Terence: Hecyra

Description

Terence's Hecyra raises social, literary and theatrical issues of great interest to modern students of Roman comedy and, indeed, of Roman culture more broadly. The play pays strikingly close attention to the domestic problems of women and experiments boldly with traditional comic forms, not only in its creation of anticipatory suspense, but through its variations on traditional situations and roles and its metatheatrical qualities. In addition, Terence's response in his prologues to the play's two putative failures is important, if tendentious, evidence for the mechanics of theatrical performance in the second century, especially the conjunction of theatrical and gladiatorial shows. This edition opens the play's many interpretive challenges to wider scrutiny while remaining attentive to the linguistic needs of students at all levels.

Sander M. Goldberg is Distinguished Professor of Classics at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has been studying and teaching Roman comedy (and related subjects) for over thirty years and enjoys an international reputation in this field. He has published extensively on Roman drama, including three books dealing specifically with drama in its literary and social context, as well as numerous articles and reviews.

'This is a superb addition to Cambridge University Press' growing body of exemplary commentaries on Roman comedies.' David Christenson, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 'This commentary has profited from [Goldberg's] intimate knowledge of Greek and Roman comedy and ancient performance practice ... It will clearly become the new standard commentary of this play.' Ortwin Knorr, Willamette University