Therapontigonus Was on Stage the Whole Time

What is it about?

This article answers a question about whether the blowhard soldier character ever actually leaves the stage once he has entered in Plautus' ancient Roman comedy Curculio. By looking at how other characters enter and exit in the comedy, by noticing how the soldier expresses hesitation before the one possible time he leaves, and by exploring the span of time when he would potentially be off stage, I argue that he never leaves. When we recognize that the soldier was on stage the whole time, we see him more clearly for what he has been all along: a soldier not of fortune but of missed opportunities. He does not accomplish anything himself, but is merely swept along by the play's gravitational pull, and towards the reunion with his long-lost sister at the play's climax.

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