Alexis (fr. 212).135
Phronesium’s second lover, Stratophanes, is a fully-fledged miles gloriosus.
He is vainglorious and superficially aggressive, compares himself to Mars,
and is ready to exalt his martial virtues and war feats (483-498, 505-511, 515).
He has an aggressive temper and showers insults and threats on his rivals
133
See above, sections 3.5 and 3.6, and nn. 100, 101, 121, and 125, where many examples
are given. Cf. in general the plots of Asinaria, Bacchides, Mostellaria; Broccia 1982: 160-162.
134
See Satyrus, Life of Euripides F6 fr. 39, col. 7, vv. 6-22 (p. 101 Schorn): τ[ὰ κ]ατὰ τὰς
π[ερι]πετείας, β[ια]σμοὺς παρθένων, ὑποβολὰς παιδίων, ἀναγνωρισμοὺς διά τε δακτυλίων
καὶ διὰ δεραίων. ταῦτα γάρ ἐστι δήπου τὰ συνέχοντα τὴν νεωτέραν κωμῳδίαν, ἃ πρὸς ἄκρον
ἤγα[γ]εν Εὐριπίδης. Vita Aristophanis 28. 54-55 (p. 135 Koster): ἔγραψε κωμῳδίαν τινὰ
Κώκαλον, ἐν ᾧ εἰσάγει φθορὰν καὶ ἀναγνωρισμὸν καὶ τἄλλα πάντα, ἃ ἐζήλωσε Μένανδρος.
Cf. Wehrli 1936: 16-20, 39-45; Webster 1974: 15-17; Fantham 1975: 53-63, 67-71; Hunter 1985:
133-136; Zagagi 1994: 42-45; Rosivach 1998: 11-50; Munteanu 2002; Bruzzese 2011: 128-139;
Rusten 2011: 35-36; Henderson 2014: 192-195. On the affinities of this typical comic scenario
with Diniarchus’ storyline, see Konstan 1983: 157-162; Papaioannou 2008: 128.
135
See also the plays called Pseudhypobolimaios (“Falsely considered as supposititious”)
by Crobylus and the younger Cratinus, and several Middle Comedy fragments which entail
a recognition (Eubulus fr. 69; Antiphanes fr. 166; Alexis fr. 272). Cf. Webster 1970: 64, 72-78,
84-85, 139, 142, 156; Carrière 1979: 156-158; Henry 1985: 38-39; Arnott 1996: 51-54, 605-608,
760-762; Konstantakos 2000: 126-140; Konstantakos 2005-2006: 75-77.
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136
See the plots of Plautus’ Miles Gloriosus, Poenulus, Pseudolus, and Terence’s Eunuchus;
cf. Epid. 475-492; Bacch. 884-904; Wehrli 1936: 101-113; Boughner 1954: 55, 65-68; Hanson
1965: 55; Gil 1975: 60, 76; Konstantakos 2000: 211-212; Blume 2001: 185-191. Menander
notoriously reversed this stock pattern in a series of comedies (Perikeiromene, Misoumenos,
Sikyonioi) and turned the soldier into the play’s true enamoured hero, who finally wins the
girl and triumphs over his young rival. See Hofmann - Wartenberg 1973: 32-39, 43-45, 49-50;
Goldberg 1980: 45-53, 111; Hunter 1985: 66-69; Zagagi 1994: 29-35, 38-40, 173; Blume 2001:
192-195; Brown 2004: 8-14; Petrides 2014: 202-216.
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offer Thais lavish gifts (135-136, 266-283, 391-394, 447-450, 1055-1057, 1075-
1078), similarly to Stratophanes. In the end, he is received into the meretrix’s
circle only in a subordinate role, so as to be financially exploited and made a
laughing stock by Thais and her favoured lover, without even being conscious
of it, due to his stupidity (1073-1094). In this respect too, Thraso is very similar
to Stratophanes, who is finally forced to accept a demeaning second place in the
meretrix’s favours, after the lucrative rustic lover (Truc. 915-963).137 The soldier’s
plot strand in the Truculentus faithfully reproduces the usual story patterns of
the boastful miles’ role in comic theatre.
The triad of the meretrix’s clients is completed with Strabax, a rustic youth
(adulescens agrestis or rusticus), who is also infatuated with Phronesium and
delivers her all the money he can lay his hands on, in order to enjoy her company
(246-249, 298-314, 647-662, 946-961). Strabax is a characteristic specimen of
the comic agroikos, the rough and uneducated rustic, a category of characters
well known especially in Middle and New Comedy. Like all the agroikoi of the
comic stage and the humorous tradition, this rustic young man is coarse and
ignorant of the refined ways of the city. He comes to the meretrix straight from
his farm, after having tended to cattle fodder and pasture animals, presumably
with the smells and the dirt of the farmyard clinging on his body; and as he
approaches the courtesan’s house, he still speaks about acorns and cattle feed
and sheep, his standard rural preoccupations (645-668). In this state, the crude
young rustic becomes ludicrously involved in the sophisticated establishment
of the meretrix, in which even slave maids are finely perfumed and adorned
with jewels. The courtesan, of course, exploits Strabax’s infatuation in order to
extract profit, as she does with her other lovers (711-728). The young rustic is
dirty, unkempt (930-934), and ill-mannered; in the course of the symposium
which he enjoys with the meretrix, he shouts loudly and makes a fuss, bluntly
demanding erotic satisfaction in return for the money he has paid (914-924).
Strabax’s relationship with the meretrix reflects the typical themes that
are associated with the figure of the agroikos in fourth-century comedy. The
uncouth rustic of the comic stage was frequently placed in sophisticated
urban environments, such as the symposium and the relationship with a
hetaira. In these situations the maladroit and uneducated agroikos was totally
out of his depth; he was ignorant of the social codes and rules to be observed
in the sympotic milieu or in the hetaira’s establishment, fell repeatedly into
misunderstandings and blunders, and thus displayed his ridiculous coarseness.
A series of plays of Middle Comedy illustrated the rustic’s involvement in
such adventures (Anaxandrides’ Agroikoi fr. 1 and fr. 2; Antiphanes’ Agroikos
137
Cf. Wehrli 1936: 103, 110; Fantham 1975: 63; Rosivach 1998: 121-126; Fantham 2011:
153-156.
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and Boutalion, fr. 1-7 and fr. 69; cf. the countrymen Cnemon and Gorgias in
the lunch party in Menander’s Dyskolos).138 Similar to these comic rustics, the
unkempt Strabax looks like a clumsy incongruity in the meretrix’s household;
and his coarse manners blatantly infringe the etiquette of the dinner party.
In the Truculentus, therefore, the meretrix functions as the binding factor of
three stock figures and their corresponding storylines, which reproduce standard
scenarios of comic drama.139 The three stories are dexterously intertwined with
each other, via common motifs and elements associated with the courtesan’s
schemes. The infant used by the meretrix for the deception of the soldier is
the child of the young adulescens, which plays the central role in the young
man’s recognition plot. Both the adulescens and the rustic are played off by the
courtesan as rivals to the soldier, to make the latter jealous and induce him to
offer more money. Each one of these three plot strands could have formed the
subject of a separate comic play. Indeed, several plays in the repertoire of Greek
Middle and New Comedy seem to have consisted in the dramatic development
of one or another of these scenarios. In Plautus’ work, however, all three plot
strands are combined and interwoven together into a single dramatic creation.
In this respect, the structure of the Truculentus looks like a natural
extension of the encyclopaedic dramaturgy of Hellenistic comedy, as analyzed
above. In the post-Menandrian Greek plays the various stock types and plotlines
of the comic repertoire were overviewed in a speech, as a succession of narrated
experiences in a professional character’s career. In the Plautine script they are
dramatized and brought on stage, as live personages, scenes, and sequences
of plot. The professional character takes the central role and her involvement
with the different stereotyped figures provides the material for the episodes of
the comedy. The Truculentus is a blow-up of the comic professional’s tirade,
an enlargement of the basic pattern of the monologue into the monumental
dimensions of an entire drama.
Much has been written about the possible sources of the material of this
Plautine play. It has been argued that Plautus practised extensive contaminatio
in order to fashion the Truculentus, taking the plotlines of different Greek
comedies and joining them together. It has also been suggested that the
Truculentus, as a whole, is a creation of Plautus’ imaginative art, based not on
138
See Konstantakos 2004: 19-35 and Konstantakos 2005b for detailed discussion of the
material. See further Diggle 2004: 207-221; Cullyer 2006; Rosen 2006; Belardinelli 2016. The
same humorous themes (the rustic in the symposium and in the hetaira’s company) persist
later in Theophrastus’ ethological sketch of the agroikos (Characters 4), in the Letters of Rustics
by Alciphron (2. 14, 2. 15, 2. 24, 2. 25, 2. 30, 2. 31) and Aelian (7, 8, 9, 19), and in Lucian’s
Dialogues of Courtesans (7, 15). See Drago 2019: 218-223.
139
The stock characters, however, are reworked and elaborated by Plautus in an untypical
manner and with some unusual traits: see Dessen 1977; Konstan 1983: 145-164; Papaioannou
2008: 121-125, 129-130, 136-139.
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specific Greek models but more generally on themes and patterns that recurred
separately in several plays of the repertoire of New Comedy.140 This topic is too
large and complicated to investigate here in detail. One factor, however, deserves
to be highlighted: at least the primary idea of compiling distinct types of plot
into a complex play was not a wholesale invention of Plautus. The combination
of many different stock characters and plots into a single dramatic unity was
already achieved in the composite constitution of the cooks, parasites, and
hetairai of Hellenistic comedy. Plautus developed scenically a practice inspired
by his Hellenistic forerunners.
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84
Rainer Guggenberger
Rainer Guggenberger
(Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0543-2606
Introdução
A nossa análise divide-se em cinco seções. Na primeira, abordaremos a
questão da inserção do Menandro no período helenístico. Na segunda, iremos
DOI | https://doi.org/10.14195/978-989-26-2394-8_2 83
Análise Métrica de Dyskolos de Menandro e Comparação com Ekklesiazousai de
Aristófanes
1
“Menander son of Diopeithes of the deme Cephisia was born in 342/1 BCE […] and
died in 292/1 or in 291/0 […]. These and other testimonies about Menander’s life and career
are uncertain. The Athenian poet served as an ephebe (military cadet) along with Epicurus
[…] and is reported to have produced his first play during that youthful military service […].
Diogenes Laertius […] reports that Theophrastus, Aristotle’s successor as head of the Lyceum,
taught Menander as well as Demetrius of Phalerum […]; the Macedonian Cassander had
made the latter ruler of Athens in 317 BCE. That both Menander and Demetrius of Phalerum
had a connection with the Peripatic school is likely enough. Friendship between Demetrius
and Menander is often surmised” (Scafuro 2014: 218). “Sólo la Suda, el anónimo llamado Sobre
84
Rainer Guggenberger
primeira peça, chamada Orge (Ira ou Cólera), somente em 321 a.C.2, ou seja,
logo no segundo ano do novo período, denominado helenístico. Contudo, é fato
que ele não era o primeiro autor do movimento no qual está sendo inserido,
que é a comédia nova. Dois grandes, provavelmente os maiores, concorrentes
dele já começaram a atuar aproximadamente uma década antes do fim “oficial”
do período clássico: Filemón, que nasceu em 362 a.C. e morreu centenário em
262, quase 30 anos depois de Menandro, e que se mudou para Atenas em 330, e
Dífilo de Sinope, que nasceu entre 360 e 350 a.C. e deve ter morrido uns poucos
anos antes de Menandro.3 Embora Filemón tenha conseguido mais vitórias em
festivais do que Menandro, foi esse último que se consagrou, postumamente,
como o grande poeta da comédia nova.
la comedia (perí komoidías) y algunos comentarios e inscripciones, nos dan pequeños datos
no muy confiables. Según estos, el nacimiento de Menandro fue en el año 342/1 a.c. en el
seno de una familia aristocrática ateniense. Un tío suyo, Alexis de Turios, fue uno de los más
importantes representantes de la comedia media; de la relación con él se cree que Menandro
inclinó su interés por la comedia.” (Ramirez Aguirre / Florez Restrepo / Muñoz Sánchez
2007: 9)
2
Scafuro 2014: 219. Datas alternativas constam em Storey / Allan 2005: 222, a saber, 325,
322 e 320 a.C. Achamos inviável Menandro ter estreado em 325 a.C., uma vez que ele, dessa
maneira, somente teria 16 ou 17 anos de idade.
3
“Of the sixty-four writers mentioned by Anonymous De Comoedia 15, only four are
sufficiently well documented to be included on any scale in the handbooks, and of these
only Menander is now represented by a sufficiently substantial body of text to make modern
evaluation of his work in any detail feasible. The others are often included mainly because they
are known to have provided the original versions of later Roman adaptations.” (Ireland 2010:
338) “Philemon of Syracuse, Diphilus of Sinope, and Apollodorus of Carystus are best known
to us through the Roman playwrights who used their plays as models or spring-boards for
their own.” (Scafuro 2014: 207)
4
Segundo Apolodoro de Atenas, citado por Aulo Gélio em Noites Áticas XVII 4.
5
Aulo Gélio afirma, sem citar nomes, que alguns disseram que eram 108 ou 109 (Noites
Áticas XVII 4).
6
Essa intensa produtividade provavelmente fez com que Menandro terminasse comédias
às vezes em cima da hora, o que quer dizer que os atores não tinham muito tempo para
estudar o texto e sua performance. (Blume 2007: 112) A simplicidade das comédias e a variação
métrica mínima devem ter facilitado os atores e acelerado o estudo.
7
“Kein Exemplar seiner Werke oder eine Auswahl daraus fand daher den Weg nach
Byzanz, um dort transliteriert, d. h. von der Majuskelschrift in die kursive Minuskel | umgesetzt
zu werden. Das aber war die Voraussetzung dafür, dass ein antiker Autor sich fortan über die
mittelalterliche Handschriftentradition bis in die Neuzeit hinüberretten konnte.” (Blume 2007:
110-111)
85
Análise Métrica de Dyskolos de Menandro e Comparação com Ekklesiazousai de
Aristófanes
nós de forma mais completa. Além disso, há mais outras seis das quais, hoje em
dia, possuímos uma quantidade expressiva de versos, merecendo ser destacadas
as comédias Samia (A mulher da ilha de Samos ou A garota de Samos) e
Epitrepontes (Os litigantes ou Os árbitros), que são as segunda e terceira mais
bem preservadas peças, respectivamente.8 De Samia só devem nos faltar cerca
de 116 versos, e de Dyskolos sabemos que se constituia de 969 versos, sendo que,
até este momento, 39 não chegaram sequer ou não chegaram na íntegra até nós.
Até o final do séc. XIX, tudo o que tínhamos de Menandro eram citações
de versos ou paráfrases de discursos das suas comédias em textos antigos de
autores do período helenístico, greco-romano e bizantino. Temos mais de 900
de tais citações e sabemos também que as suas obras foram usadas e adaptadas
pelo drama latino, sobretudo em comédias romanas.
A situação de transmissão mudou somente nos últimos 115 anos.9 Em
190510, foi descoberto o chamado papiro cairense11, publicado em 1907, que
contém partes expressivas de cinco comédias de Menandro, entre as quais as já
mencionadas Epitrepontes e Samia.12 Em meados do séc. XX, um outro papiro
apareceu, integrando a coleção Bodmer13. Esse papiro, um códice da primeira
metade do séc. IV, contém restos de três comédias, sendo que a comédia no
meio se preservou quase na íntegra: trata-se da comédia Dyskolos que, portanto,
somente reapareceu no mundo das literaturas documentadas e preservadas,
com a sua publicação em 1958.14 Após esse fato, houve outras descobertas
menores de papiros até que, em 2003, ainda descobriu-se, dessa vez na Biblioteca
Vaticana, um manuscrito em pergaminho com textos de orações em língua síria
e com fragmentos de comédias menândricas, entre os quais versos de Dyskolos.15
“As descobertas desses papiros significam que Menandro, diferente de outros
autores antigos, chega na modernidade numa maneira inigualavelmente direta e
repentina. Os seus textos são completamente livres de comentários e impressões
8
Scafuro 2014: 220.
9
Para detalhes sobre as histórias latina, bizantina e moderna da transmissão de Menandro,
veja Blume 2010 e, mais atual ainda, Blanchard 2014. A maioria das introduções sobre a
transmissão de Menandro omite que em 1898, sete anos antes da primeira grande descoberta,
uma menor de “eighty-seven lines of his Farmer provided us with the final scene to one act of
that comedy.” (Storey / Allan 2005: 223)
10
Scafuro 2014: 220.
11
O nome deriva do lugar no qual o papiro ficou guardado: a cidade de Cairo.
12
“No Egito […] a popularidade de Menandro perdurou por toda a Antiguidade, até
meados do séc. VII, o que justifica a importância dos papiros mais tarde aí recolhidos. Na
verdade, pode constatar-se modernamente a permanência do poeta ao longo de toda a época
do papiro, ou seja, do séc. III a. C. ao II d. C.” (Silva 2009: 32)
13
Barão Bodmer foi um bibliófilo suíço da cidade de Genebra.
14
Blume 2007: 111.
15
Blume 2007: 112.
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16
The discoveries of these papyri mean that Menander, unlike other ancient authors,
arrives in modernity in a uniquely direct and unmediated manner: his texts are entirely free
from the comments and impressions of postclassical scholars (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/drupal/
site_classics/classical-play/past-productions/2016-menander-dyskolos/menanders-dyskolos-
study-guide).
17
Blanchard 2014: 252.
18
Isto é um conjunto de registros sobre a representação dramática na Antiguidade grega
que contém anotações e observações sobre o respectivo autor, a peça e sua apresentação. “Esta
didascalia si que puede proceder de Aristófanes de Bizancio, que compuso notas análogas para
las tragedias. Éste es el único caso en que aparece unida la didascalia al texto de una comedia
de Menandro.” (Menandro 1986: 152, n. 2)
19
ἐδίδαξεν εἰς Λήναια ἐπὶ Δημογένους ἄρχοντος καὶ ἐνικα. Ὑπεκρίνατο Ἀριστόδημος
Σκαρφεύς. ἀντεπιγράφεται Μισάνθρωπος. (Menander 2007: 8)
20
A palavra δύσκολος aparece logo no prólogo do deus Pan, verso 7.
21
Cnemón, o protagonista, “is a vice-hater (388, cf. 447ff., 743-5), and his love of solitude,
repeatedly stressed, is his undoing (169, 222, 597). Pan’s apanthropos and dyskolos are thus key
words for introducing the comic misanthrope, as are the joke about hating crowds and the
insistence that Knemon lives alone.” (Goldberg 1980: 73)
22
“Menander’s fame increased after his lifetime; the extant record of revivals attests to
this […], as does the number of extant papyri carrying his texts – only those of Homer and
Euripides surpass him” (Scafuro 2014: 220). “Ausonio consiglierà al nipote di leggere le opere
di Omero e di Menandro” (Nocchi 2012: 112). Em Plutarco (Morália 853b) há uma testemunha
de que o público do período greco-romano tenha preferido Menandro e menos Aristófanes:
“a grosseria, o mau gosto, como há em Aristófanes, do modo algum há em Menandro. De
fato, quem é ignorante e vulgar é conquistado pelas palavras que aquele diz; mas quem é
educado fica aborrecido com elas; digo: as antíteses, os vocábulos de sufixos semelhantes e as
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Aristófanes
própria antiguidade, era considerado um autor tão simples que não precisava
de comentários eruditos.23 Ele não era objeto do ensino literário avançado, mas
oferecia material para os exercícios de leitura e escritura no ensino elementar.24
Todos os eruditos gregos e romanos o tinham lido, muitos o citavam, e ainda
séculos depois da sua morte ele dominava (ao lado das tragédias de Eurípides)
os palcos em todo o mundo grecófono.25
Essa resposta talvez não seja satisfatória, mas provoca a seguinte
questão consecutiva que será respondida no decorrer da nossa análise: Essa
simplicidade também se refere à métrica das comédias menândricas? Além
disso, seria errado considerar tal simplicidade como algo, per se, pejorativo,
uma vez que ela implicava a vantagem de ter sido mais acessível para uma vasta
gama de audiências em diferentes regiões, provindo de várias camadas sociais,
sobretudo, também das mais baixas. Ademais, tal simplicidade facilitou o estudo
dos versos de Menandro pelos atores cômicos e – mudando de área – pelos
alunos no começo da sua educação, logo depois da alfabetização, o que ampliou
a possibilidade da divulgação dos textos de Menandro para além de círculos
eruditos, o que tornou os seus versos verdadeiras sentenças no dia a dia. Sendo
assim, a explicação principal da transmissão precária das comédias menândricas
deve ser buscada em outra justificativa, diferente da mera consequência da
simplicidade dos textos.
paronímias.” (Plutarco 2017: 85) “In Old Comedy […] Aristotle says (Pol. 1336b), disgusting
language and behavior was appropriate. Plutarch (like other late authors, e.g. Cicero) is
thoroughly unable to understand this” (Riu 2005: 425).
23
Blume 2007: 110.
24
Sobre Menandro nas escolas, veja, mais recentemente, Nervegna 2013: 201-251 e
Nocchi 2012: 112: “È interessante il fatto che Menandro sia impiegato non solo per la lettura
metrica […], oggetto d’insegnamento presso il grammaticus, ma specificamente per quella
interpretativa”.
25
Er war nicht Gegenstand des gehobenen Literaturunterrichts, sondern bot den Stoff
schon für Lese- und Schreibübungen im Elementarunterricht. Jeder gebildete Grieche
und Römer hatte ihn gelesen, viele zitierten ihn, und noch Jahrhunderte nach seinem
Tod beherrschte er (neben den Tragödien des Euripides) die Bühnen in der gesamten
griechischsprachigen Welt. (Blume 2007: 110)
26
Há, p.ex., uma resenha de Adriane Duarte sobre a tradução versificada do Mario da
Gama Kury em https://www.passeidireto.com/arquivo/6189545/o-melhor-do-teatro-grego-
aristofane/4.
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27
“A métrica é a ciência da medição do verso. A métrica grega baseia-se na alternância
de sílabas longas (–) e breves (ᴗ), as primeiras de duração temporal dupla comparada com a
das segundas.” (Gentili / Lomiento 2003: 3) Optamos por traduzir o texto italiano de Gentili /
Lomiento para o português.
28
Texto grego de Πρώτη έκδοση: Μενάνδρου “Ο Δύσκολος ή ο Μισάνθρωπος”. Έμμετρη
μετάφραση Θρ. Σταύρου. Αθήνα: Εταιρεία Σπουδών Σχολής Μωραΐτη, 1972, copiado de http://
www.greek-language.gr/digitalResources/ancient_greek/library/browse.html?page=2&text_
id=137
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29
Para reflexões sobre o papel de Pan e sobre estilo e função do prólogo, veja Goldberg
1978. “While Menander’s prologues are modeled on Euripidean ones spoken by powerful
gods, the figures who deliver them, at least in known instances, are minor deities (Pan in
the Dyscolus) [...]” (Gutzwiller 2000: 115). “We must not assume […] that divine prologists
were only used when the complications of the plot demanded it. The dramatist’s first duty is
to entertain the audience, and comedy had always enlisted the aid of the gods in this task. A
very good example of this is Pan’s prologue in the Dyscolos. In this play the only expository
information which could not have been revealed by a human character was that it was Pan
who made Sostratos fall in love with Cnemon’s daughter in order that she might be rewarded
for her piety” (Hunter 1985: 29).
30
“Der traditionelle Dialogvers des antiken Dramas ist der jambische Trimeter. Er wird
von den Tragikern strikter gehandhabt als von den Dichtern der Komödie, die zumal beim
Ersetzen einer metrisch langen Silbe durch zwei kurze großzügiger verfahren. Dadurch
wird die geregelte Abfolge von Quantitäten verschleiert, der Versrhythmus noch mehr
der gesprochenen Alltagssprache angenähert, als dies beim Jambus ohnehin schon der Fall
ist” (Blume 2007: 118). “Da un noto aneddoto, riportato da Plutarco (De gloria Athen. 347
f.), apprendiamo che Menandro considerava l’inventio e la sceneggiatura (come diremmo
noi) i momenti essenziali e più importanti nella composizione di una commedia e che solo
in un secondo tempo egli si accingeva alla versificazione […] C’è […] chi si limita a vedere
simboleggiata nell’aneddoto l’insofferenza del poeta per dover mettere in versi ciò che
naturalmente tendeva alla prosa sia per il contenuto che per il linguaggio [...] Ma se c’è un
verso in cui non compare alcuna forzatura, questo è próprio il trimetro di Menandro: esso
scorre armonico ed elegante ed accoglie con estrema naturalezza i concetti e le espressioni”
(Sisti 1968: 114).
31
Veja Rotstein 2010: 112-147 sobre teorias antigas do jambo e 2010: 229-252 sobre sua
performance no contexto musical, com ênfase nas suas manifestações no período arcaico.
32
“É já communis opinio que os gramáticos do período helenístico tivessem elaborado
dois sistemas teóricos no âmbito da doutrina métrica. Um é aquele dos metra prototypa, quer
dizer dos nove metros fundamentais, jâmbo (ᴗ_ᴗ_), troqueu (_ᴗ_ᴗ), dátilo (_ᴗᴗ), anapesto
(ᴗᴗ_ᴗᴗ_), coriambo (_ᴗᴗ_), antispasto (ᴗ_ _ᴗ), ionico a maiore (_ _ ᴗᴗ), ionico a minore
(ᴗᴗ _ _), peone-cretico (ᴗᴗᴗ_, _ᴗᴗᴗ, _ᴗ_); | o outro aquele da chamada derivatio, que iria
reportar todas as formas métricas ao hexámetro datílico e ao trimetro jâmbico por meio dos
critérios da adiectio, detractio, permutatio e concinnatio.” (Gentili / Lomiento 2003: 4-5)
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33
Com o verso 398, temos um caso ainda mais extremo: seis sílabas breves seguidas.
34
Gentili / Lomiento 2003: 57 destaca a composição κατὰ στίχον de Menandro, na qual
os diálogos acontecem uma vez – e por muito tempo – em trímetros jâmbicos, outra vez em
tetrâmetros jâmbicos ou trocáicos. Menandro mistura tipos de versos muito raramente numa
mesma cena, mas, por outro lado, é um mestre no uso de antilabai.
35
Sisti reconhece nisso “una caratteristica fondamentale del trimetro menandreo:
l’accentuata tendenza al ‘discorsivo’, cioè ad avvicinare il più possible il ritmo del verso alla
scioltezza della prosa, la cadenza ritmica alla fluidità del parlato. Per ottenere questo scopo
Menandro non aveva altra via che […] l’introduzione di nuove movenze ritmiche che,
togliendo fissità alla cadenza del verso, gli conferiscono un’andatura meno solenne, più agile
e spigliata, affatto aderente alle strutture del discorso e ai contenuti poetici.” (Sisti 1968: 115)
36
“Pé (πούς): é termo métrico, mas sobretudo rítmico. É uma composição de sílabas de uma
certa qualidade e de uma certa quantidade, longa ou breve, em esquema apropriado, ou também
uma disposição de sílabas abrangendo uma arsis e uma thesis. […] O termo foi assunto como
unidade de medida porque evidentemente assinalava o passo na dança. Aliás, também o uso de
βάσις («passo» […]) no sentido de ‘pé’ está confirmando isso. As formas fundamentais dos pés
na doutrina métrica são: de dois tempos (díchronoi), pirrichio (ᴗᴗ); de três tempos (tríchronoi),
troqueu (_ᴗ), jâmbo (ᴗ_), tríbraco (ᴗᴗᴗ); de quatro tempos (tetráchronoi), espondeu (_ _), dátilo
(_ᴗᴗ), anapesto (ᴗᴗ_), proceleusmático (ᴗᴗᴗᴗ); de cinco tempos (pentáchronoi), baqueu (ᴗ _
_), crético-peão (_ᴗ_, I _ᴗᴗᴗ, II ᴗ_ᴗᴗ, III ᴗᴗ_ᴗ, IV ᴗᴗᴗ_), palimbaqueu (_ _ ᴗ); de seis tempos
(esáchronoi), molosso (_ _ _).” (Gentili / Lomiento 2003: 46)
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37
“No diálogo com Sóstrato, Queréas permite que o espectador saiba sob que
circunstâncias o amigo vem a se apaixonar, bem como expõe a dependência do apaixonado
para resolver seus próprios problemas. […] A classificação de Queréas como parasita
[…] é fruto de debate entre os estudiosos, já que ele exibe poucas das características que
habitualmente se atribuiriam a esse | tipo de personagem. […] | Queréas é alguém que age
em favor dos amigos apenas quando a situação lhe é cômoda e conveniente e, ao fugir do
problema que se apresenta, dá mostras da superficialidade do seu caráter que se reflete na
impossibilidade de um gesto altruísta.” (de Negreiros Spinelli 2009: 48-50)
38
“Con Menandro il trimetro assume una maggiore fluidità, snodandosi nelle varie
pause del dialogo, seguendo più da vicino lo schema logico che lo schema metrico: di qui
l’uso frequente di soluzioni (ben pochi trimetri menandrei ne sono privi), in particolare
dell’anapesto, il cui uso è però meno libero rispetto ad Aristofane, e che raramente appare
inciso” (Gentili / Lomiento 2003: 260).
39
“Ein übriges bewirkt mehrfacher Sprecherwechsel innerhalb ein und desselben Verses
(409 ff., 552-554); er unterbindet einen gleichmäßig ins Ohr fallenden Rhythmus und reduziert
den Dialog auf ein schnelles Hin und Her von Frage und Antwort.” (Blume 2007: 118) Aliás,
temos alta frequência de antilabai em Dyskolos que chega a quatro trocas de falantes num
único trímetro jâmbico no verso 552 e a três trocas de falantes num único tetrâmetro jâmbico
no verso 957. (Gentili / Lomiento 2003: 30)
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40
Embora ele use um pé anapéstico no verso 530. “Following medial caesura in the former
line, the split ‘anapest’ reinforces the emphasis on time, named first in the line, as Sostratos’
preoccupation here, and our comic view of him is confirmed by the absence of caesura and
comic resolution in the description of him twisting round to see whether Knemon was coming
yet.” (Blyth 2008: 63) “At the outset Sostratos does not appear very self-reliant. He seeks to
involve Chaireas in the affair because he wants a helper of experience […] But he is quickly
shown to be decent and honest at heart. His distaste for Chaireas’ unprincipled advice reflects
well on him, and he is quick to admit possible error” (Goldberg 1980: 75).
41
Sicón, o cozinheiro, e o escravo Guetas também têm uma forma particular de falar.
Encontramos, p.ex., um pé anapéstico no verso 402 (Sicón) e um em 403 (Guetas). Sobre os
diferentes tipos de uso de uma métrica cômica em Dyskolos, veja Blyth 2008: 64-65.
42
Nessa direção, Gentili / Lomiento 2003: 260 afirmam que não somente as soluções
com anapestos, mas também soluções mais comuns do verso jâmbico, servem, em Menandro,
“nell’adeguamento del linguaggio all’ἦθος dei personaggi.” Para Blyth 2008: 70 não se trata de
uma especificidade da personagem Queréas, mas de uma simples postura: “After Sostratos’
entry with Chaereas, the first reference to the latter’s presumed role as a Phormio-tye helper
(55) contains a comic resolution, παραλαβὼν. This follows a quasi-tragic line in which
Sostratos complains that Chaireas does not take his lovesickness seriously, because Chaireas
has just made a joke displaying a comic resolution in the punch-word (53, ἐβεβούλευσο).”
43
Contudo, Blume 2007: 117 observa, que, em geral, os personagens das comédias
menândricas “sprechen ein schlichtes und gepflegtes Umgangsattisch, das auf Redeschmuck
ebenso verzichtet wie auf niederen Jargon. Die Attraktivität dieser Sprache liegt in ihrer
Natürlichkeit und graziösen Leichtigkeit. Beraubte man sie des Metrums, würde sie an
Musikalität und Charme einbüßen. Es blieben knappe Prosadialoge übrig, die um nichts
verständlicher würden, dafür aber trockener und belangloser wirkten.” Veja del Corno 1975
sobre os registros linguísticos aplicados por Menandro e Magnelli 2014 acerca das opiniões
dos antigos sobre o stilo de Menandro.
44
“The old serving woman Simiche enters as a tragic exangelos to announce grave news
within. Like the nurse in Euripides’ Hippolytos, she reports the misfortune that triggers the
play’s climax” (Goldberg 1980: 83).
45
“Menander aber bot keine komischen Typen, sondern vielschichtig angelegte, beinahe
schon individuell zu nennende Charaktere. Diese werden ansatzweise sogar durch ihre
Sprache charakterisiert: ein Phänomen, das wir bei keinem anderen Bühnenautor der Antike
beobachten. So wird im Dyskolos der Städter Sostratos durch seine gewandte Redeweise von
der schlichten Diktion des Bauernjungen Gorgias abgehoben; allein der aufmüpfige Sklave
Getas darf schon einmal ein obszö|nes Wort gebrauchen; der Gott Pan wiederum spricht
gemessen und ohne Dämonie, die Sklavin Simiche in paratragodischer Erregung.” (Blume
2007: 113-114) “Menander’s linguistic characterizations are carefully constructed and, in the
instances discussed here, play into the larger themes of the comedy. Cnemon’s abusive name-
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Neste trecho, que conta com lacunas em cinco dos seis versos, o verso
353, proferido por Górgias, merece destaque por ter, por duas vezes, o anceps
realizado por duas breves: no primeiro e terceiro metro, o que é raro. Mais uma
vez, um ditongo foi abreviado por outro que o sucede imediatamente: aqui em
τοιοῦτο. No metro jâmbico, em geral, é possível observar uma relação rítmica
entre o elementum anceps realizado por duas sílabas breves e o anapesto, se o
segundo elementum do pé jâmbico for realizado como longo, como acontece
também em várias outras passagens de Dyskolos, como p. ex. nos versos 5 e 7.
calling is part of the ‘address system’ of (in)hospitality, hinted at in the prologue” (Scafuro
2014: 229).
46
Uma vez que os poucos anapestos que encontramos estão incorporados em sistemas
colométricos jâmbicos.
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47
“O nome (τὸ τροχαικὸν μέτρον, do verbo τρέχειν) dá-se em relação com o movimento
rítmico, ao mesmo tempo rápido e precipitoso, dos versos trocáicos. Foi também chamado de
«coreu» (χορεῖος, da χορός) porque se adaptava facilmente aos movimentos ágeis da dança.”
(Gentili / Lomiento 2003: 120) Perusino relata que “prima della scoperta del Dyskolos la
tradizione indiretta aveva conservato un solo frammento sicuro in tetrametri giambici della
commedia nuova, il fr. 1 dell’Ἄγνοια di Difilo; lo stesso Menandro usa questo verso in un
finale di tipo tradizionale, dal tono chiaramente diverso, più dimesso e burlesco, dal resto del
Dyskolos: se ne può dedurre che la commedia borghese si serviva del tetrametro giambico per
un implicito richiamo alla tradizione passata e non lo considerava adatto ai nuovi contenuti”
(Perusino 1968: 16).
48
“A climax in the fourth act allows for surprises in the fifth. Thus, in the final scene of Act
IV (690–783) of Dyskolos, Cnemon, now rescued from his fall in the well […] reflects on his
life in a serious speech (711–747) in trochaic tetrameters (a change from the preceding iambic
trimeters) which continue to the end of the act […]: he has realized, to some degree, the error
of solitary life” (Scafuro 2014: 222). “As sometimes happens in tragedy, the metre changes to
trochaic tetrameters to mark a passage that climaxes development of the plot. Like Euripides’
Iphigenia at Aulis, Knemon cuts the dramatic knot by renouncing the position that has
obstructed progress of the inevitable action (708ff.). In explaining and amending his character,
his speech integrates the variant perspectives presented by others.” (Goldberg 1980: 86)
49
Temos nessa passagem, com o verso 766, um dos raríssimos casos de um tetrâmetro
trocáico com três soluções (Gentili / Lomiento 2003: 265): as longas do começo e do fim do
primeiro metro e do começo do terceiro metro são substituídas por breves. Além disso, em
nivel estilístico, há assonâncias, p. ex. nos versos 714, 717 e 721, que sinalizam o crescente
empolgamento emocional de Cnemón. (Feneron 1974: 81)
50
Segundo Blume 2007: 118, Menandro utiliza uma “schlichte und unaufdringliche
Versifizierung, die die unspektakulären Begebenheiten seiner Stücke über den Alltag
hinaushebt”.
