Terence, Andria, 74-79 and the Palatine Anthology

Author(s): Harry L. Levy

Source: The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 89, No. 4 (Oct., 1968), pp. 470-471
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/292830
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TERENCE, ANDRIA,
74-79 AND THE PALATINE
ANTHOLOGY.
SI.
primo
haec
pudice
vitam
parce
et duriter
agebat,
lana ac tela victum
quaeritans;
sed
postquam
amans accessit
pretium pollicens
unus et item
alter,
ita ut
ingeniumst
omnium
hominum ab labore
proclive
ad
lubidinem,
accepit condicionem,
dehinc
quaestum occipit.
The verses cited are crucial to Terence's
defensio Chrysidis,
as
Donatus ad loc. views it-the
playwright's attempt
to
portray
the courtesan in a favorable
light (partim defendenda, partim
etiam
laudanda,
says
Donatus,
ad
And., 71).
She must be treated
sympathetically
if
Glycerium,
whom
Chrysis
has
brought up
as
her
sister,
is to seem
worthy
of ultimate
marriage
to
Pamphilus.
How well Terence-and
presumably
Menander-succeeded in
this
attempt,
both here and in the famous o
Mysis
Mysis speech
of
Pamphilus (And., 282-98),
is known to all who have studied
the
play.
It is small wonder that Terence's
portrayal inspired
Thornton Wilder to write his brief but sensitive and beautiful
lloman
of
Andros.
The
present passage
has been rather
fully
discussed
by
com-
mentators from Donatus down. G. P.
Shipp,
in his annotated
edition of the Andria
(2d ed.; Oxford, 1960), points
out ad
And.,
75 that Greek and Roman women "could not earn an
honourable
living away
from their
homes;
so here lana ac tela
and the
quaestus
meretricius are the
only
alternatives
thought
of."
But neither
Shipp
nor
apparently any
of his
predecessors
as
editors of the
Andria,
nor
any
of the scholars who have written
separate
articles on the
play,
has
brought
into connection with
our
passage
several
poems
of the Palatine
Anthology,
which
show that
Chrysis' facilis
descensus was a
recognized
culture-
trait of Hellenistic
society,
with a rite de
passage
all its own:
the dedication of the
spinster's implements
to the
goddess
of
respectable
feminine
employment, Athena,
whom she thus ab-
jures,
and her dedication of herself to a new
patroness, Aphro-
dite. This is most
cleverly expressed
in an
anonymous epigram,
Anth.
Pal.,
VI,
48,
which
closely parallels
the
preceding poem,
attributed to
Antipater
of Sidon
(fl.
ca. 130 B.
C.):
470
TERENCE, "ANDRIA," 74-79
AND PALATINE ANTHOLOGY.
471
KepKt8a Tqrv 4(AoEpy'Ov 'AOrlva7
O0Tro B&TTW
avOeua, X.Lp rp7s appuevov epyaaetr7),
7ravTas a7roTrvcaua
yvvr
TOT
TOyS
iv
epltoLS
)OXOOVS
KaLt
orvyepas cfpovTLsaSa
UiTOTrOVWv
E7re
8'
'AOrlva4'
T(iv
Kv7rpt8os
a'/o/LaL
p 'pywv,
Tq,V IlapLSos
KaTar
aouov
,7jyov
&vEyKaE,vrq.
Compare
also Anth.
Pal., VI, 285,
in similar vein.
The other side of the coin is shown
by
a whole series of
epigrams,
wherein
working-women
who have
continued,
in some
cases
throughout
their active
lives,
to earn their
living parce
ac
duriter,
dedicate their
implements
to
Athena, without-except
in one
instance-apparently giving
a
thought
to her more seduc-
tive rival. These are Anth.
Pal., VI,
39, 160, 174, 247, 287, 288,
289; VII,
726; IX,
96. The one
exception,
also
by Antipater,
clearly
shows in its last two lines that the three wise
virgins
who dedicate their
basket, spindle,
and comb to Pallas have
indeed been
tempted by
the
alternative,
but have
womanfully
rejected
it
(Anth. Pal., VI,
174,
7-8)
:
,CeLV
yap
8X'a 7ravTosL
ovcoF
lOeXs
'
cKaaTa,
TLve, TOV
EK
X?etpwv apwvvAeva
(38oTOV.
HARRY L. LEVY.
FORDHAM UNIVERSITY.