fbpx
Wikipedia

Perikeiromene

December 20, 2023

Perikeiromene (Greek: Περικειρομένη, translated as The Girl with her Hair Cut Short, is a comedy by Menander (342/41 – 292/91 BC) that is only partially preserved on papyrus. Of an estimated total of between 1030 and 1091 lines, about 450 lines (between 40 and 45%) survive.[1] Most acts lack their beginning and end, except that the transition between act I and II is still extant. The play may have been first performed in 314/13 BC or not much later.[2]

A papyrus fragment of the Perikeiromene 976–1008 (P. Oxy. 211 II 211, 1st or 2nd century CE).

Plot edit

 
Roman, Republican or Early Imperial, Relief of a seated poet (Menander) with masks of New Comedy, 1st century B.C. – early 1st century A.D., Princeton University Art Museum

Probably set in Corinth, the play is a drama of reconciliation. It focuses on the relationship between Polemon, a Corinthian mercenary, and his common-law wife (pallake), Glykera. An act of domestic violence by the soldier triggers a sequence of events that culminates in Glykera's discovery of her father and her reconciliation with and marriage to Polemon.

The lost opening of the play probably featured Glykera's flight from Polemon's house.[3] Recently returned from fighting abroad, the soldier had learned from Sosias, his slave, that Glykera was seen embracing the neighbor's son, Moschion. Moschion has been stalking her because he is in love with her. In a violent fit of jealousy, Polemon cuts off Glykera's long hair. Glykera finds refuge with Myrrhine, the wealthy woman next door. In a delayed prologue, Agnoia (personified Ignorance) reveals that Myrrhine's son Moschion, is, in fact, as only Glykera knows, her brother by birth, which is why she allowed him to embrace her. Moschion was exposed together with her and given to Myrrhine by the same woman, now deceased, who kept and raised Glykera. In act II, the slave Daos falsely tries to take credit for Glykera's move into their house, and Moschion erroneously hopes that she has decided to become his concubine. He finds, however, that his mother keeps him away from her. In act III, Polemon tries to storm Myrrhine's house at the head of a comical army consisting of several male slaves, a female flute-player, and a cook with a pig,[4] but his older friend Pataikos talks him out of it. In act IV, Pataikos tries to negotiate with Glykera at Polemon's request. With Moschion secretly eavesdropping on them, Glykera tells him the truth about the embrace and begs him to retrieve her things for her from Polemon's house, including the baby clothes in which she was exposed. As a result, Pataikos discovers that both Glykera and Moschion are the children he exposed long ago after he lost his fortune and his wife died in childbirth. Consequently, Glykera forgives the contrite Polemon in act V and marries him, whereas Pataikos betroths Moschion to another girl.[5]

Characters edit

 
Agnoia (P. Oxy. 2652)
 
Polemon (P. Oxy. 2653)
  • Polemon, mercenary soldier
  • Sosias, slave of Polemon or flag lieutenant
  • Glykera, Polemon's concubine
  • Doris, female slave of Polemon, serving as Glykera's maid
  • Moschion, young neighbor, Polemon's rival for Glykera's affections
  • Daos, slave of Moschion
  • Pataikos, an old Corinthian
  • Agnoia (Ignorance), speaker of the prologue
  • A cook, dragging a pig
  • Habrotonon, female flute-player
  • Several slaves, members of Polemon's rag-tag army
  • Chorus of drunken revellers

Themes and Issues edit

The mercenary soldier's comical attack with a rag-tag army consisting of slaves and other non-military figures was a stock scene in comedies featuring mercenaries. In Terence's Eunuchus 771ff., for example, the soldier Thraso unsuccessfully tries to storm the house of the hetaera Thais with an army that includes his parasite, Gnatho, and his cook, Sanga.[6]

Just as in Aspis and Misoumenos, the mercenary soldier in Perikeiromene has to be socialized into the polis before he can marry the romantic heroine.[7] In the end, his future father-in-law suggests that he should renounce mercenary service for good (1016–17).[8]

From the start, however, Polemon seems strangely lacking in martial spirit. It is his slave, Sosia, who leads the attack at the neighbor's house. Similarly, his rival, young Moschion, acts much more like the stereotypical braggart soldier, boasting with his good looks and his success with hetaerae (Pk. 302-303), joking that he would appoint his slave Daos "overlord of Greek affairs/And a marshal of land forces (Pk. 279-80), and finally sending him ahead as a "scout" to do reconnaissance (Pk. 295).[9]

