Heauton Timorumenos

Illustration from a 19th-century edition

Heauton Timorumenos (Greek: Ἑαυτὸν τιμωρούμενος, Heauton timōroumenos, The Self-Tormentor)[1] is a play written in Latin by Terence (Latin: Publius Terentius Afer), a dramatist of the Roman Republic, in 163 BC; it was translated wholly or in part from an earlier Greek play by Menander. The play concerns two neighbours, Chremes and Menedemus, whose sons Clitipho and Clinia are in love with different girls, Bacchis and Antiphila. By a series of deceptions, Chremes' wily slave Syrus dupes Chremes into paying money owed to Bacchis, who is a prostitute. The other girl, Antiphila, is discovered to be Chremes' own daughter, whom he promises in marriage to Clinia.

In his edition, A. J. Brothers calls this "the most neglected of the dramatist's six comedies". He adds: "Yet the Self-Tormentor, for all its occasional imperfections, in many ways shows Terence at his best; the plot is ingenious, complex, fast-moving, and extremely skilfully constructed, its characters are excellently drawn, and the whole is full of delightful dramatic irony. It deserves to be better known."[2]

The play has presented academics with a problem, its not entirely clear whether Heauton Timorumenos is Terence's second or third play. In the prologue, Terence says he has altered the plot of the Greek play on which it is based by making it "double". However, due to the scant survival of Menander's play of the same name, there is no simple way to judge how much of Terence's version is translation and how much is invention.[3]

The play is set in a village in the countryside of Attica.[4] On the stage are two houses, one belonging to Chremes, and the other to his neighbour Menedemus. All the action takes place in the street in front of the houses.

  1. ^ The play was referred by Cicero as ille Terentianus ipse se poeniens "that man in Terence who is punishing himself" (Tusc. Dis. 3.65).
  2. ^ A. J. Brothers (1988). Terence: The Self-Tormentor (Aris and Phillips). p. vii.
  3. ^ Lawrence Richardson Jr. (2006). "The Terentian Adaptation of the Heauton Timorumenos of Menander". Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies. 46: 13–36.
  4. ^ The location of the village is not made clear in Terence's version, but the original play by Menander was set in the village of Halae Aexonides, about 2 hours' journey south east of Athens: H. D. Jocelyn (1973). "Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto (Terence, Heauton timorumenos 77)". Antichthon, Volume 7; p. 22.