Adapted from the translation by F.G.Allinson (1921), with some changes to the wording. The surviving Greek text contains the first fifty lines of the play, along with some fragments of uncertain position later in the play. No significant fragments of the play have been discovered since the translation was made.
See the translator's introduction for further information about the play.
HYPOTHESIS
A girl gave birth to twin children, a girl and boy, and gave them to a steward to rear. Then afterwards she married her seducer. But the man who was rearing them, ignorant of the circumstances, gave the children, as security for loans of money, to him {i.e. the husband}. And a servant-man fell in love with the girl, supposing that she was a fellow-slave. Now a neighbour had already wronged the girl by violence. The servant-man wished to assume the responsibility, but the mother, ignorant of the facts, was enraged at him. When the facts came out, the old man {the husband} found through a recognition-scene that the children were his own, and the man who had wronged the girl voluntarily took her to wife.
{ This hypothesis is inaccurate in several particulars. The children were probably exposed with birth-tokens through the agency of a nurse, not given directly to the overseer to rear. And it was not the steward who pledged the children in payment of debts, but the boy himself, when grown, undertook that he and his sister should work off the debt as servants to their unknown father and mother. }
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
| GETAS | a slave |
| DAOS | a slave of Laches |
| The 'HERO' | or household god |
| MYRRHINĒ | mother of the children, now wife of Laches |
| PHEIDIAS | a young neighbour, lover of the girl |
| SŌPHRONĒ | old nurse of Myrrhine |
| SANGARIUS | a slave, perhaps of Pheidias |
| GORGIAS | the son of Myrrhine, brother of Plangon, the daughter |
| LACHES | father of the children, now husband of Myrrhine |
| CHORUS | possibly consisting of a group of hunters |
Scene: the Attic deme of Ptelea (probably on the foothills of Mt. Aegaleus, opposite the south-western end of Mt. Parnes), in front of the houses of Laches and Pheidias.
GETAS
You've been and done, I'm thinking, Daos, something bad,
Some great, big crime; and you're distraught because
You expect shackles and a treadmill - it's as plain as can be.
If not, what means such frequent beating of your head?
Or why stop short and pluck your hair? Or why these groans?
DAOS
Ah me!
GETAS
Just so. That's what it is, poor rascal, you!
Then ought you not, if you've been lucky and amassed
Some little savings, to have handed them meanwhile
To me, that you might get them back when you've settled 10
Your business? For I'm grieved, I too, along with you
Who suffer such distress.
DAOS
I don't know what you mean,
That's nonsense. This affair is bad, quite startling,
Which entangles me. I'm ruined, Getas, utterly !
GETAS
But how, you cursed fool ?
DAOS
Nay, by the gods, good sir,
Curse not a lover.
GETAS
What? A lover, you?
DAOS
I am.
GETAS
Your master gives you more than double rations, then.
That's bad, Daos. You, perhaps, are overfed.
DAOS
It hursts my heart when I behold her -
A harmless maiden, Getas, reared with my rank.
GETAS
So she's a slave ? 20
DAOS
Yes - partly - in a fashion - yes.
You see, Tibeius was a shepherd dwelling here
In Ptelea, though he was a house-slave in his youth.
To him, as he gave out the tale, these twin babies
Were born: this Plangon, she with whom I am in love -
GETAS
Ah, now I understand.
DAOS
- and Gorgias, the lad -
GETAS
The one now here with us who has our sheep in charge ?
DAOS
Yes, him. Tibeius then, the father, when he was old,
Borrowed a mina from my master as a loan 30
For their support, and then a second one - for times
Were hard - and then he withered up, and died.
GETAS
Yes, perhaps
When our master would not give him number three ?
DAOS
Perhaps. However, when he died, this Gorgias
Secured some little cash and buried him, and then,
When he had done what custom requires, came to us
And brought along his sister; and he is living here
And working off the debt.
GETAS
But Plangon: what of her?
DAOS
She's living with my mistress. As her task she works
The wool and serves her.
GETAS A maiden serves !
DAOS
She's perfectly -
You're laughing at me, Getas ? 40
GETAS
By Apollo, no!
DAOS
She's perfectly decent, Getas, and modest too !
GETAS
But what of you? What are you doing for yourself
To make your claim ?
DAOS
By Heracles, in secret
I've made her no advances, but I've said my say
To my master and he's promised she'll be my mate
When with her brother he has talked it out.