Polemon's act of domestic violence, the forcible haircut, is representative of the violence associated with mercenaries at the time. What redeems him as a potential husband is that Agnoia (Ignorance) in the prologue explicitly claims responsibility for his violent act (Pk. 163-66). Moreover, his behavior is presented as "an aberration rather than an expression of a fundamentally corrupt character" and thus appears pardonable.[10]

In this play, Menander handles the typical formula of separation and reunion in a particularly elegant way. At the very moment when the breakup between Glykera and Polemon seems to be final, with the removal of her belongings from Polemon's house, the recognition scene starts: Pataikos sees her birth clothes and recognizes Glykera as his daughter, and this in turn leads to her reconciliation with Polemon.[11]

Another important feature of the recognition scene is that it parodies tragic pathos. At line 779, the conversation between Pataikos and his daughter turns into a typically tragic stichomythia in which the characters take turns speaking one line at a time. In addition, the characters quote famous snippets of Euripidean tragedy comically out of context (line 788: Euripides, Wise Melanippe, frg. 484.3 KT; line 809: Euripides, "Trojan Women" 88).[12]

With the happy ending, all the role of all the main characters is transformed. They all start out as figures on the margins or even outside of city-state society, but at the end they assume more conventional roles within that society. Glykera turns from a concubine with unclear citizenship into a citizen wife. Polemon, a mercenary soldier with changing alliances, becomes a settled husband and polis citizen. Pataikos, a childless widower, assumes a position at the head of a family, and even Moschion will turn from a philandering young man into a respectable husband.[13]

Pictorial evidence edit

 
Mosaic from Antioch depicting a scene from Perikeiromene. The woman to the left is identified as Glykera. The man in the middle the soldier Polemon. The man to the right the attendant, Sosias.

Two ancient representations depicting the play's opening scene have been found so far. Both are inscribed Perikeiromene. One is a faded 2nd-century AD wall-painting on red ground in the reception room of a Roman terrace house, the so-called "Hanghaus 2", in Ephesus (Apartment I, Insula 2).[14] The other one, recently discovered in Antioch, is a 3rd-century AD mosaic identifying not only the play but also the act. From left to right, one sees a woman who has pulled her cloak up so that it covers her hair, a young, unbearded man in a military-style cloak (chlamys) sitting on a dining couch and looking at her (Ephesus) or the audience (Antioch), and an old man raising his right arm "in an emotional gesture" (Ephesus)[15] or clearly pointing at the soldier (Antioch).[16]

In addition, two papyrus fragments from Oxyrhynchus contain ink drawings that illustrated characters from the play. They probably belonged to the same illustrated manuscript. P.Oxy. 2652 offers a frontal view of a woman tagged as Agnoia.[17] P.Oxy. 2653 represents the face of a young soldier, obviously Polemon,[citation needed] in a helmet with cheek-pieces.[18]

Reception and influence edit

Karakasis notes that the Perikeiromene seems to have had a widespread distribution throughout the ancient Roman world, citing mentions by Philostratus (Epist. 16) and Ovid (Amores I.7).[19]

Korzeniewski suggests that Calpurnius Siculus' Third Eclogue is influenced by the Perikeiromene.[20]

Text editions and commentaries edit

  • Arnott, W. Geoffrey (1996). Menander, volume II. Loeb Classical Library, 459. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-99506-6.
  • Gomme, Arnold Wycombe; Sandbach, Francis Henry (2003) [1970]. Menander. A Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-814197-6.

English translations edit

  • Arnott, W. Geoffrey (1996). Menander, volume II. Loeb Classical Library, 459. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-99506-6.
  • Balme, Maurice (2001). Menander. The Plays and Fragments. Oxford World Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-283983-7.

References edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ Arnott (1996) 370-371.
  2. ^ Arnott (1996) 372.
  3. ^ Arnott (1996) 375-76.
  4. ^ Arnott (1996) 421.
  5. ^ Goldberg (1980) 44-58; Konstan (1987) 122-124; Lape (2004) 173-174.
  6. ^ Goldberg (1980) 48.
  7. ^ Lape (2004) 171-201.
  8. ^ Lape (2004) 177.
  9. ^ Goldberg (1980) 49-50; Lape (2004) 180.
  10. ^ Lape (2004) 179.
  11. ^ Konstan (1987) 124.
  12. ^ Goldberg (1980) 49; Hunter (1985) 134
  13. ^ Konstan (1987) 137-138.
  14. ^ Listed in Webster et al. (1995) under 6DP 1.2; illustrated in Strocka (1977) as plate 66.
  15. ^ Arnott (1996) 369.
  16. ^ Newly Discovered Mosaics Provide Missing Pieces to Popular Ancient Plays, http://www.uc.edu/profiles/profile.asp?id=12911 3 January 2011. Accessed 25 June 2011; Gutzwiller (2011)
  17. ^ . 163.1.169.40. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
  18. ^ . 163.1.169.40. Archived from the original on 11 March 2012. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
  19. ^ Karakasis, E., Comedy and Elegy in Calpurnian Pastoral: Generic Interplay, p. 258. in Papanghelis, T.D., Harrison, S.J. and Frangoulidis, S. (Eds) (2013) Generic Interfaces in Latin Literature
  20. ^ Korzeniewksi, D. (1972) Die Eklogen des Calpurnius Siculus als Gedichtbuch, MH 29 p 215 fn5

Secondary sources edit

  • Goldberg, Sander M. (1980). The Making of Menander's Comedy. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-04250-6.
  • Gutzwiller, Kathryn (January 2011). "New Menander Mosaics and the Papyri" (PDF). APA Abstract. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
  • Hunter, Richard (1985). The New Comedy of Greece and Rome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-30364-4. OCLC 11548002.
  • Konstan, David (1987). "Between Courtesan and Wife: Menander's Perikeiromene". Phoenix. Classical Association of Canada. 41 (2): 122–139. doi:10.2307/1088740. ISSN 0031-8299. JSTOR 1088740.
  • Lape, Susan (2004). Reproducing Athens. Menander's Comedy, Democratic Culture, and the Hellenistic City. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-11583-4.
  • Strocka, Volker Michael (1977). Die Wandmalerei der Hanghäuser in Ephesus (vol. 1: text; vol. 2: plates). Forschungen in Ephesus VIII/1. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. OCLC 3964820.
  • Webster, T. B. L.; Green, J. R.; Seeberg, Axel (1995). Monuments Illustrating New Comedy. BICS supplement, 50. London: Institute of Classical Studies. ISBN 978-0-900587-73-3. OCLC 605699475.

External links edit

  • The Rape of the Locks (Perikeiromenê) at Faded Page (Canada)