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51
“Nell’unica scena menandrea a noi giunta in questo metro (Dysc. 880-958, dove
il testo indica l’accompagnamento con l’aulo) le sostituzioni anapestiche sono assenti.
Quasi tutti i versi comportano dieresi mediana o cesura dopo la prima sillaba del
secondo dimetro.” (Gentili / Lomiento 2003: 263)
52
Ao final do quarto ato: “The play is virtually over, the crisis has been resolved, yet
another act follows (784-969): now Gorgias will be betrothed to Sostratus’s sister […],
and, in the major scene (880-958), delivered in lively catalectic iambic tetrameters to the
accompaniment of a pipe […], the cook Sicon and the slave Geta take a farcical and cruel, but
not undeserved, revenge on Cnemon before joining the celebration of the day’s events in the
cave of Pan.” (Scafuro 2014: 222)
53
“The shifts from one scene to another that are indicated by metrical variation are
noticeable in the first instance because such variations in Menander is so rare a phenomenon”
(Scafuro 2014: 224).
54
“Indeed, the lengthy remnants of Epitrepontes and Misoumenos are composed entirely in
iambic trimeters, the most common meter in Menander’s oeuvre.” (Scafuro 2014: 224)
55
“Trochaic tetrameters are found in four of the longer plays (Aspis Act V 516-544;
Dyskolos Act IV 711ff.; Perikeiromene Act II 267-353; Sikyonioi Act III (?) 110-149; Samia Acts
IV and V 670ff.) and in numerous of the fragmentary ones […] While the meter often appears
in scenes of high emotion and farce, it also appears in speeches of serious reflection, as in
Cnemon’s at Dyskolos 711ff.” (Scafuro 2014: 224)
56
“Catalectic iambic tetrameters so far have appeared only at the end of Dyskolos […]
Sandbach points out that catalectic iambic tetrameters are frequent in Old Comedy (in choral
recitative and debate scenes) but seem gradually to have all but disappeared during the fourth
century; accordingly, Menander was ‘perhaps a little old-fashioned’ here, creating a lively scene
at play’s end and abandoning realism by virtue of its being acted to the rhythm of the aulos”
(Scafuro 2014: 224). “In zwei besonders hervorgehobenen Szenen weicht Menander vom
normalen Dialogmetrum ab: im Finale der Komödie, das in dionysische Ausgelassenheit und
kultische Feierlichkeit einmündet, und in der sogenannten Abdankungsszene Knemons, die
für die Liebeshandlung die lang ersehnte Lösung bring. Beide Male fällt der metrische Wechsel
deutlich ins Ohr. – In der 2. Hälfte des 5. Aktes (880–958) bleibt zwar der jambische Rhythmus
bestehen – aus Trimetern werden Tetrameter –, doch die um ein Metrum verlängerten Verse
erhalten in der Mitte einen Einschnitt und gliedern sich so in zwei annähernd gleiche Hälften.
Vor allem aber wandelt sich der Charakter ihres Vortrags: an die Stelle des gesprochenen
Dialogs treten nun vom Aulos-Bläser musikalisch unterlegte Recitativo-Verse. […] Auch
die große Knemon-Szene des 4. Aktes (708–783) ist in Langversen abgefasst, doch aus dem
steigenden jambischen Rhythmus wird nun ein fallender trochäischer. Dadurch erhalten die
Verse einen energischen, vorwärtsdrängenden Charakter; musikalisch unterlegt waren sie
wohl nicht.” (Blume 2007: 119)
57
Praticamente o mesmo veredito encontra-se em Cartlidge 2014: 13.
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O coro em Menandro
Onde, nas edições modernas, terminam os versos 233, 42659, 620 e 783,
havia intervenções do coro60, marcado nos papiros simplesmente por ΧΟΡΟΥ,
não aparecendo anotado os versos que o coro em Dyskolos tenha eventualmente
cantado. 61 Revermann 62 opina que Menandro provavelmente não anotou
as letras do coro, e Lape63 interpreta ΧΟΡΟΥ como indício da prática de
Menandro de encenar um komos no lugar do coro cômico da comédia antiga,
mas, na verdade, sabemos somente que essas intervenções de um certo tipo de
coro se deram em ocasião da transição de um ato para outro, no final de cada
ato, entre os atos ou no começo do ato seguinte.64 Também nas outras comédias
58
Raven 1962: 27 constata uma familiaridade estreita entre jambo e troqueu, de modo
que, nos termos desse especialista, a variação métrica em Menandro torna-se algo menos
acentuado ainda: “There is an obvious similarity between iambus ᴗ_ and the trochee _ᴗ, and
rhythms based on these two feet run very much to the same type.”
59
A respeito dos versos seguintes, 427-441, Marshall 2002: 3 descreve talvez o único
momento de contato entre o coro e os atores, argumentando que o coro, nessa ocasião, chega a
desempenhar quase o papel de um agente menor da peça, o que é algo único comparado com
todas as outras peças fragmentárias que possuímos de Menandro.
60
“The comic chorus, with twenty-four choreuts, was bigger than the tragic (twelve or
fifteen) and initially more important to its drama” (Csapo 2014: 51).
61
“Choral interludes divided Dyskolos into five acts (signaled by the appearance of
ΧΟΡΟΥ at the end of each of the first four), and that division could reasonably be inferred
not only for his other plays (ΧΟΡΟΥ appeared at the end of two acts of Samia and at the
end of Act III of Misoumenos, and a papyrus published by Gronewald in 1986 added a third
ΧΟΡΟΥ to Epitrepontes), but also more widely for Menander’s contemporaries and followers
[…]. Moreover, the five-act division was established as Greek in origin […]; how early the
practice began is not known. The evidence of the plays suggests that an actor onstage signals
the first entrance of the chorus (Dyskolos 246-249, Epitrepontes 169-171, Perikeiromene 261-
262), whereas subsequent appearances are cued by the departure of the actors from the stage”
(Scafuro 2014: 221). “One of the results of the new Menander discoveries of the last thirty
years has been to confirm beyond doubt that there was a Greek convention, regularly followed
by Menander, so far as we can see, and probably by New Comedy in general, of dividing a play
into five acts by means of four extradramatic choral interludes, during which the stage was
empty of actors. It is obvious that Plautus and Terence abandoned this convention. There is no
trace in the Latin manuscripts of anything corresponding to the ΧΟΡΟΥ notes of the Greek
papyri, and in some of the Latin plays, including Terence’s Andria, based on a Menandrian
original, the stage is empty fewer than four times. The attempts of ancient scholars to impose
act divisions on Terence can be seen as prompted by the Greek convention but doomed to
failure” (Lowe 1990: 274).
62
Revermann 2006: 274-281.
63
Lape 2006.
64
“We know nothing of the nature of the Menandrian chorus (nor, indeed, of the chorus
in New Comedy in general), except that it quite frequently took the form of a band of revellers
who burst on to the stage at the end of the first act, upon the exit of the actors, and began
their song, presumably accompanying this with some kind of dance. In Dyskolos […] the
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Aristófanes
chorus consists of the followers of the god Pan, and presumably we have here an attempt on
the part of Menander to credit his chorus – within the limitations of the diminished role of the
chorus in New Comedy – with an individual character which is appropriate to one of the play’s
motivating agents, the divine prologue-speaker, the god Pan.” (Zagagi 1995: 72) “The fact that
Menander made hardly any attempt, stylistically or thematically, to give variety to the moment
when the chorus enters the stage, stresses the purely technical aspect of this moment, as well as
its functional value within the framework of the five-act system of New Comedy […] On the
other hand, a close examination of the context of the entrance of the chorus in Dyskolos and
Aspis shows to what extent the standard event in itself was exploited by Menander as a source
of achieving various dramatic effects while maintaining its interruptive function.” (Zagagi
1995: 73)
65
Emmanuel Aprilakis, autor do texto online “What Chorus? Using Performance
to Appreciate the Chorus of Menander’s Dyskolos“ (https://classicalstudies.org/annual-
meeting/149/abstract/what-chorus-using-performance-appreciate-chorus-menander’s-
dyskolos) argumenta que o coro não necessariamente saiu do palco, mas que parece que
permaneceu e que ficou silencioso, o que quer dizer que só dançou. Na opinião dos adeptos da
tese que o coro em Dyskolos cantava, vale que – em comparação com As Rãs, última comédia
aristofânica preservada do séc. V a.C. – um “vivid, lively, functional chorus is replaced in
Menander by only a dim shadow: a κῶμος of tipsy young men who have no function whatever
in the plot, who serve merely to entertain the audience in the intervals between the five acts
with a song-and-dance routine whose | words are not preserved and possibly were not even
specially composed for the play by its author.” (Arnott 2004: 151-152) “No literary trace of
their performance survives (song and dance, one or both?), but | apparently the choruses
had no connection to the action onstage […] The choral interludes between acts allowed for
the passage of time, so that, for example, a character could make a long journey from one
place in Attica to another” (Scafuro 2014: 221-222). Numa avaliação genérica, logo depois
da descoberta do papiro de Dyskolos, Goold 1959: 142 afirmava que “Menander’s plays were
divided into five acts by musical interludes performed by a troupe of revellers”.
66
“Productions become less extravagant: choruses, over time, play a lesser and different
role, even if they do not entirely disappear” (Scafuro 2014: 201).
67
Csapo 2014: 50.
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palavra – artificial – grega.68 Ela foi encenada por volta de 391 a.C.69, enquanto
a peça Ploutos (A riqueza) provavelmente foi apresentada em 388 a.C. Como
há uma comédia desse mesmo título Ploutos que foi apresentada décadas antes,
é opinio communis que se trata da mesma comédia que foi reelaborada para
entrar no agon teatral por uma segunda vez. Não sabemos, porém, o tamanho
das modificações que Aristófanes fez na ocasião.70 Visto que ela conta com
características mais próximas a Ekklesiazousai do que as comédias mais antigas,
é provável que as mudanças foram significativas. De qualquer forma, achamos
mais adequado comparar Dyskolos com Ekklesiazousai e não com Ploutos, o
que não quer dizer que uma comparação com Ploutos não possa se mostrar
igualmente produtiva.71
Os pesquisadores que operam com uma fase média entre a comédia antiga,
preservada para nós principalmente pelas comédias de Aristófanes, e a comédia
nova grega72, preservada quase exclusivamente pelas comédias (fragmentárias)
68
λοπαδοτεμαχοσελαχογαλεοκρανιολειψανοδριμυποτριμματοσιλφιοκαραβομελιτοκ
ατακεχυμενοκιχλεπικοσσυφοφαττοπεριστεραλεκτρυονοπτοκεφαλλιοκιγκλοπελειολαγῳ
οσιραιοβαφητραγανοπτερύγων (v. 1169-1174).
69
“For its precise date of production no explicit evidence survives, and suggestions have
ranged from 393 to 389, with 392 and 391 the most popular choices.” (Sommerstein 1998: 1)
70
Sobre essa questão veja Gravilov 1981.
71
“Aristophanes’ Assembly Women, dating from the 390s, and his Wealth, produced […]
and victorious in 389/8, are our only two fully extant fourth-century plays.” (Sidwell 2014:
61) “As duas peças […] apresentam o atrativo de terem sido encenadas após a Guerra do
Peloponeso e no começo do século IV a.C. Só isso já as diferencia das outras peças supérstites
da comédia ática. […] elas apresentam elementos em sua estrutura que sofreram mudanças
fundamentais […] uma redução da atuação do coro que se afasta cada vez mais do drama,
tornando-se um signo cênico para a transição entre as seções. […] | Um elemento que também
diferencia Assembleia de Mulheres das peças anteriores reside na exploração de um tema que
aparece para nós como uma novidade: a composição de uma cena romântica em que duas
personagens apaixonadas sofrem oposição à concretização de seu amor. […] Como o coro não
canta mais, essa cena é aproveitada para fazer com que as personagens cantem seu amor. Logo,
algo que era restrito ao coro, amplia-se para os indivíduos da peça. […] Com uma menor
participação do coro, os diálogos nas peças foram ampliados na segunda parte da peça, nos
episódios. […] | Tanto em Assembleia de Mulheres como em Pluto, a atuação o (sic!) coro na
segunda parte das peças é indicada pela rubrica ΧΟΡΟΥ. Essa participação performática do
coro indicada pela marcação contribui para progressão da ação dramática na transição entre
os episódios, exercendo o papel de orientador cênico. O coro, portanto, funcionava como signo
teatral, por ser o índice da troca de configuração cênica, pois a performance do coro, expressa
na rubrica ΧΟΡΟΥ, antecipava o retorno de personagens ou a entrada de novas, por possibilitar
aos atores a troca da máscara e/ou da indumentária, ocasionando, consequentemente, uma
nova configuração cênica. […] | [Em Pluto] a ampliação dos diálogos é ainda mais visível do
que na penúltima peça, pois há não só predomínio do metro iâmbico, mas ausência de canção
na segunda parte da peça.” (Ferreira Drumond Kibuuka 2010: 138-141)
72
“New Comedy marks the final product of a process of fusion and development that had
been progressing for much of the fourth century, a process involving not simply comedy but
also elements from tragedy and philosophy.” (Ireland 2010: 357) “This new style of comedy is
often called New Comedy in contrast to the earlier Old Comedy of Aristophanes. It replaces
the fantastical setting, obscene content, personal invective, and political satire of the latter
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with family dramas of love, loss, disputes, and reunions set in Greek cities of Menander’s own
time. Menander draws on past dramatic traditions of comedy and tragedy, notably Euripidean
drama, so that his comedies form their own reception of earlier Greek drama” (Miles 2016:
47). “For New Comedy Menander stands as the lone surviving representative of more than
sixty playwrights, a figure whose extant works are but the chance survivors of a total corpus
that originally must have numbered several hundred” (Ireland 2010: 335).
73
“Of the comic dramatists whose careers belong squarely within the fourth century
before Menander (allowing for the fact that some had careers which overlapped with his),
we have no complete plays. We are sometimes given the number of comedies written by
individual playwrights – for example, Alexis is said to have produced 245 and Eubulus 104
– but the reliability of these numbers is difficult to check. Ancient scholarship describes this
period as ‘Middle Comedy’ […] and reports the overall number of poets as 57 and the known
plays as between 617 and 800.” (Sidwell 2014: 62) Adele Scafuro 2014: 199 afirma que “there
are no clear or revolutionary breaks to mark the traditional division of Greek comedy into
‘Old’ and ‘Middle,’ no cutting-edge playwright in the early to mid-fourth century to designate
as the harbringer and catalyst of a brand new epoch.” A pesquisadora constata que “changes
that extend over the course of the last eighty years of the [fourth; R.G.] century might better
be designated ‘trends.’ Mythical themes in comedy become less prevalent after 370/360,
though they do appear now and again in the remainder of the century […] These trends in
production may be ascribed to a new pursuit […]: the gradual deployment of a new and more
wide-ranging set of masks that corresponded to character […], and concomitantly, a more
subtle and complex playing of character, even as ‘character-types’ became firmly established
[…] Other trends include the almost exclusive turn to spoken delivery after the middle of the
century […] | the toning down of diction from its high flown and colorful flights in earlier
comedy, its riddance of a great deal of obscenity but not total eradication of vulgarity […]; the
growing number of comedies as the century proceeds that narrated a story in consequential
acts, so unlike the episodic disarray of scenes in older comedy and so much more like tragedy
in construction and borrowed themes […] an increase in sophisticated allusions especially
to Euripides […]; finally, the gradual narrowing of repertoire to the repetitious domestic
plots of impeded love and misconstrued identity and status. […] But would members of the
Athenian audience themselves have observed any of these features as ‘epochal changes’ rather
than ‘trends,’ […] during the last decades of the fourth century? Probably not” (Scafuro 2014:
201-202).
74
“Aristophanes structures his plays around the chorus and designs his plots to motivate
its set pieces. Typically, a hero with a big idea overcomes obstruction by the chorus (parodos);
persuades the chorus to support him (agon); departs as the chorus comments on his plan
(parabasis); and then, after various episodes in which characters react to the implementation
of his plan, each separated by short choral odes, is escorted out of the theater in a triumphant
procession (komos). No other Old Comic playwright survives well enough to permit certainty,
but the fragments suggest that Aristophanes’s rivals sometimes used these choral movements
differently, often placing them closer to the margins of the performance in order to develop
more intricate plots. Aristophanes’s political comedy may have been uniquely chorocentric.
As music grew more complex and actors more accomplished in the late fifth century, the
musical burden gradually shifted from chorus to actor. […] It is only in Aristophanes’s fourth-
century plays that we can measure diminution in the importance of choral music. […] By the
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não existem cantos corais entre os episódios75, o que, neste aspecto específico e
igualmente pela falta de uma parábase, aproxima Ekklesiazousai das comédias
de Menandro.76 Enquanto o coro participa com poucos versos, o seu corifeu
está ainda tão presente que pode ser considerado ator da comédia. Aliás,
nessa comédia aristofánica, achamos também a palavra ΧΟΡΟΥ para indicar
o momento no qual o coro interveio, sem que, nesses casos, os versos – se
existiam – tivessem sido transmitidos.77 Vale lembrar que, durante todo o séc. V,
o século de auge do próprio Aristófanes, a qualidade do canto do coro era ainda
decisiva para o sucesso de uma comédia nos festivais.78
Segundo a análise de Parker79 Ekklesiazousai contém, além de jambos80,
também coriambos (em combinação com jambos em 289-310, 911-923,
938-945 e 969-975)81, anapestos (em combinação com jambos em 478-503),
dátilos (em combinação com, sobretudo, versos trocáicos em 571-580 e, em
combinação com jambos, em 1168-1183), troqueus, aristofaneus (em 905 e
910) e créticos (em 911, 952 e 967). Isso significa que Aristófanes, ainda numa
das suas comédias tardias, compunha em, pelo menos, quatro tipos de versos
os quais Menandro, em Dyskolos, já não usava mais. Além de encontrarmos
todos os tipos de versos de Dyskolos em Ekklesiazousai, Aristófanes usa ainda
o coriambo, o dátilo82, o aristofaneu e o crético83, versos que, embora comuns
time of Menander, the comic chorus is completely marginalized. It only ever appears in our
manuscripts in the form of a one-word note meaning ‘choral song’ where a choral performance
occurred.” (Csapo 2014: 51)
75
No meio da comédia, o coro somente aparece uma única vez, nos versos 571-580, sendo
provável que ele, nessa ocasião, não cantava, mas dialogava, pois usou sobretudo troqueus e
dátilos.
76
“We must not, of course, assume that all dramatists of the New Comedy conformed
exactly to Menander’s practice in their use of choruses. Aristophanes’ last two plays (Eccles.
392 B.C., Plut. 388 B.C.) seem to represent a transitional stage in the development of the fifth-
century chorus to the extradramatic chorus of New Comedy, but we do not know when or how
completely the five-act system became established.” (Lowe 1990: 276)
77
Henderson 2002: 411. Não temos versos do coro antes do segundo ato, antes do terceiro
ato e antes do poslúdio.
78
Wilson 2000: 99.
79
Parker 1997: 524-553.
80
Uma análise de trímetros jâmbicos das comédias aristofánicas foi feita por Américo da
Costa Ramalho 1952.
81
Sobre coriambos, veja White 1907: 8-9.
82
Não consideramos a resolução da longa do final do primeiro pé do metro jâmbico em
duas breves, no mesmo momento no qual a primeira sílaba do jambo é realizada como longa,
como dátilo, mas como variante legítima do jâmbo que formalmente possui a possibilidade de
coincidir com o pé datílico. Há, porém, pesquisadores, como p. ex. White 1909: 146-149, que
interpretam tais elementos do jambo como dátilos ou dátilo entre aspas (White 1909: 141).
83
White detectou, além disso, um possível dócmio no verso 971 (1907: 8-9), como também
trímetros antispásticos cataléticos nos versos 938 e 939 (1907: 17) e antispastos combinados
com jambos nos versos 916 e 917 (1907: 19).
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Aristófanes
Bibliografia
Aristophanes (1946), Volume III: The Lysistrata, the Thesmophoriazusae, the Ecclesiazu-
sae, the Plutus. Benjamin Bickley Rogers (trad.). London, Cambridge (Mass.).
Arnott, W. G. (2004), “From Aristophanes to Menander”, in H. Bloom (ed.), Greek Dra-
ma. Philadelphia, 151-167.
Blanchard, A. (2014), “Reconstructing Menander”, in M. Fontaine / A. C. Scafuro (eds.),
The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Comedy. Oxford, 239-257.
Blume, H.-D. (2007), “Nachwort”, in H.-D. Blume (trad., ed.), Menander, Dyskolos. Der
Menschenfeind. Stuttgart, 110-119.
Blume, H.-D. (2010), “Menander: The Text and its Restoration”, in A. K. Petrides / S.
Papaioannou, New Perspectives on Postclassical Comedy. Newcastle upon Tyne,
14-30.
84
“After the classical age there were no radically new ventures in metrical matters.
The traditional meters were, however, developed in several opposite directions.” (Halporn
/ Ostwald / Rosenmeyer 1963: 51) Comparando os versos jâmbicos dos fragmentos de
Menandro encontrados em papiro no começo do séc. XX, quer dizer antes da descoberta de
Dyskolos, com os das comédias aristofânicas, White 1909: 139 identificava 18 dos 728 jambus
como trímetros jâmbicos puros, quer dizer aqueles que aplicam estritamente o pé jâmbico de
forma ᴗ_, uma proporção de 1 em 40, enquanto tal proporção nas comédias de Aristófanes é
de 1 em 69. Isso evidencia a enorme flexibilidade e variedade com a qual o metro principal das
comédias foi utilizada em todas as fases da produção cômica grega, do séc. V ao séc. III a.C.
“Resolved feet [...] occur on the average in every other trimeter” (White 1909: 141).
85
“Recited parts employ longer verses, usually catalectic tetrameters of an iambic, trochaic,
or anapaestic nature. For sung passages the comic poet could draw upon a great wealth of
meters. For the lyric parts of Old Comedy, one has to distinguish between meters specific
to comedy and meters inspired by, or directly borrowed from, the elevated genres (tragedy,
choral lyric). Original comic rhythms are marked by their simplicity and thereby exhibit their
roots in folk tradition. They are based predominantly on an iambic or trochaic rhythm that is
commonly punctuated by syncopation or catalexis – elements found in folk songs and simple
cult songs, respectively. Comedy usually employs the more complex metrical forms of elevated
genres for parody of genre, style, or text.” (Zimmermann 2010: 464)
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(Página deixada propositadamente em branco)
Greice Drumond
Greice Drumond
(Universidade Federal Fluminense)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5661-363X
1
As inscrições gregas (IG) mais antigas (IG II 22318), também conhecidas como
Fasti, contêm a lista dos vencedores nas competições corais das Grandes Dionísias de
aproximadamente 473 a. C até 328 a.C. com algumas lacunas. A relação encontrada no grupo
de inscrições denominado Didascaliae, (IG II2 2319-2323), engloba um período de 35 anos,
até 280 a.C. e inclui o festival das Leneias. Há também a Lista dos Vencedores, com a relação
dos autores e atores que venceram concursos de tragédia e de comédia com registros que vão
até meados do século II a.C. Outras inscrições também apresentam listas de performances de
peças trágicas e cômicas. Para um estudo acurado desses registros, recomendo a leitura do
artigo de Tracy (2015). Cf. Csapo; Slater (1994: 40).
2
Cf. Platter 2009: 39; Revermann 2006: 73; Lamari 2017: 68.
3
Csapo e Slater (1994: 42) indicam o ano de 311 a.C. para as reapresentações de comédia,
pois é quando encontramos uma referência, nas inscrições, a uma peça cômica reencenada.
4
Cf. Csapo; Slater 1994: 40. Conforme notifica Kotlińska-Toma (2015: 247), em 342-340
a.C., três peças de Eurípides foram reencenadas. Para ela, eram reapresentadas não só peças de
Eurípides, mas também de Sófocles e de outros autores trágicos do século IV a.C. Hose (2020:
20) e Lamari (2017: 78) indicam Ifigênia - provavelmente, Ifigênia entre os Táuridas - e Orestes
nos dois primeiros anos após a instituição dessas reencenações. Lamari (2017: 77) considera
que as reapresentações de tragédia antiga eram predominantemente das peças de Eurípides.
5
Para afirmar que, a partir de 339 a. C, a oficialização de reperformances de peças cômicas
se refere à comédia produzida pelos poetas das fases intermédia e nova, e não à comédia do
período antigo, baseio-me em Csapo; Slater 1994: 42; Nervegna 2014: 398, Hartwig 2014: 211;
Slater 2009: 3; Lamare 2017: 78.
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Greice Drumond
tributo feito por cidadãos ricos escolhidos pelo arconte.6-7 A instituição dessas
reperformances teatrais mostra uma incipiente monumentalização dos clássicos
do teatro grego antigo, na visão de Revermann,8 o qual conclui com isso que
“Greek performance culture, then, is a reperformance culture”.
Nesse contexto de rememoração do drama grego, no que se refere à
reencenação de uma comédia antiga, a partir de 339 a.C., entende-se que se
trata de colocar em cena, mais uma vez, peças que pertencem, por convenção,
seja à chamada comédia intermediária (ou média),9 produzida em boa parte do
século IV a.C., seja à comédia nova, que começa a se destacar a partir de c. 320
a.C.
Ainda que não tenhamos nenhuma peça completa da época de produção
anterior a Menandro, pelos fragmentos e títulos, percebemos que já não
interessam ao gosto do tempo as peças do século V a.C. Quando adentramos
no período helenístico, no século III a.C., por exemplo, dizer que se reencena
uma comédia antiga significava que se tratava de uma reapresentação de uma
peça produzida de fins do século IV a. C. em diante e não de uma peça de
comédia da fase antiga, do século V ou início do século IV a. C. Dessa forma,
essa referência tem a ver com a reencenação de comédias de Menandro e seus
concorrentes, e não de Aristófanes e seus rivais.10 Peças da fase intermediária da
comédia também poderiam ter um revival, como o Tesouro de Anaxándrides,11
reencenada em 311 a. C., quando Menandro e Filémon, representantes da
comédia nova, ainda atuavam. Mesmo que possa ter havido alguma peça de um
autor da comédia da fase antiga nessa seleção para reapresentação, como alguns
títulos podem nos sugerir, ela só era produzida se a temática e a estrutura
se aproximassem do que era feito na comédia intermediária e nova, sendo
6
O arconte escolhia os coregos para o festival das Grandes Dionísias. Para as Leneias, a
seleção era feita pelo basileu. Cf. Sommerstein 2019: 178.
7
Os coregos eram patrocinadores de um coro lírico ou dramático, sendo responsável
pelos gastos com os membros do coro e seus ensaios para os festivais. Cada corego cuidava
da indumentária, da seleção e contratação de um diretor de coro, arrumava o espaço dos
ensaios. Eram selecionados vinte coregos para os ditirambos, três para as tragédias, e cinco
ou três, dependendo do número de peças a serem apresentadas, para as comédias. Cf. verbete
“Choregos” in Sommerstein, 2019: 178.
8
Revermann, 2006: 74.
9
Há uma ampla discussão sobre a divisão da comédia grega produzida na Antiguidade.
Em geral, considera-se a produção realizada no séc. V a.C. até início do séc. IV a.C. como
comédia antiga. A comédia intermediária ou média abarca as peças encenadas a partir de c.
380 até c. 320 a.C. A comédia nova integra as peças que são compostas de c. 320 a 250 a.C.
Obviamente, que cada uma delas tem características próprias que as distinguem, ainda que
percebamos certa fluidez entre os autores que podem retomar elementos predominantes em
um período anterior da produção cômica na Grécia antiga.
10
Cf. Dover 1968: xci.
11
IG II2 2323.
109
(Des)Continuidade da comédia grega antiga e formação de um cânone cômico:
reperformances e recepção crítica nos séculos IV-II A. C.
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Greice Drumond
19
Nuvens, 520 et seq.
20
Sommerstein 2002: 65.
21
Russo 1994: 97.
22
Dover 1968: 208.
23
Cf. Dover1968: xcii.
24
Embolima são partes líricas entoadas pelo coro que não têm vínculo com o enredo,
como explica Aristóteles (Poet. 1456a29).
25
Dover 1968: 208.
26
Cf. Slater 2009: 3.
27
Revermann 2006: 86.
28
Cf. Hartwig 2014: 213.
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29
Csapo 1986, Nervegna 2014: 184, Green 2014: 348.
30
Csapo 1986: 380.
31
Csapo 2014: 116.
32
Cf. Revermann 2006: 74.
33
As citações apresentadas em grego foram traduzidas por mim.
34
Cf. Henderson 2007, p.78-79.
112
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35
Sommerstein 2001: 31.
36
Ele era um representante da “Nova Música”, junto com Melanipides e Timóteo de
Mileto. Cf. Sommerstein, 2011: 31.
37
Pl., 290-321.
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Esse tempo deixa marcas nos temas selecionados pelos autores de comédia.
Apesar de algumas inexatidões, como quando trata do fim da coregia como
causa da não transcrição das odes corais nos textos de comédia do IV século
a.C., usaremos o testemunho de Platônio, em Sobre os diferentes tipos de
comédia, em que o autor disserta acerca das causas políticas da transformação
do gênero cômico. Para Platônio, com o estabelecimento da oligarquia na
direção da cidade, o poder do povo passou para as mãos de poucos homens e,
com isso, o terror deixou os poetas apreensivos. Ele alega que a causa da morte
de Êupolis foi a produção da peça Baptai (Mergulhadores) encenada talvez em
415 a.C. em que ele troça de Alcibíades, sendo condenado à morte por isso.38 A
discussão da datação da produção de Êupolis rejeita essa versão da história, pois
há indicações que atribuem peças a ele até 412 a.C., mas fica para nós a síntese
de uma compreensão de que muito da liberdade que a comédia tinha até então
pode ter sido perdida por motivos políticos.39 Segundo seu testemunho, o novo
ambiente político obrigou os autores a buscar outros caminhos para expressão
do cômico.
Uma outra peça atribuída a Aristófanes também apresenta inovações
importantes. Na Vita Aristophanis (fr. 27 Koster),40 é dito que ele ἔγραφε
κωμῳδίαν τινὰ Κώκαλον, ἐν ᾦ εἰσάγει φθορὰν καὶ ἀναγνωρισμὸν τἆλλα πάντα,
ἃ ἐζήλωσε Μένανδρος (escreveu uma comédia, Cócalo, na qual introduz estupro,
cena de reconhecimento e outras coisas, as quais Menandro emulou). Aliás, com
relação aos poetas da comédia nova, ainda é acrescentado que ἐγένετο δὲ καὶ
αἴτιος ζήλου τοῖς νέοῖς κωμικοῖς, λέγω δὴ Φιλήμονι καὶ Μενάνδρῳ (aos novos
comediógrafos, nomeadamente Filémon e Menandro, ele era fonte de emulação).
No séc. IV a.C., Araros, filho de Aristófanes, estreia no mundo teatral com
a direção dessa peça, de acordo com Vita Aristophanis. Em uma das notas de
introdução à peça Pluto (hypothesis IV), sabemos que Araros pode ter sido o
encenador não somente de Cócalo mas também de Eolosícon.41 Como aconteceu
no início da carreira de Aristófanes, em que peças como Banqueteiros (427
38
Para a leitura do texto de Platônio: Dindorf, Prolegomena de comoedia, 1838. Diz
a lenda, em uma das versões sobre a morte do comediógafo, que Alcibíades ordenou o
lançamento de Êupolis ao mar para morrer afogado durante a expedição da frota ateniense à
Sicília como retaliação à ridicularização que o poeta fez dele na comédia Baptai.
39
Cf. Storey 1993. O escólio às Orações de Élio Aristides confirma o tradicional relato da
morte de Êupolis (cf. Csapo; Slater 1994: 179).
40
Fazemos referência aos Prolegomena de comoedia estabelecidos por Koster e
compilados na edição de Henderson (2007), que contém testimonia e fragmentos de
peças perdidas de Aristófanes, e na de Dindorf (1838).
41
Essa comédia teve duas versões, mas não podemos saber se são peças diferentes ou
se se trata de simples revisão. Temos como data aproximada de sua produção o ano de 387
a.C., após Cócalo. Se tivermos duas peças diferentes, considera-se que a primeira tenha sido
encenada em 424/423 a.C., antes de Nuvens.
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a.C.), Babilônios (426 a.C.) e Acarnenses (425 a.C.)42 tiveram outros diretores.
Foi só com Cavaleiros (424 a.C.) que Aristófanes, pela primeira vez, pediu um
coro, como vemos na parábase da peça,43 sendo, assim, compositor e diretor
dessa peça.
Não podemos concluir se Araros somente dirigiu ou se também contribuiu
na composição desses enredos, conforme pondera Brockmann.44 Pode ter
sido uma oportunidade para Aristófanes, sem a preocupação com o trabalho
de ensaios, testar coisas novas que já estavam ditando certas tendências para a
comédia, como podemos ver, por exemplo, na competição da qual Pluto II fez
parte. Em 388 a.C., a peça dividiu a cena com as comédias Admeto, atribuído a
Aristômenes, Adonis, de Nicofonte, Pasifae, de Alceu, e Espartanos, de Nicócaris,
conforme nos indica a nota introdutória IV a Pluto II.
Os títulos das peças que foram encenadas no mesmo festival do qual
a segunda versão de Pluto fez parte se remetem a assuntos míticos, o que
é recorrente na comédia intermediária, ainda que não tenha sido um tema
estranho à comédia antiga. No entanto, há diferenças na abordagem do
mito quando comparamos com o que é feito pelos autores da fase antiga da
comédia grega. Para Nesselrath,45 poetas como Cratino, que compôs Odisseu,
ridicularizam o mito, encenando-o grotescamente com a zombaria peculiar à
comédia antiga, com o predomínio de piadas obscenas e invectivas pessoais.46
Ao que parece, muito do que foi explorado com relação ao mito pela
comédia antiga pode ser exemplificado no que encontramos na Magna
Grécia, especialmente na Sicília, com Epicarmo, cuja produção foi realizada
nos reinos dos tiranos Gélon (485-478 a.C.) e Híeron (478-467 a.C.). Não
é possível reconhecer a estrutura do que foi encenado por ele e nem se havia
coro em suas peças,47 mas podemos inferir que suas comédias faziam troça de
personalidades e eventos. Ele compôs comédia burlesca, especialmente um tipo
de peça cômica em que um herói entra em confronto com um monstro, como
Héracles e o centauro Folo ou Odisseu e Ciclope, por exemplo. Vários títulos
indicam um conteúdo mítico em seus enredos: Héracles com Folo; Ciclope;
42
O coro foi pedido em nome de Calístrato e não do de Aristófanes, pois o primeiro era
mais conhecido. No prolegomenum Xc 21 Koster, há a informação de que Calístrato e Filônides
eram atores das peças de Aristófanes. Cf. Henderson 2007: 26.
43
Cavaleiros, 513.
44
Brockmann 2003: 335.
45
Nesselrath 1995: 17.
46
É interessante notar que essa história também foi encenada por Sófocles em seu perdido
Odisseu Ferido que trata da morte do herói homérico por seu filho Telégono (Cf. Sophocles,
Fragments).
47
Há vários títulos atribuídos a Epicarmo que estão no plural, podendo indicar o coro da
peça: Atalantai (Companheiras de Atalanta), Bacchai (Bacantes), Choreutai (Membros do coro),
Seirenes (Sereias), Komastai (Foliões).
115
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56
Em Nuvens, nos versos 1371-1372, temos a referência dessa peça de Eurípides em que
o filho de Éolo, Macareu viola sua irmã Cánace, sendo ambos filhos de mesma mãe. Tendo
sido gerado um filho dessa relação, Éolo leva Cánace a cometer suicídio. Provavelmente, essa
tragédia foi encenada em 426 a.C.
57
Platônio, Sobre os diferentes tipos de comédia (Peri diaphoras komoidion) 1, 12-2 (Cf.
Dindorf 1838).