GETAS
Well, then,
That's fine for you.
DAOS
You call it fine? Why, he's away from home
In Lemnos for three months now on private business.
May he come back safe from there! Now to this one hope
We're both clinging.
GETAS
{aside} Good fellow this! {To Daos} But it were well
To sacrifice. It would help, perhaps. 50
DAOS
That's very fitting ;
A happy thought! For now most opportune would be
My sacrifice. It is foolish to neglect the gods -
{ to a peasant passing by: }
Hey! Faggot-bearer! [Bring me here a lot of wood.]
. . .
. . .
DAOS { perhaps resuming after his request for faggots }
. . . Oh, Getas, have you never loved ?
GETAS
No; and I never had my belly full . . .
{ Several fragments of the Cairo papyrus, preserved in a very mutilated condition, apparently belong to this play. The arrangement and interpretation can be only tentative. Laches, if he is assumed as one of the speakers, has now, as it would seem, returned safely from Lemnos. Lines 1-12. - Three mutilated lines close an 'Act'. There follows the usual interlude of a 'chorus'. Lines 13 ff - Myrrhine is having a dialogue, perhaps with Laches. Plangon's affairs are discussed, and Myrrhine's own past history is disclosed. }
[LACHES]
Good Heracles! Let me talk without anyone to overhear. 56
{ After some, now unintelligible, sentences, Laches perhaps is saying: }
LACHES
Explain who in the world is her mother.
MYRRHINE
They say it is the Thracian woman.
LACHES
But it isn't.
MYRRHINE
Well, who is it then ?
LACHES
It's you, unfortunate !
MYRRHINE
What ! 70
LACHES
Yes, clearly, you my wife, by Zeus. Crows pick you!
You're astonished ?
MYRRHINE
Why - I - what things you say!
LACHES
That which I shall also do. I've decided that long since.
MYRRHINE
Sweat and confusion !
LACHES
Yes by Zeus, my Myrrhine, I did well to take unto myself a shepherd who [. . . adopted?] a bleating [baby ?].
{ Lacuna of some 14 lines. }
. . . . . .
LACHES
What is the matter with you? Nay! You stand there like a statue! 75
MYRRHINE
How pitiable ! I who all alone have such misfortunes such nothing could be believed worse than them !
LACHES
Resolve will bring you efficient healing. But did someone by violence once wrong you ?
MYRRHINE
Yes . . .
LACHES
Do you guess who in the world it was ?
. . .
. . . She was thus brought to shame [at the festival of?] Alea Athena.
{ After some unintelligible verse-ends the conversation continues : }
. . . . . .
[LACHES ?]
. . . first tell 93
[MYRRHINE ?]
She is eighteen years old.
[LACHES ?]
She is not the only one . . . But granted, if you agree . . .
MYRRHINE
. . . this thing happens.
LACHES
How without your knowledge does . . . fell upon you? How did . . . ? When . . . ?
The fragments preserved of this play, though brief, are of unusual significance, as the Cairo papyrus contains a metrical hypothesis and the cast of characters.
A household god or tutelary "Hero", like "Misapprehension" in the Perikeiromene, sets in motion the train of circumstances leading to the dénouement.
The plot as given, or inferred, is as follows. Some eighteen years before the action begins Myrrhine, a girl of good family, was wronged by a young man, who was unknown to her, probably at some festival (compare the scene in The Arbitrants). She gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. Her nurse exposes the children, placing with them birth-tokens, including some object which had belonged to the lover. A shepherd, Tibeius, a freedman of Laches, finds and rears the children in ignorance of their parentage. Meanwhile Myrrhine marries Laches. Later, in a time of famine, Tibeius is compelled to borrow money of his former master, Laches, but dies before he is able to clear off the debt. His foster-son, Gorgias, and the sister, Plangon, undertake to work it off as servants in the house of Laches and Myrrhine, who, unknown to them, is their own mother. { Probably Laches himself is their father, if a situation similar to that in the Epitrepontes may be assumed}. Pheidias, a young neighbour of good family, has a love affair with Plangon, but there can be no thought of marriage with a dowerless girl. Daos, a slave and fellow-servant of Plangon, is also in love with her and is eager to marry her and save her from disgrace. Here the play begins.
Attalus' home page | 30.12.24 | Any comments?