MOBILITY AND SEXUAL LABORERS IN MENANDER'S DIS EXAPATON AND PLAUTUS’ BACCHIDES

Abstract

Greek new comedy is infused with characters on the move, whether they be mercenaries, traders, economic migrants, refugees, or the many and various victims of trafficking (slave and free). While it is unclear exactly how closely comic mobility tracks historical circumstances, mobility in and out of Athens was certainly more frequent in the later part of the fourth century. Witnessing free and enslaved others—both in comedy and in culture—forced to contend with the consequences of migration and displacement gave audience members new opportunities to perceive and respond to the newly relocated and the dispossessed, and to take a closer look at their own circumstances and perceptual processes. This study investigates the way comedy brings the precarities faced by female economic migrants into view, and what this reveals about gender, freedom, and cultural frames, using Menander's Dis Exapaton with Plautus’ Bacchides as test cases.