{"id":169,"date":"2009-10-14T05:31:42","date_gmt":"2009-10-14T05:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/classics\/st-olaf-latin-plays\/mostellaria\/"},"modified":"2023-06-07T08:13:32","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T13:13:32","slug":"mostellaria","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/classics\/st-olaf-ancient-plays\/mostellaria\/","title":{"rendered":"Plautus’ Mostellaria<\/em> (\u201cThe Haunted House\u201d) – 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Olaf Latin Play MMVIII<\/h2>\n

Click here <\/a>to download\u00a0a slideshow from the 2008 production of Plautus’\u00a0Mostellaria.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\" Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254-184 B.C.) wrote over 100 comedies, of which 20 survive.\u00a0 All are Latin adaptations of earlier Greek comedies.\u00a0 His source for the Mostellaria, <\/em>whose title literally means \u201cGhostly,\u201d was probably a Greek play called the Phasma<\/em> (\u201cThe Ghost\u201d) written by Philemon (c. 360-262 B.C.).\u00a0 Even though the characters speak to each other in Latin, they are meant to be Greeks, not Romans, and they wear Greek clothing, not Roman togas.\u00a0 The setting of the play is Athens, Greece. The Mostellaria<\/em> is written in verse, and certain sections of it are designed to be sung; we have set these and others to music.\u00a0 In ancient times accompaniment would have been provided by a double-reed instrument similar to an oboe.<\/p>\n

Scenes 1-2:\u00a0 A family of bats has stowed away on a ship from Egypt to visit Athens.\u00a0 After singing about the life of a bat (Song #1<\/em>), they enter Theopropides’ house, causing a ruckus.\u00a0Grumio, Theopropides’ country slave, rushes out, fighting with Tranio, Theopropides’ city slave; he accuses him of having corrupted their master’s son, Philolaches, a college student who has remained at home while the rest of his family sailed to Egypt for a vacation.\u00a0 Unperturbed by Grumio’s rebukes, Tranio leaves to buy fish at the harbor after ordering Grumio to get rid of the bats.\"\"Scenes 3-4:\u00a0 Tranio runs into Philolaches, who is philosophizing about how he has degenerated during his family’s absence; once an exemplary youth, he has become idle and extravagant, spending money on parties and on his girlfriend Philematium (Song #2<\/em>).\u00a0 As Tranio goes on his way to the harbor, Philematium arrives with Scapha, her college roommate; Philolaches eavesdrops on their conversation.\u00a0 Philematium believes that the love she shares with Philolaches will last; Scapha counsels her not to be so naive.\u00a0 Philolaches impatiently cuts off their conversation; he is eager for their party to begin.<\/p>\n

Scenes 5-6:\u00a0 Philolaches’ tipsy fraternity brother, Callidamates, arrives with his girlfriend Delphium; they join the party.\u00a0 Suddenly Tranio races in with disturbing news:\u00a0 he has observed Theopropides, his wife, and two daughters disembarking from a ship at the harbor!\u00a0 Taking charge, Tranio orders all of the party-goers to hide in the house and make no noise.\u00a0 Scapha is instructed to guard the door and let no one in.\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

Scenes 7-8:\u00a0 Travel-weary Theopropides enters with his family; the neighbor’s wife greets them (Song #3<\/em>).\u00a0 Tranio then invents a story about Theopropides’ house being haunted.\u00a0 Frightened, the women all run into the neighbor’s house while Theopropides and Tranio go to pray to the gods.\u00a0In the meantime a money-lender to whom Philolaches is in debt arrives to collect interest on the loan. Theopropides and Tranio return.\u00a0 Tranio, thinking fast, tells the old man that his son has borrowed money in order to buy a new house since the old one is haunted.\u00a0 Pleased with his son’s savvy, Theopropides promises to pay the creditor; he then asks Tranio where the new house is located.\u00a0 Fishing for an answer, Tranio hits on the idea of saying that the house was bought from their neighbor, Simo.\u00a0 Delighted, the old man decides that he would like a tour of Simo’s house, which he now thinks belongs to him.<\/p>\n

Scenes 9-10:\u00a0 Simo comes out of his house to escape his obnoxious wife (Song #4<\/em>).\u00a0 Tranio\"\" tells him that Theopropides is eager to inspect his house to get ideas for an addition to his own house.\u00a0 Flattered, Simo consents, but he has business in the forum; after a brief meeting with his neighbor he leaves.\u00a0 Tranio and Theopropides go inside Simo’s house to finish the tour themselves.Scenes 11-13: Phaniscus and Pinacium, Callidamates’ arrogant slaves, arrive to escort their master home from the party (Song #5<\/em>).\u00a0 They cannot understand why no one answers the door.\u00a0 Meanwhile Theopropides and Tranio exit from Simo’s house; the old man is so happy that he pays the money-lender on the spot and sends Tranio away to find Philolaches.\u00a0 Then he notices the two slaves knocking on the door of his house and questions them; not recognizing him, they divulge the truth.\u00a0Simo returns from the forum, and the two old men ponder how to punish Tranio.\u00a0\u00a0 At this moment the party-goers emerge from the house; they easily persuade Theopropides to forgive his son, but he only reluctantly agrees to let his slave off the hook.\u00a0 With harmony restored, not just in the human world but in the bat world too, the play comes to a close.<\/p>\n

Return to Latin & Greek Plays<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. Olaf Latin Play MMVIII Click here to download\u00a0a slideshow from the 2008 production of Plautus’\u00a0Mostellaria. Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254-184 B.C.) wrote over 100 comedies, of which 20 survive.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"parent":163,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-169","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/classics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/classics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/classics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/classics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/classics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/classics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10530,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/classics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/169\/revisions\/10530"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/classics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/classics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}