New England Classical Journal 35.

1 (2008) 21-30

Euclio’s Solitary Slave:

Staphyla in Plautus’ Aulularia
Lora L. Holland
University of North Carolina at Asheville

S
taphyla has a small but important role as Euclio’s only slave in
Aulularia. The role of the anus has been noticeably invisible in the
scholarship until recently. For instance, Stace’s study of slaves in
Plautus mentions not a single female, though Plautus’ treatment of the
women, including old women, in his plays also has implications for his
originality. Striking also is the absence of the old woman from Roman
comedy even in some recent studies of old age in Latin literature, such
as Cokayne, who has a brief discussion of various old men in Roman
comedy with reference to specific plays, but only a single sentence on
the old woman: “Prattling was generally seen as a womanly quality, and
elderly women in Roman comedy were often portrayed as talkative old
gossips who let their tongues run away with them.” Nor do Fraenkel,
Segal, or Anderson treat the elderly female in comedy. Duckworth does so
superficially, and briefly cites additional characters who are probably older
women, but whose age is somewhat indeterminate, e.g. the priestess of
Venus in Rudens. He notes that this unimportant character has three basic
functions in Plautine comedy: to develop the plot in some small way, to
aid in the characterization of the leading roles, and to provide incidental
humor. The old woman character in Plautus’ plays, however, can be of
considerable interest for assessing the playwright’s character strategy
and use of the anile stereotypes that are ubiquitous in ancient literature.


Stace (1968). Lange’s note (1973) concerns a textual problem in which the
number of male servi in the play is at issue, and also does not mention the role of
the female slave. The sole female slave role in the play, however, does pertain, as
Primmer (1992) has demonstrated, for example on p. 82 and 97, to textual issues and
to the question of the Greek original.

Cokayne (2003), p. 81. She refers to old men in comedy on p. 54, 80, 81, 119.
Parkin (2003) does cite some of Plautus’ old women, mostly in footnotes (e.g., p.
350), but does not mention Staphyla.

Duckworth (1952) p. 253-261. Of course, this is the function of many a minor
character in drama. Packman’s (1999) analysis of character designations in the
manuscripts of Plautus concludes that the anus is a special category of ancilla and is
distinguished as such in the scene headings, though she is sometimes also a nutrix
or lena. She notes that only Syra in Mercator is listed as both ancilla and anus (p. 252).

Richlin (1992) discusses stereotypes of the aged in chapter 5. The ubiquitous
features of old age in Latin literature include loquacity, a general infirmity often
characterized by a slow gait, and ugliness. Often also attributed to the elderly female
are qualities of deception, sorcery, bibulousness, and repulsive sexuality.
21
Richlin’s seminal work on sexual and aggressive humor in Roman literature
provides a base for examining these features in Plautus.
A brief example of one neglected aspect of Staphyla’s role in Aulularia
sets the stage. In his discussion of Euclio’s pregnant daughter in the play,
Anderson attributes to Euclio’s single-minded avarice the fact that he has
not noticed his daughter is pregnant: “Up to this point, Euclio has hardly
noticed his daughter and, incredibly but most significantly, he does not
know that she has been raped or that she has become pregnant or that now
she has given birth. For him, the loss of his gold alone counts.” Plautus
does, however, give an explanation for this anomaly that is distinct from
Euclio’s greed: the nurse, Staphyla, has managed to keep this information
from him, as she herself declares at Aul. 74-78. She does not give details
about how she accomplished this ruse; nevertheless, that she admits to
concealing the daughter’s condition from Euclio is significant and should
not be dismissed. If the slave who hid this important information from the
master were young and male, would critics ignore his role? This paper,
accordingly, investigates Staphyla in Aulularia from the perspective of
both her age and social status, and analyzes the playwright’s strategies for
maximizing the comic effectiveness of this character. A close examination
of Staphyla’s role in the play as a whole will demonstrate the richness of
Plautus’ characterization. Her dual role in the play, ancilla et nutrix, differs
from a similar role in Greek New Comedy. Ultimately I argue that Staphyla
performs the role of the master’s seruus callidus in the play, although in a
limited, comical fashion.
Staphyla’s dual role in Aulularia is similar to that of Simikhe in
Menander’s Dyskolos: as a slave she is the butt of jokes and an object of


