Play: Eunuchus

Overview
Set in Athens and adapted from Greek New Comedy, Terence’s Eunuchus intertwines rash desire, social status, and professional courtesanship with the swagger of a braggart soldier and the sly tact of parasites and slaves. The title points to the ruse that drives the plot: a hot-headed youth dons a eunuch’s clothes to gain access to a courtesan’s house, unleashing consequences that are resolved through recognition, negotiation, and comic compromise.

Plot
Phaedria, a young Athenian, is in love with Thais, a sophisticated courtesan carefully managing her patrons. Thais asks him to absent himself for two days so she can entertain the soldier Thraso. Her aim is not mercenary alone: she hopes to recover a young woman, Pamphila, who was kidnapped as a child and has been under the soldier’s control. Thais wants to restore the girl to her citizen family, enhancing her own reputation and securing influential goodwill. Phaedria, jealous but compliant, agrees and sends Thais gifts to keep her favor, including a eunuch.

At the same time Phaedria’s impetuous younger brother, Chaerea, glimpses Pamphila as she is escorted to Thais’s house and is smitten at once. Egged on by the clever household slave Parmeno, Chaerea seizes on the perfect disguise: he puts on the eunuch’s clothing and is ushered into Thais’s home as Phaedria’s gift. Once inside, passion overcomes restraint, and Chaerea assaults Pamphila. The truth is briefly masked as the household blames the “eunuch,” while the real eunuch, shut out, is beaten for the supposed offense.

Thais returns to discover her carefully guarded plan in ruins and the girl violated in her care. Furious and alarmed, she presses for the culprit. Chaerea slips out, confesses to Parmeno, and then to Phaedria, vowing to marry Pamphila if she proves freeborn. Meanwhile Thraso, inflated by his parasite Gnatho, blusters about his rights over Thais, while Phaedria’s jealousy flares as he is kept at a distance.

A recognition trail then opens. Pamphila has tokens from childhood that suggest citizen birth; Thais summons people connected to the lost family, and the signs confirm the girl’s identity. With her status secure, Chaerea openly admits his deed and begs for her hand. Weighing outrage against the benefits of a respectable alliance for Pamphila, her guardians consent, provided a proper marriage is arranged.

Characters and motives
Thais stands at the center as a professional tactician of desire who also seeks genuine moral credit by restoring Pamphila. Phaedria is the wavering lover, vacillating between trust and possessiveness. Chaerea embodies impetuous appetite, moderated only when social reality forces responsibility. Parmeno orchestrates the decisive trick that both creates and cures the crisis. Thraso is New Comedy’s braggart soldier, all threat and no substance, while Gnatho, the consummate flatterer, thrives by attaching himself to whichever patron can feed him.

Themes and tone
The play probes the clash of eros and norm: a violent act inside a house of pleasure must be repaired through recognition and marriage. It scrutinizes the transactional economy of love, gifts, visits, and status, while giving its courtesan unusual managerial agency. Braggadocio and parasitism are satirized, and the clever-slave machinery drives action with brisk, theatrical efficiency. Terence blends Menandrian polish with Roman pace, letting ethical unease coexist with comic buoyancy.

Resolution
Pamphila’s citizenship enables a legitimate wedding to Chaerea, converting scandal into social order. Thais chooses Phaedria over Thraso. The soldier’s attempted showdown collapses, and, at Gnatho’s prodding, he trades his claims for a standing invitation to their table, an ending that keeps the parasite fed, the soldier appeased, the courtesan supported, and the young men satisfied.