December 20, 2023
perikeiromene, greek, Περικειρομένη, translated, girl, with, hair, short, comedy, menander, that, only, partially, preserved, papyrus, estimated, total, between, 1030, 1091, lines, about, lines, between, survive, most, acts, lack, their, beginning, except, tha. Perikeiromene Greek Perikeiromenh translated as The Girl with her Hair Cut Short is a comedy by Menander 342 41 292 91 BC that is only partially preserved on papyrus Of an estimated total of between 1030 and 1091 lines about 450 lines between 40 and 45 survive 1 Most acts lack their beginning and end except that the transition between act I and II is still extant The play may have been first performed in 314 13 BC or not much later 2 A papyrus fragment of the Perikeiromene 976 1008 P Oxy 211 II 211 1st or 2nd century CE Contents 1 Plot 2 Characters 3 Themes and Issues 4 Pictorial evidence 5 Reception and influence 6 Text editions and commentaries 6 1 English translations 7 References 7 1 Notes 7 2 Secondary sources 8 External linksPlot edit nbsp Roman Republican or Early Imperial Relief of a seated poet Menander with masks of New Comedy 1st century B C early 1st century A D Princeton University Art MuseumProbably set in Corinth the play is a drama of reconciliation It focuses on the relationship between Polemon a Corinthian mercenary and his common law wife pallake Glykera An act of domestic violence by the soldier triggers a sequence of events that culminates in Glykera s discovery of her father and her reconciliation with and marriage to Polemon The lost opening of the play probably featured Glykera s flight from Polemon s house 3 Recently returned from fighting abroad the soldier had learned from Sosias his slave that Glykera was seen embracing the neighbor s son Moschion Moschion has been stalking her because he is in love with her In a violent fit of jealousy Polemon cuts off Glykera s long hair Glykera finds refuge with Myrrhine the wealthy woman next door In a delayed prologue Agnoia personified Ignorance reveals that Myrrhine s son Moschion is in fact as only Glykera knows her brother by birth which is why she allowed him to embrace her Moschion was exposed together with her and given to Myrrhine by the same woman now deceased who kept and raised Glykera In act II the slave Daos falsely tries to take credit for Glykera s move into their house and Moschion erroneously hopes that she has decided to become his concubine He finds however that his mother keeps him away from her In act III Polemon tries to storm Myrrhine s house at the head of a comical army consisting of several male slaves a female flute player and a cook with a pig 4 but his older friend Pataikos talks him out of it In act IV Pataikos tries to negotiate with Glykera at Polemon s request With Moschion secretly eavesdropping on them Glykera tells him the truth about the embrace and begs him to retrieve her things for her from Polemon s house including the baby clothes in which she was exposed As a result Pataikos discovers that both Glykera and Moschion are the children he exposed long ago after he lost his fortune and his wife died in childbirth Consequently Glykera forgives the contrite Polemon in act V and marries him whereas Pataikos betroths Moschion to another girl 5 Characters edit nbsp Agnoia P Oxy 2652 nbsp Polemon P Oxy 2653 Polemon mercenary soldier Sosias slave of Polemon or flag lieutenant Glykera Polemon s concubine Doris female slave of Polemon serving as Glykera s maid Moschion young neighbor Polemon s rival for Glykera s affections Daos slave of Moschion Pataikos an old Corinthian Agnoia Ignorance speaker of the prologue A cook dragging a pig Habrotonon female flute player Several slaves members of Polemon s rag tag army Chorus of drunken revellersThemes and Issues editThe mercenary soldier s comical attack with a rag tag army consisting of slaves and other non military figures was a stock scene in comedies featuring mercenaries In Terence s Eunuchus 771ff for example the soldier Thraso unsuccessfully tries to storm the house of the hetaera Thais with an army that includes his parasite Gnatho and his cook Sanga 6 Just as in Aspis and Misoumenos the mercenary soldier in Perikeiromene has to be socialized into the polis before he can marry the romantic heroine 7 In the end his future father in law suggests that he should renounce mercenary service for good 1016 17 8 From the start however Polemon seems strangely lacking in martial spirit It is his slave Sosia who leads the attack at the neighbor s house Similarly his rival young Moschion acts much more like the stereotypical braggart soldier boasting with his good looks and his success with hetaerae Pk 302 303 joking that he would appoint his slave Daos overlord of Greek affairs And a marshal of land forces Pk 279 80 and finally sending him ahead as a scout to do reconnaissance Pk 295 9 Polemon s act of domestic violence the forcible haircut is representative of the violence associated with mercenaries at the time What redeems him as a potential husband is that Agnoia Ignorance in the prologue explicitly claims responsibility for his violent act Pk 163 66 Moreover his behavior is presented as an aberration rather than an expression of a fundamentally corrupt character and thus appears pardonable 10 In this play Menander handles the typical formula of separation and reunion in a particularly elegant way At the very moment when the breakup between Glykera and Polemon seems to be final with the removal of her belongings from Polemon s house the recognition scene starts Pataikos sees her birth clothes and recognizes Glykera as