Richlin (1992) uses the Greek sources to good effect, but deliberately avoids
Roman comedy because of its complex and vexed relationship to Greek originals.
The old woman character in Greek literature was thoroughly examined by Oeri
(1948), who mentions Staphyla twice (p. 46 and 59). Though his topic is timely today,
the reviewers generally dismissed his topic, Harsh calling it “dull and not very
profitable” and asserting that the “peculiar characteristics of this comic type . . . are
so ordinary that influence from or upon other literary genres is doubtless trivial, and
comparison of this Greek old woman with the old women of other societies, which
Oeri briefly undertakes, is probably without much significance” (Harsh, 1951: 98).
Lilja’s (1965) study of terms of abuse in Roman comedy offers no additional insights
into Plautus’ abuse of his old female slave, but has a convenient index. See also
Opelt (1965) for terms of abuse in Latin.

Anderson (1996), p. 67.

neque iam quo pacto celem erilis filiae | probrum, propinqua partitudo quoi appetit,
| queo comminisci; neque quicquam meliust mihi, | ut opinor, quam ex me ut unam faciam
litteram | †longam, laqueo† collum quando opstrinxero. She draws attention to her
deception of the master again at 274-78: quid ego nunc agam? | nunc nobis prope adest
exitium, mihi atque erili filiae, | nunc probrum atque partitudo prope adest ut fiat palam;
| quod celatum atque occultatum est usque adhuc, nunc non potest. I have followed
Lindsay’s OCT text throughout.

22
abuse; as a mid-wife/nurse, she is respected. The duality of her role
in Greek and Roman comedy may reflect an almost universal societal
ambivalence about old women in general, whose age and knowledge is
respected or reviled at will, as Fantham puts it, “whether honest nannies or
grasping procuresses.” These stereotypes abound in the old woman’s long
and varied life on the ancient stage, whether in the role of old nurse, a type
going back to Odysseus’ nurse, Eurykleia, or that of drunken old bawds in
New comedy. A closer analysis of how Staphyla’s and Simikhe’s respective
characters are played on the stage, however, reveals more differences than
similarities.
We begin with a brief overview of the scenes involving each old
woman. In Dyskolos, Simikhe’s most prolonged scene occurs in lines 574-
637. The plot is straightforward. The audience has already been informed
that Simikhe accidentally dropped a bucket into the well earlier. In Act 3 she
bursts onto the stage wailing loud laments like a woman in Greek tragedy.10
She reports that she was trying to retrieve the bucket from the well when
the mattock she was using as a tool also fell into the well—certainly a tragic
occurrence in her life! Her fellow slave Getas wickedly quips that all that’s
left for her now is to throw herself in after them. When Knemon comes
on stage, Getas screams at Simikhe to run for her life: feËg' Œ ponhrã,
feËg'—époktene› se, graË (588), “run, you wretch, run—he’s going to
kill you, old woman,” so she takes off. When he sees her slow pace, he
immediately reverses his decision: mçllon d' émÊnou, “nope, you’d better
defend yourself!” Simikhe cowers and pleads at the threat of violent
consequences when her carelessness is discovered. The scene quickly moves
on to other matters and so does she.
At the beginning of Act 4 she bursts onto the stage a second time,
screaming even louder. When asked what the matter is, she reveals that
the master Knemon himself has fallen into the well while trying to retrieve
both the bucket and the mattock that she had dropped into the well. When
the slaves are discussing what should be done, Getas suggests that Simikhe
should finish the job. When she asks how so, he replies that she should drop
a rock or mortar on the old man’s head! After this scene, Simikhe has very
few lines. Thus as serving woman she provides some incidental humor
and her actions are essential to the plot, but she says or does nothing that
is inconsistent with her subordinate role as the butt of jokes, except for one
small scene towards the very end of the play. Simikhe fusses at Knemon as
she prepares to leave him alone in the house and tend to her nursely duties:


Stockert in his 1983 edition of Aulularia only briefly outlines the structural
similarity of these two characters, noting that each suffers abuse because of her
master’s bad temper. Whether or not Dyskolos is the Greek original for Aulularia
has been much argued in the scholarship, but will not be addressed here, since my
argument does not depend on the outcome.