58
Na visão de Platônio (Diff. com.), esse Odisseus (no plural mesmo, podendo significar
Odisseus ou Companheiros de Odisseu) de Crátino era uma paródia da personagem Odisseu (e
de seus companheiros) de Homero. Não faz referência a nenhuma tragédia. Com relação ao
Cozinheiro de Éolo, de Aristófanes, ele diz que se trata de uma zombaria com a peça trágica
Éolo (de Eurípides) atacando-a como tendo sido mal composta.
59
Platônio, Diff. com. 1, 15-16 (cf. Dindorf 1838).
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67
Arist. Eth. Nic. 1128a22-25.
68
Kontantaskos 2014: 161.
69
O único resquício que temos desse tipo de temática que pode ter sido produzido no
período da comédia nova grega é encontrado na peça plautina Anfitrião, mas se discute qual
teria sido a fonte do seu enredo, se uma hilarotragédia ou alguma peça da fase intermediária
(Cf. Costa 2010:15).
119
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70
A peça deve ter recebido um título alternativo depois do séc. IV a.C.
71
Adaptada por Plauto em Baquídides.
120
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72
Cf. Lape 2006.
121
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dizendo que seu pai era livre, mas que a mãe era cita, o que não fazia dele alguém “democrático”,
não sendo, portanto, confiável como defensor da democracia ateniense.
75
Lape (2004) defende a ideia de que a comédia menandriana era uma forma de
resistência ao estado de coisas por que Atenas passava sob o domínio macedônico.
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Essas coisas me fez ele tão gentilmente quando eu ainda não podia entender,
pois me registrou, sem fazer distinção.
Como diz o ditado, eu era só “mais um no meio de muitos”.
Por causa dele, tornei-me homem. Por essas coisas, graciosa-
mente, eu retribuí: tornei-me uma pessoa de bem.
76
Regeu Atenas de 317 a 307 a. C., tendo sido nomeado por Cassandro, rei da Macedônia.
77
Alguns autores alegam que a amizade entre Menandro e Demétrio de Falero era mal-
vista pela população. Cf. Sommerstein 2002: 70.
123
(Des)Continuidade da comédia grega antiga e formação de um cânone cômico:
reperformances e recepção crítica nos séculos IV-II A. C.
78
Nesselrath (1993, 183), comparando a Vida de Aristófanes com a Vida de Anaxándrides,
por ambas estarem na Suda e por se saber a autoria da última, sugere que Hesíquio de Mileto
(séc. VI d. C.), o Ilustre, seja o autor das duas biografias.
79
Anaxándrides, poeta de meados do IV séc. a.C., também é indicado como o primeiro
comediógrafo a inserir “casos de amor e de sedução de moças” em seus enredos (Anaxandr.
test. 1 K.-A.),
80
Le Guen 2014: 361.
81
Esse termo já era usado por Aristóteles (Rh. 3.1405a23-24) ao se referir àqueles que
trabalham no teatro.
82
Le Guen 2014: 363.
124
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83
Le Guen 2014: 365.
84
Cf. IG VII 2727.
85
Em duas reapresentações realizadas em 183 e 181 a.C.
86
Dados retirados da seleção feita por Le Guen (2014).
125
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Aristófanes não é agradável à maioria nem tolerável aos sensatos, mas, tal
como uma cortesã, sua poesia vai perdendo o vigor, e esta depois imita uma
esposa legítima, e a maioria não tolera a sua arrogância, e os que são notáveis
têm aversão à sua licenciosidade e malícia. Mas Menandro, com seus encantos,
mostra-se sobretudo oportuno nos teatros, nas conversas, nos banquetes,
para leitura, ensinamento, representação teatral, que são as belezas comuns
que a Hélade apresentou com a poesia, mostrando o que é e ainda qual é a
destreza do discurso, passando por todos os assuntos com uma persuasão
infalível, dominando o som inteiro e a significância da língua helênica. Pois
verdadeiramente qual o valor de um homem educado ir ao teatro que não
seja por Menandro? E quando os teatros ficam repletos de homens eruditos,
quando uma personagem cômica é representada? E nos banquetes, qual outro
é o mais justo, apropriado à mesa, a quem Dioniso cede um lugar? E entre
filósofos e eruditos, tal como os pintores, quando cansam suas vistas, voltam-
se para as cores das flores e da grama verde, Menandro é um repouso daqueles
esforços intensos e excessivos, tal como no prado florido, umbroso e cheio de
ventos, acolhendo o seu pensamento. (Compar. 854A-C, tradução de Maria de
Fátima Sousa e Silva)
87
Silva 2017: 83.
126
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Bibliografia
88
Bornheim 1987: 15 (apud Mafra, 1993: 66).
127
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Nesselrath, H-G. (1995), “Myth, parody, and comic plots: The birth of the gods and
Middle Comedy”, in G. W. Dobrov (ed), Beyond Aristophanes. Transition and Di-
versity in Greek Comedy. Atlanta, 1-30.
Nervegna, S. (2014), “Contexts of reception in Antiquity”, in M. Revermann (ed.), The
Cambridge Companion to Greek Comedy. Cambridge, 387-403.
Oliveira, J. K. de (2012), “Refiguração do pensamento mitológico grego na comédia de
Aristófanes”, in J. R Sousa; J. L. P. da Silva (eds.), Educação, política e religião no
mundo antigo, Teresina, 71-87.
Platter, C. (2009), “Modern theory and Aristophanes”, in P. Walsh (ed.), Brill’s Compan-
ion to the Reception of Aristophanes, Leiden, 22-43.
Plutarco (2017), Epítome da comparação de Aristófanes e Menandro. Tradução, intro-
dução e notas de Ana Maria César Pompeu; Maria Aparecida de Oliveira Silva;
Maria de Fátima Sousa e Silva, Coimbra, São Paulo.
Revermann, M. (2006), Comic business. Theatricality, dramatic technique and perfor-
mance contexts of Aristophanic comedy, Oxford.
Russo, C. F. (1994), Aristophanes. An author for the stage. Transl. by Kevin Wren, Lon-
don, New York.
Sacconi, K. A. (2020), Fragmentos de Aristófanes (Aristophanis Fragmenta), Coimbra.
Shaw, C. A. (2010), “Middle Comedy and the ‘satyric’ style”, AJPh 131 (1): 1-22.
Slater, N. W. (2009), “Aristophanes in Antiquity. Reputation and Reception”, in P. Walsh
(ed.), Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Aristophanes, Leiden, 3-21.
Sommerstein, A. H. (2001), “Introduction”, in Aristophanes, Wealth. Edited, translated
and notes by Alan H. Sommerstein, Warminster, 1-42.
Sommerstein, A. H. (2002), Greek Drama and Dramatists, London.
Sommerstein, A. H. (ed.) (2019), The Encyclopedia of Greek Comedy, New York.
Sophocles (1996), Sophocles Fragments, translated by H. Lloyd-Jones, Harvard.
Storey, I. C. (1993), “The Dates of Aristophanes’ Clouds II and Eupolis’ Baptai. A Reply
to E. C. Kopff ”, AJPh 114 (1): 71-84.
Storey, I. C. (2014), “The first poets of Old Comedy”, in M. Fontaine; A. C. Scafuro
(eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Comedy, Oxford, 95-112.
Tracy, S. V. (2015), “The dramatic festival inscriptions of Athens. The inscribers and
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Carol Martins da Rocha
ABSTRACT: At least three plays of Plautus (c. 254-184 BCE) present marriage
as a farcical element, that is, a character pretends to be married or about to marry.
In the present study, I propose to analyse aspects of a pseudo-marriage that takes
place in the Miles Gloriosus, focusing on the portrayal of the figure of the matron
and of marital relationships in this comedy. There, the seruus callidus Palaestrio sets
up a fake marriage (as well as a divorce) between Periplectomenus, a senex, and the
courtesan Acroteleutium (who was disguised as a matrona). In this way, the trick takes
the form of a fabula within the Plautine play (Miles Gloriosus). In this chapter, I will
argue that the representation of marriage in the Miles Gloriosus, on the one hand, is
linked with two important themes in the palliata: the issue of the dowry, as well as
with the stereotypical portrayal of wives. On the other hand, some metatheatrical
elements contribute to a more varied depiction of the stock character of the uxor
dotata.
KEYWORDS: Plautus; Miles Gloriosus; female characters; marriage.
1
Konstan 1983: 33-46.
pot of gold out of the city limits, hiding it in the grove of Silvanus, could be
symbolically understood as a distrust in the community. On the other hand,
Euclio prevents Phaedra from claiming her rights as his daughter, by refusing
her a dowry – as inferred from another play of Plautus, Trinummus, a marriage
without a dowry was considered concubinage, which was socially unacceptable
(Trin. 689-91).
What is more, scholars have analysed how the different types of marriage
in ancient Rome could have shaped Plautus’ portrayal of husbands and wives
in his plays, as well as the dramatic situations in which they were present. The
legal difference between a cum manu (or in manu) marriage and a sine manu
marriage, for instance, was a crucial one. According to Elisabeth Schuhmann,
after the Second Punic War, there was a tendency among wealthy Romans to
keep their properties within their own families.2 For this reason, the traditional
in manu marriage – that is, the marriage in which the woman and her dowry
were transferred from the potestas of her father to that of her husband – was
replaced by the sine manu marriage. In this new type of marriage, both the
daughter and the dowry were kept in possession of the father, which prevented
the transfer of the family’s assets to a stranger. According to Schuhmann,
Plautus’ uxores dotatae were a product of this kind of marriage. Richard Hunter,
however, thinks that palliata comedy does not offer sufficient evidence to
support Schuhmann’s claim.3 For him, Plautine husbands did not suffer because
of the legal status of their marriage (cum manu or sine manu). Whether the
dowry was kept with the father or transferred to the husband, a wife with a
dowry would invariably hassle her husband.
It is not easy to establish a direct connection between the portrayal of
marriage in the palliata and the reality of ancient Rome. Hunter, for instance,
suggests that the playwrights were not actually concerned with presenting
the dotata with Roman or Attic features.4 It is probably true that the different
implications of the dowry system (either resulting from a cum manu or a
sine manu marriage) had to make at least some sense to Plautus’ audience.
Yet, regardless of that, marriage is a central theme in Plautine comedy. My
hypothesis is that this theme was not only a source of jokes in the palliata, but
also a dramatic device that contributed to the development of the characters
and scenes, and which had multiple effects on the Plautine comedy.
A prominent feature regarding marriage in the plays of Plautus is the
stereotypical representation of the characters involved – which makes them
distinct from the masks of Nea5 – and, consequently, the portrayal of married
2
Schuhmann 1977: 47.
3
Hunter 1989: 92.
4
Hunter 1989: 92.
5
See discussion in Gratwick’s commentary on Plautus’ Menaechmi (Plautus 1993: 10-1).
132
Carol Martins da Rocha
life itself as something blatant and without nuance. This is the case of the
matrona (that is, the uxor dotata), a popular character in the palliata, who has
been widely accepted as an original creation of Plautus, with no equivalent in the
plays of Menander – yet, it is important to remember that only a small portion
of the New Comedy has come down to us.6 Though she is present in many
plays of Plautus, in at least three of them (Aulularia, Casina and Miles Gloriosus)
there is a pseudo-uxor – either because the marriage is not consummated, as
in the Aulularia, or because one of the female characters just pretends to be
married. At any rate, the characterisation of the uxor dotata in these plays has
some distinctive features in comparison with that stereotype, which make her
more or less compatible with that model.
Thus, in this chapter, I will focus on the nuptiae fictae featured in the Miles
Gloriosus, where a fake rich matron (therefore, a pseudo-uxor dotata) appears
on stage. My aim is to observe how Plautus dramatises marriage in this play
by presenting two characters who pretend to be husband and wife, in order to
deceive another character. In this way, the trick – which was carried out by a
slave – takes the form of a fabula within the Plautine play (Miles Gloriosus). In
the analysis that follows, I will attempt to highlight some features which make
the representation of the female characters and their roles more credible to
the audience in the context of that farce, focusing on the uxor dotata and her
speeches.
6
For a discussion on whether the uxor dotata was a Plautine creation or not, see
Schuhmann 1977: 48, n. 11; Segal 1987: 23-4; Hunter 1989: 91-2; Bianco 2003: 79, n. 106.
7
On this wedding scene of Casina, see Rocha 2015: 117-123.
133
The Representation of Marriage in Plautus’ Miles Gloriosus: A Game of Fiction and Reality
ceremony; rather, the whole trick consists in presenting both the old man and
the courtesan as a married couple. Overall, the plot of the play is centred on
Pleusicles’ attempt to free his beloved woman, the meretrix Philocomasium,
from the soldier Pyrgopolynices (who had become her owner after bribing her
previous female pimp). Thus, Palaestrio (the slave of Pleusicles, who eventually
becomes the slave of the braggart soldier) devises a plan to help Pleusicles and
Philocomasium. He travels to Ephesus, and stays in a house next to the one
where Philocomasium is being kept by the soldier (Mil. 140). There, Palaestrio
and his master Pleusicles are hosted by the old bachelor Periplectomenus, who is
friends with the latter’s father (Mil. 136). This senex lepidus decides to cooperate
with the slave, and suggests that he cuts a hole in the wall so that Pleusicles can
meet with his lover (Mil. 142-4). This first plan works, but the slave still needs
to find a way to set the meretrix free from Pyrgopolynices’ control.8 Hence, he
devises a second plan, involving the fake marriage between Periplectomenus
and a hired prostitute, Acroteleutium, who would play the role of his uxor.
The slave drafts this plan in the second half of the play. Yet, in order to
understand better how the idea of marriage is presented in the Miles Gloriosus,
we should first take into consideration Periplectomenus’ speech about the
costs of having a wife, which he utters before he accepts his role in the farce.
Indeed, just before Palaestrio reveals the details of his plan to Periplectomenus,
Pleusicles apologises to the old man for involving him in those facinora puerilia
(Mil. 618).9 However, Periplectomenus refuses to be treated as an elderly: “See
here, my lad, I’m not over fifty-four” (nam equidem hau sum annos natus praeter
quinquaginta et quattuor; Mil. 629). He then presents himself as someone who
can still play many roles in life: from a “legal counsellor, severe and fiery”
(aduocato tristi, iracundo; Mil. 663), to a man “of mild demeanour” (leni; Mil.
664); from the “gayest of dinner guests” (hilarissimum conuiuam; Mil. 666), to a
cinaedus malacus (Mil. 668).
Pleusicles recognises that, by taking part in his plan to set Acroteleutium
free, Periplectomenus might suffer some losses. The senex not only brags about
being rich; but also, like Megadorus in the Aulularia (489-93; 505-35), he brags
about being single.10 He then launches an invective against women, arguing that,
though he is rich and could easily choose any woman as his wife, he nonetheless
preferred not to subject himself to the imperium of an uxor: “This is Liberty
Hall, and I have my own liberty, too. I like to live my own life. Why – thank God
8
On Palaestrio’s scheme as fabula in the Miles Gloriosus, see Frangoulidis 1994 (who
describes the scheme as metadramatic, as does Slater 2000), and Cardoso 2005: 195-211.
9
For the Latin text, I follow Lindsay (Plautus 1905). English translations, when provided,
are by Paul Nixon in Loeb’s edition (Plautus 1980).
10
On Megadorus’ opinion on marriage in Plautus’ Aulularia, see Moore 1998: 161-164;
and Rocha 2015: 110-115.
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I may say so – I’m a rich man and could have taken a wife of wealth and station;
but I have no desire to admit a she-yapper into my house” (Mil. 678-81).11
As in the Aulularia, in Periplectomenus’ speech Plautus also employs the
direct speech mode while reporting the (imaginary) speech of the (imaginary)
wife (Mil. 686-698). In addition to this stylistic choice, there are other common
features between the Miles Gloriosus and the Aulularia. Periplectomenus – like
Megadorus in the latter play – states that a wife is a major source of expense
(sumptus; Mil. 673). He then lists all the expenses that a wife would incur –
yet he does not go as far as Megadorus. According to Periplectomenus, a wife
does not care about her husband’s well-being. She would never buy him “a soft,
warm cloak” (pallium malacum et calidum; Mil. 687-8), or “some nice, heavy
tunics” (tunicaeque hibernae bonae; Mil. 688) to keep him warm during winter
(ne algeas hac hieme; Mil. 689). She would rather spend money on gifts for
her mother, or even for her attendants – from “the sorceress at the festival of
Minerva” (quinquatrubus praecantrici; Mil. 692-3), to “that woman that tells
your fortune from your eyebrows” (quae supercilio spicit; Mil. 694); from “the
modiste” (plicatricem; Mil. 695), to “the nurse” (nutrici; Mil. 698).
Nevertheless, Periplectomenus’ imaginary wife seems less “selfish” than that
depicted by Megadorus. In fact, most of her expenses are related to aspects of
domestic life: condimenta (“preserves”, Mil. 692), ceriaria (“cateress”, Mil. 696),
and opstetrix (“midwife”, Mil. 697).12 In this sense, then, the wife described by
Periplectomenus partially contrasts with the traditional image of the uxor as a
woman who only cares about herself (as in the Aulularia); or who otherwise
devotes her life to monitoring every little step her husband takes (as in the
Casina or Menaechmi, for instance). At any rate, in the Miles Gloriosus, the
old bachelor’s aversion to marriage is mainly due to his unfavourable opinion
about wives, whom he describes as frivolous spendthrifts – which, as we know,
is usually a characteristic associated with the uxores dotatae of other Plautine
plays.
After listening to the conversation between Periplectomenus and Pleusicles,
Palaestrio decides to reveal his new plan to them (Mil. 765). As anticipated
above, the plan required that the old man pretended to be married to a woman
(Mil. 795-6). Actually, it is rather intriguing that Periplectomenus (who had
11
Liberae sunt aedes, liber sum autem ego; me uolo uiuere./ nam mihi, deum uirtute dicam,
propter diuitias meas/ licuit uxorem dotatam genere summo ducere;/ sed nolo mihi oblatratricem
in aedis intro mittere.
12
As suggested by Schuhmann (1977: 46), although ancient Roman women did not
participate in public life, they had the important responsibility of managing their households.
Thus, perhaps we can read Periplectomenus’ speech above not as a mild critique of wives, but
rather as a complaint about the uxores’ authority. Moreover, in the plays of Plautus, women’s
control over the domestic sphere was often seen as a threat to their husbands (see Cas. 144-9;
Mer. 556-7).
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just presented himself as a proud bachelor) was recruited to play the part of
the husband. Certainly, the dramatic irony behind this plan was clear to the
audience (who was probably acquainted with other palliata comedies and,
consequently, with the senex lepidus type).13 Nevertheless, Periplectomenus
does not oppose himself to the slave’s plan; quite the contrary, he willingly
accepts the challenge: tibi sum oboediens (Mil. 806). In the following section, let
us see how Periplectomenus acts in Palaestrio’s scheme.
I borrowed the term ludi nuptialis from Petrone, who has employed it in the conclusion
14
of her seminal book Teatro antico e inganno: finzioni plautine. While discussing the marriage
farce in the Casina, she describes this play as containing “ludi festiui, ludi ludificabiles e ludi
nuptialis” (Petrone 1983: 204-5).
15
What is presented here is an “independent” type of courtesan, that is, a courtesan who
does not work for a leno. See discussion on this stock character in Duckworth 1952: 258-261;
Gilula: 1980; and in Barsby’s notes on Bacchides, Act 1, Scene 1 (in Plautus 1986: 97-8).
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instructions to the courtesan (Mil. 793), we can nevertheless infer that it is she
herself who will be in charge of her performance. This idea has been already
pointed out in a few studies dealing with metatheatre and metalanguage
in Plautus’ Miles Gloriosus. 16 Yet, my main aim here is to observe how
Acroteleutium’s performance and agency within the play reflect specific images
of women depicted in the palliata.
When Periplectomenus comes back on stage with the courtesan, she was
already dressed up as his wife, and Palaestrio praises her costume: “what a
ladylike dress and walk! Nothing like a courtesan!” (Quam digne ornata incedit,
hau meretricie!; Mil. 870-2). Then, she and the other courtesan discuss with the
old man the instructions they have just received. Yet, they do not reveal the exact
content of such instructions to the audience. As inferred from Periplectomenus’
line, both the courtesans have had their first “lesson” in his house (Mil. 874);
and though the old man insists that they reveal (before the audience) what
instructions they were given there, Acroteleutium refuses to do so.17 She proudly
reminds the old man that she has plenty of experience in playing tricks of that
kind: “a silly goose I’d be, patron mine, to undertake another person’s work or
promise to work for him, if once in the workshop I didn’t know how to be sly or
tricky” (Mil. 878-880).18 Then, Acroteleutium suggests that, as a courtesan, she
knows better than any “director” how to deceive the braggart soldier: “everyone
appreciates the immense value of admonishing a courtesan! Why, my ears had
barely begun to drink in your discourse, when I myself volunteered to tell you
how the soldier could be trimmed” (Mil. 881-4).19
At this point of the comedy, I believe that these references to dramatic
elements, through metalanguage, might allude to the specific stereotypes that
the characters are supposed to play in Palaestrio’s farce. Though Periplectomenus
had previously bragged about his acting skills (Mil. 661-8, discussed above), the
courtesan presents herself as a better actress than him. Her eloquence is one of
the characteristics which make her personality compatible with that of a typical
Plautine meretrix. Yet, subsequently, Acroteleutium describes her ability to
manipulate her own memory as a natural female gift: “If a woman has anything
16
Focusing on the metatheatrical aspects of the representation of the meretrix as a
matrona, Frangoulidis (1994: 80-6) has highlighted that the fact that the audience is unaware
of the instructions received by the courtesans could give the impression of an improvised
acting. On improvisation in the Plautine comedy, see also Cardoso 2005: 247-53.
17
Using different arguments, Periplectomenus suggests that the instructions should be
repeated aloud one more time: Mil. 876; 881;885-6; 891-2.
18
AC. stultitia atque insipientia mea istaec sit, <mi patrone,>/ me ire in opus alienum aut
[t]ibi meam operam pollicitari,/ si ea in opificina nesciam aut mala esse aut fraudulenta.
19
AC. meretricem commoneri/ quam sane magni referat, nihil clam est. quin egomet ultro,/
postquam adbibere aures meae tuae oram orationis,/ tibi dixi, miles quem ad modum potisset
deasciarei.
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The Representation of Marriage in Plautus’ Miles Gloriosus: A Game of Fiction and Reality
I would like to highlight several significant aspects that emerge from the
passage above. The first is the divorce petition: the fake matrona will pretend
that she has left her husband, claiming that she is in love (causa amoris; Mil.
1164) with the soldier, and wants to be his wife. This idea of a divorce petition,
in turn, has two unique implications, which have no precedent in the extant
plays of Plautus: on the one hand, Acroteleutium’s feigned passion for the soldier
could be viewed as proof of female adultery; on the other hand, the main reason
for her divorce was that she was in love with the soldier.
20
AC. Si quid faciundum est mulieri male atque malitiose,/ ea sibi inmortalis memoriast
meminisse et sempiterna;/ sin bene qui aut fideliter faciundumst, eo deueniunt/ obliuiosae
extemplo uti fiant; meminisse nequeunt.
21
PA. nunc hanc tibi ego impero prouinciam./ AC. impetrabis, imperator, quod ego potero,
quod uoles./ PA. militem lepide et facete, laute ludificarier/ uolo. AC. uoluptatem mecastor mihi
imperas. PA. Scin quem ad modum?/ AC. nempe ut adsimulem me amore istius differri. PA.
tenes./ AC. quasique istius caussa amoris ex hoc matrimonio/ abierim, cupiens istius nuptiarum./
PA. Omne ordine./ nisi modo unum hoc: hasce esse aedis dicas dotalis tuas,/ hinc senem aps te
abisse, postquam feceris diuortium:/ ne ille mox uereatur introire in alienam domum.
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When Palaestrio revealed his plan for the first time (Mil. 782-98), he only
explained that the pseudo-uxor would pretend to be in love with the soldier,
yet he made no mention of the divorce whatsoever. Consequently, the audience
could have initially thought that she would play an adulteress. Besides the Miles
Gloriosus, this topic of female adultery is evoked in the Amphitruo and in the
Bacchides.22 However, in both the Bacchides and the Miles Gloriosus, the uxores
were actually courtesans in disguise; therefore, their adultery was not real, but
rather a lie. Similarly, in the Amphitruo, even though Alcmena did betray her
husband, she only did it because she was deceived by Jupiter, who was disguised
as Amphitryon. From this, Braund has concluded that “since the stories are
invented, it seems clear that actual adultery on the part of a married woman was
considered inappropriate for the genre of the palliata”.23 Thus, the idea of female
adultery should be dissipated in the Miles Gloriosus (even if not immediately
after Palaestrio mentions the pseudo-marriage). As he later reveals (Mil. 1167),
his plan also included a pseudo-divorce – an element which probably made his
whole scheme even more plausible to the audience.
The second aspect in the passage above which deserves attention is the
alleged reason for the divorce. This aspect seems to reflect the boundaries of
what was considered suitable (and, therefore, plausible) for the Plautine stage.
As Schuhmann has already pointed out, a divorce motivated by love would be
inconceivable (unvorstellbar) in the Rome of 200 BCE.24 However, Plautus makes
this idea more plausible through the manipulation of the setting. By exploring
the Greek setting of the palliata (which in the Miles Gloriosus is Ephesus, in Asia
Minor), Plautus seems to suggest that such a divorce was allowed there. Hence,
as in the Casina – where the marriage between slaves was treated as a common
thing in Graecia, et Carthagini,/ et hic in nostra terra, in Apulia (Cas. 71-2) –,
Plautus uses geography as a means to make such incongruous situations and
relationships more realistic within the fictional world of palliata.25
For our present discussion, it is worth noting that the Greek setting allowed
Plautus to play more freely with the marital conventions of his day, since in that
context not only the controversial idea of female adultery became acceptable,
but also the idea of a divorce motivated by love became more plausible.26 In this
sense, by stretching the boundaries of verisimilitude in the palliata, Plautus was
22
See Duckworth 1952: 150, and Braund 2005: 52.
23
Braund 2005: 52.
24
Schuhmann 1976: 25.
25
See Stärk 2005: 31. In this sense (though without a direct link with the particularities of
marriage), see Men. 72-4.
26
Following Konstan (1994: 148-9), Braund (2005: 64, n. 72) argues that it is not clear
whether the soldier actually believes that the woman is divorced. Yet, from the audience’s point
of view, the transgression of the palliata conventions could be accepted only if the soldier
recognised the matrona as a divorced woman.
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The Representation of Marriage in Plautus’ Miles Gloriosus: A Game of Fiction and Reality
able to prepare the audience (both the audience of the Miles Gloriosus and the
audience of the play within the play) to accept those ludi nuptialis as realistic
and credible.
Besides these two aspects, the representation of the “wife” as dotata is also
meaningful. Following Palaestrio’s instructions, the “divorced matrona” should
pretend that she only stayed living in that house because it was part of her
dowry (Mil. 1166). Schuhmann argues that a dowry which included properties
was rare in the Greek context; and the same was probably true in the Rome of
Plautus.27 Thus, that unrealistic portrayal of the dowry (in relation to both the
historical and the fictional realities) is yet another element which accentuates
the boundaries between fiction and reality, and contributes to the farcical nature
of Palaestrio’s plan.
Finally, as Bianco suggests, the fact that Palaestrio assigns to Acroteleutium
the role of uxor dotata is coherent with another motif of the palliata.28 The uxor
dotata is precisely the comic type that torments the husband in Plautus’ plays,
namely the old man – a role played by Periplectomenus in the play directed by
the slave. With this in mind, let us analyse the meretrix’s performance when she
enters the stage to play the part of the dotata.
4. Acroteleutium in action
The action of the farce begins with a conversation between Acroteleutium
and Milphidippa – on which both the soldier and Palaestrio are eavesdropping.
The fake matron exclaims that she is in love with the soldier, but is afraid
that he does not reciprocate her feelings (Mil. 1228-36).29 She then describes
her passion with increasing intensity. She emphatically says that her fear is so
extreme that she considers killing herself if she gets rejected by the soldier (Mil.
1237-41). Alleging that she is madly in love with the soldier, the meretrix claims
that she can barely wait for him to leave his home, and threatens to break down
the door (Mil. 1249-50). She describes this violent impulse as a sign of love: “If
he has ever loved, or if he has an understanding equal to his beauty, he will be
27
Schuhmann 1977: 50, n. 23. In other plays of Plautus, the reference to the dowry implied
only money (not properties) – see Cist. 561; Mer. 703 and Truc. 845.
28
Bianco 2003: 81.
29
Following Frangoulidis’ (1994) theory about the improvisational nature of this “play
within the play”, Cardoso (2005: 248-52) has argued that the effects of love described in this
passage allude to lyric poetry (the courtesan’s speech alludes to Sappho 31; and the name
Phaon of Lesbos is explicitly mentioned in Miles Gloriosus 1247). On lyric elements in the
works of Plautus, see also Costa (2014: 45-52).
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compassionate and pardon me for what I shall have done through the love of
him!” (Mil. 1251-2).30
This kind of behaviour, however, is not commonly seen in the uxores
dotatae of Plautus’ comedies: in the Menaechmi, for instance, the wife is
described as mala, stulta and indomita imposque animi (Men. 110). In this
sense, Acroteleutium’s speech is quite unique, and does not reflect in any way
the traditional speech of a Plautine uxor dotata – and more particularly the
type of speech that is often reported and criticised by Plautine husbands. In
fact, Acroteleutium’s speech could have struck the Roman audience as strange
– serving as a hint of her real identity – precisely because it did not evoke any of
the features typically associated with the uxor.
Yet, afterwards, Acroteleutium would seem to fit better in her new role,
acting like an evil uxor, when she reveals her keen sense of smell. When
Milphidippa asks her how she knows that the soldier is at home, the meretrix
matrona answers: “I know, ah Heavens, I know! I can smell. Yes, yes, my nose
would detect it from the odour, were he within!” (Mil. 1255-6).31 In Plautus’
Casina, for instance, Cleustrata uses her sense of smell as a tool to constantly
watch and torment her husband (Cas. 236-41). However, here in the Miles
Gloriosus, the matron’s keen sense of smell is presented as a good quality, and
a proof of the love that she claims to have towards the soldier. In other words,
while the keen sense of smell is traditionally presented by Plautus as one of the
many unpleasant habits of the uxores dotatae, at this point of the Miles Gloriosus’
plot, this same feature acquires a positive value in Acroteleutium’s performance
as a matrona.
The prominent contrast between the uxores dotatae and the type played
by Acroteleutium in this play within the play is not a fortuitous one. Rather, it
serves a specific dramatic purpose within Palaestrio’s plan: the matron needs
to convince the soldier that she really loves him (so that he gives up Pleusicles’
lover and sets her free). With this goal in mind, it would not make much sense
if Acroteleutium adopted the same unsavoury behaviour as that of the uxores
of the palliata. At the same time, however, this strategy generates a kind of
conundrum, once Acroteleutium is supposed to play the role of an uxor dotata
as convincingly as she can (otherwise, the soldier would refuse to enter her
house, knowing that it belonged to a man). As a result, instead of focusing on
the psychological characteristics of this fake uxor, Plautus prefers to highlight
(perhaps in an exaggerated way) a legal issue: the dowry.
30
AC. si amauit umquam aut si parem sapientiam [hic] habet ac formam,/ per amorem si
quid fecero, clementi <hic> animo ignoscet.
31
AC. scio de olefactu;/ nam odore nasum sentiat, si intus sit.
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The Representation of Marriage in Plautus’ Miles Gloriosus: A Game of Fiction and Reality
Palaestrio’s plan requires that the soldier finds out about the uxor’s dowry,
otherwise he would fear retaliation from her betrayed husband. Thus, firstly,
Milphidippa “casually” drops the information that her mistress has already
divorced her husband (Mil. 1277). However, Pyrgopolynices is not fully
convinced yet: “how could she do that?” (qui id facere potuit?; Mil. 1277). Then,
Milphidippa explains to him that the house is part of her lady’s dowry (Mil.
1278). As Schuhmann has pointed out, Milphidippa is only able to win the
soldier over by using the dowry argument: after learning that the matrona is
an uxor dotata, the idea that she was divorced suddenly becomes plausible to
Pyrgopolynices.32
Thus, it is clear that what makes Acroteleutium’s character convincing in
the play within the play is not so much her speech (for she seems too lovely
to be a matrona); but rather an external element which reinforces her identity
as an uxor dotata. Ultimately, in the Miles Gloriosus, the legal implications of
marriage contribute to the portrayal of female character types (both the primary
and secondary ones), as well as to the development of the comic situations (even
the most complex ones).
Final remarks
By analysing marriage as a farcical element in the Miles Gloriosus, I
argued that the Roman playwright used uariatio to suggest different levels of
plausibility in his inset dramas, especially regarding the comic types presented
in them. In the Aulularia, for instance, Megadorus only agrees to marry Euclio’s
daughter without a dowry – which was not a socially acceptable practice –
because it seemed a solution for the expenses and demands that an uxor dotata
would bring. In the Miles Gloriosus, in turn, Acroteleutium’s speech, as well as
the details of her “marital life”, were constantly rearranged in order to make
the ludi of the play within the play more credible. As we have seen above, the
pseudo-marriage between Acroteleutium and Periplectomenus represents a
kind of game, where both the female and male roles are pre-determined as in a
real play, but they are also flexible, depending on the particular case, situation,
plot and characters involved, since they emulate both the dramatic and social
conventions reproduced on the palliata stage.
As I have attempted to demonstrate here, while conducting these actions
and transformations through his female characters, Plautus created a marriage
framework without completely neglecting some pre-established conventions.
These conventions – whether they were purely fictional (that is, based on the
32
Schuhmann 1976: 25.
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Nea or palliata tradition), or reflected the Roman (or, perhaps, Attic) customs
– were to some extent present in Palaestrio’s farce, too. Yet, they could be either
imitated or rejected there. Finally, I hope to have illustrated how Plautus was able
to depict some different (and perhaps unexpected) versions of the Plautine uxor,
creating a more nuanced representation than that suggested by most scholars.
In my view, these different uxores (whether “real” or “fake” in the context of the
plays) reflected different perceptions of marriage as a social institution, as well
as the roles assigned to husbands and wives in Roman society.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary bibliography
Plautus (1980), The Merchant – The Braggart Warrior – The Haunted House – The Per-
sian. Vol. 3. With an English translation by Paul Nixon. Cambridge & London.
Plautus (1986), Bacchides. Edited with translation and commentary by John Barsby.
Wiltshire.
Plautus (1993), Menaechmi. Edited by Adrian S. Gratwick. Cambridge.
Plautus, Titus M. (1905), T. Macci Plauti Comoediae. Recognovit brevique adnotatione
critica instruxit W. M. Lindsay. Vol. 2. Oxford.
Secondary bibliography
Bianco, Maurizio M. (2003), Ridiculi Senes: Plauto e i Vecchi da Commedia. Palermo.
Braund, Susanna M. (2005), “Marriage, Adultery, and Divorce in Roman Comic Drama”
in Warren S.S. (ed.), Satiric Advice on Women and Marriage. Ann Arbor, 39-70.
Cardoso, Isabella T. (2005), Ars plautina. Doctoral thesis. São Paulo, DLCV, USP.
Costa, Lilian N. da. (2014), Gêneros poéticos na comédia de Plauto: Traços de uma poéti-
ca plautina imanente. Doctoral thesis. Campinas, IEL, Unicamp.
Duckworth, George (1952), The Nature of Roman Comedy – A Study in Popular Enter-
tainment. Princeton.
Frangoulidis, Stavros A. (1994), “Palaestrio as a Playwright: Plautus, Miles Gloriosus
209-212” in C. Deroux (ed.), Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History VII.
Latomus, 72-86.
Gilula, Dowra (1980), “The Concept of bona meretrix: a Study of Terence’s Courtesans”,
RFIC, 108: 142-65.
Hunter, Richard L. (1989), The New Comedy of Greece and Rome. Cambridge.
Konstan, David (1983), Roman Comedy. Londres.
________ (1994), Sexual symmetry: love in Ancient novel and related genres. Princeton.
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144
Elena Esposito
Elena Esposito
(Università degli Studi della Basilicata)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8240-388X
ABSTRACT: Negli ultimi 10/15 anni sono stati editi vari nuovi testi di tipo letterario
e documentario riconducibili al mimo greco. Ciò – unitamente alla pubblicazione
di altre testimonianze di natura materiale – ha modificato il panorama delle nostre
conoscenze al riguardo e impone alcune riflessioni. Il presente contributo prende
in considerazione il mimo greco di età ellenistico-romana, con particolare riguardo
al mimo anonimo, cosiddetto “popolare”1, tentando di ridefinirne caratteristiche,
pubblico, modalità di performance, trasmissione e circolazione.
