Casina (play)

Casina
Written byPlautus
CharactersOlympio - slave of Lysidamus
Chalinus - slave of Cleostrata
Cleostrata[1] - wife of Lysidamus
Pardalisca - maid of Cleostrata
Myrrhina - wife of Alcesimus
Lysidamus[2] – Athenian gentleman
Alcesimus – neighbour
Citrio or Chytrio - cook
Settinga street in Athens, before the houses of Lysidamus and Alcesimus

Casina is a Latin comedy or farce by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. Set in ancient Athens, the play describes how an Athenian gentleman and his son are both in love with the same slave-girl, Casina. The old man tries to conduct a secret affair with Casina by having her marry his farm-manager; but his plan is foiled by his wife, who dresses her son's armour-bearer up as the bride and sends him into the bridal chamber in place of Casina.

The play is probably one of Plautus's later comedies, because of the amount of song which it contains.[3] There is also a mention Bacchanialian revels, which are said no longer to take place; this may be a reference to a Roman senatorial decree of 187 BC forbidding such revels. If so, it would date the play to shortly before Plautus's death in 184 BC.[3]

According to the prologue (which appears to have been written for a revival some years after Plautus's death),[3] the play is adapted from a comedy called Klerumenoi ("The Lot-Casters") by the Greek playwright Diphilus.

The name "Casina" (pronounced with three short vowels) is thought to be related to casia, a scented spice similar to cinnamon, one of several references to scents and foods in the play.[4][5]

Unlike other Plautus plays, where references to homosexuality are either fleeting or present as jokes directed at characters with identifiable feminine characteristics, in Casina it has a more prominent and less stereotypical role. Apart from the climax of the play, in which two men attempt to have relations with a third man disguised as a bride, the character of Lysidamus, who is not described as having identifiable feminine characteristics, is bisexual and makes several references in the play to his carnal desire for his slave Olympius.[6]

  1. ^ In his edition, Lindsay writes "Cleustrata", but the manuscripts all have "Cleostrata"; the name is pronounced with three syllables.
  2. ^ The name appears in Lindsay and Leo's editions, but it may be an error. He is not named in the text itself: Traill (2011), pp. 500–501 note.
  3. ^ a b c De Melo (2011), p. 7.
  4. ^ Connors (1997).
  5. ^ Franko (1999).
  6. ^ Cody, Jane M. (1976). "The "Senex Amator" in Plautus' Casina". Hermes. 104 (4): 453–476. ISSN 0018-0777. Retrieved 2024-09-15.