Eunuchus (The Eunuch) is a comedy written by the 2nd century BC Roman playwright Terence featuring a complex plot of rape and reconciliation. It was Terence's most successful play during his lifetime. Suetonius notes how the play was staged twice in a single day and won Terence 8,000 sesterces. The play is a loose translation of one written by Menander in Greek. The play was first performed at the Megalesian Games in Rome in the spring of 161 BC. It is the fourth of Terence's six plays.

Characters

Prologue

The prologue is an apology for the work of Terence, who was coming under attack at the time for his writing. It is believed that he was a member of a writer's circle, and his work was not completely his own. He states that he ...doesn't deny that in his Eunuch he has transported characters out of the Greek: but ... if the same characters will not be permitted, how is it more permissible to depict a servant on the run, or to make use of good old women, evil courtesans, a gluttonous parasite, a braggart soldier, a changeling, an old man duped by a servant, or even love, hate, and suspicion? In short, nothing is said that has not been said before.

Plot

The courtesan Thais has two lovers: a certain braggart army officer called Thraso, and the wealthy young man Phaedria, who lives next door. At the beginning of the play Thais begs Phaedria to leave town for a couple of days, just long enough for her to extract from Thraso the present of a younger girl. This girl, Pamphila, who was kidnapped from Athens by pirates and sold into slavery, had been brought up on the island of Rhodes as a younger sister to Thais. Thais now wishes to return the girl to her original family. Reluctantly Phaedria agrees to leave, but before departing he says he has his own presents for Thais, a black slave-girl and a eunuch. He leaves his slave Parmeno in charge of handing these presents over. Soon afterwards, Pamphila is delivered to Thais's house, escorted by a "parasite" or hanger-on of Thraso, called Gnatho. Now Phaedria's younger brother Chaerea comes along. He has seen Pamphila at the port, fallen immediately in love, and followed her to the house. Based on a joking suggestion by Parmeno, the beardless Chaerea decides to substitute himself for the eunuch in order to get into Thais's house and he forces Parmeno to cooperate. Since he has been away on military service, Thais and her household staff do not know his face. Chaerea's plan works, and at a suitable moment when Thais is out of the house with Thraso, he rapes Pamphila, and then, discovered by Thais's maid Pythias, he flees the scene. Thais's plan to get in good favour with Pamphila's Athenian family seems to be ruined. At this point Phaedria returns and discovers what his brother has done. Chaerea returns to Thais's house and explains his love for Pamphila and agrees to marry her. Pamphila's brother, Chremes, is grateful for the return of his long-lost sister, Phaedria and Thais are reconciled, and the soldier and Phaedria agree to share Thais.

Metrical structure

The metres used in the Eunuchus, in terms of the numbers of lines, are as follows: The different metres have different functions. Iambic senarii are used for exposition of the background, and often begin a metrical section. Trochaic septenarii are a metre of lively conversation; often in these passages the plot moves forwards. Iambic octonarii (ia8) are often used when a character brings news. They can also sometimes be used for expressing distress or joy or other emotions. In this play, the metre is particularly associated with the younger brother Chaerea, who has 88 lines of the 110 iambic octonarii in this play. The play also contains 104 lines of iambic septenarii (ia7). This metre (sometimes called "the metre of love" or "the laughing metre") is used when Pamphila and Chaerea first appear, and when Chaerea emerges from Thais's house and describes how he raped Pamphila. It is also used by Pythias when she is gleefully teasing Parmeno about how he is going to be punished. One of the striking features of the Eunuchus is the fact that most of the lines of the courtesan Thais (unlike the lines of most courtesans in Roman comedy) are unaccompanied iambic senarii. When her words are accompanied by music at a moment of crisis, she uses an equally unprecedented series of eight trochaic octonarii (lines 739–736).

Prologue

Phaedria is persuaded to leave town

Chaerea appears

Chaerea rapes Pamphila

Phaedria discovers the truth

Chremes helps defend Thais's house

Chaerea begs Thais's forgiveness

Phaedria's father learns the truth

Thraso comes to an arrangement with Phaedria

Later allusion

Augustine of Hippo in The City of God (II.7) cites Chaerea's speech from Act III, Scene 5, on the descent of Jupiter onto the lap of Danaë in the form of a golden shower as an authoritative precedent to justify his own licentious behaviour as likely to corrupt schoolboys. Dante alludes to Terence's Thais in Canto 18 of the Inferno, where he encounters the flatterers, who are covered with human waste. Virgil points to one of the suffering souls: From an unpublished translation of the Inferno by Peter D'Epiro.

Translations and adaptations