KEYWORDS: Mimo, papiri, letteratura greca antica.
*
Ringrazio i partecipanti alla giornata di studio per i numerosi spunti di riflessione che mi
hanno offerto; sono grata, inoltre, a R. Carlesimo, R. Luiselli, F. Stama e ai referees anonimi,
che hanno letto e commentato utilmente il presente contributo. Ogni papiro di mimo citato
è contraddistinto da un numero nella tabella in Appendice e con esso viene richiamato, per
comodità, all' interno dell' articolo.
1
La terminologia “letterario” e “popolare”, come noto, è controversa, forse fuorviante e
certamente riduttiva. Essa, tuttavia, identifica due degli aspetti (letterarietà del testo, da una
parte e fruizione allargata, dall’altra) che maggiormente caratterizzano e differenziano fra loro
le due categorie in cui è stato distinto il mimo greco e si può, a mio avviso, mantenere (usando
le virgolette), con la precisazione che con mimi “letterari” si indicheranno opere di letteratura,
componimenti destinati essenzialmente alla lettura o alla recitazione, in contesti elitari e
ristretti (documentati nel V sec. e nell’età ellenistica); con mimi “popolari” si farà riferimento a
pièces di un teatro mimico, diffuso per lo più in epoca romana, e con una fruizione, in genere,
ampia, di cui sono sopravvissuti solo testi tecnici (i papiri oggetto di questo contributo),
funzionali alla messinscena (si ricordi, in proposito, la definizione di “popular culture” quale
“non-élite culture”, fornita da Burke 1978 e ripresa da Tsitsiridis 2011: 218; vd. anche Hunter
2002: 195). Tali aggettivi non implicano, quindi, un giudizio di valore (‘serie A’/‘serie B’) e una
penalizzazione dei mimi “popolari”, esclusi da un canone di letterarietà; vogliono evidenziare,
piuttosto, l’intrinseca diversità – pur nelle innegabili relazioni reciproche – tra queste
manifestazioni artistiche che, in quanto non omogenee, non pare corretto porre a confronto.
Sarebbe come giudicare, con gli stessi parametri e criteri, un romanzo e un film di cui resta la
sceneggiatura! Se, dunque, la specificità dei mimi “letterari” consiste nella letterarietà del testo,
viceversa, nei mimi “popolari” la parola, l’accuratezza ed elaborazione del dettato linguistico
e stilistico passano in secondo piano, rispetto alla performance e alla riuscita dello spettacolo.
Introduzione
Nella Poetica, Aristotele afferma che l’imitazione è innata nell’uomo, il
quale in ciò si differenzia dagli altri esseri viventi2. D’altro canto, nel mondo
greco, si hanno testimonianze, fin da tempi antichissimi, di svariate tipologie di
intrattenimenti o spettacoli rituali di genere mimico (danze imitative di animali,
o di tipi/atteggiamenti umani etc.)3. È però soltanto con il siracusano Sofrone,
nel V sec a.C., che forme di improvvisazione sembrano venir trasformate in
espressioni letterarie/artistiche. Di tale autore restano frammenti di mimi
maschili (ἀνδρεῖοι) e femminili (γυναικεῖοι)4: si tratta di brevi pièces caratterizzate da
temi, situazioni e personaggi realistici (alcuni titoli: Il messaggero, Il pescatore di tonno;
Le fattucchiere, La cameriera della sposa, La suocera etc.). Questi quadretti, scritti in
una prosa di colorito dialettale dorico, raffinati dal punto di vista stilistico, erano
probabilmente, in origine, destinati a una recitazione a simposio, presso la corte
di Dionisio, tiranno di Siracusa5.
Dopo Sofrone e suo figlio Senarco, per un lungo periodo, non si ha più
notizia di mimi e mimografi e – per assistere a una vera e propria rinascita del
mimo – bisognerà attendere, di fatto, il III sec. a.C.
Le ragioni di questo revival in epoca ellenistica devono in parte individuarsi
nei princìpi fondanti della poetica alessandrina, quali la predilezione per la
poesia breve, il gusto per il realismo, lo studio dei caratteri. Il mimo dunque – di
ampiezza circoscritta, spesso incentrato su tipi umani e aspetti concreti della vita
2
Arist. Po. 1448b, 5-9 τό τε γὰρ μιμεῖσθαι σύμφυτον τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἐκ παίδων ἐστὶ
καὶ τούτῳ διαφέρουσι τῶν ἄλλων ζῴων ὅτι μιμητικώτατόν ἐστι καὶ τὰς μαθήσεις ποιεῖται διὰ
μιμήσεως τὰς πρώτας, καὶ τὸ χαίρειν τοῖς μιμήμασι πάντας.
3
Per un’ ottima sintesi sulle origini del mimo, cf. Cicu 2012: 17-26, Sonnino 2014: 129-
137, 2020: 411-416, 420s. con bibl.
4
Così classificati, a seconda che il protagonista fosse uomo o donna; Maxwell 1993: 13,
riteneva, invece, che questa distinzione alludesse al fatto che essi fossero portati in scena da
casts femminili o maschili. In ogni caso, non è chiaro se tale suddivisione che si trova nelle
fonti antiche risalga a Sofrone stesso (Hordern 2004: 4), o sia frutto di una prassi editoriale
successiva (cf. Sonnino 2020: 417).
5
Cf. Hordern 2004: 8, Sonnino 2020: 419.
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– offriva ai poeti materia e ispirazione per trattare elementi del mondo popolare,
‘piccolo borghese’, filtrati, tuttavia, attraverso un’ arte sorvegliata e aristocratica.
Spunti mimetici si riconoscono nelle opere di vari autori ellenistici (si
pensi, ad es., all’idillio 2 di Teocrito, L’incantatrice, o al 14, Le Siracusane),
ma anche alcuni epigrammi si configurano come scenette dialogate, tratte
dalla vita quotidiana, con domande, esclamazioni, risposte e assumono così le
caratteristiche di veri e propri mimi (cf. Asclep. AP 5.181 e 185; Posidipp. AP
5.183 [124 A.-B.]; Call. AP 7.524; Phal. AP 13.5).
6
P.Lond.Lit. 96 (Brit.Libr. inv. 135) = P.Egerton 1, cf. TM 60050, MP3 485; LDAB 1164.
Cf. l’ed. pr. di Kenyon 1891.
7
Si tratta di P.CtYBR inv. 457 (B) (= P.Yale I 8 verso), del sec. I a.C.-I d.C. (mimo 2.69-
83) e P.Oxy. XXII 2326 (mimo 8.67-75), del II sec. d.C.
8
La questione, come noto, resta aperta e controversa, cf. Zanker: 2009: 4-6, Esposito
2010: 277s.
9
Cameron 1995: 89s., più precisamente, ipotizzava per i mimi di Eronda e Teocrito una
performance simposiale. Cf. pure Panayotakis 2012: 381: “the contribution of symposia to the
emergence of mime as a distinct kind of theatre has perhaps been underestimated”.
10
Così, infatti, li definiscono i testimoni antichi, cf. Cunningham 1971: 1.
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11
La temperie culturale dell’Europa di fine Ottocento in cui venne pubblicato il papiro
era, d’ altronde, quella del Realismo/Naturalismo, cf. Mastromarco 1984: 65ss.
12
Cf. Kenyon 1891: 1: “not itself of first-class literary value […] it [scil. il papiro londinese]
contains the work of an obscure and seldom-quoted author, and though it presents many
points of interest, it cannot be said to be of high literary merit”.
13
Vd. la rivista italiana La Civiltà cattolica 42 (1892), 281: “Eronda riflette tristemente la
corruzione dei suoi tempi” e si rivela “vero artista” laddove “schiva di voltolarsi nel fango”:
giudizi condizionati, in quest’ ultimo caso, da un certo moralismo.
14
Cf. Esposito 2001a, 2010. Interessante è il confronto con i pareri espressi su lingua e stile
del mimografo latino Laberio, cf. Panayotakis 2022: 512-514.
15
Per una trattazione più dettagliata di alcuni di questi elementi, cf. Esposito 2010.
16
Cf. Tedeschi 2011 ed Esposito 2012 con bibl.
17
Cf. i contributi raccolti da Easterling-Hall 2002, nonché, tra i molti, Tedeschi 2002,
2011, 2019 con bibl.
148
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SUPPORTO e SCRITTURE
Questi testi sono conservati per lo più su papiro (frammenti di rotoli, fogli
o codici); due reperti sono costituiti da ostraka: si tratta, in genere, di materiale
economico, di riuso, di scarto. Di alcuni restano solo pochi righi, di altri intere
scene. Le scritture usate sono, di solito, informali, non calligrafiche, ben diverse
da quelle che caratterizzano normalmente i rotoli/codici di pregio (fa eccezione
a ciò P.Oxy. LXXIX 5189 [nr. 24], per cui cf. infra).
DISTRIBUZIONE CRONOLOGICA
I suddetti frammenti hanno datazioni varie: il papiro di mimo più antico è
P.Berol. inv. 13421 (nr. 1, III sec. a.C.), mentre quello più tardo è P.Oxy. LXXIX
5189 (nr. 24, VI sec. d.C.)21: entrambi sono acquisizioni recenti. Tuttavia, una
maggiore concentrazione – come accade per tutti i papiri greci – si osserva nei
secc. II-III d.C.
18
Sulle esecuzioni degli Homeristai, cf. Hillgruber 2000.
19
Esso può, infatti, trattare qualunque soggetto, mescolando liberamente musica, mimica,
danza, prosa, canto o recitativo. Si ricordi la definizione di “mimo” fornita dal grammatico
Diomede (I, p. 491, 13-16 Keil): mimus est sermonis cuius libet imitatio et motus sine reverentia,
vel factorum et dictorum turpium cum lascivia imitatio; a Graecis ita definitus, μῖμός ἐστιν
μίμησις βίου τά τε συγκεχωρημένα καὶ ἀσυγχώρητα περιέχων.
20
Per alcuni testi l’appartenenza al genere mimico è quanto mai incerta (vd. nrr. 7, 18 e
21). Escludo ovviamente dal computo i documenti veri e propri relativi al mimo, quali, ad es.,
contratti di lavoro o pagamenti per artisti mimici etc.
21
Prima della pubblicazione di P.Oxy. LXXIX 5189, l’unico testo mimico di epoca tardo-
antica/bizantina era rappresentato, a quanto mi risulta, da una sceneggiatura di argomento in
parte religioso, cf. Puchner 2002: 313. Tale testo, proveniente dalla Siria, copiato nel V/VI sec.
d.C. e inserito in un manoscritto miscellaneo, deve essere stato tradotto da un originale greco
nel medesimo periodo. La parte pagana è probabilmente di epoca precedente (III sec. d.C.); fu
edito per la prima volta da Link 1904, poi studiato da Vogt 1931: 623-640, cui rimando per una
analisi dettagliata del pezzo. Interessante anche lo spettacolo mimico religioso trasmesso dal
ms. Pal. Graec. 367 (vd. https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Pal.gr.367 e https://digi.vatlib.it/mss/
detail/207537), foll. 33 verso-39 recto, del XIII sec. (vd. Vogt 1931: 37-74).
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DISTRIBUZIONE GEOGRAFICA
Tutti i papiri con testi mimici sono di provenienza egiziana e, per circa la
metà, sono stati recuperati a Ossirinco. Quindi, lo spaccato che essi restituiscono
è essenzialmente di questa splendida e popolosa città, che, tra I-III sec. d.C., era
capoluogo di distretto; il suo teatro – sulla base dei dati archeologici – sembra
potesse contenere all’incirca 11.000 spettatori22.
Tuttavia, come è risaputo e in parte ho anticipato, le evidenze di spettacoli
mimici si estendono ben oltre l’Egitto e arrivano a comprendere la Grecia
continentale, il vicino Oriente e l’Occidente romano.
Benché identificare con certezza immagini di performances di mimi
sia problematico, in assenza di un chiaro contesto teatrale, e nonostante esse
sembrino “almost as disordelry as the genre itself ”23, si possono considerare
quantomeno le seguenti attestazioni:
sull’acropoli di Atene è stata rinvenuta, agli inizi del ’900, una lampada in
terracotta (III sec. a.C.), che reca un bassorilievo con un trio di attori mimici,
interpreti del mimo La suocera – come si intende dalla scritta sulla base24.
In Libia, nel teatro di Sabratha (II sec. d.C.), si trova un rilievo, in cui si è
individuata la scena di un mimo “di adulterio”25 .
Originario forse della Siria è il cosiddetto “Cohn beaker”26, un bicchiere
di vetro del II/III sec. d.C., che reca testi e illustrazioni di una scenetta
presumibilmente mimica27.
Il teatro di Afrodisia, città della Caria, in Asia Minore28, ha conservato
graffiti su gesso (V sec. d.C.) – funzionali a mostrare la scenografia di alcuni
mimi – e documenta, inoltre, svariati elementi interessanti, sempre connessi a
spettacoli mimici29.
22
Questa è la stima di Petrie 1925: 14, cf. pure Krüger 1990: 126. Numerosissime sono le
pubblicazioni su Ossirinco: bastino i riferimenti ad Alston 2002, Bowman et al. 2007, Parsons
2007.
23
Dunbabin 2016: 136.
24
Watzinger 1901.
25
Per questa definizione, cf. infra n. 49; circa tale ipotesi identificativa, cf., da ultima,
Rodríguez López 2017: 26.
26
Così chiamato perché di proprietà privata di Hans Cohn (vd. Lees-Causey 1981: 83
n. 1).
27
Questa è l’interpretazione dell’ed. pr. Kotansky 1981. Secondo Weitzmann-Turner 1981
e Stramaglia 2005: 21-24, invece, potrebbe essere qui riprodotta una scena della Commedia
Nuova.
28
Cf. i lavori della Roueché (in particolare Roueché 2002) e il sito http://insaph.kcl.ac.uk/
ala2004/index.html
29
“The scratched graffiti at Aphrodisia might be seen as outlines of how a scene was
supposed to look, which would be a reasonable explanation for graffiti cut behind the scenes
with great ease on plaster” (Roueché 2002: 273).
150
Elena Esposito
30
Raccolto da Dunbabin 2016: 114-137, cf. pure Tedeschi 2017. Sul mimo latino e sul suo
sviluppo, cf. Bonaria 1987, Gianotti 1993 e, in sintesi, Andreassi 2001: 13s.
31
Cf. Panayotakis 2022: 520-524 con bibl.
32
Così ipotizza González-Blanco García 2002: 205ss. Gangutia Elícegui 2010: 25-29
richiama, invece, i tradizionali “cantos de mujeres”. In Tedeschi 2017: 263s. ampia bibl.
33
Cf. Stramaglia 2007: 609s.
34
“The images that can be referred to performances of mime […] occur over a wide
chronological and geographic range, and in a variety of media, above all in the minor arts,
such as lamps, terracottas, small bronzes and ceramics. The more expensive and ambitious
media, such as mosaic and relief sculpture, are much less well represented” (Dunbabin 2016:
136).
35
Pro Rabirio Postumo 35.
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36
Questa distinzione, operata da Plu. Quaest. Conv. 712e 2-712f 2 e ripresa in particolare
da Reich 1903a, è tutt’ altro che pacifica (cf. Tsitsiridis 2011: 184-186, 216ss. con bibl.). In
Hordern 2003: 609s. part. n. 9, si trova riunita la bibliografia essenziale sul termine παίγνιον,
usato da Plutarco e di discusso significato; cf. pure, al riguardo, Cicu 2012: 83-107 e 109-120
rispettivamente su paignion e hypothesis.
37
Cf. Ath. I 19c-20b; XIV 620d-621f.
38
Secondo Hall 2013: 129, P.Oxy. III 413 recto, Charition (nr. 8) può considerarsi
“burlesque drama, which parodies a canonical tragedy”. Vd. le obiezioni di Tsitisiridis 2011:
281, n. 86.
39
Cicu 2012: 170 suppone che i vocaboli “fratello” e “sorella” significhino “innamorato” e
“innamorata”: un senso traslato ed erotico del tutto verosimile nel contesto egiziano.
40
Tsitsiridis 2011: 218, Martín Hernández-Torallas Tovar 2017: 284s.
41
Ma cf. pure P.Tebt. I 1 (nr. 4) o P.Oxy. LXXIX 5187 (nr. 9).
42
Reich 1925: 86 apparentava il Charition al Singspiel (così anche Hall 2010: 399);
Tsitsiridis 2011: 218ss. ha richiamato, per Charition e Moicheutria, la francese vaudeville.
152
Elena Esposito
43
Trame, personaggi e caratteristiche generali documentate dai papiri sono confermate
dall’Apologia mimorum di Coricio (XXXII, 2, 74-75 e 110 Foerster-Richtsteig [= T 16 Csapo-
Slater]); cf. Corcella 2014, pp. 24-31 per una contestualizzazione culturale e religiosa di
quest’opera.
44
Cf. pure Cicu 2012: 153-166.
45
Si parla appunto di mors mimica, documentata soprattutto nei romanzi ellenistici (cf.
Cicu 2012: 200-207).
46
Cicu 2012: 172-174, si sofferma sui “mimi dei mestieri” e tra questi, considerati
gli oggetti di scena richiesti, inserisce anche la Leucippe di P.Berol. inv. 13927 (nr. 23), che
propone di indentificare con una versione del “mimo del barbiere”.
47
Cf. Cicu 2012: 148-151.
48
Per il cd. adultery mime, cf. Reynolds 1946, Andreassi 1997, 2002 e 2013, Cicu 2012:
121-148, Tedeschi 2017: 264.
49
Cf. Cicu 2012: 134, n. 134.
50
Cf. Webb 2002, Cicu 2012: 224-228, Tedeschi 2017: 258 n. 1317.
51
Cf. Andreassi 1997: 4-6.
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Vd. Reich 1903a: 616ss., Puchner 2002: 313, 316, Cicu 2012: 177-180.
53
54
A meno che non debba essere interpretato in “chiave cristiana” il mimo di Charition,
come proposto da Mani 2013, 2017, 2020, vd. infra nn. 69, 70.
55
Cf. Esposito 2001b: 460.
56
Cf. Cicu 2012: 175-177 (mimi mitologici).
57
Cf., al riguardo, Perrone 2011: 141-147. Allettante, tuttavia, è l’ ipotesi di Cicu, secondo
cui Leucippe sarebbe una vecchia mezzana, personaggio del “mimo del barbiere”, per cui cf.
supra n. 46.
58
Nicoll 1931: 30, 51-54, opportunamente sottolineava come in particolare il personaggio
mitico di Eracle si prestasse alla ridicolizzazione già nella farsa dorica e poi in commedia. Lo
stesso dicasi per Odisseo.
59
In P.Köln VI 245 (nr. 18) protagonista è Odisseo, ma il genere di appartenenza di questo
testo è molto controverso: esso è stato aggiunto ai frammenti tragici euripidei da Kannicht
(672a, pp. 1142-1144); Gianotti 2005: 232 ipotizza che possa trattarsi, invece, di un “prologo di
mimo drammatico”.
60
Hordern 2004: 5s.
154
Elena Esposito
DESTINAZIONΕ
Le problematiche connesse al PUBBLICO di questi mimi, si legano
strettamente ai contesti di fruizione, cioè ai LUOGHI in cui essi venivano
rappresentati.
Si è in precedenza ricordato come gli spettacoli mimici potessero essere
allestiti negli spazi più diversi: simposi, riunioni private, ginnasi, teatri cittadini,
palcoscenici minori. Ciò si può stabilire in base a evidenze di vario genere:
a) le fonti antiche (testimonianze letterarie e/o documenti di differente
natura) sono preziose al riguardo; b) indizi determinanti possono fornire,
inoltre, la datazione e il luogo geografico di ritrovamento o di provenienza di
un reperto; c) talvolta, poi, certi papiri sono addirittura riconducibili a uno
scrivente o a un ambiente socio-culturale ben precisi. A ciò possono aggiungersi
61
Per un’analisi della capacità di Eronda di caratterizzare i personaggi, cf. Arnott 1971:
124s.
62
Benché sulla musica antica le nostre conoscenze siano approssimative, “una cosa
è certa: quando si rappresentava un mimo, la percentuale delle parti musicali era piuttosto
elevata e numerosi e diversi strumenti, κρούματα, riempivano di suoni l’intero teatro” (Cicu
2012: 228).
63
Cf. Cicu 2012: 232s.
64
Per maggiori dettagli sulla risata mimica, cf. Cicu 2012: 220-222.
65
Cf., soprattutto, P.Oxy LXXIX 5189 (nr. 24), con le osservazioni di Marshall-Funke
2020. Si ricordi, in proposito, ad es., la ripetizione dei lazzi nella Commedia dell’ Arte.
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66
Cf. Vandorpe 2002.
67
Cf. Esposito 2005, part. 35-50.
68
Cf., da ultimo, Tsitsiridis 2011: 219s.
69
Cf., tra i molti, Karttunen 1997: 332, Hall 2010. Interessanti riflessioni in Martín
Hernández-Torallas Tovar 2017: 286-291. Di recente Mani 2013, 2017 ha sostenuto che queste
parti in lingua straniera siano identificabili per lo più con sanscrito e Malayalam (lingua
parlata sulla costa del Kerala) e ha individuato diverse parole, a suo avviso, riconducibili alla
liturgia cristiana. Molte ipotesi sono allettanti, ma da verificare attentamente.
70
Svariate sono le fonti antiche al riguardo. Cf., ad es., il cd. “Papiro di Muziris” (P.Vindob.
G 40822) = TM 27666 con bibl. Secondo Mani 2013, 2017, 2020, la storia di Charition sarebbe
ambientata proprio nel porto di Muziris, nella Chiesa cristiana del Kerala e il rituale cui si fa
riferimento potrebbe identificarsi con una cerimonia cristiana e il βασιλέυς con un ministro
divino. Cf., al riguardo, anche Yevadian 2020: 119-130.
156
Elena Esposito
nei deserti dell’ alto Egitto orientale, e non si può escludere – considerati
il milieu sociale di appartenenza e geografico di ritrovamento, nonché per le
caratteristiche di scurrilità del testo – che sia stato composto o copiato forse da
un soldato e facesse parte di uno spettacolo di intrattenimento in un contesto
militare71, o frequentato da militari72.
I papiri e gli esempi citati, in definitiva, sembrano indicare che, in età
ellenistica, il mimo “popolare”, diffuso al di fuori della ristretta cerchia della
corte alessandrina – cui verosimilmente era destinato il mimo di Eronda (o
Teocrito) – avesse come destinatario un pubblico greco comunque di livello
medio-alto (funzionari amministrativi73, militari di grado elevato [vd. Dryton]
e simili), poiché, probabilmente, l’ellenizzazione del paese non aveva ancora
raggiunto gli strati sociali più bassi74. In epoca romana, invece, con la crescita
dell’alfabetizzazione, avviene una maggiore penetrazione della cultura greca
anche tra i ceti umili (mercanti, artigiani etc.), i quali divengono i principali,
seppur non esclusivi75, fruitori degli spettacoli mimici.
71
Non si può escludere che si tratti di una “personal copy of a passage in a mime to be
used by a perfomer” (Bagnall-Cribiore 2010: 223).
72
Interessante il confronto con i componimenti del soldato Sosianus in Cuvigny 2006:
466s.
73
P.Tebt. 1 e 2 (nrr. 4-5), II-I sec. a.C., sono stati scritti sul retro di documenti di funzionari
amministrativi (si tratta del cd. archivio di Menches) di un piccolo villaggio dell’ oasi del
Fayum, nel basso Egitto, e non sono troppo distanti per elaborazione stilistica e formale, dal
Grenfellianum: il che farebbe supporre un circolo di uomini istruiti e dotati di una cultura
discreta, che potrebbero essersi dilettati di teatro/letteratura.
74
Cf. Esposito 2005: 41-57.
75
La composizione del pubblico era, infatti, mista e non di rado presenziavano le più alte
autorità, cf., tra i molti, Cicu 2012: 281-283.
76
Rostrup 1915: 79. In Reich 1903b: 2685, già si trovava il riferimento alla Commedia
dell’Arte per i mimi di P.Oxy. III 413 (nrr. 8 e 12).
77
Si tratta della notazione algebrica (in luogo delle notae personarum), ossia lettere con
valore di numeri ordinali a indicare il rango degli attori, la gerarchia interna a una troupe:
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si tratta però di un autografo, non rispecchia il testo nel momento in cui viene
creato: qualcuno l’ha ricopiato da un modello. Mancano, del resto, cancellature,
correzioni, riscritture e varianti di prima mano, possibili indizi di ripensamenti
d’autore78. A distanza di tempo, un altro scrivente, diverso cioè da chi aveva
copiato il testo (la grafia, infatti, non è la medesima), è intervenuto cerchiando
una parte (col. I 30-36), ha girato (senza capovolgere) il foglio, o il rotolo
– di cui quanto a noi giunto è presumibilmente la porzione finale79 – e nello
spazio rimasto libero (la parte del mimo della Moicheutria era conclusa: la II
colonna nel papiro, del resto, mostra scrittura solo per tre quarti) ha vergato un
ampliamento/rifacimento di quel dialogo80. Di nuovo, questa versione differente
sembra non essere frutto di creazione personale immediata: non vi sono
nemmeno qui cancellature e ripensamenti; chi scrive sta copiando (forse da un
altro copione, o da una sua personale riscrittura in brutta copia), una versione
alternativa81 del mimo di Charition82.
P.Oxy. III 413 verso, Moicheutria (nr. 12) appare, invece, la trascrizione
della sola parte della protagonista83, con inserzioni posteriori a margine (vd. rr.
20s.), quasi a documentare che il testo che noi leggiamo è quello effettivamente
andato in scena, forse con le aggiunte, i ritocchi apportati dopo le prove84.
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Elena Esposito
La striscia stretta e lunga di P.Matr. inv. 44 + 119 (nr. 20) – che contiene
non un testo di senso completo, bensì esclusivamente gli attacchi di una serie
di battute (nonostante il papiro sia integro), è stata considerata dai suoi editori,
con buone ragioni, “a memoristic guide for the representation of a mime”85.
Identificherei P.Oxy. LXXIX 5189 (nr. 24) con uno scenario, prodotto
forse da un autore/attore. Uso un termine tecnico della Commedia dell’ Arte,
ad indicare un soggetto teatrale presentato dal capocomico alla compagnia
nelle linee generali, in forma narrativa. Ai singoli attori è affidato il compito
di svilupparle, poi, in modo estemporaneo. Ma negli scenari vengono anche
trascritte alcune battute nel dettaglio: esattamente come sembra accadere nel
mimo di Ossirinco. Benché sia arrischiato stabilire parallelismi tra prodotti
culturali appartenenti a milieux così diversi e il paragone serva solo a meglio
comprendere la natura del nostro reperto papiraceo, credo che non si possano
non ravvisare somiglianze tra le due tipologie di testi86.
P.Berol. inv. 13927, V/VI sec. d.C. (nr. 23), è probabilmente un promemoria
scenico per un uno “spettacolo di varietà”. Nella col. I sono elencati (da 1 a
7) gli intrattenimenti di cui si compone il programma; segue (rr. 9s.) uno
ὑπομνηστικὸν χορηγίας Λευκίππης, con indicazione dell’ ambientazione e degli
oggetti necessari; a fronte, nella col. II, ugualmente, è registrato, per ciascun
numero di col. I, ciò che serve per la messinscena87.
Questa breve rassegna di strumenti di lavoro relativi al mimo “popolare”
che i papiri ci hanno restituito (copione, scenario, guida/promemoria di scena
etc.), oltre che permettere di sbirciare nell’ officina delle performances mimiche
e dunque meglio comprendere nelle sue genesi ed essenza, negli aspetti pratici,
lo spettacolo mimico “popolare”, induce a interrogarsi anche sulla circolazione e
sulla tradizione di questi testi teatrali.
CIRCOLAZIONE e TRADIZIONE
Che circolazione è possibile ipotizzare, a livello di testo scritto, per i mimi
“popolari”? I “libretti” mimici erano letti oltre che fruiti a teatro? Le biblioteche
ne conservavano copie?
Si pensi all’aria lirica trascritta da Dryton: come avrà potuto un
comandante di cavalleria procurarsi il testo da cui trarre la sua personale copia?
Si danno essenzialmente due casi: 1°) Dryton era in qualche modo “vicino” alla
85
Kádas-Rodríguez Somolinos 2019: 81.
86
Nella mia relazione del 2020 alla Universidade de São Paulo avevo richiamato in particolare
gli scenari di Giuseppe Domenico Biancolelli (Bologna 1637 ca.-Parigi 1688), per cui vd. Gambelli
1997 e https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b53100981n. Ho constatato con piacere che anche
Marshall-Funke 2020: 488, hanno avvicinato questo papiro agli scenari (più specificamente di
Flaminio Scala, per i quali vd. Andrews 2008). In generale cf. pure Nicoll 1931: 225-233.
87
Cf. l’ edizione di Perrone 2011: 129s.
159
Il Mimo Greco di Età Ellenistico-Romana: Nuove Prospettive di Indagine Alla Luce Dei
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compagnia di teatro, così da avere accesso alle copie degli attori88; 2°) esisteva
una circolazione, fruizione, conservazione, di testi tecnici teatrali, non solo in
àmbito professionale, ma anche all’esterno, tra privati non addetti ai lavori.
P.Lond.Lit. 97 (nr. 11), che si ritiene tramandare il copione di un
mimo, reca, sul retro, la scritta ἐκ βιβλιοθή(κης) Πραξί(ου?) / Ἡρακλείδης
ἀ̣[πέγραψεν89, cioè: “dalla βιβλιοθήκη di Πραξίας. Trascritto da Eraclide”. Ciò
ha indotto alcuni studiosi a sostenere che i copioni mimici circolassero anche
come testi di lettura, “for the delectation of the reading public”90. Nel caso
specifico, è possibile, tuttavia, che Πραξίας e forse anche Ἡρακλείδης, fossero
mimi, capocomici di una troupe mimica, o appartenessero comunque al mondo
del teatro e che dunque questa βιβλιοθήκη fosse una raccolta specializzata91, una
sorta di ‘archivio’ professionale92 e contenesse (anche) materiali “tecnici”.
Degno di particolare attenzione, sotto questo aspetto, risulta il codice di
P.Oxy. LXXI 5189 (nr. 24): esso presenta una scrittura formale, che si incontra
tipicamente nei libri, in volumi con opere letterarie di alto livello93, predisposti
per circolazione e conservazione a fini di lettura. Compaiono però, stranamente,
abbreviazioni e inoltre il testo è pressoché incomprensibile nel suo svolgimento:
questo prodotto, evidentemente, non è stato approntato per il piacere della
lettura, né il testo copiato perché fosse un pezzo notevole da ricordare (come
l’aria lirica del Grenfellianum, trascritta per conservazione privata, per uso
individuale), sì invece – io credo – nella prospettiva di una riutilizzazione futura
da parte di una troupe mimica94.
In definitiva, laddove per il prestigioso teatro classico accadeva con
regolarità che, a seguito della performance, si approntassero copie in modo da
permettere a un pubblico di lettori di rileggere o conservare una determinata
opera, preziosa dal punto di visto linguistico e contenutistico, per il teatro
88
Cf. P. Bing in Vandorpe 2002: 226.
89
Il testo greco è tratto dalla trascrizione di Milne del 1927: 67.
90
Page 1950: 363. Cf. pure Perrone 2009, 141, n. 15, Gammacurta 2006: 85, Tsitsiridis
2011: 212s. Biblioteche pubbliche, nel senso di “aperte al pubblico”, nel mondo greco sono
molto rare. Cf. Cavallo 2019, passim 24, 60ss. Peraltro anche il “Museo e la Biblioteca di
Alessandria erano drasticamente chiusi verso l’eterno, verso la città, e gli eruditi erano pubblico
a se stessi” (Cavallo 2019: 44).
91
Su biblioteche pubbliche e private, cf. Otranto 2000, part. pp. XXIX-XXXII, nonché
Houston 2014 – cui rimando anche per i riferimenti a “specialist collections” (pp. 78-80,
253ss.) – e soprattutto Fournet 2018: 190, Del Corso 2022, 120-125.
92
Cf. Hordern 2004: 10: “this Heraclides may instead have been a mime-actor or stage
manager”. Inoltre, si noti che il termine βιβλιοθήκη può designare tanto una biblioteca che
un archivio “the most common term to designate a library, βιβλιοθήκη, is used in the
documentary sources only for official archives […]. The typology of libraries is quite similar to
that of archives” (Fournet 2018: 189s.).
93
“The well-starched handwriting would suggest a high-minded texts” (Parsons 2014:
27).
94
Mi domando anche se magari il codice non potesse riunire vari soggetti teatrali.
160
Elena Esposito
95
Cf. Wiemken 1972, 1979.
96
Un papiro come P.Köln VI 245 (nr. 18), che mostra una riscrittura dell’episodio di
Odisseo mendico a Troia, si presta a entrambe le possibilità: il compositore aveva senz’ altro
presente Od. IV 235-264, ma c’ erano anche precedenti drammatici (Sofocle e Ione di Chio
avevano composto drammi incentrati su questa vicenda epica). Innegabilmente P.Köln
documenta un “riuso di materiali tradizionali”. Purtroppo la perdita delle versioni tragiche
non permette di valutare il rapporto di dipendenza del nostro papiro dai modelli illustri.
Ricordiamo peraltro che “le compagnie teatrali, già dal periodo ellenistico hanno rielaborato
i testi drammatici d’ età precedente, ora combinando scene di provenienza diversa, ora
selezionando parti musicali o musicando tratti recitativi in vista di esecuzioni virtuosistiche,
secondo una prassi teatrale destinata a confluire e ad essere potenziata appunto nelle
performances del mimo e della pantomima” (Gianotti 2005: 231). Cf. pure Cicu 2012: 174s.
161
Il Mimo Greco di Età Ellenistico-Romana: Nuove Prospettive di Indagine Alla Luce Dei
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compenetrazione dei generi: “several sources make it clear not only that the
works of the great tragedians were adapted to performance by tragic singers
or pantomime dancers, but that in this new form they might be regarded as
essentially the same work”97.
Nel caso del Charition (nr. 8), perché non immaginare che un librettista
– da testi come Ifigenia in Aulide, Ciclope ed Elena – avesse confezionato
direttamente una sceneggiatura? Il Charition si identificherebbe, allora,
o, appunto, con la sceneggiatura, o anche con il libretto, dunque il testo
drammatico nella sua forma più completa, seppur sempre passibile – come si
è visto – di rimaneggiamenti98; la parte della protagonista nella Moicheutria,
invece, potrebbe essere stata sviluppata da uno scenario, oppure estrapolata da
un copione/libretto del genere del Charition.
Ma anche queste non sono che ipotesi. E, inoltre, in entrambi i casi resta da
spiegare perché, a fronte di un enorme successo del mimo “popolare” nei secoli,
non siano pervenuti se non scarsi frammenti dei supposti testi più completi.
Di seguito alcune riflessioni e provvisorie conclusioni.
Si pensi, ancora una volta, alla Commedia dell’ Arte dove talora – come è stato osservato
98
da Falavolti 1982: 22 – “è difficile sfuggire all’ impressione che la scrittura scenica sia anteriore
alla sua rappresentazione” e tuttavia, nella maggioranza dei casi, il testo sembra seguire, a volte
di molti anni, la rappresentazione e tener conto degli arricchimenti e migliorie derivati dalla
performance, presentandosi come una sorta di “trascrizione selezionata e ragionata di varie
rappresentazioni […] frutto di un lavoro collettivo e stratificato” (ibid. 34).
162
Elena Esposito
compagnie teatrali e infine dei Technitai: poi andarono perduti, e finirono per
ridursi a pochi frammenti musicali”99.
Così, i testi del mimo “popolare”, che non furono oggetto di una redazione
scritta sistematica, né di cure critiche, e non entrarono neppure nel circuito
scolastico102, saranno rimasti affidati a una circolazione e conservazione in canali
99
Pöhlmann 1988: 137.
100
Cf. Perrone 2009.
101
Cf. Cavallo 1986, che ha sottolineato come la conservazione e trasmissione in Egitto di
tanta letteratura sia in larga parte da mettere in relazione con la scuola e i curricula scolastici.
