The Brothers Menaechmus

The Brothers Menaechmus belongs to the sub-genre of Roman comedy known as fabula palliata, or “plays in a Greek cloak.” Set in Greece and modelled on New Comedy, their relationship to the Greek world therefore illuminates their meaning in crucial ways. In the play, this Hellenic presence is partly explored through the parallels between Greek myth and the characters’ lives.

As is recorded in the preserved city of Pompeii, many ancient houses were decorated with wall paintings of Greek myths, in a display of learning that exemplifies the Roman fascination with Greek culture. When Menaechmus enters the stage, modelling the dress he has stolen from his wife, he refers to “frescoes painted on the wall,” that show Ganymede, a beautiful young man whom Zeus carried to heaven disguised as an eagle, and Adonis, a hero beloved by Venus (143-44). The method by which Menaechmus imagines his own attractiveness, therefore, is through comparing himself to figures from Greek myth. However, Plautus suggests a bathetic contrast between these mythic figures and the contemporary Menaechmus, by showing how difficult it is for Peniculus to answer Menaechmus’s question about the resemblance. Menaechmus asks, “notice something similar?”, to which Peniculus responds, “what kind of crazy dress is that?” (146).