Terence, Hecyra front.subject_1

INTRODUCTION. THE Hecyra takes its name from the fact that its plot turns upon the misunderstanding between a mother and daughter-in-law. Colman has translated the word step-mother; but ἑκυρά is etymologically, and in meaning, the same word as socrus, a mother-in-law; and there is the same close connexion between the correlative words νυός and nurus, a daughter-in-law. The story of the play is as follows: A young man named Pamphilus, son of Laches and Sostrata, used to keep company with one Bacchis. One night as he was going to her house, rather the worse for wine, he met Philumena, the daughter of Phidippus and Myrrhina, on the road, and offered her violence, both of them being ignorant who the other was. She could not get any thing from him which could serve as a clue to his recognition; but he in the struggle managed to tear from her finger a ring, which he carried to Bacchis and gave to her. A short time after this he was married; for his father was very anxious to break off his intimacy with Bacchis, and to see his son quietly settled down, that he might have some prospect of domestic comfort in his old age; and he never let his son have any peace till he consented to take to himself a wife. By a strange coincidence the wife selected for him was this very Philumena, whom he had met at night on his way to his mistress’s house; and her mother was only too glad to have her married, hoping that she would be saved from public disgrace. But things did not turn out as smoothly as she expected; for Pamphilus did not at first shake off his old love, but continued to visit Bacchis every day, and totally avoided the company of his wife. Gradually, however, a change took place. Bacchis, being annoyed at the marriage of Pamphilus, behaved with great coldness and caprice towards him. Philumena, on the other hand, bore his neglect with the greatest patience and good temper. And so it came about that Pamphilus abandoned Bacchis altogether, and became devotedly attached to his wife. At this moment a relation of his father’s dies at Imbros, and Pamphilus is despatched to the spot to look after his property, his wife being left with her mother-in-law Sostrata. But this arrangement does not last long. Philumena, finding that she has no hope of concealing her situation from her mother-in-law, begins to avoid her, and to withdraw from her company as much as possible; till, at last, she goes to her own mother on the pretence of attending a family sacrifice, and stays with her, refusing to return to her mother-in-law. Sostrata sends for her, but in vain; and she goes to see her, but is refused admittance.