Cf. pure Perrone 2009: 142.
102
Inoltre – soprattutto in alcuni momenti storici – tale genere di teatro fu anche avversato
dalla cristianità, sia per la scarsa moralità che lo caratterizzava, sia perché era in grado di
163
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Appendice
REPERTI di MIMO GRECO “POPOLARE”
PAPIRO RECTO / VERSO EPO- PROVENIENZA ARRANGIA- TIPOLOGIA DI EDIZIONI
(riferimenti nei (posizione del CA Vd. MENTO (prosa/ SUPPORTO: DI RIFERIMEN-
database testo mimico sul https://www. versi) Foglio TO
Trismegistos supporto scrit- trismegistos.org/ TEMI /TRAME Rotolo
Mertens-Pack3; torio) index.php PERSONAGGI Codice
Leuven Data- Ostrakon
base of Ancient
Books)
prosa – cibo e vino
1.
Dialogo; prepa-
P.Berol. inv.
razione di una
13421 recto Foglio?
III a.C. ? festa (?). Parsons 2012
(TM 154376 (verso non scritto) Rotolo?
Personaggi: uno
MP3 2436.001;
schiavo (?), un’
LDAB 154376)
etèra (?), un oste (?)
Pathyris
2.
TM Geo 1628 monodia – amore Foglio
P.Dryton 50 verso Fr. 1 Cunnin-
(ma scritto a Lamento lirico di
(TM 65616 (sul recto: docu- II a.C. gham;
Ptolemais [Her- una donna sedotta (Archivio di
MP3 1743; mento) Esposito 2005
meiou]) e abbandonata Dryton)
LDAB 6867)
TM Geo 2023
3.
O.Rein. 1 A prosa (?) – amore
Dios Polis
(TM 65662 recto II-I a.C. Dialogo tra due Ostrakon Fr. 3 Cunningham
TM Geo 576
MP3 1746; amanti
LDAB 6915)
4.
monodia – amore Rotolo
P.Tebt. I 1 recto Kerkéosiris Adesp. lyr. fr. 6
Lamento lirico di
(TM 65642 (sul verso tracce di II/I a.C. (Fayum) Powell; Pordo-
Elena abbandona- (Archivio di
MP3 1606; difficile lettura) TM Geo 1057 mingo 2013
ta da Menelao Menches)
LDAB 6894)
rivitalizzare e diffondere la cultura pagana, assicurandone la persistenza, cf. Gianotti 1996: 277,
Sonnino 2020: 435-437 con bibl.
103
Cf. Gianotti 1996: 270.
164
Elena Esposito
5.
P.Tebt. I 2 prosa – amore Rotolo
verso Kerkeosiris Fr. 2 Cunnin-
fr. d Dialogo tra due
(sul recto: docu- II/I a.C. (Fayum) gham;
(TM 65643 amanti; paraklau- (Archivio di
mento) TM Geo 1057 Pordomingo 2013
MP3 1607; sithyron (?) Menches)
LDAB 6895)
6.
monodia – amore
P.Oxy. II 219
recto Oxyrhynchus Un giovane la- Foglio?
(TM 63205 I d.C. Fr. 4 Cunningham
(verso non scritto) TM Geo 1524 menta la perdita Rotolo?
MP3 1744;
di un gallo
LDAB 4410)
7.
prosimetro – mito
P.Oxy. LIII recto
(?) Dialogo tra
3700 (sul verso: frasi Oxyrhynchus Foglio? Fr. 3a Cunnin-
I d.C. almeno due perso-
(TM 63177 documentarie, TM Geo 1524 Rotolo? gham 2002
naggi; menzione
MP3 1745.01; prove, bozze)
di Eracle e Onfale
LDAB 4382;)
prosimetro –
avventura, vino,
realtà contem-
poranea (India/
8. Indiani)
P.Oxy. III 413 recto Dialogo; Chari-
Fr. 6 Cunnin-
(TM 63690 (sul verso: Moi- fin. I Oxyrhynchus tion, prigioniera
Rotolo gham;
MP3 1745; cheutria, d.C. TM Geo 1524 in terra straniera
Andreassi 2001
LDAB 4899) nr. 12) è posta in salvo
Charition dal fratello; altri
personaggi: timo-
niere, βασιλεύς
straniero, Indiani
e Indiane
9. monodia – amore
P.Oxy. LXXIX Lamento lirico di
verso
5187 Oxyrhynchus una donna sposata
(sul recto: docu- I-II d.C. Foglietto Parsons 2014
(TM 372053 TM Geo 1524 che non vuole tra-
mento)
MP3 1743.01; dire il marito con
LDAB 372053) un altro uomo
prosa con cita-
10. zioni di Omero
Ritrovamento:
P.Berol. inv. – amore (tradi-
Fayum?
13876 recto mento?), botte ai Foglio? Fr. 12 Cunnin-
II d.C. Origine: Arsi-
(TM 60403 (verso non scritto) servi (?) Rotolo? gham
noites?
MP3 2436; Dialogo tra una
TM Geo 332
LDAB 1524) donna e il suo
amante (?)
165
Il Mimo Greco di Età Ellenistico-Romana: Nuove Prospettive di Indagine Alla Luce Dei
Recenti Ritrovamenti Papiracei
prosa – scena di
giudizio/arbitra-
11. recto
to (?)
P.Lond.Lit. 97 (verso non scritto: Arsinoites
Dialogo tra quat- Fr. 10 Cunnin-
(TM 63519 indicazione di II d.C. (Fayum) Rotolo
tro personaggi gham
MP3 2434; copia dalla biblio- TM Geo 332
(etèra [?], uomo,
LDAB 4728) teca di Praxias)
buffone [?], padre
[?], coro)
prosa – amore,
veleno, botte
Parte della prota-
gonista con alcune
battute finali di
altri personaggi;
12. una padrona
P.Oxy. III 413 innamorata del
verso Fr. 7 Cunnin-
(TM 63690 Oxyrhynchus proprio servo
(sul recto: Chari- II d.C. Rotolo gham;
MP3 1745; TM Geo 1524 vuole avvelenare
tion, nr. 8) Andreassi 2001
LDAB 4899) il marito e fuggire
Moicheutria con le ricchezze.
Personaggi: padro-
na, vecchio marito,
servi (Esopo,
Apollonia, Pa-
rassita, Malakós,
Spinther)
prosimetro – temi
13.
non chiari
P.Oxy. LXXIX recto
Dialogo tra 4
5188 (sul verso: Oxyrhynchus
II d.C. personaggi: madre Rotolo Parsons 2014
(TM 372054 testo in prosa di TM Geo 1524
(?), figlio, uomo,
MP3 1743.02; storia [?] inedito)
compagno (?); epi-
LDAB 372054)
fania divina (?)
14. monodia – amore
P.Ryl. I 15 verso Arsinoites Lamento lirico di
(TM 63537 (sul recto: docu- II d.C. (Fayum)? una donna ab- Foglio Fr. 9 Cunningham
MP3 1930; mento) TM Geo 1628 bandonata da un
LDAB 4746) gladiatore
15. prosa (?) con
P.Vars. 2 Arsinoites citazione parodica
recto Foglio? Fr. 11 Cunnin-
(TM 60596 II d.C. (Fayum)? (?) di Omero (?)
(verso non scritto) Rotolo? gham
MP3 2435; TM Geo 1628 Dialogo; almeno 5
LDAB 1720) personaggi (?)
166
Elena Esposito
prosimetro –
16.
amore contrasta-
P.Yale II 111 recto
to, matrimonio Foglio?
(TM 63733 (sul verso: docu- II d.C. ? Stephens 1985
Dialogo (?); Rotolo?
MP3 2436.01; mento)
personaggi: servo,
LDAB 4944)
padrone
prosa – sesso
Monologo/sfogo
di gelosia di un
17. Apollonopolis?
personaggio
O.Florida TM Geo 269
nei confronti di
inv. 21 II/III Thebes? Bagnall-Cribiore
recto un altro, che si Ostrakon
(TM 129728 d.C. TM Geo 2355 2010
sta unendo car-
MP3 02118.010; Maximianon?
nalmente a una
LDAB 129728) TM Geo 3149
donna straniera
davanti ai suoi
occhi
trimetri giambici
– mito
18.
(Odisseo mendico
P.Köln VI 245
recto Pathyris a Troia) Foglio?
(TM 64074 III d.C. Parca 1991
(verso non scritto) TM Geo 1628 Dialogo tra Odis- Rotolo?
MP3 1965.41;
seo, Atena, altri
LDAB 5291)
personaggi (?),
Antenore (?)
metri vari –
amore
19.
Una donna si
P.Lond.Lit. 52
recto Oxyrhynchus infatua di uno Foglio? Fr. 13 Cunnin-
(TM 64089 III d.C.
(verso non scritto) TM Geo 1524 scapestrato e Rotolo? gham
MP3 1747;
dialoga con dei/
LDAB 5307)
un personaggi/io
maschili/e
canovaccio (?)
– storia/realtà
20. contemporanea
P.Matr. inv. 44 verso Dialogo fra vari
+ 119 (recto tracce illeg- personaggi, tra Kádas-Rodríguez
III d.C. ? Foglietto
(TM 832132 gibili di 2 righi di cui un suonatore Somolinos 2019
MP3 2436.04; scrittura) di flauto, un ma-
LDAB 832132) lakós, i Galli, Iris
(divinità o nome
di persona?)
167
Il Mimo Greco di Età Ellenistico-Romana: Nuove Prospettive di Indagine Alla Luce Dei
Recenti Ritrovamenti Papiracei
Riferimenti bibliografici
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Adriane da Silva Duarte
A Alcoviteira e a Assediadora:
Rastros do Mimo no Romance
ABSTRACT: This paper explores the confluence between mime and Ancient Greek
novel. The investigation is based on a critical review of recent bibliography on
that issue, namely, Webb 2013, Tsitsiridis 2011, Andreassi 2001, as well as on analytical
close reading of suggestive passages in the chosen novels. It should also be mentioned
that this study concentrates on titles rather neglected by the modern readings, such
as Chaereas and Callirhoe, by Chariton, Ephesian Tales, by Xenophon of Ephesus,
besides the Aesop Romance.
KEYWORDS: Ancient novel; Life of Aesop; Chaereas and Callirhoe.
1
Tsitsiridis 2011: 184.
176
Adriane da Silva Duarte
2
Tsitsiridis 2011: 190-191.
3
Konstantakos 2006: 596, n. 95.
4
Cf. Tristia 2, 497-502: Quid si scripsissem mimos obscena iocantes, / qui semper vetiti
crimen amoris habent? / in quibus assidue cultus procedit adulter, / verbaque dat stulto callida
nupta uiro, que aponta que os enredos dos mimos trazem constantemente o amante esperto e
177
A Alcoviteira e a Assediadora: Rastros do Mimo no Romance
a esposa astuta que engana o marido estúpido. Também associam mimo e o tema do adultério
Sêneca (Controvérsias 2. 4), Ateneu 452ff, Jerônimo (Epístolas 54) e Corício (Or. 32. 30 e 55).
Em De Oratore (2. 151-2), Cícero ressalta a presença de depravação e obscenidade.
5
O tema do adultério é estranho a Dafnis e Cloé, embora Licínio possa ser vista como
“assediadora”, de certa maneira, mas se sobra nela lascívia, faltam ciúme e sede de vingança.
Para Leucipe e Clitofonte e o complexo relacionamento mantido por Melite, Clitofonte,
Tersandro e Leucipe, cf. Webb 2013 e Bentley 2014; para Etiópicas, Andreassi 2003 e Webb
2013.
6
Creio que o mesmo motivo da mulher abastada que se apaixona pelo escravo bem-
dotado está, modificado, em Lúcio ou o asno (50), do Pseudo-Luciano (e também no Asno de
Ouro 10. 19, de Apuleio), em que a Matrona de Corinto, impressionada com o vigor do asno,
convence seu tratador a introduzi-la no seu estábulo à noite, para que possa desfrutar de seus
“favores”. Escravo e asno são intercambiáveis nos romances, em que se explora, sobretudo,
sua força de trabalho, obtida à custa de maus-tratos. Também vale ressaltar que, em Apuleio,
o espetáculo de sexo explícito entre o asno e uma mulher (outra, uma prisioneira), é levado
à arena de Corinto em conexão com outras diversões populares como mimos, pantomimas e
lutas de gladiadores.
178
Adriane da Silva Duarte
lixo, ela se nega a manter o prometido. Xanto, sem desconfiar de nada, arbitra
em favor de Esopo, cumprindo o papel do marido tolo e enganado.
A semelhança entre o início do episódio do RE e da trama da A adúltera,
além do fato de o escravo assediado no mimo também chamar-se Esopo, levou
alguns estudiosos a especular sobre a possível influência de um sobre o outro –
pela datação estimada, as obras são praticamente contemporâneas. Andreassi7
faz uma análise detalhada em que procura provar essa relação, baseando-se,
inclusive, em paralelismos verbais. Para ele, o autor de A adúltera conhecia
tanto Herodas 5 quanto o RE. Konstantakos8 é cético quanto à aproximação
entre as obras, argumentando que, além do nome do personagem, pouco há que
as associe, já que motivos como o do ciúme ou a trama para matar o escravo
desobediente e o marido estão ausentes no romance, por exemplo. Assim:
“The only remaining point of contact is the identical name of the slaves; this
seems indeed to be the chief reason why the Aesopic episode was brought into
connection with the Moicheutria in the first place. If the slave in the mime
were not named Aesop, no one would have thought of claiming a particular
relation between the Aesopic episode and the Moicheutria, just as no one has
postulated a direct connection between the Aesopic story and Herodas 5,
which treats the same theme.” (Konstantakos 2006: 596)
“In any case, whatever influence the adultery mime in general may have
exerted on the Aesopic episode, it would be wrong to assume that the latter
simply adapts a specific mime. The Aesopic story of ch. 75-76 was not based
on a single model, narrative or dramatic, but rather on an entire tradition of
adultery stories and mimic scenarios, which it exploits and renovates, always
with a view to the broader context and the main these of Aesopic Romance.”
(Konstantakos 2006: 598)
7
Andreassi, 2001: 224.
8
Konstantakos 2006: 596.
9
Konstantakos 2006: 596-597.
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A Alcoviteira e a Assediadora: Rastros do Mimo no Romance
Nesta, Manto deixa claro que 1) é livre e Habrocomes seu escravo; 2) que
está apaixonada por ele, a quem deseja se unir; 3) que pretende se livrar de
sua rival, Ântia; 4) que vai vingar-se, caso seja rejeitada. Fazem-se presentes a
lascívia, o ciúme e a vingança, estando ausente apenas o adultério, uma vez que
a moça é solteira. No entanto, quando seu pai retorna, traz com ele um noivo
para ela, com quem se casa de imediato.
10
Efes. 2. 5. As traduções de Efesíacas são da autora.
180
Adriane da Silva Duarte
11
Efes. 3. 12. O nome Cino, cadela, em grego, fala por si. A impudência do animal já tem
registro na Ilíada (3. 180; 6. 344 e 356), em que está associado a Helena.
181
A Alcoviteira e a Assediadora: Rastros do Mimo no Romance
12
Cf. Stith Thompson, Motiv-index of Folk-literature, k2111: Enganos/Falsa acusação.
13
Hall 2013: 114.
14
Bentley 2014: 200-201.
182
Adriane da Silva Duarte
15
Cf. Cáriton (2020: 22), Quéreas e Calírroe 1. 2, onde a palavra é citada duas vezes em
um trecho curto: “Armarei contra ele o Ciúme, que, fazendo do Amor seu aliado, vai operar
grande dano. Calírroe é honesta e ignora suspeitas maliciosas, mas Quéreas, como foi criado
nos ginásios e não é inexperiente nos erros da juventude, se suspeitar, é capaz de resvalar
facilmente no ciúme”.
16
Quéreas e Calírroe 1. 3.
17
Bentley 2014: 202.
18
Quéreas e Calírroe 1. 4.
183
A Alcoviteira e a Assediadora: Rastros do Mimo no Romance
184
Adriane da Silva Duarte
dramáticas e romanescas, continuaram (e continuam) influentes através dos tempos, sem que
necessariamente haja uma relação direta entre as obras.
22
O termo alcoviteira (promnestria) é mencionado uma vez no romance (Q&C 6. 1), mas
seu uso é figurado. O Grande Rei se compara a uma velha alcoviteira por ter que arbitrar a
quem cabe destinar Calírroe como esposa, já que é reivindicada por Quéreas e por Dionísio,
primeiro e segundo maridos da heroína respectivamente.
185
A Alcoviteira e a Assediadora: Rastros do Mimo no Romance
“Caso ceda ao rei, receberá belíssimos presentes e o marido que quiser - com
certeza ele não pretende desposá-la, mas você lhe proporcionará um prazer
passageiro. Se não ceder, já deve ter ouvido falar do que sofrem os inimigos do
rei, únicos a quem sequer é permitido morrer, mesmo que queiram”.
Calírroe mais uma vez recusa a proposta, alegando que seus sofrimentos
pregressos a prepararam para nada mais temer. O eunuco tenta, então, sua
última cartada. Alega que, se satisfizer o Rei, cujos caprichos são momentâneos,
ele arbitrará em favor de Quéreas na disputa com Dionísio, sendo essa a única
esperança de voltar a viver em sua companhia. Novamente o “adultério nobre”
vem à baila, mas a Calírroe não é dado o tempo de ponderar, já que a eclosão
da revolta no Egito muda as prioridades do Rei, que deve partir para a guerra,
salvando o eunuco e a estrangeira.
Depois de analisar a presença das histórias de adultério no romance de
amor idealizado (basicamente os de que não me ocupo aqui, Leucipe e Clitofonte
23
Quéreas e Calírroe 6. 7.
186
Adriane da Silva Duarte
“Rather than seeing the traces of the mime as signs of the influence of
contemporary cultural practice on the authors of the novels […], we should see
then as result of the author’s deliberate adaption of patterns which circulated
on the stage. One effect of these mimic echoes is the deliberate inspection of
the low and the farcical in the novels in question”.
Bibliografia
Andreassi, M. (2001), Esopo sulla scena: il mimo dela Moicheutria e la Vita Aesopi. Rhei-
nisches Museum 144: 203-225.
Andreassi, M. (2003), Il mimo tra ‘consumo’ e ‘letteratura’: Charition e Moicheutria. An-
cient Narrative 2: 30-46.
Bentley, G. G. (2014), Adultery mime in Chariton and Achilles Tatius, in Post-classical
performance culture and the ancient Greek novel (King’s College London Phd
Thesis), London: 196-227. Disponível em https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/the-
ses/postclassical-performance-culture-and-the-ancient-greek-novel(a9f2b1a7-
b48d-4686-9f99-62fadb0422bd).html , acessado em 30/01/2020.
Cáriton de Afrodísias (2020), Quéreas e Calírroe, Tradução, apresentação e posfácio de
Adriane da Silva Duarte, São Paulo.
Cunningham, I. C. (2004), Herodae Mimiambi: cum Appendice Fragmentum Mimorum
Papyraceorum, Leipzig.
Duarte, A. S. (org.) (2018), Vidas de Esopo. O Romance de Esopo em traduções e ensaios,
São Paulo.
24
Webb 2013: 290.
25
Webb 2013: 292.
26
Webb 2013: 293.
187
A Alcoviteira e a Assediadora: Rastros do Mimo no Romance
188
Samea Ghandour
Samea Ghandour
(Universidade de São Paulo)
http://orcid.org//0000-0003-4329-3870
Herodas é um autor do qual pouco sabemos, senão que teria transitado pelo
Egito, Cós ou Ásia Menor, a julgar por alguns marcadores locais internos aos
seus poemas, e que teria produzido durante o Período Helenístico, por volta de
285-247 a. C., época do reinado de Ptolomeu II Filadelfo, a quem possivelmente
se devam as referências ao “rei obsequioso” e aos “deuses-irmãos” de Alexandria
no Mimiambo 1 (v. 30).1
São treze os poemas herodianos supérstites; alguns deles (Mimiambos
10 a 13) legados via tradição indireta, à luz de Estobeu ou de Ateneu, outros
1
O termo “mimiambo” é uma fusão das palavras “mimo”, gênero de poesia dramática
originalmente composto em prosa no século V a. C., com “jambo”, fazendo referência ao metro
utilizado por Herodas. É Plínio, o Jovem, quem atribui esse rótulo aos poemas herodianos
comparando-os com os de Árrio Antonino. Cf. Plínio, Epístolas 4.3.
2
A publicação do Papiro de Londres, em 1891, contendo os Mimiambos 1 a 7, é digna
de menção, assim como o posterior anexo de fragmentos provenientes do Papiro de Oxirrinco,
contendo alterações de duas variantes do Mimiambo 8, em relação ao texto estabelecido no
Papiro de Londres, o que provaria a circulação da obra herodiana no século II d. C. A principal
edição dos mimos de Herodas é a estabelecida por Cunningham 2002.
3
Hipônax é considerado o εὑρετής (“inventor”) do metro coliâmbico. Essa informação
integra o Livro de Metros de Hefestião (Cf. Hephaest. Ench. 5.4), onde encontramos outro
possível criador da medida: o poeta Anânio. No referido trecho, Hefestião esclarece que o
coliambo é um metro “coxo” em que o último pé é um espondeu ou troqueu, isto é, basicamente
um trímetro jâmbico em que ocorre um alongamento da penúltima sílaba do pé métrico.
4
Como exemplo, podemos citar o fr. 1 de Cunningham 2002. Por não dispormos do
texto completo, não podemos afirmar categoricamente que se trate de um monólogo, mas
o “fluxo de consciência”, se é que podemos chamar assim, e as lembranças da personagem
central, abandonada pelo amado, completam bem o sentido do texto, de modo que poderiam
prescindir do diálogo. Além disso, quando o mimo é dialogado, é comum haver notações nos
parágrafos, indicando as trocas de personagens, o que não acontece no fr. 1.
5
Os estudiosos não conseguiram reconstituir o metro de alguns mimos populares.
Como exemplo, podemos mencionar o fr. 1 e o fr. 4 da edição de Cunningham 2002.
6
Na lista de materiais antigos importantes para compreendermos o gênero mimo, há
ainda a Suda, que dialoga com as informações estabelecidas por Ateneu em Banquete dos
Eruditos. Com efeito, não se trata de uma fonte exaustiva, uma vez que autores cristãos muito
190
Samea Ghandour
191
A Poesia Dramática Herodiana
13
Ao que tudo indica, a cabeça raspada era usual na caracterização de personagens tolas
no gênero mimo. Cf. Wiemken 1972: 173-183.
14
Com efeito, nada sabemos ao certo sobre a performance feminina de mimos no Período
Helenístico. Mas tardiamente autores cristãos, tais como João Crisóstomo, revelaram-se tão
conservadores quanto à presença de mulheres nuas em cena que Corício de Gaza viria a
escrever, no século VI de nossa era, uma Apologia dos Mimos, fazendo uma defesa dos atores
do gênero contra um detrator anônimo.
15
Para além desses elementos, é significativo que Sófron tenha composto poemas
exclusivamente masculinos ou femininos, o que sugere que talvez houvesse mulheres em
cena numa possível representação ou leitura dramática. Estamos cientes da problemática
concernente à encenação de mimos literários, dentre os quais a tradição parece encaixar
também os mimiambos de Herodas, anteriores aos mimos populares supérstites, no entanto
insistimos na hipótese de que mesmo um poema dramático literário possa ter sido performado,
inclusive, por atrizes.
192
Samea Ghandour
16
Indicado no fr. 6 Cunningham como personagem B.
193
A Poesia Dramática Herodiana
17
Com efeito, enredos e personagens tais também podem ser encontrados em autores de
mimos considerados literários, como Teócrito, Herodas e Sófron.
18
Consoante Diógenes Laércio, em Vida e Doutrina dos Filósofos Ilustres (3.18), Platão
teria se inspirado nas personagens dos mimos sofronianos para compor as de seus próprios
diálogos.
19
Cf. Hordern 2004: 4.
194
Samea Ghandour
verbo ταταλ[ί]ζει20 (v. 60) para caracterizar a forma como ele a teria abordado
nos deixa em dúvida sobre até que ponto não tenha havido de fato alguma
aventura ou proveito erótico entre o rapaz e a alcoviteira. Com efeito, Gílis
parece se valer dessa ambiguidade para se autoerotizar por um momento,
a despeito da idade avançada.
No fragmento sofroniano 52H21, temos:
Aqui então também eu desancoro a nau, sendo-lhes similar quanto aos pelos,
pois marinheiras estão já as âncoras para os dessa idade.
20
ταταλ[ί]ζει, derivado de τατί, é um verbo de difícil tradução, mas que remete a um
tratamento carinhoso e próximo.
21
Todos os fragmentos de Sófron foram retirados da edição de Hordern 2004. As
traduções são nossas.
195
A Poesia Dramática Herodiana
22
Siciônios e Ambracidiozinhos fazem referência aos seus locais de origem: Siciônia era uma
antiga cidade situada entre Corinto e Acaia. A Ambrácia ficava onde hoje é a região do Épiro.
23
Possível referência à poetisa helenística Nóssis, também aludida em mimiambo 6.20.
24
Possível referência a Erina, poetisa do século IV a.C. que, diante da morte de Báucis,
sua amiga, compôs o poema Roca.
25
O ato de devorar o couro reportaria a um provérbio antigo a dizer sobre cães roendo
a própria coleira. Do mesmo modo, mulheres saberiam como “devorar” os dildos/consolos,
feitos quase sempre de couro. Cf. Cunningham 2002: 263.
196
Samea Ghandour
26
Não são exemplos exaustivos, tampouco é nosso escopo aqui nos aprofundarmos neles.
Na edição de Cunningham (2002), que comporta também uma seção destinada a Sófron, é
possível encontrar uma série de outras ocorrências lexicais ou mesmo de enredo.
197
A Poesia Dramática Herodiana
dessa versão coxa do trímetro jâmbico, o poeta arcaico criou poemas de fundo
agressivo e malicioso, incluindo a metáfora de animais marinhos para se referir à
genitália feminina.27. O uso desse tipo de metáfora, como vimos, partilhada por
Herodas e Sófron, mais a adoção herodiana do trímetro jâmbico endossariam
tal conexão. Haveria ainda outro argumento de peso para o parentesco poético:
o próprio poeta menciona diretamente o nome de Hipônax no Mimiambo 8 (v.
78), poema considerado uma espécie de confissão do poeta helenístico sobre
suas principais inspirações.
Nesse sentido, é significativo que o nome de Sófron não seja lembrado,
nem mesmo no Mimiambo 8, que faz alusão apenas ao gênero dramático como
um todo, a partir da menção a um bode, sinalizado em sonho ao poeta. O nome
de Hipônax, por sua vez, é sugerido também no Mimiambo 1, com Métrique
se denominando “filha de Pites” (1, v.76), sendo Pites identificado nos relatos
biográficos antigos como o pai de Hipônax.
Tendo como referências, portanto, o gênero mimo, seja ele popular ou
literário, e o metro coliambo, possivelmente herdado de Hipônax, podemos
compreender por que os mimos de Herodas foram batizados de mimiambos.
De qualquer maneira, dizer se são literários ou populares evidentemente implica
consequências para como avaliamos sua capacidade performativa.
Quando os mimiambos foram publicados, em 1891, uma série de
possibilidades seria aventada em torno da obra remanescente. Não tardou para
que a corrente literária realista enxergasse seu próprio reflexo no quotidiano das
personagens. Estudiosos como Giovanni Setti, Alfred Croiset e Carl Harbelin
interpretaram o corpus como sendo mais apreciável a um público leitor. Kamil
Fuerst, em 1907, viria a considerar os mimiambos desprovidos de capacidade
performativa, dado o seu elevado número de personagens, enredo curto e pouco
efeito dramático. Apesar desses pontos de vista, houve ainda quem tentasse
encenar os poemas herodianos: temos notícia de Túrio Pandolfi tentando
fazê-lo na Itália, em 1902, e ao que parece não tendo sido bem recepcionado
pela audiência.28
As pesquisas modernas sobre Herodas, a despeito do trabalho de
Mastromarco (1984), parecem não tocar mais tanto nessa polêmica,
aparentemente sem solução, apesar de ainda encontrarmos muitos palpites.
Nesse pano de fundo, acreditamos que, com os rumos que o teatro tem tomado,
repetindo sempre os mesmos paradigmas e autores, e com o pós-dramático
repleto de possiblidades performativas, talvez seja profícuo experimentar
27
Num de seus fragmentos, por exemplo, o “ouriço” de uma garota é roubado enquanto a
mãe dorme. Cf. fr. 70G. Para os poemas de Hipônax, estamos nos valendo da edição de Gerber
(1999).
28
Mastromarco (1984) discute a fundo as questões de recepção dos mimos de Herodas
desde a sua publicação.
198
Samea Ghandour
Mimiambo 1
Contexto: O poema apresenta uma conversa entre duas mulheres, uma
mais jovem, Métrique, e uma anciã, Gílis, a alcoviteira que tentará convencer
a outra a trair o marido, Mandris, sumido no Egito há dez meses (vv. 24-25).
O enredo sugere que Métrique seja uma ex-hetaira, tendo sido gerenciada por
Gílis,29 e que a velha senhora tenha recebido dinheiro de Grilo, um atleta rico
e bem-sucedido30, para fazer com que a moça garantisse a ele favores sexuais.
A jovem escuta sem interrupção a proposta de Gílis e a rechaça de uma só
tacada, mostrando-se bastante ofendida, embora, ao final, preocupe-se em
afagar os ânimos com uma cortês taça de vinho.
Personagens:
Gílis, alcoviteira
Métrique, anfitriã
Trácia, escrava
Cenário: Casa de Métrique
Datação: 272-1 a.C. (Reinado de Ptolomeu II Filadelfo e Arsínoe,
mencionados no v. 30)
29
De fato, não apenas o vocativo ἀμμίη (“madrinha”, v. 7), como a relação de proximidade
entre Gílis e Metrique sugerem que Métrique tenha sido uma hetaira gerenciada por Gílis.
Para conjecturar essa hipótese, soma-se ainda a afirmação final da alcoviteira, após o descaso
de Métrique para com a proposta erótica, de que ainda lhe restam Mírtale e Sime (vv. 89-90),
outras duas possíveis hetairai a prestarem serviços sexuais ao atleta. Nesse aspecto, devemos
levar em conta que o fato de Métrique poder ser substituída nos põe em dúvida sobre o
argumento de Gílis, de que a moça seria essencial para Grilo (vv. 56-60).
30
O ato de Gílis frisar que Grilo enriqueceu, além de operar como dispositivo para
tentar convencer Métrique a aceitar o intercurso sexual, sugere que a alcoviteira tenha obtido
dinheiro do atleta para esse fim.
199
A Poesia Dramática Herodiana
200
Samea Ghandour
201
A Poesia Dramática Herodiana
Mimiambo 1 – Intermediária/Alcoviteira
MÉTRIQUE
Trácia, tem alguém golpeando a porta. Vá ver
se não é algum conhecido nosso que vem do campo.
TRÁCIA
Quem está na porta? GÍLIS: Eu. TRÁCIA: Tu quem? Estás com medo
de se aproximar? GÍLIS: Vê, estou mais perto!
TRÁCIA: E quem és? GÍLIS: Gílis, a mãe de Filene31. 5
Avisa para a Métrique lá dentro que eu estou aqui.
TRÁCIA: Estão chamando... MÉ: Quem é? TRÁ: Gílis. MÉ: Madrinha Gílis...
Vá dar uma volta, criada. Que sorte te convenceu a vir,
Gílis, até nós? Tu, uma deusa, entre mortais?
Pois já faz cinco meses, creio, 10
que nem em sonho, Gílis, pelas Moiras,
alguém te vê chegar a essa porta!32
GÍLIS: Moro longe, filha, e pelos caminhos
o barro já chegou até os joelhos
e eu tenho a disposição de uma mosca. A velhice 15
nos afunda e sua sombra nos assombra!
MÉTRIQUE: [...] e não mintas a idade
[...] pois ainda há outros a apertar, Gílis...
GÍLIS: Goza! Essas coisas são para vós,
mais novas. MÉ: Que isso não te esquente... 20
GÍ: Ai, filha... por quanto tempo ainda vais ficar sem homem
consumindo sozinha a cabeceira solitária?
Pois desde que Mandris foi enviado ao Egito
já se passaram dez meses e nem uma carta ele te envia,33
mas deve ter se esquecido de ti e pode estar bêbado de fonte nova. 25
Lá fica o palácio da deusa. De fato, tudo
o que existe e acontece está no Egito:
riqueza, pugilato, poder, tranquilidade, reputação
espetáculos, filósofos, ouro, rapazes,
o templo dos deuses-irmãos34, o rei é obsequioso, 30
o Museu, vinho, tudo de bom que alguém possa desejar,
31
Filene teria sido uma hetaira que escreveu um tratado sobre posições sexuais na
Antiguidade. Ao se autodenominar a partir desse referencial, Gílis nos dá indícios do motivo
de sua visita a Métrique, além de sugerir não estar muito preocupada com sua própria
reputação.
32
Gílis tentou uma primeira incursão na casa de Métrique há cinco meses, possivelmente
para sondar sua fragilidade. Sobre esse assunto, há um artigo muito interessante em que
Cruces (2014) calcula exatamente o intervalo de tempo em que ocorrem as visitas da anciã
levando em conta os festivais religiosos.
33
A primeira investida de Gílis possivelmente deu-se cinco meses após a partida de
Mandris.
34
Ptolomeu II Filadelfo e Arsínoe II.
202
Samea Ghandour
35
Mandris ou Thanatos.
36
Grilo não fora ainda iniciado na prática sexual, campo presidido por Afrodite.
37
Mísia, uma deidade de origem frígia, associada aos mistérios eleusinos de Deméter.
38
Possivelmente Afrodite.
203
A Poesia Dramática Herodiana
Bibliografia
39
Esse verso costuma ser considerado metapoético por aludir ao trímetro jâmbico
coliâmbico.
40
De Hipônax também é dito ser filho de Pites. Essa maneira de Métrique se referir a si
mesma pode sugerir que Herodas compreenda sua própria poesia como uma herança do poeta
arcaico.
204
Samea Ghandour
Diógenes Laércio (1988), Vida e doutrina dos filósofos ilustres. Trad. M. G. Kury. Brasília.
Gerber, D.E. (1999), J. A Greek Iambic Poetry – from the seventh to the fifth centuries BC.
Cambridge.
Ghandour, S. (2020), Os Mimos de Herodas: tradução e comentário dos mimiambos e es-
tudo do gênero mimo no Período Helenístico. São Paulo. Dissertação de Mestrado
em Letras Clássicas – Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciência Humanas, Univer-
sidade de São Paulo. Doi: 10.11606/D.8.2020.tde-19042021-132345. Acesso em
2022-01-16.
Hordern, J.H. (2004), Sophron’s Mimes. Text, translation, and Commentary. Oxford.
Mastromarco, G. (1984), The Public of Herondas. Amsterdam.
Rodrigues Junior, F. (2014), “O Mimo Grego Literário no Período Helenístico”, in: C.
Werner; B.B. Sebastiani; A. Dourado-Lopes (eds.) Gêneros Poéticos na Grécia An-
tiga: Confluências e Fronteiras. São Paulo, 185-203.
______ (2015), “Os Mimos Populares e os Espetáculos Dramáticos no Período Helenísti-
co” Phaos, 15: 51-66.
Webb, R. (2008), Demons and dancers: Performance in Late Antiquity London.
Wiemken, H. (1972), Der griechsche Mimus: Dokumente zur Geschichte des antiken
Volkstheaters. Bremen.
205
(Página deixada propositadamente em branco)
Luise Marion Frenkel, Guilherme Welte Bernardo
ABSTRACT: This paper is about the verses of Sotades of Maroneia, or, better put,
about the uses of Sotadean verses and the references to the reputation associated with a
poet of Ptolemy II’s court, well known for his links with Callimachus. It will be argued
that the use of metres and other musical and visual features of Hellenistic drama and
poetry were widespread in the daily life of Alexandria and other parts of Egypt at
least as long as it was part of a Hellenistic kingdom or the Roman empire. This will
allow a discussion of fourth-century a.C. poetic values and the prestige or even sheer
1
Apoio do St Edmund’s College (Cambridge, Inglaterra) e do Centro de Estudos
Avançados 2496 “Migration und Mobilität in Spätantike und Frühmittelalter” (Eberhard Karls
Universität Tübingen, Alemanha). Agradeço aos professores doutores Geoffrey Greatrex,
Alberto Camplani, Gianfranco Agosti, Andrea Rotstein e Alexandre Hasegawa.