Fantham (1975), p. 72.
10
Handley (1965), p. 234. I have followed Handley’s text of Dyskolos throughout.

23
“You will lie there alone. You have a wretched temper. Though they wanted
to take you to the god, you refused. There will be some great evil again for
you, by the two goddesses, and an even greater one than now.”11 But as
Knemon makes no reply to her, it seems that either this impudent prophecy
is an aside, or he meekly accepts her displeasure.
In Aulularia Staphyla holds a significant pride of place: her first and
largest scene is the first act of the play (40-119). The act is in two parts. After
the Lar has set the stage, the miserly senex is heard ordering Staphyla to get
out of his house. Her first words as she slowly emerges from the house, “qur
me miseram uerberas (42),” reveal that he is punctuating his commands with
blows, unlike Simikhe’s treatment, where physical violence is threatened
but not carried out onstage. Euclio’s answer to her plaintive challenge
highlights her status as slave: ut misera sis atque ut te dignam mala malam
aetatem exigas (42-43), “in order for you to be miserable and live a bad time
of life (i.e. old age) worthy of your bad self.” When she asks why he has
pushed her outside (an indication that her geriatric gait is too slow for him
in his impatience), his only answer is the threat of more physical abuse, tibi
ego rationem reddam, stimulorum seges? (45), “Shall I give you a reason, you
crop of whips?” He continues to berate her for her slowness (48-9), and to
voice his suspicions that her eyes betray some vague evil powers (52-3 and
60-64). His physical and verbal abuse of her is typical of the master/slave
relationships in Plautus, and plays on typical anile stereotypes.
In her first monologue at the end of the Act 1.1, Staphyla repeats
the Lar’s shocking news that Euclio’s daughter was raped, adding the
important details that the girl is now nine months pregnant, and that she
herself must somehow keep Euclio from discovering the shameful truth
prematurely. Staphyla despairs that she will be successful in this. She may
need to employ for herself the canonical form of suicide for women in
tragedy: death by hanging.12 There is no similar scene for Simikhe, and she
never has the stage to herself in Dyskolos.
In the second part of Act I, Staphyla, in a reversal of her first
appearance, is told to stay inside the house while Euclio prepares to leave.
He orders Staphyla not to let anyone inside while he’s gone, not even
Good Fortune herself. Staphyla sardonically reassures him with an oath
that he has nothing to fear: pol ea ipsa credo ne intro mittatur cauet, nam ad
aedis nostras nusquam adiit quaquam prope (101-102), “By Pollux, I believe
that she (Good Fortune) is herself careful lest she be let inside, for she has

11
Dys. 874-878. Since she is leaving the house to perform duties in her role as
nurse, Simikhe may feel more entitled to express her opinions to the master than she
did earlier when she was being clumsy in her duties as slave.
12
She mentions hanging herself twice: at lines 50-51 and a few lines later at
76-78. See also n. 19 below. At this point in the play she does not know who the
father is, though she does find out before Euclio does. Primmer (1992) attempts to
reconstruct how Staphyla comes by this knowledge, for which see especially pp.
114-16.

24
never come anywhere near our house.” These lines may staged as inaudible
to her master, since Euclio’s response is only to tell her to shut up and go
on inside, or may be a farcical insult for comic effect. The surly response,
whether heard by the master or not, is also typical of master/slave
exchanges, especially the servus callidus, in ancient comedy.
Likewise, if we compare Staphyla’s role as nurse with the
corresponding role in the Dyskolos, we see that Plautus has expanded
and recast this role as well. Plautus intertwines Staphyla’s two roles so
that when she is on-stage with Euclio or other characters, she plays the
slave; but when she is alone on the stage, her nursely concern is apparent.
Twice she has a monologue during the opening scene of the play while
Euclio is temporarily off-stage, whereas Simikhe always shares the stage.
In addition, Simikhe’s role as nurse of the master’s daughter is pro forma,
and has no bearing on the plot of Dyskolos; in fact, she has little interaction
with Knemon’s daughter during the course of the play. Staphyla has no
interaction with Euclio’s daughter onstage, but her actions concerning
the daughter are important, not incidental, as Duckworth would have
it, to the plot: she keeps from Euclio the knowledge that his daughter is
pregnant, with the result that Euclio arranges for his daughter to marry
Megadorus. Her private worry for the daughter creates a special bond
between her character and the audience—they alone are privy to her secret
knowledge. Although she does not reappear on-stage toward the end of
the extant portion of the play, Staphyla is present inside the house when
the daughter’s baby is born and may have had another appearance at the
end of the play. Lyconides, who wishes to be acknowledged as the baby’s
father, urges Euclio to discover the truth about the matter for himself from
Staphyla, saying ea rem novit (807), “she knows the truth,” and Euclio may
well have done so. As anus nutrix she seems to be respected by the male
characters in the play.13
The characterization of Plautine characters often begins with the name,
and Staphyla’s evokes the stereotype of the elderly woman who is fond of
wine.14 Plautus continues this characterization at several points in the play.
In her second monologue, after Euclio informs her that he has betrothed his

