American Journal of Philology

There is a considerable degree of inconsistency in the role designations applied to female characters in the list of personae published with each of the Plautine comedies in the standard modern editions. My purpose here is to compare these role designations as they appear in modern editions with the designations attested by the scene headings of the manuscripts, identifying and where possible accounting for discrepancies, and to propose, on the one hand, a general reading of the system of female role designations as assigned in the manuscripts, and, on the other, a critique of modifications introduced by modern editors. Editions chiefly referred to are the Oxford Classical Texts and the Teubner and Budé series. ¹ For role designations in manuscripts I have depended on the text and apparatus of Friedrich Leo (1895–96) as well as the apparatus of the Budé texts.

To begin with the role of matrona: of all characters so designated in the OCT, only one—the nameless wife of the local Menaechmus in Menaechmi—is so called also in both the Teubner and the Budé editions. In other cases, those designated matrona in the OCT are called uxor in the Teubner and the Budé (Alcumena in Amphitryo and Phanostrata in Cistellaria), or, in those same editions, mulier (Eunomia in Aulularia, Cleostrata and Myrrhina in Casina, and Dorippa in Mercator). In one case (Artemona of Asinaria) the OCT’s matrona is also matrona in the Budé, but uxor in the Teubner. Philippa in Epidicus, Philocomasium in Miles Gloriosus, and Palaestra and Ampelisca in Rudens are each called mulier in the Personae of the OCT, Budé, and Teubner—but Telestis in Epidicus, called mulier in the OCT, is identified as virgo in the Budé and Teubner editions. In the one play where the OCT uses the word uxor as a role designation (for the young sisters in Stichus), the same characters are designated sorores in the Teubner, and uxor (singly) and sorores (together) in the Budé. [End Page 245]

Where the OCT applies the designation virgo (Phaedria in Aulularia, Planesium in Curculio, and Lucris in Persa), or the designation meretrix (Philaenium in Asinaria; the Bacchises in Bacchides, with the addition of the word sorores; Selenium and Gymnasium in Cistellaria; Erotium in Menaechmi; Pasicompsa in Mercator; Acroteleutium in Miles Gloriosus; Philematium and Delphium in Mostellaria; Lemniselenis in Persa, and Phronesium in Truculentus), the Teubner and the Budé do the same—but in the case of the Poenulus the Personae of the OCT, inconsistently, describes as puellae characters called meretrices in the Teubner and the Budé (Adelphasium and Anterastilis).

Like meretrix, the role designation ancilla is relatively stable, and persons so designated in the Personae of the OCT are so called also in the Teubner and the Budé (Bromia in Amphitryo, Pardalisca in Casina, Halisca in Cistellaria, Milphidippa in Miles Gloriosus, Scapha in Mostellaria, Sophoclodisca in Persa, Crocotium and Stephanium in Stichus, and Astaphium in Truculentus, as well as one unnamed character in Menaechmi). In two cases the designation anus stands in all three of the editions under consideration (Staphyla of Aulularia and Leaena of Curculio), and this degree of consistency is observable in other relatively uncommon female roles, like lena (Cleareta in Asinaria, Melaenis and Syra in Cistellaria), fidicina (Acropolistes in Epidicus), and nutrix (Giddenis in Poenulus). Just once the OCT becomes expansive about a character designated ancilla in the Teubner and the Budé: Syra of Truculentus is here called tonstrix (ancilla Phronesii). One character called simply anus in the OCT (Syra in Mercator) is called anus ancilla in the Teubner and the Budé. In the case of Ptolemocratia of Rudens, called sacerdos in the Teubner and the Budé, it is once again the OCT, with sacerdos Veneris, which becomes expansive.

By comparison with those assigned to female characters, the role designations of male characters in the Personae of standard editions of Plautus’ comedies are relatively stable. There is absolute consistency among the editions here under consideration with respect to role designations in such occasional types as parasitus, cocus, leno, and miles, and also with the even rarer designations like mercator, danista, and medicus. Some thirty characters are...