2
Bolsista DS Capes.
relevance of classical values associated with the reputation of past authors for the lived
practice and writing down of poetry which could be likened to theirs.
KEYWORDS: Thalia; Arius; Late Antiquity, orality.
Sótades
A recepção e o desenvolvimento da biografia autoral de Sótades durante
o início do Império têm sido o foco da maioria dos estudos sobre ele. Quase
todos os elos dependem de leituras positivistas e harmonizadoras de referências
ao poeta e de fragmentos atribuídos a ele. A exposição de Alan Cameron
é talvez a mais elaborada, mas a mais esclarecedora continua sendo a de
Pretagostini.3 Ele mostra que isso deriva principalmente de Ateneu, uma vez
que as histórias em Eustácio e na Suda parecem depender em grande parte
do relato nos Dipnosofistas. Nenhuma outra informação pode ser extraída de
Plutarco ou Estobeu. Sótades também foi considerado o inaugurador do uso
literário dos versos sotádicos, isto é, dos tetrâmetros iônicos a maiore com
anáclase frequente.4 As ocorrências na literatura literária grega e latina foram
amplamente analisadas por Maurizio Bettini.5 Essa métrica, especialmente em
3
Pretagostini 1984: 139-147, esp. 146. Sobre o ataque sexual contra reis, ver Cameron
1995: 18, mas o verso citado por Ateneu, ao invés de apostrofar Filadelfo no que seria
uma paródia de um epitalâmio para Filadelfo e Arsínoe, é sobre Zeus. Para a poesia lírica
helenística, os aspectos poéticos públicos e de elite e seu uso, com foco nos aspectos métricos,
ver Barbantani 2017.
4
Essa descrição frequentemente usada da métrica parece remontar a Fantuzzi e Hunter
2004: 38, que resumem as observações com as quais Gentili 1952: 130 reformulou a descrição
mais antiga, do século II d.C., por Hefestião em seu Enkheiridion 11.4, Consbruch 1906: 36,
6-12. Lá, o sotádico está entre as métricas iônicas a maiore, com as possíveis variantes listadas
sob o título dos “tetrâmetros mais dignos de menção, como o braquicatalético, chamado
sotádico. […]”. Veja-se ademais a tradução e comentário em Ophuijsen 1987: 104-105. Um
comentário anônimo sobre Hermógenes também atribui a Longino algumas observações sobre
versos iônicos que Sótades empregara, descrevendo sua suavidade e extrema indolência. Ver
Patillon e Brisson 2001: 30-36 sobre o Fragmento 14e. Escrevendo em algum momento entre
os séculos II e IV, provavelmente na virada do III para o IV, Terenciano Mauro usou apenas
sotádicos em De litteris e recorreu a eles também em seus outros trabalhos sobre as qualidades
e possibilidades do latim, mencionando entre suas virtudes que ele dificilmente representa
qualquer obstáculo ao uso de um vocabulário amplo, como discutido por Beck 2016. Sobre
este autor subestimado, ver atualmente Stachon 2017: 250-252 e Copeland e Sluiter 2009: 73.
5
Bettini 1982. Sobre o verso, ver também d’Alessandro 2016 que, tendo em vista a
atenção cuidadosa à data das instâncias literárias, epigráficas e papirológicas, apresenta uma
adesão mais estrita aos padrões estabelecidos por Sótades tanto na poesia latina quanto grega
até o século II a.C., mas também mostra que o uso de molosso (¯ ¯ ¯) ou segundo epítrito
(¯ ˘ ¯ ¯) no lugar do iônico é algo amplamente difundido no século IV. Um desenvolvimento
semelhante é proposto por Kwapisz 2019: 62, alegando que a abordagem posterior da métrica,
mais “liberal”, seria patentemente de origem romana. Os poemas tardo-antigos também são
analisados por Koster 1936; Stead 1978: 41-48; Hendriks et al. 1981.
208
Luise Marion Frenkel, Guilherme Welte Bernardo
6
Sotádicos ganharam uma má fama que pode ser relacionada tanto à persona literária
quanto às qualidades atribuídas à métrica pelos antigos gramáticos. Assim, publicações
acadêmicas recentes falam não apenas da (hipotética) Ilíada de Sótades como uma lamentável
produção em tetrâmetros jâmbicos, dos quais “wretched remains” (editados em Powell 1925:
238) sobreviveram, como em King 1987: 264, mas também de sua “unruliness (even if we
think of Sotades’ more restrained original patterns rather than of the later licentious sotadeans
of the Imperial age)”, como em Kwapisz 2019: 61. Cf. Gentili 1952: 130-1 sobre a “ionização”
deliberada por Sótades de métricas não iônicas, algo não menos bizarro do que sua alegada
ionização do hexâmetro homérico que elabora as colocações de um escoliasta do Enkheiridion
(Consbruch 1906: 108, 14) sobre a versão da Ilíada de Sótades e de Trica, gramático bizantino
do século XII, em sua Sinopse de nove métricas (Consbruch 1906: 393, 3), que por sua vez
parece ter elaborado a informação a partir dos mesmos escólios (ver Westphal 1867: 192, 194;
Hunger 1978: 54). Enquanto o primeiro está alinhado aos preconceitos observados por Vessey
1989, o último é igualmente fruto de uma historicização de comentários de gramáticos antigos
que, por conseguinte, deveria ser colocado entre aspas (como em d’Alessandro 2016: 83, n. 17).
7
Barbantani 2001: 165 sugere que o envolvimento de Ptolomeu na morte de Sótades
aparece pela primeira vez na obra não confiável e prevalentemente antisseleucida e
antimacedônica de Hegesandro de Delfo, sobre quem ver Dalby 2000: 380-381. Ver também
Barbantani 2017: 341; Weber 1998/1999: 163; Kerkhecker 1997: 138; e Magnelli 2008. Note
que Hefestião apenas descreve o verso como o tetrâmetro kaloumenon mais “digno de menção”
(ver a nota acima) e que Dionísio de Halicarnasso menciona os versos, mas não Sótades
enquanto poeta, como discutido por Hunter 2009: 553.
8
Ver Cameron 1995:18, 166; Burgess 2013; Gutzwiller 2007: 135-136; Kwapisz 2019:66;
Hunter 2009: 651-652.
209
Métricas e práticas performativas helenísticas na poesia popular e polêmica tardo-antiga
9
Ver Barbantani 2017: 341; Pretagostini 2000; Magnelli 2008.
Sótades foi um dos autores helenísticos cujo experimentalismo métrico foi lembrado
10
ao longo da Antiguidade com pouco interesse pelo seu caráter lúdico, o que agora está sendo
recuperado em estudos como os de Fantuzzi e Hunter 2004:38-40 e Kwapisz 2012: 160.
11
Rhys Roberts 1902: 156-157; Jonge 2005: 464, 466 (n. 13); Koster 1963: 139; Bartol
2012: 311.
12
Cf. Weber 1998-1999: 150 (n. 13).
13
Sobre as abordagens de Ênio, Marcial e Plínio, o Jovem, quanto ao trabalho de Sótades,
ver Kwapisz 2019: 68-70. Ver também Monda 2016: 146 sobre o contexto da citação por Aulo
Gélio de alguns versos sotádicos de uma das sátiras de Ênio como tema da primeira das
sete questões pós-prandiais. Sobre os caráteres associados a Sótades e as invectivas contra a
métrica, ver ambas as entradas sobre Sótades e Sotas em Moreno Soldevila e al. 2019: 563-564.
14
Ver Gentili e Lomiento 2003: 173 sobre as intervenções de Ateneu na associação de
Sótades com a métrica, que expôs ainda mais o ritmo ao ridículo ao sugerir uma origem
orientalizante, ou mais exatamente, egipcinizante, uma vez que atribui um uso anterior ao faraó
Djedhor (conhecido em grego como Teos e Tachos) ao também escrever versos depreciativos
(contra o rei espartano Agesilau II).
210
Luise Marion Frenkel, Guilherme Welte Bernardo
15
C. I. G. 4266 e = 919 Kaibel = IGC 293 Grégoire. A identificação da métrica sotádica
na inscrição por Merkelbach 1978 é questionada por Livrea 1997: 44 (“ove si sostiene che il
testo sarebbe vergato in sotadei”) que, ao contrário, insiste em considerá-la como um “curioso
pastiche né poetico né prosastico’, ecoando avaliações anteriores de que “L’ auteur... a cru faire
des hexamètres” (Grégoire 1922: 100).
16
Edição e tradução em Roueché e Reynolds 1989, no. 37.
211
Métricas e práticas performativas helenísticas na poesia popular e polêmica tardo-antiga
17
ILS 821 Dessau.
18
Embora tomado como certo por Livrea 1997, J. Lenaghan é mais reticente em sua
discussão sobre seu registro como LSA-193 em http://laststatues.classics.ox.ac.uk (acessado em
fev. e mar. de 2020).
19
Pace Böhm 1992, que homogeneíza a teoria e a prática poética greco-romana no tempo
e no espaço (por exemplo, em 344-346), e Stead 1978, esp. 46, que analisa numerosos papiros
e inscrições como parte de uma continuamente crescente substituição das antigas regras de
escansão em função da quantidade pela de tônicas.
20
Jeffreys 2019: 67-68; Jeffreys 1981: 313-319; Cameron 2016: 14-15.
212
Luise Marion Frenkel, Guilherme Welte Bernardo
21
Ver também Garulli 2012: 255, 260, 264 para as inscrições acrósticas do I ao III século
d.C. com versos predominantemente sotádicos encontrados em Calabexa (Talmis) e no Kôm
de Sakha (Norte do Delta).
22
Cunningham 1987: 20-24 (fr. 6).
23
Ver Andreassi 2001: 25-31; Barbantani 2017: 383.
24
Ver Esposito neste volume e sobre a língua literária, Crevatin 2009, que que aponta
semelhanças fonéticas com o prácrito e rejeita a possibilidade de ser uma forma antiga de
kannaḍa.
25
Cf. a reavaliação de Mairs 2012: 293-294 da inscrição acróstica de Calabexa IMEG 168
(séculos I-III), em que predominam os sotádicos, usados junto a pentâmetros e hexâmetros,
para demostrar que não decorrem dela a maioria das inferências encontradas na literatura
anterior sobre a proveniência e erudição do dedicador, um decurião romano chamado Pácio
Máximo.
213
Métricas e práticas performativas helenísticas na poesia popular e polêmica tardo-antiga
Tália
Essa obra só foi preservada indiretamente, em contextos que não
respeitaram sua forma poética e que distorceram consideravelmente o texto para
fins polêmicos. A fonte principal, se é que merece esse nome, é o De synodis 15.3
de Atanásio de Alexandria.26 Martin L. West forneceu uma análise detalhada da
métrica, e Karin Metzler, uma edição equilibrada com um comentário completo
que revela a extensão das intervenções de Atanásio.27 Atualmente, é amplamente
aceito que Ário escreveu uma Tália e que o texto remanescente é derivado
dela.28 A maioria dos estudiosos também considera as observações sobre a
performance de obras métricas como exageros retóricos de práticas reais. Os
relatos historiográficos, bastante contraditórios, sugerem que Ário apresentou a
Tália quando foi instado a apresentar as linhas gerais de seu entendimento sobre
oikonomia em um importante encontro de bispos não nicenos. Ele entregou
um poema escrito em uma conjuntura na qual o leitor moderno esperaria um
tratado ou que se proferisse ou escrevesse uma declaração de fé. Essas eram as
formas que, naquele passo da controvérsia, estavam sendo apresentadas como
superiores ou mais apropriadas pela facção que ao mesmo tempo reivindicava
status normativo para uma fórmula (a nicena) e contestava a legitimidade do
ensino de Ário.
No mais ímpar, a escolha por Ário de uma forma poética para sumarizar
sua apreensão da realidade devi parece menos idiossincrática então, dada a
subsequente globalização do conflito sobre a autoridade desta ou daquela
declaração de fé, na qual estava implícita a superioridade desse tipo de discurso
formular para a verbalização da crença cristã. Já a escolha de Ário refletia sua
26
Martin e al 2013: 222-226. A tradução inglesa de Radde-Gallwitz 2017: 166-168
minimiza as incertezas e dificuldades do texto de Atanásio.
27
West 1982: 100-101, com a observação que o metro na quarta posição é regularmente
completo, em vez do ¯ ¯ de sotádicos anteriores e, portanto, considera a métrica como
tetrâmetro iônico, uma versão ligeiramente mais longa da mesma diversidade de forma versátil.
Ver também Seng 1993 e Metzler 1991: 20-22 sobre a métrica, que substitui amplamente
Stead 1978; Wyss 1963; Koster 1963. Note, no entanto, as observações sobre autenticidade e
reconstrução textual em Martin et al. 2013: 178-179. Sobre o método de citação de Atanásio,
ver Pardini 1991 e também Barnes 1993: 55, que recorre à ideia de que Atanásio, exilado em
Roma, estava citando a Tália de Ário de cabeça para explicar ingenuamente a vagueza e o
resumo provavelmente impreciso que vem após sete linhas verbatim.
28
Ver DelCogliano 2018, que providencia uma extensa bibliografia. Dada a escassez
de obras seguramente atribuídas a Ário, tem se dado destaque à Tália em reconstruções do
pensamento de Ário, como, por exemplo, por Hass 1993: 235, 236; Heil 2002; Beatrice 2002:
255 (que também aceita a autenticidade e confiabilidade da Carta a Alexandre de Alexandria);
Beeley 2003: 247-248; Vinzent 1993: 284-292; Lorenz 1980: 37-52; Stead 1978: 22-39; Butler
1992: 365-367; Uthemann 2007: 481, 505; Metzler et al. 1996: 34-35. Uma discrição maior
quanto à autoria dos fragmentos pode ser vista em Camplani 2001: 118-120 e Fernández 2013:
19-20, em grande parte com base em Pardini 1991.
214
Luise Marion Frenkel, Guilherme Welte Bernardo
29
Brakke 1995: 64-65. Ver também Haas 1993 sobre a falta de apoio que Atanásio
enfrentou e as sobreposições entre grupos ascéticos e arianos na região de Alexandria.
30
Note, no entanto, que Hendriks et al 1981: 77-78 desqualificam os poemas sotádicos
helenísticos e imperiais, pelo menos aqueles escritos por “high-minded poets” como exercícios
em “metrical slumming”, o que deve ser revisto à luz dos estudos recentes sobre poetas
helenísticos, como Calímaco, que compõem poemas adequados para fins propriamente rituais
ou didáticos.
31
Gruber; Strohm 1991, 102; Hendriks et al. 1981: 77-78; Cavero 2008: 349. Em tempo,
a Suda viria a atribuir uma Descida ao Hades ao próprio Sótades, como menciona Bremmer
2009.
32
Ver Russo 2014: 340-344; Page 1957: 190-191, com a observação depreciativa de
que esses “verses will remain mediocre, no better than a superior nursery-rhyme: but they
may now appear more interesting in diction and more regular in metre than the first editor
allowed” (189).
33
Page 1942: 424-429; Heitsch 1963: 172.
34
Cf. Agosti 2015a, Bing 2011, notando que a descrição em Rossum-Steenbeek 1998, xiii-
xiv claramente não engloba tudo na gama do literário ao documental. Perfis sociais e culturais
anacrônicos subjacentes à classificação da poesia tardo-antiga também se fazem notar em
Wolbergs 1971: 2,68-69; Heitsch 1963, 14-15.
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Métricas e práticas performativas helenísticas na poesia popular e polêmica tardo-antiga
Sobre as histórias que Marino escreveu sobre Proclo, ver Berg 2001: 15, 30.
35
passagem em Bleckmann e Stein 2015 II: 103-104. Na sua tradução, Amidon 2007: 16 busca
distinguir essas canções da Tália.
37
Para a função social da poesia na performance, ver Krueger 2014 e Münz-Manor 2013,
notando a tensão entre as narrativas micro-históricas dos estudos de caso e as inferências de
longa duração.
38
Ver Capone 2014: 522 (n. 45); Babka 2008; West 1982: 105; Böhm 1992: 337, 346.
216
Luise Marion Frenkel, Guilherme Welte Bernardo
39
Ver Capone 2014: 522; Tsitsiridis 2015: 2015 228-234, esp. 232.
40
Ver Athanassiadi 1993: 127; Spanoudakis 2010: 41-42.
41
Ver, entre outros, Münz-Manor 2018 e, com cuidado, Böhm 1992.
42
Lamberton 1986. Muito foi proposto sobre crítica poética após Platão, tanto no que
se refere às qualidades como à utilidade de poesia (cf. Asmis 1992: 407 e Ramelli 2014: 497-
498). A isso se relacionava uma aversão às orações peticionárias, como discutido por O’Brien
2015: 62-63, que deixou espaço para orações virtuosas como as que um filósofo era capaz de
realizar (sobre as quais ver Kertsch 1980: 156 e O’Connell 2019: 154). A isso estava relacionada
a discrição contra o campo semântico da teologia, especialmente contra a qualificação como
teólogo (θεόλογος/deiloquos) que é analisada por Langworthy 2019: 463.
217
Métricas e práticas performativas helenísticas na poesia popular e polêmica tardo-antiga
218
Luise Marion Frenkel, Guilherme Welte Bernardo
Considerações finais
O ataque de Cirilo a Ário mostra que alguns indivíduos estavam cientes
da reputação associada a Sótades e às formas poéticas associadas a ele. Por trás
dessa recepção, ela permitia que o registro escrito de uma tal prática servisse
para substanciar uma ridicularização centrada na vinculação do autor ao caráter
atribuído a um poeta tal como Sótades, especialmente a partir do final do século
IV d.C. A invectiva contra a poesia e a associação de formas poéticas, tais quais
o metro sotádico, com autores que estavam sendo atacados ou descritos como
hereges provavelmente contribuiu para a escassez de registros escritos, seja pelo
cuidado de autores e copistas em não produzir tais textos, seja pela destruição
punitiva ou profilática. Cada vez mais, a menção à poesia era considerada como
o auge da ousadia e da loucura desses abusadores do dom divino da linguagem
humana.
A performance das obras metrificadas de Ário e Eunômio em contextos
populares remete aos supostos precedentes populares de inovações poéticas
helenísticas, como o uso de hexâmetros dactílicos por Teócrito. Além de apontar
para a recepção subalterna de poesia erudita, a permanência do emprego de
formas orais de uma métrica como o sotádico no cotidiano, em paralelo com
seu uso indica para o impacto reduzido de discursos normativos eruditos.
49
Náucratis permaneceu uma cidade importante no Delta do Nilo na Antiguidade Tardia.
Pouco se sabe sobre ela além das referências em papiro encontradas em outros lugares e as
observações na literatura, que dificilmente são precisas. Quando o local foi encontrado por
arqueólogos ingleses, os escavadores de sebakh já haviam removido a todo vapor o mont tardo-
antigo. Dados comparativos podem ser extraídos de outros depósitos no norte do Delta, embora,
também neles, até recentemente, era usual descartá-los, por serem um período ercente demais
para merecer atenção, como discutido por Spender 2011:32-33; Kenawi e Mondin 2019: xvii,
xx. Corti 2008: 324 defende que Atanásio escreveu o De synodis especificamente para uma
audiência ocidental. Sobre a dinâmica da expressão cultural helênica, ver Clarysse [2019]:
306-309.
219
Métricas e práticas performativas helenísticas na poesia popular e polêmica tardo-antiga
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Introduction
Excepting one biographical entry and two short anecdotes about his life, our
evidence for the poet Sositheus consists of five dramatic fragments, testimonia,
descriptions of the mythological plots and characters he employed, and the
appearance of his name in a list of renowned poets compiled by Photius. While
this corpus might seem slight, it is one of the most substantial among Hellenistic
drmatists. In this chapter, I will present and assess the current investigations
relating to his plays in order to better account for two of his lesser-known plays,
Crotus and Cleanthes. In so doing, I hope to contribute to our understanding of
the intention and significance of his archaising satyr dramas.
Sositheus was among the foremost dramatic poets of the Hellenistic era. The
Byzantine Patriarch Photius mentions his name in a list of the most significant
1
All translations are mine unless stated otherwise. For Sositheus’ texts, I use the edition
of Kotlińska-Toma (2015, ‘K.-T.’ henceforth), pages 93-110, mentioning its correspondent in
Snell’s TrGF. I would like to thank both editors Breno B. Sebastiani and Fernando Rodrigues Jr.,
as well as Flavia V. Amaral, Erica Angliker, Samea Gandhour, Marcelo V. Fernandes, Douglas
Olson, Carl Shaw and Eric Csapo for their attention and careful suggestions. I am grateful to
both reviewers for their useful comments.
poets that also includes Homer, Euripides, Baton, and the philosopher-poet
Cleanthes of Assos.2 He appears in all but one extant list3 of the essential
Hellenistic dramatic poets known as the Pleiad, i.e., those poets who worked in
Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus.4 Coming second in
these lists after Homer of Byzantium, Sositheus’ entry in the Suda is short and
telling:
Schol. A in Heph. in Consbruch 1906: 140; Schol. B in Heph. in Consbruch 1906: 279;
3
Choerob. in Heph. in Consbruch 1906: 236, 4-14. Sositheus is absent from Tzetzes, in Scheer
1908: 4.
4
K-T: 49-52.
5
Suid. s.v. Sositheos, in Adler 1928-1935: sigma 860.
6
Schol. in Germ. Arat. 90.3, tragoediographus; Ath. Deipn. 10.8.4, ho tragōidopoios; Hyg.
Poet. astr. 2. 27.1, tragoediarum scriptor.
7
DL 7.173 (= SVF 1.603) and Hsch. fr. 7.601, poiētēs.
8
I refer to this play as Daphnis henceforth, following the anonymous mythographer and
Tzetzes rather than Athenaeus; see K-T: 97.
9
Euripides’ Alcestis is the paradigm employed by most authors when discussing the
features of tragedy, especially in terms of affinities between satyr plays and tragedy; see Shaw
2014: 78-106.
228
Danilo Costa Nunes Andrade Leite
of the satyr chorus, the mockery that includes sexual jokes, and the strict use
of meter, especially the observation of Porson’s Law.10 Romantic tragedy and
satyr play have happy endings and may include one or more of the following
motifs: the separation of lovers; the abuse of hospitality; bondage/liberation;
an exotic setting; the antihuman villain; the contest; and divine intervention to
help the hero overcome the antihuman villain or obstacle. On the other hand,
Hellenistic satyr play and (Old) comedy have the following features in common:
humour and sexual innuendo, onomasti kōmōidein (ridiculing explicitly a
contemporary), non-human chorus.
The plot of Daphnis presents elements typical of both satyr plays and
tragedies as mentioned above.11 The shepherd, Daphnis, is seeking his beloved
nymph, Thalia (alias Pimplea), in Phrygia, where the savage tyrant, Lityerses,
an illegitimate son of Midas, has enslaved the nymph. Lityerses is in the habit
of inviting his visitors to a feast and then taking them to a reaping contest; after
defeating his guests, he has them killed. Empathising with Daphnis, Heracles
defeats Lityerses and kills him with his own reaping device, a sickle; Daphnis
and Thalia are reunited. Lityerses’ behaviour exhibits obvious traits of the
antihuman villain, as well as the breach of hospitality, a expected trait in this sort
of plot. No reference is made to any satyr chorus, however, the satyric feature
par excellence.12 Nevertheless, its identification as a satyr place is defensible and
well attested.13 Among Sositheus’ other plays, Aethlius, Cleanthes, and Crotus
may have included a satyr chorus, mockery, contests, the liberation motif, sexual
slang, and divine intervention. The play mentioning the Stoic Philosopher is the
only exception to the standard use of a rustic (satyric) dwelling, and as such it
must be singled out among Sositheus’ extant works.
It is also vital to consider Dioscorides’ epigrams, which present a condensed
history of Greek drama in five poems, each of which passes literary judgment
on one named author.14 Being extremely concise and dealing with complex
material, these epigrams seem to admit multiple levels of meaning.15 They
present two explicitly opposing pairs, Thespis versus Aeschylus and Sophocles
versus Sositheus. Furthermore, there are some key overarching themes, namely
the development of tragedy and the enduring success of all three classical
genres, as represented by works from the second half of the 3rd century BC.
10
Shaw 2014: 127.
11
Schol. in Theocritum 8 arg.b and 8.93a (Wendel 1914); Serv. In Vergilii eclogas 8.68
(Thilo 1887)
12
Xanthakis-Karamanos 1994: 244-50.
13
Xanthakis-Karamanos 1994: 242, n. 32; K-T: 104-05.
14
AP 7.410-11, 37 and 707-08; Gow and Page 1965: 20-24.
15
Fantuzzi 2011: 487-95; Nervegna 2019: 202-203, esp. 205-07.
229
Reading Notes on Sositheus
And I, Scirtus the red-bearded, guard the body of Sositheus, just as20 another
of my brothers guards that of Sophocles in the town. For he won the ivy
worthy of the satyrs of Phlius, I swear by the dancing-circles! I had already
been reared in new-fangled ways, but he led me back to my ancestors’ memory
by his archaising ways.21 And once again, I forced the masculine rhythm into
the Dorian Muse, drawn to his great voice [...] a new creation by Sositheus’
danger-loving mind.22 (AP 707, trans. Nervegna, modified)
AP 7.37.
17
18
An aesthetic critique of Euripides’ innovative music seems to be Dioscorides’ aim, as
Nervegna (2019: 207-10) points out in close detail.
19
In this sense, I cannot completely agree with Nervegna’s (2019) conclusion that ‘both
poets are singled out as having brought onto the genre two radically opposite innovations:
Sophocles polished the satyrs, Sositheus reversed the process. Sophocles’ satyr is as urban
as Sositheus’ is rustic’ (205). It suffices to point to the very likely urban setting of Sositheus’
Cleanthes. There is a poetic and dramatic interplay between the epigrams, especially at 7.411,
37, and 707; the mention of the satyr by Sophocles’ tomb is also meant to anticipate and link
to Sositheus’ epigram.
20
If the suggestion about his birthplace is correct, then Sositheus’ tomb could be implied
by placement of Sophocles’ tomb. Scholars tend to pass cursively through this suggestion and
to believe the Suda.
21
The word anarchaisas is attested only here in ancient Greek; as such, it is a hapax
legomenon.
22
AP 7.707 (Vioque 2001).
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Danilo Costa Nunes Andrade Leite
among the dramatic poets, especially among satyric authors. Here we learn the
second satyr’s name, Scirtus the red-bearded. He celebrates Sositheus’ art in
three ways. Firstly, he notes how much Sositheus’ satyrs reminded the audiences
of Pratinas of Phlius. Second, Dioscorides presents in a negative fashion the
musical trends that Sositheus tries to reverse with his archaising work.
Typically, scholars conflate these two points, explaining Sositheus’ affiliation
to Pratinas through his use of Dorian music. I prefer to keep the connection to
Pratinas separated from the explicit criticism of New Music. 23 Nervegna argues
convincingly for two levels of polemic: on the surface, Dioscorides engages with
contemporary theatrical practice and uses Sositheus’ work to comment on the
New Music associated with Timotheus, Melanippides, Euripides, and Agathon;
on a deeper level, Dioscorides engages with poetry more broadly and questions
Hellenistic taste, especially the Callimachean aesthetic program.
Third, Dioscorides emphasises Sositheus’ love of danger and the meaning
of taking risks in the context of Hellenistic style and trends. Sositheus himself
creates something innovative (kainotomētheis, lit. ‘having cut something brand
new’) for his satyr play, and this is probably the reason why he is called danger-
loving (philokindunos).24 Yet, the expression philokindunos demands closer
attention. If Sositheus merely follows his model, Pratinas, in bridging early satyr
drama and the Hellenistic environment, returning to old-fashioned dramatic
music for his satyr plays, then the motivation for the attribution of ‘danger-
loving mind’ is unclear. Even if we could translate philokindunos as ‘risk-taking’,
besides the risk of being unpopular (something of a muddy ground, since
we know so little about Hellenistic popular taste), following Pratinas against
Euripedes should mean something more. Nervegna argues as follows:
New music’s continued appeal across time and place may explain why
Dioscorides refers to ‘Sositheus’ risk-taking (φιλοκινδύνῳ) mind’. Sositheus’
newly refashioned satyr play ran against what was still a viral trend.25
This conclusion does not explain why Dioscorides links Sositheus’ love of
danger to his innovation (kainotomētheis tēi philokindunoi phrontidi Sōsitheou,
v. 9-10); indeed, Nervegna downplays the explicit grammatic association
between these two claims and does not comment on the suggestive concept
of innovation (kainotēs) implied by v. 9. Sositheus is not only reverent and
archaising; he is also daring and innovative. Perhaps, ultimately, the epigram
23
Shaw 2015: 43-55.
24
Shaw 2015: 207-08. There is an editorial crux in the text that I do not translate.
25
Shaw 2015: 213.
231
Reading Notes on Sositheus
points to a play or specific feature we are not well positioned to judge based on
the extant fragments26.
There is no doubt, however, that the greatest emphasis of Dioscorides’
epigram is on the archaising features of Sositheus’ satyr drama, which essentially
reject New Music and impose something upon the Dorian Muse (eisōrmēsa,
v.7) rather than returning to familiar qualities of Pratinas’ satyr plays. Based on
Dioscorides’ full account and on the extant fragments, I believe that Sositheus’
satyr plays were not uniformly conservative regarding rhythm. Given that he is
as complex an author (in Dioscorides’ opinion) as Thespis, Aeschylus, Sophocles,
and Machon, we should examine Dioscorides’ evaluation of Sositheus’ work
with care.
My intent in the following sections is to use comic and satyric motifs
and subject matter to reconstruct possible plots for two plays attributed to
Sositheus– Cleanthes27 and Crotus.
When in the theatre, Sositheus the poet said to Cleanthes, who was present:
‘the folly of Cleanthes urges them on like oxen’
He [the philosopher] continued in the same attitude, at which the audience
was surprised, applauded him, and drove Sositheus away. And Sositheus
apologised for having abused him. Cleanthes answered him by saying that
26
The suggestion by Dioscorides that Sositheus was following Pratinas while composing
new-archaic satyr play can mean one of the two, either that Sositheus himself was evoking
Pratinas as a model or that others attributed to the Sosithean satyr play Pratinean features. In
the first case, I don’t see how or why the procedure of establishing a poetic guarantor is different
from Theocritus evoking Lycidas in Idyll 7, Herondas evoking Hipponax in Mimiambos 8 or
Timon of Phlius evoking Xenophanes in Silloi. This procedure is thoroughly discussed by
Fantuzzi & Hunter 2004: 1-17.
27
Since the title of the play wasn’t transmitted, it is mentioned sometimes as Sositheus’
anonymous play.
28
The second fragment, already quoted in part in the Introduction, was composed by
Sositheus, according to Gallo (1978: 161-78). I accept this inclusion based on the prominence
of the encounter between Cleanthes and Sositheus in Philodemus’ work, which starts in col.
22.
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Danilo Costa Nunes Andrade Leite
it would be absurd for him to be angered by any casual attack when neither
Dionysus nor Heracles is ever indignant at poets who ridicule them.29
K-T Sositheus F4
Cleanthes dealt at length with the subject [about Baton the comediographer],
and to Arcesilaus he said that ‘the most important part of prosperity is
only one thing, to focus on what is within our reach [ta kath’auton]’, and to
Arcesilaus, who agreed with him, he explained his thinking. And they both
took no trouble about Sositheus.
‘Cleanthes is thus as if he was initiating
the libations to each little by little,
not willing to extend his discourse,
or unable of doing so’.
Then, since someone told Cleanthes that Sositheus announced that [fragment
ridiculing Cleanthes’ lectures]. By chance, Sositheus was present, and
Cleanthes saw him saying something entirely different.30
K-T Sositheus T1 ad F4
29
DL 7.173 (= SVF 1.463a, 1.603 = Hsch. fr. 7.601-05). I agree with KT 107 (against
Günther 1999: 616) that Cleanthes’ answer, which uses ‘hupo tōn poiētōn’ in a rather generic
fashion, does not imply that Sositheus himself mocked Dionysus and Heracles.
30
Phld. Stoic. hist. col. 22-24 (= SVF 1.472). I agree that there is a quotation here, but no
colometry is intended. See the commentary on this passage in Dorandi 1994: 153.
233
Reading Notes on Sositheus
τοῦτ‘ τοῦτ‘ ἦν
ἦν ὁ Κλεάνθης, ὁ Κλεάνθης, ὡς περὶ τὰς τοῦτ’ ἦν ὁ Κλεάνθης,
ὡς περὶ τὰς σπον- σπονδὰς ὡσπερεὶ τὰς σπονδὰς ἑκά-
δὰς ἑκάστῳ ἑκάστῳ μικρὸν ἀπα(ρ)χόμενος, στῳ μικρὸν ἀπαρχόμενος,
μικρὸν ἀπαρχόμενος, πλατῦναι δὲ τὸν λόγον πλατῦναι δὲ τὸν λόγον οὐ-
πλατῦναι δὲ τὸν λόγον οὐ ποτ‘ οὐδέποτ‘ ἐθέλων δέποτ’ ἐθέλων ἢ οὐ δυνάμενος
ἐθέλων ἢ οὐ (δυ)νάμενος ἢ οὐ (δυ)νάμενος
31
DL 7.18-21.
32
Günther (1999: 616) believes that this verse is representative of an earlier stage in
Sositheus’ career; Cozzoli (2003: 290) suggests two different trends in his dramatic poetry. If
the Suda is correct and Sositheus’ floruit happened ca. 284/280 BC, then by the time Cleanthes
became master of the Stoa in 262 BC, Sositheus would have been in his forties or perhaps his
fifties.
234
Danilo Costa Nunes Andrade Leite
Troas. Still, within these two authors’ remains, we can see the rise and fall of
satyr drama’s abuse of historical figures.33
33
Shaw 2014: 136.
34
Shaw 2014: 32, 146.
35
Storey 2014: 95-112.
36
DL 7.169 (= SVF 1.463).
37
Plut. Poet. aud. 33c2-d2 (= SVF 1.562a); Dio Or. 7.102.2-8 (= SVF 1. 562b); Phld. Piet.
13.16-26 (= SVF 1.539); Phld. Mus. 4, col. 28. 1-22 (= SVF 1.486); DL 7.172 (= SVF 1.463, 610).
235
Reading Notes on Sositheus
There are times, too, when he [the friend] combines deeds with words, as did
Menedemus, who chastened the profligate and disorderly son of his friend
Asclepiades by shutting the door on him and not speaking to him. Arcesilaus
forbade Baton from his lecture-room when the latter composed a verse in a
comedy on Cleanthes. It was only after Baton had convinced Cleanthes and
was repentant that Arcesilaus became reconciled with him [sc. admitted him
again into his lectures]. For one ought to hurt a friend only to help him…
(trans. Babbitt modified)43
K-T Lycophron fr. 1-4 (K-T 77-82); DL 2.140; Shaw 2015 136-38; Xanthakis-Karamanos
39
1997: 131-43.
40
He is supposed to have lived for 99 years (Val. Max. 8.7(ext).11.1; Censorinus, DN 15.3).
41
DL 7.170 (= SVF 1.463a).
42
DL 7.179 (= SVF 2.1).
43
Plut. Adul. 55c (= SVF 1.470).
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Danilo Costa Nunes Andrade Leite
thing, to focus on what is within our reach (ta kath’auton)’, and to Arcesilaus,
who agreed with him, he explained his thinking. And they both took no
trouble about Sositheus.44
From Posidippus:
Cecropian jug, pour out the dewy moisture of Bacchus,
pour it out: let the toast we all share be refreshed.
Let Zeno the wise swan be silent and the Muse of Cleanthes.
