A COMIC SCENE WITH A STOIC MESSAGE: TERENCE'S EUNUCHUS IN PERSIUS SATIRE 5.161-175

Abstract

Introduction The Greekparaclausithyron is the song sung by the lover at his mistress's door as a part of the revel or komos which followed a symposium and after he had been refused admission to her house. It is usually a song of disappointment and sorrow, based on a more or less stereotyped incident: the lover's passage through the streets on his way to the girl's house after the symposium, her refusal to admit him into the house, and his lament in which he may combine a plea that the girl will relent, a warning of the lonely days to come when she will be too old for love, and a picture of his own sufferings. In the end he may hang his garland on the door or scribble some scraps of verse on the door. Then he lies down in the doorway to remain there until morning.