13
Primmer (1992) discusses Staphyla’s knowledge about Lyconides and offers a
suggestion about points of contact between scenes 2.3 and 4.7, pp. 82-85, and affirms
she is the first in Euclio’s household to know the truth about the identity of the
father of the baby.
14
As Ussing (1875) noted, quia vino dedita erat (p. 219), though he is generally
not credited with this observation in the scholarship, e.g., Thomas (1913) in his
commentary ad loc. and more recently Hofmann (1977), p. 350. Her name is a hapax
and is to be linked to the Greek word staphule, meaning “bunch of grapes.” This
word has associations both with drinking, since wine is made from grapes, and with
maturity, since the reference is to an entire bunch of grapes. In the Greek Anthology
(5.304), a young woman is called an unripe grape, while the mature woman is
compared to a bunch of grapes. Konstan (1983), p. 42 also discusses the significance
of names for various Plautine characters.

25
daughter to Megadorus, she despairs of keeping the secret of her charge’s
pregnancy, ending her lament with a reference to drinking: nam ecastor
malum maerore metuo ne mixtum bibam (279). “For by Castor I am afraid
that I will drink evil mixed with sorrow.” I suggest that the metaphorical
reference to drinking supports a visual joke: she makes a drinking gesture,
or perhaps even pulls out a wine jug and takes a swig after delivering this
line. In an instant, she has zoomed from the tragic nurse wringing her
hands in despair over the desperate situation of her mistress to bibulous
hag, playing into the well-known stereotype of the elderly female’s
fondness for wine. When in her next appearance onstage she sharply notes
that temetum, a strong drink, is not among the provisions brought in for the
wedding (355), she again recalls this image.
As soon as Staphyla appears on stage in the opening scene of the play,
she is characterized as a busybody and a wicked witch. Her mask may have
looked something like the mask of a comic old woman depicted on a cast of
a mould for terracotta that is dated to the Hellenistic period (fig. 1).15

fig.1: South Italian comic anus with mask (ca. 300 BCE)

This mask emphasizes the bulging of the eyes and the wide-open mouth.
Staphyla’s appearance would have a striking effect as she slowly emerged
from the house, her eyes and mouth prominent. Euclio’s first insult,

15
For bibliography on and analysis of the use of masks on the Roman stage see
Marshall (2006) p. 126ff, though he does not treat Staphyla’s mask.