Let our concern be with love and the bitter-sweet. (trans. Austin)45
They also say that Antigonus, who was listening to him [Cleanthes], once
asked why he drew water and that he answered, ‘Do I do nothing beyond
drawing water? Do I not also dig, and do I not water the land, and do all sorts
of things for the sake of philosophy?’46
The first two texts presented above are epigrams: Timon’s is an elegiac
couplet, comprising one line of hexameter and one of pentameter; that of
Chrysippus is written in two iambic trimeters. Timon is distinctive in tone
and imagery, quoting almost word by word Priam’s question to Helen about
Odysseus47. With great skill, he creates an expectation with the adjective ktílos
(docile, tame, obedient), a reference to Odysseus, in the first line. Both the hero
and the Philosopher are equally tame and docile. The hero, however, is the
docile ram, white, and compact-fleeced leaping graciously through his flock of
men, while Cleanthes is the docile... stone pot used to simmer words, unable to
do its job, as an unwilling mortar. The paradox is intensified in the context of
a negative and parodic comparison to Odysseus, the cunning master of words
and reasoning.
Chrysippus’ epigram is more puzzling since we do not expect a professio
humilitatis from one of the most important Hellenistic philosophers. According
to him, Cleanthes is a kind of misfortune, representing the only thing he cannot
either change or overcome. Ambiguity plays its part here, for we are not told
whether Cleanthean supervision and arguments are bad or surprisingly hard to
beat48 whenever he and his teacher disagrees.
44
Phld. Stoic. hist. col. 22 (= SVF 1.470).
45
AP 5.134 (= GP 1); this epigram raises the problem of which is to be emphasised:
the literal rejection of philosophy or the suspension of rationality and the celebration of
drunkenness? Fantuzzi (2004: 345) prefers the second, while Gutzwiller (1998: 157-61)
bases her interpretation on the probability of Posidippus being a former student of Stoicism,
attributing a biographical and more literal sense to the epigram.
46
DL 7.169 (= SVF 1.463a, 1.597a).
47
Il. 3.196-198.
48
Polemic between master and disciple was common in various fields of study, see for
instance SVF 1.552a, 568.
237
Reading Notes on Sositheus
When a man can lie down with a beautiful woman in his arms,
and have two little pots of Lesbian wine
–this is ‘the thoughtful man’ (ho phronimos), this is ‘the Good’ (t’agathon).
Epicurus used to say what I’m saying now.
If everyone lived the way I do,
no one would be odd or an adulterer. (trans. Olson)49
49
Fr. 18 (= Baton fr.3), see Olson 2018: 232, 253-54, 449.
50
Suda s.v. Kleanthes, in Adler (1928-1935) kappa 1711. See Leite 2019: 1-18.
51
Cic. Nat. D 1.36-41 (= SVF 1.530, 1.531b, 1.532b, 1.534a).
238
Danilo Costa Nunes Andrade Leite
was an amiable, resilient, and tenacious person who could be playful,52, and who
did not take himself too seriously.53
According to the extant biographies, Cleanthes was a poor, unsuccessful
boxer who arrived in Athens as a student; he was a water-carrier (phreantlēs), a
gardener, and a grinder, who worked during the night to pay for his day-time
lessons: ‘he was famous for his love-of-toil’ (epi philoponiai).54 He defended
labour55 and poverty56 as good things: ‘[h]e used to say, justifying the choice
of his way of life to that of the rich, that “while they are playing ball, I am
earning a living by digging a barren ground”’.57 On account of his love of toil,
he was nicknamed ‘the second Heracles’.58 His absolute refusal of pleasure was
transmitted in radical formulae: ‘[he] doesn’t believe that [pleasure] exists in
nature, nor that it has any value (met’ axian echein autēn) for our life, just as
a broom does not exist in nature’.59 Further: ‘if the purpose of life is pleasure,
then prudence [sc. wisdom] must have been given to humankind as a curse’.60
He was compared to a rigid block of bronze, a narrow bottle,61 and an
ass; in most situations, he was clever enough to see the humorous side of the
comparison. The picture offered to us is of someone rather serious, grave, and
dull, but hard to truly annoy. Such anecdotes should not be taken as literal
statements of historical fact; we can assess them in terms of the genre and
intellectual milieu in which they were reproduced. Bearing this in mind, we
see that the profile of Cleanthes differs quite drastically between the 3rd century
and the centuries after that. For Roman poets and Stoics, Cleanthes became a
role-model, quasi-Socratic, a pious sage, his presence in verse and collective
memory parallel to that of Socrates.62 In the centuries that followed, he was first
ridiculed and then praised.
Biographies, anthologies, and lists of philosophers by affiliation have specific
purposes; they tend to conflate and synthesise information, such as anecdotes
and moralising maxims aimed at summarising, exhorting, and teaching. These
texts carry some clues about Cleanthes’ Cynic and Stoic training. For Cynics,
it was essential to develop shamelessness and tolerance to mockery and to
52
Cic. Tusc. 2.60-61 (= SVF 1.607).
53
DL 7.171 (= SVF 1.463a, 605).
54
DL 7.168 (= SVF 1.463a).
55
DL 7.172 (= SVF 1.611b); this anecdote is repeated several times.
56
He was said to have lacked any means of survival and to have used oyster shells and the
shoulder blades of oxen to inscribe his lessons (DL 7.174 = SVF 1.463b, 1.601).
57
DL 7.171 (= SVF 1.463a, 602).
58
Suda s.v. Kleanthes.
59
Sext. Emp. Math. 11.73.4-6 (= SVF 1.574).
60
Stob. Ecl. 3.6.66 (= SVF 1.556).
61
Plut. De rect. rat. 47e1-f3 (= SVF 1.464); Plut. Alc. 6.2, 194b-c (= SVF 1.614).
62
Juv. 2.1-7; Auson. Prof. Burd. 15.1-14; Ps.-Non. Or. 4. hist. 35; Pers. 5.62-72.
239
Reading Notes on Sositheus
Crotus, the son of Eupheme, the nurse of the Muses, lived on Mount Helicon,
where he invented archery. Thanks to the Muses he had wild animals for food,
as is stated by Sositheus. He kept the company of the Muses, listening to them
63
Goulet-Cazé 2016: 22-28; Dudley 1937: 60, and passim.
64
Kotlinska-Toma 2015: 93-110.
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Danilo Costa Nunes Andrade Leite
Sagittarius, ... say... some, was the one named Crotus, the son of Eupheme, the
nurse of the Muses, according to Sositheus the author of tragedies. His home
was on Mount Helicon and he would keep the merry company of the Muses.
He also frequently practised his hunting skills. Through diligence he earned
and achieved great fame, becoming the swiftest in the forest and very sensitive
to the art of the Muses. As a reward to his dedication, the Muses persuaded
Jove to turn him into an astral constellation. (...)
K.T Sositheus T2 ad F5
They say that Sagittarius is Crotus, son of Eupheme, the nurse of the Muses,
as Sositheus the tragedian reports. He lived on Helicon and spent his life as
a hunting archer. On account of the fact that he very often accompanied the
Muses, he distinguished their [different types of] singing with his applause,
which means that he clapped his hands according to the foot [sc. to the rythm];
others were afraid of him. Jove, doing the Muses a favor, raised him up among
the stars. His abilities were retained by mortals: clapping and archery.
K-T Sositheus T3 ad F5 (translation modified)
I add to the group one testimonium from Hyginus that has received less
attention: ‘Crotus, the son of Pan and Eupheme, raised with the Muses, is the
constellation of Sagittarius’.65 Crotus’ parents are not usually considered in
accounts of the play. However, I believe this information to be key to understand
or reconstruct the development of the plot. The association between applause
(krotos), joy and good omens (euphemos, euphemia) appears clearly in the
Muses’ mythic environment, Eupheme being their nurse and her son, Crotus,
being their joyous playmate.
Based on the extant texts, we could summarise the plot as follows: (1)
Crotus is the son of Pan and Eupheme, who nursed the Muses; (2) Crotus was
raised with the Muses in Mount Helicon; (2.1) he was an excellent rider (2.2)
who invented archery (2.3) and to whom the Muses brought wild animals as
prey for hunting; (3) Crotus’ voice was inarticulate; (4) he invented applause to
communicate; (5) Crotus was of service to the Muses; (6) without the reason
why the Muses considered Crotus especially serviceable being made explicit,
they asked Zeus to elevate him with full abilities in a reshaped form, as a centaur
with a satyr’s tail and a bow; (7) Zeus granted their wish, and the catasterism is
accomplished. The key to the plot stands somewhere between (3) and (5).
65
Hyg. Fab. 224.3.4.
241
Reading Notes on Sositheus
The first remarkable thing about this myth is the protagonist’s inability to
talk, a feature that would have made this satyr play stand out among typical
staged myths; this is undoubtedly a significant challenge for the actor playing
Crotus, for the director, and for the poet. We might suppose that this character
expressed positive and negative feelings such as joy and anger through applause
and silence, respectively. The contrast between this protagonist and the likely
figure of Pan and the cheerful chorus of satyrs would have been palpable. Crotus
might have protected the Muses’ virginity from the sexual interest of Pan and
chorus with his bow and arrows or perhaps some other weaponry66.
This hypothesis is incomplete and leaves points (5) to (7) without any
satisfactory development, even more so because there are no extant testimonia
about myths related to Pan trying to rape the Muses.
Something must explain why and how Crotus was serviceable to the
Muses, so diligent and protective indeed that he was turned into a constellation
celebrating his achievements. We know that they were helpful for him: ‘[t]hanks
to the Muses, he had wild animals for food, as is stated by Sositheus’.67 Perhaps
the applause in appreciation for their music and singing would have been
enough for the granting of the wish.
We must accept the account of scholiast on the Germanicus’ Aratea:
‘[o]n the account of the fact that he very often accompanied the Muses, he
distinguished their [different types of] singing with his applause [plausu cantus
earum distinguebat], which means that he clapped his hands according to the
foot [sc. to the rythm] [id est ad pedem manibus plaudebat]; others were afraid
of him…’68
We infer from the scholium that other men refrained from interacting with
Crotus (is…quem alii timerent) and his complex clapping. From Eratosthenes,
however, we know that he learned to express himself, and others would have
eventually understood the meaning of his odd applause. 69 Suppose Crotus
helped humans (or the chorus of satyrs) understand the singing, dancing, and
rhythm by demonstrating the Muses’ work through his own clapping, stomping
66
A fragment from an unknown comediographer might have been as an easy and
recognisable pun linking Pan and Crotus: ‘ei de pān echei kalōs, tōi paigniōi / dote kroton kai
pantes humeis meta charās ktupēsate’ (CAF 771). Literally, this means: ‘if everything [pān] is
well played, to the spectacle / give applause [kroton] and all of you make noise with joy’. In this
context, the pun could be rendered as follows: ‘if Pan is behaving well, to the merriments / give
Crotus and all of you make noise with joy’.
67
Eratosth. [Cat.] 1.28.
68
In Breysig 1867: 90.3; K-T (109), in my opinion, fails to grasp the point of the scholiast,
which she translates as follows: ‘On the account of the fact that he very often accompanied
the Muses, he appreciated their singing with clapping, that is striking his foot with his hands,
something others feared [?]’.
69
K-T F5. I read ‘to gar tēs phonēs asaphes en hupo henos krotou semainomenon’ as ‘for the
inarticulation of his voice was indicated [sc. by him] by one singular type of applause’.
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Danilo Costa Nunes Andrade Leite
(probably also dancing), and perhaps snapping fingers. In that case, he would
certainly have been a friend most serviceable to both the Muses and other
humans. Again, this would have been quite a challenge for the artists involved,
especially the actor. The protagonist would have exhibited a sophisticated form
of communication that only used clapping, snapping fingers, and stomping feet
while dancing, all of which can be translations of krotos. To our best judgement
this is the only extant text – or set of texts – suggesting a mute protagonist,
besides it is the only extant dramatic plot linked explicitly to silent performance
and (possibly) to pantomime. Any strong conclusion about these questions
should be refused, if anything, with this chapter we might reconsider the
available Sosithean texts with clearer sight.
Finally, Crotus would have been able to produce a meaningful connection
between humankind and the Muses.
Conclusion
The two main challenges that we face with regard to Sositheus’ extant
fragments may be synthesised as follows: to what extent did he respect the
distinctions between dramatic genres, especially regarding the satyr play?
I have suggested that Sositheus was chosen by Dioscorides as an author
as relevant or worthwhile as Thespis, Aeschylus, and Sophocles to illustrate the
development of ancient drama. I believe that his satyr play, inspired by Pratinas’
powerful poetic expression, not only challenged the musical trend of his time
but introduced innovations also. I then considered the lesser known of his plays,
which I argued were also satyr plays. If Sositheus wrote a full play about the
Stoic philosopher Cleanthes of Assos, he would have had more than sufficient
material for a satyr play. Crotus involves a typical plot that deals with prōta
heurēmata, first inventions and discoveries that contribute to the development
of culture and civilization, a favourite source of material for satyr plays.70 Crotus
is the son of Pan, a piece of mythical information quite interesting for the
plot. The protagonist was mute, which likely posed a significant challenge in
Hellenistic drama of the 3rd century BC. Although it is hard to determine how
Crotus was serviceable to the Muses, he might have defended the goddesses
from the sexual harassment of his father and the satyr chorus, finally helping
men understand music, dance, and rhythm with his applause.
Certainly, I do not claim to have established the plots of these satyrs plays.
Nevertheless, I believe there was sufficient mythological material for it and I
believe this chapter helps to explain how and why Sositheus’ satyr plays were
70
Steffen 1954-55: 68.
243
Reading Notes on Sositheus
considered notable works, being both respectful to its roots and at the same
time innovative.
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________ (1997), “Echoes of Earlier Drama in Sositheus’ Daphnis and Lycophron’s
Menedemus”, AC 66: 121-143.
Wachsmuth, C; Hense, O. (eds.) (1884-1912), Ioannes Stobaeus: Anthologium, 5 vols.
Berlin.
Wagner, R. (ed.) (1894), Apollodori bibliotheca. Pediasimi libellus de duodecim Herculis
laboribus. Leipzig. [Pseudo-Apollodorus. Bibliotheca]
Wendel, C. (ed.) (1914), Scholia in Theocritum vetera. Leipzig.
West, M. L. (1982), Greek metre. Oxford.
_______ (2002), Crítica textual e técnica editorial. Trad. A. M. R. Rebelo. Lisboa.
Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, U. von. (1921), Griechische Verskunst. Berlin.
_______ (1924), Hellenistische Dichtung in der Zeit des Kallimachos. Berlin.
247
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Fernando Rodrigues Junior
RESUMO: Este artigo tem por objetivo fazer uma breve apresentação da poesia trágica
durante o período helenístico a partir de fragmentos e testemunhos preservados,
argumentando ser equivocada a ideia de decadência atribuída à tragédia a partir do
século IV a.C. O estudo do corpus lacunar e da fortuna crítica dos poetas desse período
possibilita uma percepção – ainda que pouco nítida – das transformações pelas quais
a tragédia passou. Pretende-se, portanto, discutir as diferenças da tragédia helenística
em relação a seu modelo clássico, bem como a reputação de alguns tragediógrafos do
período, considerados modelares pela crítica antiga e sendo somente superados pela
tríade canônica formada por Ésquilo, Sófocles e Eurípides.
PALAVRAS-CHAVE: tragédia, período helenístico, Plêiade, Licofrão.
1
De acordo com Rachet (1973: 238), as inovações de poetas trágicos do início do século
IV a.C. revelariam a decadência do gênero e indicariam seu fim. Cf. também Lucas 1959:
244, Romilly 1970: 153-54 e Easterling 1993: 559-69. Contudo Fantuzzi & Hunter (2004: 432)
enfatizam que “despite the paucity of evidence, there is good reason to believe that tragedy
flourish in the Hellenistic period and remained much more important than our evidence and
the powerful influence of Aristophanes’ Frogs, which seems to announce the ‘death of tragedy’,
might have suggested.”
2
O único poeta trágico poupado das críticas é Agatão, considerado um ἀγαθὸς ποιητής
que se encontrava ausente por ter migrado para a corte macedônica a pedido do rei Arquelau
(vv. 83-85, cf. também Ael. VH 13.4 e Plu. Mor. 177a). Apesar de só terem sido preservados 34
fragmentos atribuídos a Agatão, sua presença como personagem no Banquete de Platão e nas
Tesmoforiantes de Aristófanes sugere que seria um autor bastante conhecido e apreciado. A
primeira vitória de Agatão num agon dramático ocorreu nas Leneias em 416 a.C. (cf. Pl. Symp.
173a e Ath. 217a). Portanto sua produção trágica se situa entre o final do século V e o início
do século IV a.C. Na Poética, Aristóteles atribui a Agatão várias inovações ao gênero trágico,
tais como a inserção dos embolima (cantos intercalados de assunto geral e conexão tênue
com o enredo da peça) no lugar das partes corais (1456a25-9), argumentos que abarcavam
uma epopeia inteira, dificultando as unidades de tempo e espaço recomendadas pelo filósofo
(1456a18-20) e enredos não baseados em narrativas míticas, mas inteiramente criados pelo
poeta, como seria o caso da tragédia Antos ou Anteu (1451b21-23). Para mais informações, cf.
Wright 2016: 59-90.
3
O termo ἐπιφυλλίδες significa pequenas uvas descartadas na hora da vindima. Dionísio
de Halicarnasso (Rh. 10.18) emprega-o metaforicamente para designar os maus poetas.
4
ΗΡ. Οὔκουν ἕτερ’ ἔστ’ ἐνταῦθα μειρακύλλια/τραγῳδίας ποιοῦντα πλεῖν ἢ μυρία,/
Εὐριπίδου πλεῖν ἢ σταδίῳ λαλίστερα;/ ΔΙ. Ἐπιφυλλίδες ταῦτ’ ἐστὶ καὶ στωμύλματα,/χελιδόνων
μουσεῖα, λωβηταὶ τέχνης,/ ἃ φροῦδα θᾶττον, ἢν μόνον χορὸν λάβῃ,/ἅπαξ προσουρήσαντα τῇ
τραγῳδίᾳ./Γόνιμον δὲ ποιητὴν ἂν οὐχ εὕροις ἔτι/ζητῶν ἄν, ὅστις ῥῆμα γενναῖον λάκοι. (Ar. Ra.
vv. 89-97)
250
Fernando Rodrigues Junior
5
Esse tratado – hoje perdido – é citado por Diógenes Laércio 5.88.
6
Tragédias compostas no século V a.C. começaram a ser reencenadas durante o festival
sob a condição hors concours. Em 341, 340 e 339 a.C. três peças de Eurípides foram reencenadas
nas Dionísias Urbanas, Ifigênia, Orestes e uma terceira cujo título não foi preservado (cf. IG ii2
2320, col. ii). A partir do século IV a.C., as inscrições começam a propor uma distinção entre
τραγῳδία παλαιά e τραγῳδία καινή, ou seja, tragédias de autores do passado, provavelmente já
considerados modelares, e tragédias feitas por poetas contemporâneos para concorrerem nos
festivais. Cf. Kotlinsla-Toma 2015: 246-49, Le Guen 2019: 167-77 e Duncan & Liapis 2019: 180-
90. Sobre a participação de tragédias antigas nos concursos trágicos, cf. Pickard-Cambridge
1953: 123-24 e Quintiliano Inst. Or. 10.1.66.
7
Cf. Paus. 1.21.1-2, Papastamati von Moock (2014: 15-76) e Hanink (2017: 60-91).
8
τὸν δέ, ὡς χαλκᾶς εἰκόνας ἀναθεῖναι τῶν ποιητῶν, Αἰσχύλου Σοφοκλέους Εὐριπίδου,
καὶ τὰς τραγῳδίας αὐτῶν ἐν κοινῷ γραψαμένους φυλάττειν καὶ τὸν τῆς πόλεως γραμματέα
παραναγινώσκειν τοῖς ὑποκρινομένοις· οὐκ ἐξεῖναι γὰρ παρ’ αὐτὰς ὑποκρίνεσθαι. (cf. Plu.
Mor. 841f).
9
Cf. Suda α 4264 e 4265. Há uma evidente confusão na Antiguidade entre a produção
de Astidamante, o jovem, e Astidamante, o velho, sobre o qual quase nada sabemos. O único
dado que conhecemos sobre o poeta mais antigo diz respeito à sua primeira performance, em
398 a.C. (cf. D.S. 14.43.5). Quanto a Astidamante, o jovem, as inscrições informam algumas de
suas vitórias nas Dionísias Urbanas (372, 347, 341 e 340 a.C.) e nas Leneias (370 a.C.).
10
De acordo com Diodoro da Sicília (13.103.4), Sófocles teria alcançado dezoito vitórias,
ao passo que Carístio (FGrHist 4.359) enumera vinte êxitos em festivais atenienses. Sobre a
produção de Astidamante, cf. Wright 2016: 101-105.
251
A tragédia grega no período helenístico
11
A base da estátua de Astidamante foi preservada, sendo ainda possível ler a inscrição
ΑΣΤΥ (cf. IG ii2 3772a).
12
Cf. Pausânias Aticista (Σ 6).
13
Cf. Scodel 2006: 148-49.
252
Fernando Rodrigues Junior
14
No entanto é importante fazer a ressalva de que há informação sobre performance
de tragédias no século V a.C. fora do território ático. Ésquilo, a convite do tirano Hierão,
apresentou na Sicília, de acordo com a Vida de Ésquilo §9, a peça Mulheres de Etna, em
homenagem à cidade fundada por Hierão. Segundo o escoliasta de Aristófanes Rãs 1028,
Ésquilo também teria reencenado os Persas em Siracusa. Essa montagem teria ocorrido
aproximadamente em 470 a.C. Eurípides, por sua vez, teria ido, depois de 408 a.C., para a corte
do rei Arquelau na Macedônia (cf. Suda ε 3695). Outros renomados artistas gregos também
se dirigiram à Macedônia a convite do rei, como o pintor Zêuxis, o poeta lírico Timóteo e o
trágico Agatão. Sobre a equiparação do estabelecimento de Ésquilo e Eurípides em cortes fora
de Atenas, cf. Paus. 1.2.2.
15
Sobre os teatros do período, cf. Kotlinska-Toma 2015: 281-88. Quanto ao tamanho
dessas construções, deve-se destacar como exemplo o teatro de Éfeso, capaz de reunir cerca
de 24 mil espectadores. É importante também mencionar os teatros construídos em locais
mais remotos, como Babilônia, Ai-Khanoum (no Afeganistão) Selêucia sobre o Tigre (na
Mesopotâmia) e Tigranocerta (na Armênia). Cf. Le Guen 2019: 157.
16
Cf, Le Guen 2019: 159-161.
17
Cf. Kotlinska-Toma 2015: 264-74.
18
Sobre os artistas de Dioniso, cf. Pickard Cambridge 1953: 286-319, Lightfoot 2008: 245-
63 e Kotlinska-Toma 2015: 275-80.
253
A tragédia grega no período helenístico
254
Fernando Rodrigues Junior
seriam a Exagoge de Ezequiel (e outras peças feitas por autores judeus em língua
grega sobre assuntos bíblicos)25 e o surgimento do drama romano na segunda
metade do século III a.C., quando Livio Andrônico traduziu uma tragédia para
o latim em 240 a.C. por ocasião dos ludi Romani.26
Em segundo lugar, a composição de Agen fornece indícios sobre a maneira
como a poesia dramática foi reelaborada por Píton em resposta aos modelos
anteriores. O teatro helenístico se insere num ambiente específico de discussão
poética e adaptação dos cânones a novos contextos, de modo que a disparidade
em relação à tragédia e à comédia clássicas não deve ser compreendida como
falha de composição, mas contribuição a gêneros em constante transformação.
Apesar de ser denominado um drama satírico por Ateneu, Agen não parece
possuir um coro de sátiros, se for possível afirmar isso a partir dos escassos
fragmentos que chegaram até nós. O enredo também se distanciaria dos
argumentos recorrentes explorados nos dramas satíricos do século V a.C.,
pois a ação se passa na época da expedição militar de Alexandre e teria como
protagonista Harpalo, amigo de infância do monarca macedônio e tesoureiro
real. Ou seja, os soldados assistiriam, às margens do Hidaspes, uma peça
cuja trama abarca eventos contemporâneos, ao contrário dos enredos míticos
exibidos pelos dramas satíricos, tais como o Ciclope de Eurípides ou os Ichneutai
de Sófocles.
Harpalo se envolveu num caso de corrupção pouco conhecido em 333 a.C.,
sendo forçado a fugir para Mégara. Alexandre acabou por lhe conceder uma
segunda oportunidade dois anos após o escândalo ter eclodido e o designou
novamente para o cargo de administrador do tesouro, contudo ele cometeu
os mesmos delitos na esperança de que o amigo nunca regressasse de sua
expedição militar. Ao ser informado sobre o retorno do rei, Harpalo decidiu
fugir novamente para outras localidades, como Atenas, até ser assassinado em
25
Ezequiel foi um tragediógrafo judeu, provavelmente residente em Alexandria no século
II a.C., autor de uma peça intitulada Exagoge. Trata-se da tragédia helenística com maior
número de versos preservados (269 trímetros jâmbicos), graças às citações feitas por Eusébio
de Cesareia em Preparação ao Evangelho. O enredo abarcaria a revolta liderada por Moisés
contra os egípcios e a travessia pelo Mar Vermelho em direção à terra prometida. Havia outros
autores no período que também compunham tragédias em língua grega sobre temas bíblicos,
como Nicolau de Damasco (cf. Eustáquio de Tessalônica em Comentário a Dionísio Periegeta
976.52-3) e Teodectes (cf. Carta de Aristeas §136), provavelmente tendo como público-alvo a
comunidade judaica que habitava Alexandria. Cf. Kotlinska-Toma 2015: 199-242 e Lanfranchi
2019: 125-146.
26
Cf. Cic. Brut. 18.72-73, A. Gell. 17.21.42 e T. Liv. 7.2. Segundo Fantham (2008: 116),
“because Roman merchants and soldiers had seen tragic performance in Greek theatres of
Tarentum and Syracuse during the campaigns against Pyrrhus and the Carthaginians, they
wanted to introduce this kind of drama at Rome, and in 240 BC Livius Andronicus, a Tarentine
Greek who bore the name of his Roman patron, was commissioned to translate – or rather
adapt – a tragedy and a comedy for the victory games.”
255
A tragédia grega no período helenístico
Segundo Kotlinska-Toma (2015: 122), essa cena teria como finalidade apresentar
28
256
Fernando Rodrigues Junior
257
A tragédia grega no período helenístico
258
Fernando Rodrigues Junior
agenda política fomentada por Alexandre com o objetivo claro de se antepor aos
inimigos e se apresentar como um general triunfante que estabelece a ordem
e corrige os vícios. Apesar das peculiaridades de composição e encenação,
Agen pode ser considerado um marco importante para o teatro helenístico,
antecipando transformações relevantes que moldarão uma poesia dramática
propositalmente distinta do modelo clássico estabelecido pelos dramaturgos do
século V a.C.
Agen é a única obra de Píton conhecida e o nome do poeta jamais figura
entre os principais representantes do drama helenístico. Pouco sabemos sobre
ele e, com exceção da performance dessa peça durante a expedição militar de
Alexandre, nada mais pode ser dito com segurança.37 O auge da tragédia no
período helenístico ocorre algumas décadas depois da encenação de Agen,
quando a maior parte dos poetas considerados relevantes pela crítica antiga
atuava em Alexandria, na corte de Ptolomeu II Filadelfo (282-46 a.C.). De
acordo com vários testemunhos coletados no Suda e nos escólios de Hefestião,
havia nessa época um grupo ativo de sete tragediógrafos destacados pela
qualidade de suas peças, denominado Plêiade (possivelmente a posteriori) em
referência às sete estrelas da constelação de Touro.38 A menção mais antiga a
esse grupo aparece em Estrabão (14.5.15), indicando que pelo menos desde o
final do século I a.C. ele já seria conhecido, conquanto seus membros variem
segundo as fontes consultadas. Querobosco (in Heph. 236-4-14 Consbr.) fornece
uma explicação e enumera os seguintes autores:
Ἰστέον ὅτι ἐπὶ τῶν χρόνων Πτολεμαίου τοῦ Φιλαδέλφου ἑπτὰ ἄριστοι γεγόνασι
τραγικοί, οὓς Πλειάδα ἐκάλεσαν διὰ τὸ λαμπροὺς εἶναι ἐν τῇ τραγικῇ ὡς τὰ
ἄστρα τῆς Πλειάδος. εἰσὶ δὲ οὗτοι· Ὅμηρος, οὐχ ὁ ποιητής (περὶ τραγικῶν γὰρ
ὁ λόγος), ἀλλ’ ὁ Μυροῦς τῆς ποιητρίας υἱὸς τῆς Βυζαντίας, καὶ Σωσίθεος καὶ
Λυκόφρων καὶ Ἀλέξανδρος, Αἰαντιάδης, Σωσιφάνης καὶ οὗτος ὁ Φίλικος. τινὲς
ἀντὶ τοῦ Αἰαντιάδου καὶ Σωσιφάνους Διονυσιάδην καὶ Εὐφρόνιον τῇ Πλειάδι
συντάττουσιν.
37
Kotlinska-Toma (2015: 115) estabelece uma conexão entre o autor de Agen e Píton de
Bizâncio, um orador ativo na corte de Filipe II. No entanto Ateneu (50f e 586d) não informa
com precisão se Píton seria de Bizâncio ou de Catana. Talvez houvesse dois autores homônimos
que passaram, em algum momento, a ser confundidos.
38
cf. Suda (α 1127, δ 1169, λ 827, o 253, σ 860 e 863, φ 358), Σ A in Heph. p.140 Consbr.
e Σ B in Heph. p.279 Consbr. Nos escólios da Alexandra de Licofrão (p. 4 Scheer), Tzetzes
apresenta equivocadamente a Plêiade como um grupo de poetas ativos durante o reinado
de Prolomeu II Filadelfo e Berenice, sem qualquer delimitação ao gênero trágico. Nessa lista
estão incluídos Teócrito, Arato, Nicandro, Eantíades, Apolônio, Filisco, Homero de Bizâncio e
Licofrão.
259
A tragédia grega no período helenístico
como as estrelas da Plêiade. Eles eram Homero, não o poeta (pois aqui se fala
de tragediógrafos), mas o filho da poetisa Miro de Bizâncio, Sositeu, Licofrão,
Alexandre, Eantíades, Sosífanes e Filico. Alguns, no lugar de Eantíades e
Sosífanes, inserem Dionisíades e Eufrônio na Plêiade.
Cf. Tz. Prol. Comm. 1.1-5. O Suda (α 1127 e λ 827) também afirma que Alexandre
40
260
Fernando Rodrigues Junior
43
Fora da Plêiade, Tímon de Fliunte teria composto 60 tragédias e 30 comédias (cf. D.L.
9.110).
44
Λυκόφρων, Χαλκιδεὺς ἀπὸ Εὐβοίας, υἱὸς Σωκλέους, θέσει δὲ Λύκου τοῦ Ῥηγίνου·
γραμματικὸς καὶ ποιητὴς τραγῳδιῶν. ἔστι γοῦν εἷς τῶν ἑπτὰ οἵτινες Πλειὰς ὠνομάσθησαν. εἰσὶ
δὲ αἱ τραγῳδίαι αὐτοῦ Αἰόλος, Ἀνδρομέδα, Ἀλήτης, Αἰολίδης, Ἐλεφήνωρ, Ἡρακλῆς, Ἱκέται,
Ἱππόλυτος, Κασσανδρεῖς, Λάϊος, Μαραθώνιοι, Ναύπλιος, Οἰδίπους αʹ, βʹ, Ὀρφανός, Πενθεύς,
Πελοπίδαι, Σύμμαχοι, Τηλέγονος, Χρύσιππος. διασκευὴ δ’ ἐστὶν ἐκ τούτων ὁ Ναύπλιος.
ἔγραψε καὶ τὴν καλουμένην Ἀλεξάνδραν, τὸ σκοτεινὸν ποίημα. (Suda λ 827)
45
Cf. Ath. 110b e Carta de Aristeas (§310).
46
Cf. D. Chr. 32.94.
47
Um paralelo helenístico à revisão de uma obra seria a προέκδοσις das Argonáuticas
de Apolônio de Rodes, circunscrita ao primeiro livro da epopeia. Há também, no catálogo
de tragédias de Licofrão no Suda, menção a duas peças com o mesmo nome, Édipo 1 e Édipo
2. Talvez sejam duas tragédias com título similar e enredos diferentes ou Édipo 2 seria uma
revisão (διασκευή) de Édipo 1.
261
A tragédia grega no período helenístico
48
Kotlinska-Toma (2015:161-78) enumera dezenas de tragediógrafos cuja existência
sabemos somente por conta de inscrições, indicando, portanto, que seriam ativos no contexto
dos festivais onde suas peças seriam encenadas. A maior parte desses autores só é conhecida
graças à epigrafia, como é o caso de Menelau do Pireu, Calipo de Tebas e Polemeu de Éfeso.
Os nomes dos autores da Plêiade nunca aparecem nessas inscrições sobre atividade teatral,
competições e prêmios.
49
Como nota Turner (1976: 19), “a cursory examination of dramatic trimeters shows that
sigma often occurs up to three or four times in a single trimeter; a random test of on 100 verses
in Aeschylus’ Septem offered only 8 verses without sigma, only 2 of which were consecutive.”
Sobre o excesso de sibilantes nos versos de Eurípides, cf. Platão Cômico (fr. 29 K.A.). De
acordo com Dionísio de Halicarnasso (Comp. 14.80), o som produzido pela letra sigma não
seria agradável e seu excesso se equipararia ao ruído oriundo de um animal irracional.
50
No entanto Dionísio de Halicarnasso (Comp. 14.80) cita Píndaro como exemplo de
poeta que se valeu do assigmatismo em alguns de seus versos. Ateneu (455c), por sua vez,
atribui os mesmos versos citados a Laso de Hermíone.
262
Fernando Rodrigues Junior
51
Cf. Suda (ν 261).
52
Cf. Suda (τ 1111) e Eustáquio Commentarii ad Homeri Odysseam 1.2.16.
53
Não se pode ignorar a possibilidade de essa peça ser a reescritura assigmática de uma
tragédia de Ésquilo, Sófocles ou Eurípides desconhecida. Cf. Turner 1976: 21.
54
Σωσίθεος, Συρακούσιος ἢ Ἀθηναῖος, μᾶλλον δὲ Ἀλεξανδρεὺς τῆς Τρωϊκῆς
Ἀλεξανδρείας· τῶν τῆς Πλειάδος εἷς, ἀνταγωνιστὴς Ὁμήρου τοῦ τραγικοῦ τοῦ υἱοῦ Μυροῦς
τῆς Βυζαντίας· (Suda σ 860)
55
Σωσιφάνης, Σωσικλέους, Συρακούσιος, τραγικός. ἐδίδαξε δράματα ογʹ, ἐνίκησε δὲ
ζʹ. ἔστι δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ἐκ τῶν ζʹ τραγικῶν, οἵτινες ὠνομάσθησαν Πλειάς. ἐγένετο δὲ ἐπὶ τῶν
τελευταίων χρόνων Φιλίππου, οἱ δὲ Ἀλεξάνδρου τοῦ Μακεδόνος. τελευτᾷ δὲ ριαʹ ὀλυμπιάδι,
οἱ δὲ ριδʹ· οἱ δὲ ἀκμάσαι αὐτὸν γράφουσι. (Suda σ 863)
263
A tragédia grega no período helenístico
56
Cf. Arist. Rh. 1413b13. De acordo com Wright (2016: 127-28), nessa passagem
Aristóteles “discusses the written style in drama and also identifies a special category of poets –
including Chaeremon – who are especially suitable for reading. (…) Of course (as critics have
been quick to point out) the term anagnostikos does not mean that Chaeremon wrote his plays
exclusively for reading, but Aristotle’s contrast between two distinct sorts of tragic writing is
certainly suggestive.”
57
Cf. nota 44.
58
Não sabemos se o enredo dessa tragédia trataria das filhas de Dânao (como em
Ésquilo), do ciclo tebano (como em Eurípides) ou de qualquer outro ciclo mítico.
59
O único fragmento preservado de Pelópidas é citado por Estobeu (4.52.4). Por se tratar
de uma sentença de caráter geral sobre o anseio pela morte aos jovens e sofredores e sobre o
apego à vida aos que se aproximam do fim da existência, não é possível inferir o recorte mítico
abordado.
60
Enredos sobre essa personagem seriam explorados por Ésquilo (Sísifo fugitivo e Sísifo
rolando pedras), Sófocles (Sísifo) e Crítias (Sísifo). Eurípides teria escrito um drama satírico
chamado Sísifo.