his daughter and this in turn leads to her reconciliation with Polemon 11 Another important feature of the recognition scene is that it parodies tragic pathos At line 779 the conversation between Pataikos and his daughter turns into a typically tragic stichomythia in which the characters take turns speaking one line at a time In addition the characters quote famous snippets of Euripidean tragedy comically out of context line 788 Euripides Wise Melanippe frg 484 3 KT line 809 Euripides Trojan Women 88 12 With the happy ending all the role of all the main characters is transformed They all start out as figures on the margins or even outside of city state society but at the end they assume more conventional roles within that society Glykera turns from a concubine with unclear citizenship into a citizen wife Polemon a mercenary soldier with changing alliances becomes a settled husband and polis citizen Pataikos a childless widower assumes a position at the head of a family and even Moschion will turn from a philandering young man into a respectable husband 13 Pictorial evidence edit nbsp Mosaic from Antioch depicting a scene from Perikeiromene The woman to the left is identified as Glykera The man in the middle the soldier Polemon The man to the right the attendant Sosias Two ancient representations depicting the play s opening scene have been found so far Both are inscribed Perikeiromene One is a faded 2nd century AD wall painting on red ground in the reception room of a Roman terrace house the so called Hanghaus 2 in Ephesus Apartment I Insula 2 14 The other one recently discovered in Antioch is a 3rd century AD mosaic identifying not only the play but also the act From left to right one sees a woman who has pulled her cloak up so that it covers her hair a young unbearded man in a military style cloak chlamys sitting on a dining couch and looking at her Ephesus or the audience Antioch and an old man raising his right arm in an emotional gesture Ephesus 15 or clearly pointing at the soldier Antioch 16 In addition two papyrus fragments from Oxyrhynchus contain ink drawings that illustrated characters from the play They probably belonged to the same illustrated manuscript P Oxy 2652 offers a frontal view of a woman tagged as Agnoia 17 P Oxy 2653 represents the face of a young soldier obviously Polemon citation needed in a helmet with cheek pieces 18 Reception and influence editKarakasis notes that the Perikeiromene seems to have had a widespread distribution throughout the ancient Roman world citing mentions by Philostratus Epist 16 and Ovid Amores I 7 19 Korzeniewski suggests that Calpurnius Siculus Third Eclogue is influenced by the Perikeiromene 20 Text editions and commentaries editArnott W Geoffrey 1996 Menander volume II Loeb Classical Library 459 Cambridge Massachusetts Harvard University Press ISBN 0 674 99506 6 Gomme Arnold Wycombe Sandbach Francis Henry 2003 1970 Menander A Commentary Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 814197 6 English translations edit Arnott W Geoffrey 1996 Menander volume II Loeb Classical Library 459 Cambridge Massachusetts Harvard University Press ISBN 0 674 99506 6 Balme Maurice 2001 Menander The Plays and Fragments Oxford World Classics Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 283983 7 References editNotes edit Arnott 1996 370 371 Arnott 1996 372 Arnott 1996 375 76 Arnott 1996 421 Goldberg 1980 44 58 Konstan 1987 122 124 Lape 2004 173 174 Goldberg 1980 48 Lape 2004 171 201 Lape 2004 177 Goldberg 1980 49 50 Lape 2004 180 Lape 2004 179 Konstan 1987 124 Goldberg 1980 49 Hunter 1985 134 Konstan 1987 137 138 Listed in Webster et al 1995 under 6DP 1 2 illustrated in Strocka 1977 as plate 66 Arnott 1996 369 Newly Discovered Mosaics Provide Missing Pieces to Popular Ancient Plays http www uc edu profiles profile asp id 12911 3 January 2011 Accessed 25 June 2011 Gutzwiller 2011 P Oxy 2652 163 1 169 40 Archived from the original on 4 March 2016 Retrieved 27 June 2011 P Oxy 2653 163 1 169 40 Archived from the original on 11 March 2012 Retrieved 27 June 2011 Karakasis E Comedy and Elegy in Calpurnian Pastoral Generic Interplay p 258 in Papanghelis T D Harrison S J and Frangoulidis S Eds 2013 Generic Interfaces in Latin Literature Korzeniewksi D 1972 Die Eklogen des Calpurnius Siculus als Gedichtbuch MH 29 p 215 fn5 Secondary sources edit Goldberg Sander M 1980 The Making of Menander s Comedy Berkeley CA University of California Press ISBN 0 520 04250 6 Gutzwiller Kathryn January 2011 New Menander Mosaics and the Papyri PDF APA Abstract Retrieved 25 June 2011 Hunter Richard 1985 The New Comedy of Greece and Rome Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 30364 4 OCLC 11548002 Konstan David 1987 Between Courtesan and Wife Menander s Perikeiromene Phoenix Classical Association of Canada 41 2 122 139 doi 10 2307 1088740 ISSN 0031 8299 JSTOR 1088740 Lape Susan 2004 Reproducing Athens Menander s Comedy Democratic Culture and the Hellenistic City Princeton N J Princeton University Press ISBN 0 691 11583 4 Strocka Volker Michael 1977 Die Wandmalerei der Hanghauser in Ephesus vol 1 text vol 2 plates Forschungen in Ephesus VIII 1 Vienna Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften OCLC 3964820 Webster T B L Green J R Seeberg Axel 1995 Monuments Illustrating New Comedy BICS supplement 50 London Institute of Classical Studies ISBN 978 0 900587 73 3 OCLC 605699475 External links editThe Rape of the Locks Perikeiromene at Faded Page Canada Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Perikeiromene amp oldid 1147425323, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.