Stichus; or, The Parasite Rebuffed

In ancient Athens, two women face an unbearable choice: remain faithful to husbands who have been gone for years, or accept new marriages arranged by a father who's given up waiting. The husbands fled overseas to recover fortunes squandered on parasites and bad investments, leaving their young wives with nothing but patience. Now the clock is ticking. Will the brothers return in time, or has their household寄生虫 finally won? Plautus, writing over two thousand years before Shakespeare, constructs a comedy of waiting and cunning, where every character has an angle and genuine emotion battles pure greed. The parasite Gelasimus, a starving flatterer who has eaten at the family's table for years, is both pitiable and grotesque. This is Roman comedy at its most direct: fast-moving, socially sharp, and very funny about the absurd economics of gratitude.