61
Segundo o escoliasta de Aristófanes Nuvens 255, Sófocles escreveu duas tragédias
intituladas Atamante. Outras tragédias sobre essa personagem também teriam sido escritas por
Ésquilo (Atamante) e Astidamante, o jovem (Atamante), além de um drama satírico intitulado
Atamante atribuído a Xenocles. Outro eólida frequentemente explorado pelos tragediógrafos
do período clássico era Frixo, filho de Atamante. Peças sobre ele são atribuídas a Aqueu
(Frixo), Sófocles (Frixo), Eurípides (Frixo 1 e 2) e Timocles (Frixo).
264
Fernando Rodrigues Junior
62
Peças sobre Tiro, filha de Salmoneu e esposa de Creteu, também poderiam ser
englobadas na categoria de enredos sobre os eólidas. Duas tragédias intituladas Tiro são
atribuídas a Sófocles, uma a Astidamante, o jovem, e uma a Carcino.
63
A busca por matéria mítica recôndita e com pouca expressão na literatura é frequente
em parte dos autores helenísticos. Exemplos disso seriam as várias narrativas locais relatadas
por Calímaco nos Aetia, como Héracles e Tiodamante (fr. 24-25 Pf), Lino e Corebo (fr. 26-31
Pf), Héracles e Molorco (fr. 54-59 Pf), Acôncio e Cídipe (fr. 67=75 Pf) e Frígio e Piéria (fr.
80-83 Pf). Outros exemplos dessa seleção de matéria pouco usual são a história da anciã
Hécale acolhendo hospitaleiramente Teseu no poema épico Hécale de Calímaco, a presença
do pastor Dáfnis ou do jovem Polifemo nos idílios de Teócrito ou as inúmeras referências a
versões pouco conhecidas ou a personagens obscuras na Alexandra de Licofrão, como o
anti-heroísmo de Epeu e a impiedade de seu pai Panopeu, (vv 930-50), a chegada de Teucro,
Agapenor, Acamante, Praxandros e Cefeu a Chipre (vv. 447-591) ou o destino trágico das
Sirenas Partênopa, Leucósia e Ligia após a vitória de Odisseu sobre elas (vv. 712-37).
64
Para mais informações sobre esse mito obscuro, cf. Tz. Ad Lyc. 1034.
65
Cf. Arist. Rh. 1400b9-16.
265
A tragédia grega no período helenístico
66
West 2007: 1-10.
67
Segundo Pausânias (2.3.11), Medeia, nas Corintíacas de Eumelo, deixou os filhos no
santuário de Hera esperando que a deusa os tornasse imortais, mas as crianças acabaram
morrendo e por esse motivo Jasão abandonou a esposa. Pausânias (2.3.7) também relata a
existência de um culto em Corinto às crianças mortas, cuja tumba se situava no santuário da
deusa (cf. também os escólios de Eurípides a Medeia 264). Na versão do historiador Creófilo
(cf. escólios de Eurípides a Medeia 264 = FGrHist 417F3), após assassinar Creonte Medeia foge
para Atenas e deixa os filhos junto ao altar de Hera Akraia, supondo que seriam protegidos por
Jasão. Porém os parentes de Creonte matam as crianças e espalham o rumor de que o crime
teria sido cometido pela própria mãe, motivo pelo qual teria sido atribuída a Medeia a fama de
infanticida.
68
Taplin (2014: 150-54) sugere que as crianças estariam no santuário de Elêusis.
69
Por esse motivo Taplin (2014:151) considera a Medeia de Carcino uma tragédia anti-
canônica.
70
Cf. Xanthakis-Karamanos 1979: 99-103. Outro exemplo de variação a um enredo
mítico explorado por poetas do século V a.C. seria desenvolvido na tragédia Alcmeão de
Astidamante. A história do assassinato de Erifile pelo próprio filho vingando seu pai teria sido
tratada por Ésquilo (Epígonos), Sófocles (Alcmeão e Epígonos), Eurípides (Alcmeão em Psófis
e Alcmeão em Corinto) e Agatão (Alcmeão). De acordo com Aristóteles (Po. 1453b29-33), na
peça de Astidamante o crime de Alcmeão teria sido cometido na condição de ignorância e
somente depois do assassinato haveria o reconhecimento da relação de parentesco. Aristóteles
elogia esse tipo de reconhecimento e o justapõe ao de Édipo e Jocasta em Édipo Rei de Sófocles
(Po. 1454a2-4).
266
Fernando Rodrigues Junior
dia em que a nau de Páris parte de Tróia rumo à Grécia.71 O discurso profético
relata a queda de Troia, o estupro da própria Cassandra, cometido por Ájax, e
o sofrimento gerado aos gregos por conta desse crime, numa longa sequência
de narrativas de retorno (νόστοι) que ocupa quase dois terços do poema (vv.
417-1225). No final, é antevisto o êxito dos troianos sobreviventes através da
fuga de Eneias e da futura ascensão de Roma, considerada um poder maior (vv.
1226-82).72 A linguagem do poema é carregada de neologismos, totalizando
cerca de um quinto do léxico utilizado , bem como as personagens, na grande
maioria, são aludidas por meio de perífrases, metonímias ou sinédoques,
tendo raramente os nomes mencionados.73 A erudição de Licofrão se nota não
somente pelo estilo erudito adotado, mas também pela seleção de narrativas
míticas pouco conhecidas, mesmo quando relacionadas a personagens bastante
exploradas na literatura. O título dado ao poema ilustra o caráter recôndito
e inusual pretendido pelo autor. Segundo o escoliasta, o nome Alexandra
conferido à personagem talvez derive da castidade de Cassandra, pois ela
repeliria o contato com os homens, ou do auxílio prestado por meio de suas
profecias.74 Podemos adicionar a essa explicação etimológica a duplicidade do
71
Nos Cantos Cíprios (cf. Procl. Chr. 93-94), Cassandra faria uma profecia similar nesse
exato momento.
72
Por conta da referência à ascensão de Roma, há uma antiga discussão entre os
comentadores sobre a autoria e a datação de Alexandra. Para Niebuhr (1827: 108-17), esse
poema não poderia ter sido composto antes da batalha de Cinoscéfalas (197 a.C.) e da
conquista romana da Grécia, de modo que seu autor não seria o membro da Plêiade mas um
outro Licofrão. Adepta dessa hipótese, Kosmetatou (2000: 32-53) pressupõe que Alexandra
inclui elementos de propaganda da dinastia atálida ao longo da profecia de Cassandra,
sendo obra de um poeta fomentado pela corte de Pérgamo. “If indeed Lycophron lived and
worked at Pergamon during the early second century B.C., he was probably part of a wider
circle of scholars who tirelessly worked in support of Attalid policies and propaganda. This
association, as well as his contemporary Attalid foreign policy, may have provided him with
a unique opportunity to travel to Rome and study the Italian history and its mythological
tradition.(…) Evidence from the poem suggests that the Roman-Pergamene security alliance
which led to Flamininus’s victory over Philip V at Kynoskephalai, offered the opportunity
for the composition of the Alexandra in the years between 196-194 B.C.” (cf. Kosmetatou
2000: 52). West (1984: 127-51), por sua vez, defende que Alexandra teria sido composta pelo
Licofrão pertencente à Plêiade, mas as passagens sobre a grandeza romana constituiriam
uma interpolação tardia. Como nota a autora, “given the loosely episodic structure of the
poem’s central section, an ingenious critic could no doubt find grounds for questioning
the authenticity of a large proportion of the work” (cf. West 1984: 128). Se as passagens em
questão não tiverem sido interpoladas tardiamente, a profecia sobre a hegemonia romana seria
inverossímil antes de, pelo menos, o término da Primeira Guerra Púnica (264-41 a.C.), fato
que pressuporia uma datação a partir da segunda metade do século III a.C.
73
Cf. Mcnelis & Sens 2006: 8.
74
διὰ τί Λυκόφρονος Ἀλεξάνδρα ἐπεγράφη τὸ παρὸν ποίημα; πρὸς ἀντιδιαστολὴν τῶν
λοιπῶν τοῦ Λυκόφρονος συγγραμμάτων· εἶπον γὰρ ὅτι ξδʹ ἢ μϛʹ τραγωδιῶν ἐποίησε δράματα.
Κασάνδρα δὲ λέγεται παρὰ τὸ κάσιν ἀνδρεῖον ἔχειν τὸν Ἕκτορα αἰολικῶς δὲ γράφεται διὰ δύο
σσ Ἀλεξάνδρα δὲ ἢ παρὰ τὸ ἀλύξαι καὶ ἐκφυγεῖν τὴν τῶν ἀνδρῶν συνουσίαν ἢ παρὰ τὸ ἀλέξειν
καὶ βοηθεῖν τοῖς ἀνδράσιν ἤτοι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις διὰ τῶν χρησμῶν. (cf. Tz. ad Lyc. 80-87).
267
A tragédia grega no período helenístico
75
Cf. Paus. 3.26.5.
76
Cf. Kotlinska-Toma 2015:83.
268
Fernando Rodrigues Junior
com algum interesse político propagado pela corte ptolomaica que financiava a
composição dessas tragédias. Os atos perpetrados por generais e monarcas dos
reinos helenísticos começam a se tornar matéria explorada nas tragédias com
finalidades propagandistas ou encomiásticas, de modo similar ao já notado no
drama satírico Agen de Píton.
Outra tragédia sobre um acontecimento recente seria Homens de Feras de
Mósquion, poeta que, embora não integrasse a Plêiade, era bastante renomado
no período helenístico.77 O único fragmento preservado possui conteúdo
gnômico, não permitindo deduzir as linhas gerais da trama. Talvez o enredo
se centrasse no comportamento cruel do tirano Alexandre de Feras,78 ou seu
assassinato realizado a mando da própria esposa,79 receando ser substituída
por outra mulher.80 Como nota Kotlinska-Toma, a cena da morte do marido
poderia estabelecer algum vínculo com a cena de Agamêmnon traiçoeiramente
assassinado pelo amante de Clitemnestra, propondo um paralelismo entre um
relato mítico e um evento histórico recente.81
77
A fama de Mósquion e o impacto de suas tragédias pode ser inferido pelo fato de ele
aparecer entalhado num par de copos de prata encontrado na vila romana de Boscoreale
(século I), junto a outros ilustres autores gregos como Menandro, Eurípides, Arquíloco,
Epicuro, Zenão, Demétrio de Falero e Sófocles, todos representados no formato de esqueletos.
(cf. Kotlinska-Toma 2015: 127-28). A presença de Mósquion sugere que ele seria bastante
apreciado a ponto de ser justaposto e equiparado a outros trágicos do passado classificados
como canônicos.
78
Cf. Plu. Pel. 29.7 e D.S. 15.75.
79
Cf. Plu. Pel. 35.6.
80
Cf. Cic. De Off. 2.7.25.
81
Cf. Kotlinska-Toma 2015: 132. O único fragmento preservado que sem dúvida faria
parte de Homens de Feras, como já foi mencionado, é citado por Estobeu (4.57.3): Torturar
a sombra de um homem morto é inútil./O correto é castigar os vivos, não os mortos. (κενὸν
θανόντος ἀνδρὸς αἰκίζειν σκιάν·/ζῶντας κολάζειν, οὐ θανόντας εὐσεβές). De acordo com o
historiador Teopompo (FGrHist 115F352), o corpo do tirano Alexandre foi jogado ao mar e
posteriormente trazido de volta à praia por um pescador. O relato do cadáver de Alexandre
vilipendiado pelos cidadãos de Feras é mencionado por Plutarco (Pel. 35.7). Em conexão
com esse possível enredo à peça, há um longo fragmento atribuído a Mósquion pertencente
a uma peça citada por Estobeu (1.8.38), no qual é discutida a passagem do homem do
estado de natureza para a civilização, culminando com uma reflexão sobre a prática de
sepultar os mortos: Primeiramente eu retornarei e, com um discurso,/revelarei a origem e o
ordenamento da vida mortal./Outrora havia uma época em que os mortais viviam/mantendo
um comportamento semelhante às feras./Eles habitavam as cavernas montanhosas/e as
ravinas sem sol. Ainda não havia/nem casas com telhados, nem largas/ cidades fortificadas
com torres pétreas./Nem a terra (a negra nutriz do fruto/fecundo) era cortada pelos curvos
arados,/nem o diligente ferro cultivava/as florescentes fileiras do vinho báquico,/mas o solo era
pacato fluindo (...)./Hábitos carnívoros eram mantidos por meio/de uma matança mútua. A
Lei era insignificante/e a Violência compartilhava o trono com Zeus./Os fracos eram o repasto
dos mais fortes./Então o tempo, que gera e alimenta tudo,/alterou completamente a vida dos
mortais,/ou por conta das preocupações de Prometeu,/ou por conta da necessidade, ou, através
de longa prática,/fazendo da própria natureza o seu professor./Então foi descoberto o alimento
civilizado/da sacra Deméter, foi descoberta a doce/fonte de Baco e o solo previamente não
269
A tragédia grega no período helenístico
semeado/agora é lavrado por bois jungidos./Cidades são rodeadas por torres e são construídas/
casas cobertas. Vieram de um comportamento/selvagem para um estilo de vida civilizado./
Então foi formulada a lei referente a esconder/os mortos em tumbas e os cadáveres insepultos/
receberem como lote o pó, para que, longe dos olhos,/eles não rememorem o antigo e ímpio
festim. (πρῶτον δ’ ἄνειμι καὶ διαπτύξω λόγῳ/ἀρχὴν βροτείου καὶ κατάστασιν βίου./ἦν γάρ
ποτ’ αἰὼν κεῖνος, ἦν ποθ’ ἡνίκα/ θηρσὶ<ν> διαίτας εἶχον ἐμφερεῖς βροτοί,/ὀρειγενῆ σπήλαια
καὶ δυσηλίους/φάραγγας ἐνναίοντες· οὐδέπω γὰρ ἦν/οὔτε στεγήρης οἶκος οὔτε λαΐνοις/
εὐρεῖα πύργοις ὠχυρωμένη πόλις./οὐ μὴν ἀρότροις ἀγκύλοις ἐτέμνετο/μέλαινα καρποῦ βῶλος
ὀμπνίου τροφός,/οὐδ’ ἐργάτης σίδηρος εὐιώτιδος/θάλλοντας οἴνης ὀρχάτους ἐτημέλει,/ἀλλ’
ἦν ἀκύμων †κωφεύουσα ῥέουσα γῆ./βοραὶ δὲ σαρκοβρῶτες ἀλληλοκτόνους/παρεῖχον αὐτοῖς
δαῖτας· ἦν δ’ ὁ μὲν νόμος/ταπεινός, ἡ βία δὲ σύνθρονος Διί·/ὁ δ’ ἀσθενὴς ἦν τῶν ἀμεινόνων
βορά./ἐπεὶ δ’ ὁ τίκτων πάντα καὶ τρέφων χρόνος/τὸν θνητὸν ἠλλοίωσεν ἔμπαλιν βίον,/εἴτ’
οὖν μέριμναν τὴν Προμηθέως σπάσας/εἴτ’ οὖν ἀνάγκην εἴτε τῇ μακρᾷ τριβῇ/αὐτὴν παρασχὼν
τὴν φύσιν διδάσκαλον,/τόθ’ ηὑρέθη μὲν καρπὸς ἡμέρου τροφῆς/Δήμητρος ἁγνῆς, ηὑρέθη δὲ
Βακχίου/γλυκεῖα πηγή, γαῖα δ’ ἡ πρὶν ἄσπορος/ἤδη ζυγουλκοῖς βουσὶν ἠροτρεύετο,/ἄστη δ’
ἐπυργώσαντο καὶ περισκεπεῖς/ἔτευξαν οἴκους καὶ τὸν ἠγριωμένον/εἰς ἥμερον δίαιταν ἤγαγον
βίον./κἀκ τοῦδε τοὺς θανόντας ὥρισεν νόμος/τύμβοις καλύπτειν κἀπιμοιρᾶσθαι κόνιν/νεκροῖς
ἀθάπτοις, μηδ’ ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς ἐᾶν/τῆς πρόσθε θοίνης μνημόνευμα δυσσεβοῦς.). Estobeu
(4.57.14) cita outro fragmento de Mósquion que talvez pertencesse à mesma peça de onde
o longo trecho citado acima foi retirado: Qual é o benefício de maltratar os mortos?/Por que
ultrajar mais a terra muda?/Uma vez que a percepção, capaz de distinguir/o prazeroso e o
doloroso, já se acabou,/o corpo assume a forma de uma obtusa rocha. (τί κέρδος οὐκέτ’ ὄντας
αἰκίζειν νεκρούς;/τί τὴν ἄναυδον γαῖαν ὑβρίζειν πλέον;/ἐπὰν γὰρ ἡ κρίνουσα καὶ θἠδίονα/καὶ
τἀνιαρὰ φροῦδος αἴσθησις φθαρῇ,/τὸ σῶμα κωφοῦ τάξιν εἴληφεν πέτρου). Para Xanthakis-
Karamanos (1981: 416-17), o conteúdo etiológico dessa longa passagem teria como objetivo
explicar o costume de enterrar os mortos como derivado da vida civilizada e se coadunaria
com um debate sobre a recusa de sepultamento. Talvez os dois fragmentos citados por Estobeu
pertencessem ao final de Homens de Feras, no momento em que a população local negaria
conceder ao tirano morto os ritos fúnebres por causa de sua extrema crueldade enquanto vivo.
82
O único fragmento preservado dessa peça descreve um confronto entre um pequeno
grupo de homens e um grande exército (cf. Stob. 4.10.17): Pois no vale, pelo curto/ferro,
muitos galhos de pinheiro são cortados/e uma pequena multidão conquista milhares de lanças
(καὶ γὰρ ἐν νάπαις βραχεῖ/πολὺς σιδήρῳ κείρεται πεύκης κλάδος,/καὶ βαιὸς ὄχλος μυρίας
λόγχης κρατεῖ).
83
Deve-se ainda mencionar, no catálogo de obras de Licofrão, a existência de uma peça
intitulada Aliados (Σύμμαχοι), a respeito da qual nada sabemos exceto que o título se vale de
270
Fernando Rodrigues Junior
um jargão militar, talvez insinuando algum enredo político em tom propagandista, exaltando
ou insuflando uma associação entre reinos distintos tendo em vista algum objetivo preciso.
84
A ideia de tragédia histórica é bastante discutível, uma vez que, nesse contexto, não
há um liame preciso separando os conceitos de história e mito. Como nota Sistakou (2016:
81), “the issue is blurred by the generally accepted view that myth and history differ only as
regards their distance from the present and not their authenticity according to the ancients.”
Durante o período helenístico, também se intensificou a redação de poemas épicos sobre
eventos históricos contemporâneos, provavelmente integrados a um a agenda política própria
dos monarcas que fomentavam tal produção. Se esses textos tivessem chegado até nós, talvez
fosse possível estabelecer alguma relação com as tragédias históricas coetâneas. Também é
possível estabelecer uma conexão com a fabula praetexta da literatura latina, explorada por
poetas como Névio (Rômulo e Clastídio), Ênio (Sabinas), Pacúvio (Paulo) e Ácio (Décio e
Bruto). De forma similar às tragédias históricas gregas, os latinos adaptavam ao drama mitos
relativos à história remota de Roma ou eventos contemporâneos como a vitória na batalha
de Clastídio contra os gauleses em 222 a.C. ou a derrota de Perseu, rei da Macedônia, pelo
exército do cônsul Lúcio Emílio Paulo em 168 a.C. Apesar de Horácio afirmar na Arte Poética
(vv. 285-88) que a fabula praetexta seria uma invenção genuinamente latina, os modelos de
poesia dramática grega já abordavam esse tipo de argumento.
85
Cf. A. Gell. 10.18.5-7.
86
Dimas de Iasos foi duas vezes homenageado pelos cidadãos da Samotrácia durante
as Dionísias locais por conta de sua peça Dárdano, sobre o herói samotrácio filho de Zeus
e Electra, fundador de Dardânia e Troia. De acordo com Diodoro da Sicília (5.48.3), ele foi
o primeiro a migrar para a Ásia. A tragédia teria um tom laudatório a um herói local, sendo
talvez comissionada pelos próprios samotrácios. Nicômaco de Alexandria na Trôade, por sua
vez, compôs tragédias sobre mitos e heróis conectados à história da cidade de Troia. Como
salienta Kotlinska-Toma (2015: 31), “the poets would in addition willingly reach for the local
histories of their poleis and sing the praises of their homeland.” Imbuído dessa perspectiva,
segundo Cristodoro de Tebas (AP 2.412-13), Homero de Bizâncio escreveu tragédias
almejando adornar sua cidade-natal.
87
Cf. Lobel 1950: 205-16.
271
A tragédia grega no período helenístico
88
Cf. Page 1951: 5-12 e 21-25.
89
Cf. Ath. 620d.
272
Fernando Rodrigues Junior
Bibliografia
273
A tragédia grega no período helenístico
274
Fernando Rodrigues Junior
Taplin, O.P. (2014), “How pots and papyri might prompt a re-evaluation of fourth-cen-
tury tragedy”, in E. Csapo et al. (eds.), Greek Theatre in the fourth century. Berlin,
Boston, 141-56.
Turner, E.G. (1976), “Papyrus Bodmer XXVIII: a satyr play on the confrontation of Her-
acles and Atlas”, MH 33: 1-23.
Vinagre, M.A. (2001), “Tragedia griega del siglo IV A.C. y tragédia helenística”, Habis
32: 81-95.
Xanthakis-Karamanos, G. (1980), Studies in fourth century tragedy. Athenai.
________ (1981), “Remarks on Moschion’s account of progress”, CQ 31: 410-17.
________ (1997), “Echoes of earlier drama in Sositheus’ Daphnis and Lycophron’s Me-
nedemus”, AC 66: 121-43.
West, M.L. (2007), “A new musical papyrus: Carcinus Medea”, ZPE 161: 1-10.
West, S. (1984), “Lycophron italicised”, JHS 104: 127-51.
Wright, M. (2016), The lost plays of Greek tragedy. London, New York.
275
(Página deixada propositadamente em branco)
Fernanda Messeder Moura
ABSTRACT: I discuss the theatrical use of asides in Senecan plays as a tool for building
and unfolding dramatic action. I start off by defining asides from both broad and specific
uses of it as those found in plays in the tradition of Roman drama in the Hellenistic
fashion in the Republic as treated in recent studies. I set forth and examine the diversity
in Senecan asides – which, albeit absent from Attic drama, have been found for example
in the plays by Plautus – from a representative sample from two of his tragedies, Medea
and The Trojan Women. In doing so, I demonstrate an intrinsic correlation between
Senecan asides and the linguistic structure of dialogue, characterization, and the
engendering of intra-scenic angles connecting the stage and its onlookers in his plays.
KEYWORDS: Seneca; aside; Hellenistic tradition.
1
Cf. Bain 1977; Mastronarde 1979; Dedoussi 1995, no entanto, para o uso de engajamentos
de personagens com a plateia, em algumas peças de Eurípides e Aristófanes, no que parece
esboçar o que posteriormente se configuraria, no período helenístico, como aparte.
2
Ver Kotlińska-Toma 2015: 281-288 para a distribuição geográfica dos teatros no período
helenístico, assim como para o número estimado de espectadores pela distribuição dos seus
assentos. Para uma análise arquitetônica dos teatros romanos, ver também o mapeamento e o
catálogo oferecidos por Sear 2006. Acerca da realização das apresentações de peças em festivais
e da relação entre o teatro e o templo, cf. Hanson 1959.
3
Duckworth 1952: 112: “The aside by dramatic convention is audible to the spectators,
but usually not to the characters on the stage even when they stand near the speaker”.
4
Duckworth loc. cit.: “At times […] the aside is heard by other actors; at least they realize
that something has been said, even if they do not understand the words”.
5
Tarrant 1978: 242: “An aside is a remark or speech, usually short, spoken in the presence
of one or more other characters but not intended to be heard by them. Suspension of dramatic
time is involved whenever the aside is not noticed by the other person(s) present, although a
very brief aside may be inserted into dialogue with almost no disruption of real time. Here the
difference in technique between Seneca and fifth-century tragedy is even clearer than in the
case of entrance monologues: Seneca has several instances of asides in the strictest sense, while
classical tragedy has none”.
6
Tarrant ibid: 242-246.
278
Fernanda Messeder Moura
7
Boyle 1997: 25: “One of the most conspicuous devices employed in Senecan tragedy
is the aside, a device common in Hellenistic drama, but foreign to the more public world
of Attic tragedy. Seneca’s frequent use of it is a function of his drama’s pervasive concern
with psychological interiority–a concern most particularly and clearly exhibited in Seneca’s
predilection for self-presentational soliloquies or monologues, in which the focus is on the
inner workings of the human mind, on the mind as locus of emotional conflict, incalculable
suffering, insatiable appetite, manic joy, cognitive vulnerability, self-deception, irrational guilt”.
8
Boyle 1987 contra-argumenta cada uma das abordagens que restringem as tragédias de
Sêneca a peças de declamação desprovidas de qualquer preocupação ou potência teatral. Sobre
a ênfase ao contexto maior de performances do século I d.C. especialmente no que tange à
relação de Sêneca com a pantomima, cf. Zanobi 2014.
9
Por helenístico, nesta acepção corrente embora específica do termo, refiro-me à tradição
teatral helenística que abrange desde os dramaturgos gregos que escreveram após a morte de
Alexandre, o Grande, até os dramaturgos romanos cujas peças, escritas sob a influência dos
primeiros, seguem em latim as características da Comédia Nova grega. Para um estudo do
drama helenístico grego em conjunção com o teatro latino e mesmo a partir de peças latinas
inseridas neste sentido do termo helenístico, ver Fantuzzi; Hunter 2005.
279
O aparte senequiano e a tradição dramática latina de matriz helenística
10
Boyle 1997: 8: “[…] that tragedies were still being written for, as well as performed on,
the stage in the mid-to-late first century CE is clear from the example of Seneca’s contemporary
Pomponius Secundus, a distinguished dramatist (Tacitus Dialogus 13.7) who, according to
Quintilian, excelled in ‘learning’, eruditio, and ‘brilliance’, nitor (Institutio Oratoria 10.1.98),
and who definitely wrote for the stage (is carmina scaenae dabat, Tacitus Annals 11.13)”.
11
Hardie 1997: 323: “[...] Apollonius may here too be a mediator between tragedy and the
Aeneid”.
12
Cf., por exemplo, Lohner 2011; Baertschi 2015.
13
Jocelyn 1969 indica a possibilidade de uso do aparte dessa forma, por exemplo, na
Ifigênia de Ênio. Em comentário ao fragmento 100, afirma, à p. 339: “The words Menelaus
me obiurgat would be spoken more naturally about Menelaus in his absence than to his face
directly” e, em nota, “They could be an angry aside; cf. Plautus, Curc. 572 f ”.
14
Para uma reunião dos fragmentos do período, cf. Hollis 2007. Cf. ainda Hanses 2020
para a defesa de produções teatrais nos períodos julio-claudiano e neroniano.
15
Tarrant ibid: 214: “No work of literature can make complete sense when removed from
the literary context in which it was formed. This is particularly true of Latin literature, with its
great sensitivity to models and its highly developed techniques of imitation, and among Latin
poets few give more evidence than Seneca of having been shaped by earlier literature”.
280
Fernanda Messeder Moura
16
Sen. Med. 177: Sed cuius ictu regius cardo strepit? (“Mas quem com força fez os gozos
reais rangirem?”). Nesta e nas demais citações da peça, uso a tradução de Márcio Meirelles
Gouvêa Júnior 2014.
17
O ranger de dobradiças como anúncio de uma nova personagem em cena foi apontado
e.g. por Boyle 2014: 176-177 como um mecanismo empregado não apenas por Sêneca, mas
também por Eurípides, Aristófanes, pelo drama helenístico e latino. Tarrant 1978: 246 o sugere
como um uso pós-clássico diante do pequeno número de exemplos atestados em Eurípides e
em Aristófanes, e sobretudo em razão da inexistência, nesses casos, de interrupção de cena
ou diálogo, como em Med. 177. Acerca ainda deste verso, reproduzo a arguta observação
de Tarrant loc. cit. como mostra da produtiva relação de Sêneca com a produção trágica
augustana,: “It may also be worth noting that cardines, though uncommon in creaking-door
scenes in comedy and Republican tragedy, appear in two of the four surviving fragments of
the Augustan tragedian Gracchus (1 R2, o grata cardo, regium egressum indicans!; 2 R2, sonat
impulsu [Del Rio: -a codd.] regia cardo)”.
18
Sen. Med. 178: Ipse est Pelasgo tumidus imperio Creo (“É Creonte, altivo por reinar sobre
os Pelasgos”).
19
Boyle 2014: 98: “Entrance monologue soliloquies and asides of a ‘character-defining’
kind are a feature of Senecan tragedy and an index of its concern with psychological interiority”.
281
O aparte senequiano e a tradição dramática latina de matriz helenística
20
Sen. Med. 186-187: abeatque tuta fert gradum contra ferox / minaxque nostros propius
affatus petit (“e vá segura! Ela, ao contrário, ameaçadora, / vem com passo feroz e p’ra falar
me busca”). Ao tratar da passagem, Novak 1999: 149 parece favorecer, na caracterização de
Creonte, a dualidade entre o autoritarismo de Creonte e sua clemência, conforme expressa nos
versos 202, 284 e 295.
21
Hor. Ars P. 251.
22
E.g. Pl. Am. 954, em que o aparte de Júpiter é percebido dentro da cena por Alcmena,
que verbaliza sua estranheza (mirum) ao notar que ele parece falar sem querer ser ouvido
(secreto) no momento em que ele próprio está se dirigindo à plateia. Duckworth (ibid. 112)
discute outros exemplos de cena em que uma personagem indica ter ouvido o aparte de
outra personagem sem, no entanto, discernir seu conteúdo, como no verso 267 da Andria de
Terêncio, em que Pânfilo inquire (quis hic loquitur?) acerca do aparte de Mísis que acabara de
presenciar. Cf. também a nota 4 acima.
282
Fernanda Messeder Moura
23
Sen. Med. 188-190: Arcete, famuli, tactu et accessu procul, / iubete sileat. Regium
imperium pati / aliquando discat. Vade ueloci uia / monstrumque saeuum horribile iamdudum
auehe (“Ordenai-lhe calar: que alguma vez aprenda / a suportar a lei do rei. Sai já depressa / te
afasta agora, monstro horrível e medonho”).
24
Sobre a relação entre aparte e continuidade de ação, ver Duckworth, ibid.: 109: “[…]
the frequency of eavesdropping results from the fact that the action is continuous and the
characters who utter link monologues remain on the stage and listen to an entrance monologue
or dialogue before engaging in conversation with the new-comers”.
283
O aparte senequiano e a tradição dramática latina de matriz helenística
25
Sen. Tro. 167-169: Pauet animus, artus horridus quassat tremor. / Maiora ueris monstra
uix capiunt fidem: / ipse uidi, uidi (“Minha alma se enche de pavor, um horrível tremor agita-me
os membros. Os grandes prodígios dificilmente são admitidos como coisas verdadeiras.
Mas eu vi! Sim, eu vi”, tradução de Zelia de Almeida Cardoso aqui e em todas as citações da
peça).
284
Fernanda Messeder Moura
26
Recorde-se, a propósito, que, para além da transmissão textual propriamente dita, a
menção de Festo a Caio Cláudio Pulcro, edil em 99 a.C., como inventor de um vaso de bronze
(bronton) capaz de reproduzir, em cena, o som do trovão pelo rolar de pedras em seu interior,
não só é um bom aceno para a sonoplastia desenvolvida à época (Fosbroke 1825: 38; Manuwald
2011: 73), como é indicativa de uma tradição teatral em que as peças de Sêneca se inseriam.
27
Sen. Tro. 606: Quid agis, Ulixe? Danaidae credent tibi (“Que fazes, Ulisses? Os danaides
crerão em ti”).
285
O aparte senequiano e a tradição dramática latina de matriz helenística
28
Sen. Tro. 607-608: Tu cui? Parenti. Fingit an quisquam hoc parens / nec abominandae
mortis auspicium pauet? (“Tu crês em quem? Em uma mãe? Mas que mãe pode mentir sobre
esse fato e não tem medo do presságio de uma morte abominável?”).
29
Sen. Tro. 615-616: Scrutare matrem: maeret, illacrimat, gemit; / sed huc et illuc anxios
gressus refert (“Observa a mãe. Ela se inquieta, chora, geme, movimenta-se com ansiedade de
um lado para o outro”).
30
Sen. Tro. 512-514: [...] Claustra commissum tegunt: / quem ne tuus producat in medium
timor, / procul hic recede teque diuersam amoue (“As paredes do túmulo ocultarão teu ato, mas,
para que teu medo não o denuncie, vai para longe daqui, afasta-te em sentido oposto”).
31
Sen. Tro. 617: missasque uoces aure sollicita excipit (“tenta escutar com ouvido atento as
palavras ditas”).
32
Fantham (1982: 300): “[…] the whole spoken aside, voicing Ulysses’ thoughts, requires a
freeze in dramatic time from 606 to the moment when his voice is raised at 619”.
33
Tarrant ibid: 242-243: “All but one of the Senecan passages mentioned are asides in pure
form, with no sign that the other person on stage is aware of the words spoken; the apparent
exception is Tro. 607ff, in which Ulysses seems to describe Andromache as trying to catch the
words he is speaking”.
286
Fernanda Messeder Moura
34
Sen. Tro. 623-624: Reliquit animus membra, quatiuntur, labant / torpetque uinctus frigido
sanguis gelu (“A coragem abandona meus membros. Eles tremem, desfalecem, e meu sangue se
paralisa, vencido por um frio glacial”).
35
Sen. Tro. 625-626: Intremuit: hac, hac parte quaerenda est mihi; / matrem timor detexit:
iterabo metum (“Ela estremeceu! É por aqui, por este ponto que deve ser atacada. O temor
denuncia a mãe. Reativarei seu medo”).
36
Fantham ibid: 302 reconhece a importância de Eurípides e Ovídio para a composição
desta fala.
287
O aparte senequiano e a tradição dramática latina de matriz helenística
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Boyle, A. J. (1987), “Senecan Tragedy: Twelve Propositions”, Ramus 16 (1-2), 78-101.
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38
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288
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289
O aparte senequiano e a tradição dramática latina de matriz helenística
290
Volumes publicados na Coleção Humanitas Supplementum
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Roma (Coimbra, Classica Digitalia/CECH, 2009).
2. Francisco Oliveira, Cláudia Teixeira e Paula Barata Dias: Espaços e Paisagens. Antiguida-
de Clássica e Heranças Contemporâneas. Vol. 2 – Línguas e Literaturas. Idade Média.
Renascimento. Recepção (Coimbra, Classica Digitalia/CECH, 2009).
3. Francisco Oliveira, Jorge de Oliveira e Manuel Patrício: Espaços e Paisagens. Antiguidade
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8. Maria Cristina de Sousa Pimentel e Nuno Simões Rodrigues (Coords.): Sociedade, poder
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CECH, 2013).
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gia e Superstição no Mediterrâneo Antigo (Coimbra, Imprensa da Universidade de
Coimbra, 2021). 210 p.
69. Fernando Rodrigues Junior, Rainer Guggenberger, Breno Battistin Sebastiani (Coords.),
A Produção Dramática no Período Helenístico e sua Influência na Literatura Greco-
-Latina Posterior (Coimbra, Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, 2021). 298 p.
(Página deixada propositadamente em branco)
Os textos reunidos neste livro foram apresentados na Sexta Semana de Estudos sobre
o Período Helenístico: a Produção Dramática no Período Helenístico e sua Influência na
Literatura Greco-Latina Posterior, realizada na Faculdade de Filosofia Letras e Ciências
Humanas da Universidade de São Paulo, entre os dias 10 e 11 de março de 2020, e na
Primeira Jornada de Estudos sobre o Período Helenístico: a Poesia Dramática, realizada na
Faculdade de Letras da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, entre os dias 12 e 13 de abril
de 2021. Ambos os eventos estão vinculados ao grupo de pesquisa Hellenistica, fundado
em 2011 na Universidade de São Paulo com o objetivo de organizar periodicamente
eventos voltados ao estudo da literatura do período helenístico, reunindo estudiosos
brasileiros e estrangeiros que atuam nessa área.