26
accordingly, is to her prying eyes, circumspectatrix cum oculis emissiciis (line
41), “you looker-around with your bulging, spying eyes.” He continues
to refer to her eyes, threatening to dig them out of her head at line 53 and
accusing her of having an extra set on the back of her head at line 64. The
stereotype of the garrulity of the old comes into play at line 268, where
Euclio uses the word deblaterauisti “you blabbed” when he accuses Staphyla
of telling all the neighbors about the dowry he will give to his daughter.
The stereotype of the aged gait appears at line 49: testudineum istum tibi ego
grandibo gradum, “I’ll step up that turtle pace of yours.”16 Euclio also calls
Staphyla a triuenefica, “sorceress.” By ascribing to her a wicked nature,
he calls to the audience’s mind the horrible old crone or witch. He uses a
specialized vocabulary for describing these stereotypical traits: Staphyla,
circumspectatrix, emissiciis, deblaterauisti, and testudineum occur only here in
Plautus, or only here in the sense in which he uses the word.17
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Staphyla’s interaction with her
master has something in common with Plautus’ typically rowdy master and
seruus callidus exchanges, punctuated by the master’s verbal and physical
abuse, and the slave’s spirited retorts and mocking asides. As noted earlier,
Euclio is beating Staphyla in her first appearance onstage. During the
initial dialogue with her master, Staphyla questions her abuse twice, thus
revealing a creative new Plautine twist—an old woman slave as a type of
the seruus callidus! The next passage removes any doubt about this: Staphyla
reacts to yet another threat of physical abuse with sassy insubordination:
Utinam me diui adaxint ad suspendium | potius quidem quam hoc pacto apud te
seruiam, “Would that the gods drive me to hang myself than indeed I should
be a slave at your house under these circumstances” (50-51) Fortunately
for her, Euclio, as usual, only hears her mumbling and can’t make out the
words. This is the kind of delicious retort that endears her to the audience.
Staphyla is also Euclio’s peer in age and has gained a certain independence,
perhaps through her longevity and her freedom from a younger woman’s
concerns, such as children, a husband, or the need to attract clients, though
not necessarily through her intellect, as was the case with the seruus callidus.
She will obey him, but not without expressing her unasked for opinions as
they totter around the house together. They are rather like a comic version

16
Even a cursory examination of old women’s roles in Plautus’ other plays
reveals that he has created the composite old woman in Staphyla: like the anus
Syra in Mercator, Staphyla is old and slow; like the multiloqua anus in Cistellaria,
Staphyla is accused of having a loose tongue (this lena, like Staphyla, also has secret
knowledge about the younger female love interest in the play); in her name and
references to drinking in the play, Staphyla shares with Leaena in Curculio and lena
in Cistellaria a fondness for wine (see also Burck, 1956, p. 275); and like Scapha in
Mostellaria, she is suspected of wickedness.
17
Many of these words are linked to res militariae, which may suggest that
Euclio is attempting to defend his gold like a soldier. Stockert (1982) argues for a
contrast between Euclio’s short, clipped speech, characteristic of a miserly man, and
Staphyla’s more garrulous manner of speaking, as befits an old woman (p. 6).

27
of Ovid’s Baucis and Philemon.18 In keeping a secret from her master, she
also behaves like a seruus callidus. Unlike most clever slaves, however,
she apparently has no brilliant plan for what to do once the baby arrives,
though she is comically melodramatic in seeing death as her only option
if the pregnancy is discovered.19 Staphyla also fulfills other functions that
male slaves have in other plays, such as guarding the house (Aul. 81, cf.
Most. 444 and Terence, Eun. 780); in short, she wears all the slave’s hats in
the house.20
Thus we see that in examining Plautus’ celebrated expansion of the role
of the slave in his comedies, Staphyla should be included as an innovative
variation on a theme. As the daughter’s nutrix, she is a figure of respect,
and her two monologues address her nursely concerns. As an anus serva,
Staphyla is abused by her master, but not entirely subdued. As Euclio’s
sole slave she is the only one able to serve, like the seruus callidus, as a foil
to her master, to mutter against him under her breath, to challenge him,
and to conceal knowledge from him that is revealed only late in the play.
The fact that it is an old woman who plays this role enhances and indeed
emphasizes the comic effect of Euclio’s solitary miserliness.21

18
I owe this observation to Elaine Fantham.
19
Usually characters threaten suicide because of romantic love, e.g.,
Alcesimarchus in Cist. 639ff., Acroteleutium in Mil. 1240-41, or Lysidamus in Cas.
305-308. The love-sick slave Chalinus in Cas. 424 speaks of death by hanging as
his suicide option. It makes some sense that slave-suicide be conducted via a rope:
slaves had limited access to swords, poisons, and other, more costly, materials for
offing oneself.
20
Likewise, the aged lena in Cistellaria is called upon to guard the house (105)
where the meretrix Selenium lives.
21
I would like to thank Kenneth Reckford and the audience at the Southern
Section of CAMWS in Charlottesville in 1998 for comments on an earlier version of
this paper, and especially Nina Coppolino.

*Illustration credit: BM 1887.2-27.1, from Taranto. © The Trustees of The British

Museum

28
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