Eunuchus

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 a Greek comedy by Menander.

Prologue

• Nullumst iam dictum quod non sit dictum prius.
  • Nothing is said that has not been said before.
  • 41 (tr. John Sargeaunt)

Act I

• In amore haec omnia insunt vitia: iniuriae,
  suspiciones, inimicitiae, indutiae,
  bellum, pax rursum: incerta haec si tu postules
  ratione certa facere, nihilo plus agas
  quam si des operam ut cum ratione insanias.
  • Love has in it all these evils: wrongs, jealousies, quarrels, reconcilements, war, then peace again. If you tried to turn these uncertainties into certainties by a system of reasoning, you'd do no more good than if you set yourself to be mad on a system.
  • 59 (tr. John Sargeaunt)

• Si istuc crederem
  sincere dici, quidvis possem perpeti.
  • If I thought you really meant it, I could put up with anything.
  • 176 (tr. John Sargeaunt)

Act II

• Di inmortales, homini homo quid praestat! stulto intellegens
  quid interest!
  • Good heavens! how much one man excels another! What a difference between a fool and a man with brains!
  • 232 (tr. John Sargeaunt)

• Omnia habeo neque quicquam habeo; nil quom est,
  nil defit tamen
  • I have everything though I haven’t a shilling, I’ve no property and I want for nothing.
  • 243 (tr. John Sargeaunt)

• Omnium rerum, heus, vicissitudost.
  • Look here, it’s a world of ups and downs.
  • 276 (tr. John Sargeaunt)

• Flos ipsus.
  • The perfect blossom!
  • 319 (tr. John Sargeaunt); cf. Andria, 72; also, "sweet sixteen"

Act III

• Ego non flocci pendere.
  • I care no straw.
  • 411 (tr. John Sargeaunt)

• Pro Iuppiter,
  nunc est profecto, interfici quom perpeti me possum,
  ne hoc gaudium contaminet vita aegritudine aliqua.
  • O heavens! this is a moment when I could bear dissolution for fear life pollute this exultation with some distress.
  • 550 (tr. John Sargeaunt)

Act IV

• Sine Cerere et Libero friget Venus.
  • Without Ceres and Bacchus Venus is a-chill.
  • 732 (tr. John Sargeaunt); i.e. without bread and wine love freezes.

• Novi ingenium mulierum:
  nolunt ubi velis, ubi nolis cupiunt ultro.
  • I know women’s ways: they won't when you would; when you wouldn't they're actually dying for it.
  • 813 (tr. John Sargeaunt)

Act V

• Ego me in pedes quantum queo.
  • I took to my heels and ran full speed.
  • 844 (tr. John Sargeaunt)

• Saepe ex huius modi re quapiam
  malo principio magna familiaritas.
  • Often in things of this kind a bad beginning leads up to an intimate friendship.
  • 873 (tr. John Sargeaunt)

• Utinam tibi conmitigari videam sandalio caput!
  • I should like to see her combing your pate with her sandal.
  • 1028 (tr. John Sargeaunt)

About

• Sororem falso dictitatam Thaidis
  id ipsum ignorans miles advexit Thraso
  ipsique donat. erat haec civis Attica.
  eidem eunuchum, quem emerat, tradi iubet
  Thaidis amator Phaedria ac rus ipse abit
  Thrasoni oratus biduum ut concederet.
  ephebus frater Phaedriae puellulam
  cum deperiret dono missam Thaidi,
  ornatu eunuchi induitur—suadet Parmeno—:
  intro ut iit, vitiat virginem. sed Atticus
  civis repertus frater eius conlocat
  vitiatam ephebo; Phaedriam exorat Thraso.
  • A girl wrongly asserted to be sister to Thais is ' brought and presented to her by Captain Thraso, who is ignorant of the supposed kinship. She was a freeborn Athenian. Phaedria, a lover of Thais, sends her a eunuch whom he had purchased, and went into the country on her request that for two days he should give place to Thraso. Phaedria’s young brother being violently in love with the girl presented to Thais dresses up as the eunuch on Parmeno’s suggestion, and so finding his way into the house seduces the girl. Her brother is discovered in the person of an Athenian gentleman who arranges her marriage with the seducer. Thraso gets terms from Phaedria.
  • Summary (Periocha) by Gaius Sulpicius Apollinaris (tr. John Sargeaunt)

• A certain citizen of Athens had a daughter named Pamphila, and a son called Chremes. The former was stolen while an infant, and sold to a Rhodian merchant, who having made a present of her to a Courtesan of Rhodes, she brought her up with her own daughter Thais, who was somewhat older. In the course of years, Thais following her mother's way of life, removes to Athens. Her mother dying, her property is put up for sale, and Pamphila is purchased as a slave by Thraso, an officer and an admirer of Thais, who happens just then to be visiting Rhodes. During the absence of Thraso, Thais becomes acquainted with Phasdria, an Athenian youth, the son of Laches; she also discovers from Chremes, who lives near Athens, that Pamphila, her former companion, is his sister. Thraso returns, intending to present to her the girl he has bought, but determines not to do so until she has discarded Phaedria. Finding that the girl is no other than Pamphila, Thais is at a loss what to do, as she both loves Phaedria, and is extremely anxious to recover Pamphila. At length, to please the Captain, she excludes Phaedria, but next day sends for him, and explains to him her reasons, at the same time begging of him to allow Thraso the sole right of admission to her house for the next two days, and assuring him that as soon as she shall have gained possession of the girl, she will entirely throw him off. Phaedria consents, and resolves to spend these two days in the country; at the same time he orders Parmeno to take to Thais a Eunuch and an Aethiopian girl, whom he has purchased for her. The Captain also sends Pamphila, who is accidentally seen by Chaerea, the younger brother of Phaedria; he, being smitten with her beauty, prevails upon Parmeno to introduce him into the house of Thais, in the Eunuch's dress. Being admitted there, in the absence of Thais, lie ravishes the damsel. Shortly afterward Thraso quarrels with Thais, and comes with all his attendants to her house to demand the return of Pamphila, but is disappointed. In conclusion, Pamphila is recognized by her brother Chremes, and is promised in marriage to Chaerea; while Thraso becomes reconciled to Phaedria, through the mediation of Gnatho, his Parasite.
  • Henry Thomas Riley, The Comedies of Terence (Ney York: Harper & Brothers, 1874), p. 64

Translations

• Nicholas Udall; John Higgins, Flovvres or eloquent phrases of the Latine speach, gathered ont [sic] of al the sixe comœdies of Terence (London: imprinted by Thomas Marshe, 1581)

• George Colman, The Comedies of Terence, Translated into Familiar Blank Verse (London: printed for T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt ..., W. Johnston ..., W. Flexney ..., R. Davis ..., T. Davies ..., 1765)

• Henry Thomas Riley, The Comedies of Terence, and the Fables of Phædrus (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1853)

• John Benson Rose, Comedies of Publius Terentius Afer (London: Dorrell and Son, 1870)

• John Sargeaunt, Terence I: The Lady of Andros · The Self-Tormentor · The Eunuch, LCL 22 (London: William Heinemann; New York: The Macmillan Co., 1912)

• Christopher Kelk, "Eunuchus". Poetry in Translation (2023), Online