{"title":"The Body of the Meretrix and the Sexualization of Simo's House in Plautus' Mostellaria","authors":"Marden Fitzpatrick Nichols","doi":"10.1353/ajp.2024.a936329","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>In Plautus’ <i>Mostellaria</i>, the enslaved Tranio covers up the young Philolaches’ purchase of the <i>meretrix</i> Philematium’s freedom by telling Philolaches’ father Theopropides that his son blew a fortune on the house next door. Though Philematium is hidden out of sight for much of the play, her body materializes in the feminizing language through which Tranio, Theopropides, and the owner Simo describe this house. Their conversation at the threshold transforms Theopropides into the literary trope of the <i>meretrix</i>’s excluded lover and calls to mind both the disempowerment of <i>meretrices</i> through the process of aging and the power they wield through pregnancy.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":46128,"journal":{"name":"AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajp.2024.a936329","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"CLASSICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract:
In Plautus’ Mostellaria, the enslaved Tranio covers up the young Philolaches’ purchase of the meretrix Philematium’s freedom by telling Philolaches’ father Theopropides that his son blew a fortune on the house next door. Though Philematium is hidden out of sight for much of the play, her body materializes in the feminizing language through which Tranio, Theopropides, and the owner Simo describe this house. Their conversation at the threshold transforms Theopropides into the literary trope of the meretrix’s excluded lover and calls to mind both the disempowerment of meretrices through the process of aging and the power they wield through pregnancy.
期刊介绍：
Founded in 1880, American Journal of Philology (AJP) has helped to shape American classical scholarship. Today, the Journal has achieved worldwide recognition as a forum for international exchange among classicists and philologists by publishing original research in classical literature, philology, linguistics, history, society, religion, philosophy, and cultural and material studies. Book review sections are featured in every issue. AJP is open to a wide variety of contemporary and interdisciplinary approaches, including literary interpretation and theory, historical investigation, and textual criticism.
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