Mostellaria


Mostellaria is a play by the Roman author Plautus. Its name translates from Latin as "The Ghost ". The play is believed to be an adaptation of a lost comedy of the Athenian poet Philemon called Phasma. It is set in a street in the city of Athens.

Characters

Main characters

  • Theopropides – an Athenian merchant
  • Philolaches – Theopropides' son
  • Tranio – Slave owned by Theopropides
  • Philematium – A courtesan who has been set free by Philolaches
  • Callidamates – Friend of Philolaches
  • Simo – Theopropides' neighbour
  • Misargyrides – A moneylender

    Minor characters

  • Grumio – Country slave, owned by Theopropides
  • Sphaerio – Slave owned by Theopropides
  • Scapha – Philematium's attendant
  • Delphium – Callidamates' girlfriend
  • Phaniscus – Callidamates' slave
  • Pinacium – Callidamates' slave

    Plot

A young man named Philolaches is having a great time while his father Theopropides is overseas on business. Philolaches has borrowed a lot of money to buy the freedom of the slave-girl he loves. One day, he is having a party in the street with his friends, when his slave Tranio interrupts the merry-making to announce that Philolaches' father has returned unexpectedly and will arrive from the harbour at any minute. Amid the general panic, Tranio has an idea. He hustles Philolaches and his friends into the house and locks the door. The father now arrives. Tranio greets him respectfully but pretends that it is dangerous to enter the house because it is haunted by the ghost of a man once killed there.
Unfortunately, at this moment a money-lender turns up to claim the money that Philolaches borrowed. Tranio thinks quickly and pretends that the money was borrowed to buy the house next door. Even after Philolaches' father meets the real owner of the house, Tranio manages to hide the truth for some time, but he is finally found out and jumps on top of an altar to escape punishment. Fortunately, all ends happily when one of Philolaches' friends offers to repay the debt, allowing the father to forgive his son. Even Tranio is forgiven.
The play is set in a street in Athens. The houses of Theopropides and his neighbour Simo face the audience. Between them is a narrow alley leading to the garden door of Simo's house. There is an altar between the stage and the audience. To the audience's left the road leads to the harbour, and on the right to the forum.

Division into acts

Plautus's plays are traditionally divided into five acts; these are referred to here for convenience, since many editions make use of them. However, it is not thought that they go back to Plautus's time, since no manuscript contains them before the 15th century. Also, the acts themselves do not always match the structure of the plays, which is more clearly shown by the variation in metres.

Metrical structure

The different scenes of the play are clearly differentiated by changes of metre. The usual pattern is to begin each section with iambic senarii, then a scene of music in various metres. Each section is rounded off by lively trochaic septenarii, which were apparently recited or sung to the accompaniment of aulos. Moore calls this the "ABC" metrical succession. In this play, the pattern is varied from ABC, ABC... as follows:
C. W. Marshall, however, who sees the metrical sections as always starting with iambic senarii, divides the play into just four sections as follows:
The play contains five songs: three of them polymetric, using a range of different metres, involving young men and slaves; and one each of cretic and bacchiac, involving the old men Simo and Theopropides. There is also a section of 90 lines of iambic septenarii when the prostitute Philematium is chatting with her maid Scapha.

The scene is set

  • Act 1.1 : iambic senarii
  • Act 1.2 : polymetric song
  • Act 1.3 : iambic septenarii
  • '''Act 1.3 : trochaic septenarii '''

    Disaster strikes

  • Act 1.4 : polymetric song
  • '''Act 2.1 : trochaic septenarii '''

    Tranio tricks Theopropides

  • Act 2.1–3.1 : iambic senarii
  • Act 3.2 : mostly cretic
  • '''Act 3.2 : tr7, ia8, ia7 '''

    Tranio tricks Simo

  • Act 3.2 : iambic senarii
  • Act 3.3 : bacchiac
  • '''Act 3.3 : trochaic septenarii '''

    Theopropides discovers the truth

  • Act 4.1 : polymetric song
  • '''Act 4.2 : trochaic septenarii '''

    Tranio escapes punishment

  • Act 4.3 : iambic senarii
  • '''Act 5.1–5.2 : trochaic septenarii '''

    Adaptations

Mostellaria is one of several Plautus plays used as inspiration for the Stephen Sondheim, Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart 1962 musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. The character Erroneous returns from being abroad to be told his house is haunted and must walk seven times around the seven hills of Rome to remove the ghosts.
Kevin P. Joyce's play When the Cat's Away is loosely based on Mostellaria, transposing the story from Athens to modern day Nantucket.
Rachel Beth Cunning simplified and adapted the play to create more comprehensible reading materials for Latin 3 and Latin 4 students in a high school classroom.