KomFrag-Kolloquium/Samantha Davis, 10.11.2021, 16–18

Am 10.11.2021, 16.15h, findet on-line das erste KomFrag-Kolloquium des Wintersemesters statt. Samantha Davis (Cornell University) stellt ihre Dissertation vor:

The Parasite in Greece and Rome.

Rhetoric and Philosophy on the Comic Stage 

Das Kolloquium wird via Zoom sein. Hier das Link: 

KomFrag-Kolloquium/SamanthaDavis

Meeting-ID: 689 0886 1283

Kenncode: XbMfqQ6q5

Über SIP beitreten

68908861283@fr.zmeu.us 

Über H.323 beitreten

213.244.140.110 (Deutschland)

Kenncode: 526522525

Meeting-ID: 689 0886 1283

Abstract

The first of my four chapters examines an inherent connection between the professional parasite and the professional rhetorician in the comic tradition. Parasites from Plautine Comedy (and beyond) have seen revived scholarly interest since Cynthia Damon’s The Mask of the Parasite which shows how Plautus adapts the Greek stock character into a uniquely Roman creation: she argues that the parasite represents the client in the formal relationship of Roman amicitia. However, to explain away Terence’s parasites with this Plautine paradigm misses significant moments of Terentian innovation and social commentary. This chapter shows how Terence’s parasites are inspired by the Greek stock character but ultimately extend beyond Greek contexts, squarely placed in contemporary Rome. The core issues at stake in both of Terence’s parasite-plays, Eunuchus and Phormio, are rhetorical manipulation and the perceived pernicious effect of rhetorical education.

My second chapter explores the significance of that connection given social, political, and legal circumstances in contemporary Rome. Terence selects and adapts parasites from the comic tradition in order to showcase the dangers of manipulative and deceitful rhetoric. From 181-155 BCE, a series of senatorial decrees effectively repressed Roman access to public lectures on philosophy and rhetoric. The senatus consultum that expelled philosophers and rhetoricians from Rome in 161 BCE (the same year in which both of Terence’s parasite-plays were produced) makes it clear that there were such individuals in the city in the 160s and, seemingly, that some of them were giving public lectures. This suggests that Terence adapted the parasite into a figure that dramatizes the social issues at stake in this act of legislation. I argue that Terence encourages his audience to reflect on the morality and expediency of rhetorical persuasion (and education) by vilifying the professional philosopher-rhetorician.