Animalia: deception léxicon and gender in Báquides

Abstract

This paper deals with selected passages of Bacchides, a Titus Maccius Plautus’ comedy, in which some of its characters are compared to animals. Aiming to investigate the effects of this poetic feature, this discussion proposes to look particularly at two moments of Bacchides. The first of them occurs just at the play’s beginning (Bacch. 35-8; 47-51) and brings forth the association between the semantic field of the birds and its chase, and the action of the prostitutes in this comedy. In the other one, at Bacchides’ final scene (Bacch. 1120-1140^a; 1148), the senes Philoxenus and Nicobulus are compared to woolen animals by the meretrices. The focus on the comparisons between characters and animals in Bacchides may help us to examine two features that seem to be pertinent to the way that one may read the Roman comedy. The first feature is implicated in the way that this kind of metaphor contributes to the characterization of the meretrix’s discourse as tricky. Moreover, this investigation allows us a glance at how the ideas of passivity (associated with feminine) and activity (associated with masculine),  involving animal images, are exploited not only in Bacchides but also in other plays of the Plautine corpus.