The Pseudolus(Plautus)

 A Roman new comedy wrote by Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus

 Summary :
Ballio emerges from his house to go the market to buy food for his birthday
party, whipping, threatening, and insulting his servants and prostitutes.
Pseudolus and Calidorus implore him to have mercy on Phoenicium, but Ballio is
relentless. He tells them that if the soldier’s slave doesn’t appear by the end of
the day, he will sell Phoenicium to Calidorus, as long as Calidorus provides him
with the money. Simo objects, and Pseudolus tells him to watch out. Pseudolus
and Simo agree that if Pseudolus succeeds in stealing Phoenicium from Ballio,
Simo will give him the money willingly. If he fails, Simo can send him to the mill,
where he’ll perform hard labor. Alone on stage, Pseudolus boasts of his ability to
carry about schemes.
Ballio, who’d been alerted by Simo that Pseudolus intended to take Phoenicium,
is pleased to be safe from Pseudolus now that Phoenicium has been delivered to
Harpax. He gleefully announces the news to a skeptical Simo, telling him that if
he’s wrong, he’ll give Simo twenty minae.
 Pseudolus, whose name means “liar” in Greek, is the slave of Simo. Pseudolus
is the main character of the play, and, as a slave, represents a low social
status in Roman society.
 Pseudolus and Simia are both slaves in this play and are both the smartest
characters.

Main theme
 Class does not equal intelligence: With the stock character, the clever slave
(played by Pseudolus), the audience gets a glimpse that, despite the assumptions
that Pseudolus, a slave, cannot possibly outwit the upperclass citizens, Ballio and
Simo, this indeed does occur. Pseudolus is able to prove just how clever he is by
fooling multiple others in order to help his owner's son, Calidorus. This play, a part
of Roman popular culture, would have wide appeal in a society where there was
much discrepancy of wealth. Those of the less wealthy would be happy to see
Pseudolus the slave outwit his monied owners.
 True love crossing boundaries: True love has the ability to cross boundaries,
meaning that money, poverty, and class cannot restrict the feelings one person has
for another. Throughout this play, Pseudolus does everything he can to rescue his
master's son's true love, the prostitute Phoenicium, so that they can be together.
Calidorus is of the upper classes, while Phoenicium is a slave and prostitute and is
owned by the pimp Ballio. At play's end the two are united, showing that true love
 indeed can cross all boundaries.
 The evils of greed: Ballio, the local pimp, exemplifies the concept of greed
manifested in man. He constantly asserts that anything not involving the exchange
of money is not worth his time

Q&A
 What is the main theme of Pseudolus?
The Inversion of Social Class, slaves often exhibit wit and quick-thinking,
whereas their masters fall for tricks and disguises

Lesbia(Catullus)

Theme: The poem encourages lovers to scorn the snide comments of others,
and to live only for each other, since life is brief and death brings a night of
perpetual sleep.

“give me a hundred kisses, then a thousand,” etc.–, which many have

found silly, demonstrates just how much he loved her and was willing to risk to
be with her.

Metamorphoses(Ovid)
Summary: Ovid's Metamorphoses is part creation myth and part
history lesson. The poem weaves together many small tales of
transformation in order to tell the story of how the world came to be.
Ovid's meaning is clear: he wishes to show how many small
transformations, or metamorphoses, created the story of the world and
civilization.

He begins his poem in a time before there was a world, a time when
nature itself was "A lifeless lump, unfashion'd, and unfram'd". All that
existed in the beginning was chaos until an unnamed god began to
create order. The change from chaos to order is the first instance of
transformation in the poem. The god goes on to create the Earth
separate from the sky. He populates the sky with gods and the Earth
with humans.

After the creation story, Ovid introduces the Four Ages of Man.
In The Golden Age Earth provides for the people and the people take
what they need. The Golden Age ends when Saturn is expelled from the
heavens and Jove becomes the ruler over the skies. With Saturn's
expulsion comes the introduction of agriculture. The Silver Age also
sees the advent of the four seasons. humans begin to build structures
in order to shield themselves from the elements. The Bronze Age begins
with war. The Iron Age is a time of exploration as well as a time of
deception, and destruction. (黃金,白銀,青銅,鐵器)
Jove decides that people are too depraved and sends a flood to
eradicate them from Earth. The only survivors are Deucalion and
Pyrrha The goddess, Themis tells them to "Throw each behind your
backs, your mighty mother's bones." Deucalion realizes that the
"mother" is Earth and her "bones" are rocks, so they throw the rocks
behind them and the rocks transform into new humans.

The theme of transformation continues throughout Metamorphoses as

humans and nymphs are transformed into various plants, animals etc.

Theme : the central theme of Ovid's Metamorphoses is transformation. Each

story in the poem features people, nymphs, or gods transforming into animals,
rocks, or plants.

Analysis
In Metamorphoses Ovid often uses transformation as a means for
humans or nymphs to escape from being raped.
Ovid portrays the gods as ruthless and impulsive. His portrayal of the
gods can be seen as a metaphor for the way that Ovid perceived those
in power. The gods, like some rulers at Ovid's time, did whatever they
wanted to because they held so much power. Ovid, wished to show the
world as he saw it

Story of transformation

 Apollo and Daphne: Daphne's father transforms her into a laurel

tree in order to protect her from Apollo's lust
 Echo and Narcissus: The nymph Echo is punished for talking too
much by being turned into an echo. She falls in love with
Narcissus but can only echo his own words back to him.
 Narcissus meanwhile falls in love with his own reflection and is
transformed into a flower.
 Pyramus and Thisbe: Pyramus and Thisbe fall in love with each
other, but they have to communicate secretly through a crack in
a wall because their families do not approve of their relationship.
They decide to meet in secret at a Mulberry tree. Thisbe arrives
first and is frightened away by a lion whose mouth is covered in
blood from a recent meal. When Pyramus arrives he sees the
bloody lion as well as Thisbe's cloak which she dropped in her
haste and he assumes that she is dead. Pyramus falls on his
sword and dies. His blood stains the berries of the Mulberry tree.
Thisbe sees that Pyramus is dead and stabs herself. The Mulberry
tree's fruit remains the color of their blood to this day