Seminar für Klassische Philologie

The parade of cooks at the beginning of "Andria" and the opening procession of hetaerae in "Hecyra", which were both accompanied by music and dance, are hitherto overlooked examples for Terence's great, but frequently underestimated talent for theatrical spectacle and metatheatrical comedy. Both parades play with comic conventions and implicitly mock them. The same is true for "Andria's" completely overblown happy ending and for Philumena's loud screams of pain in "Hecyra".

Die Kochparade zu Beginn der Andria und der einleitende Einzug der Hetären in der Hecyra, die von Tanz und Musik begleitet waren, sind bisher übersehene Beispiele für das große, aber häufig unterschätzte Talent des Terenz für theatralisches Spektakel und metatheatralische Komik. Beide Paraden spielen auf komische Weise mit den Konventionen der Komödie und machen sich implizit über sie lustig. Ähnliches gilt von dem völlig übertriebenen ‚happy ending’ der Andria und Philumena’s lauten Schmerzensschreien in der Hecyra.

In the comic battle of insults at the centre of Horace's "Journey to Brundisium" (Sat. 1.5), Sarmentus, a member of Maecenas' entourage, makes fun of the Campanian illness (morbus Campanus) of his local opponent, Messius. This mysterious illness is not a reference to facial warts, nodular leprosy, syphilis, or any of the myriad of physical diseases that it has been identified with, but a comical allusion to the one "disease" that Romans proverbially associated with  the inhabitants of Campania, i.e., their arrogance.

Six-page lexicon article that discusses Terence's Self-Tormentor as a milestone in his work, i.e., as the first fully developed double plot (the two plot lines of the earlier Andria are not yet inextricably linked with each other). Also addresses the play's many unusual features, such as its rural setting, which Terence uses to play with his audience's expectations, the play's two-day action, the two spectacular dance numbers, and possible reasons for the otherwise unparalleled accompaniment by two different sets of pipes.