Table Of ContentOUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,12/9/2016,SPi
OXFORD STUDIES IN ANCIENT CULTURE
AND REPRESENTATION
GeneralEditors
ThelateSimonPrice R.R.R.Smith OliverTaplin
PeterThonemann TimWhitmarsh
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OXFORD STUDIES IN ANCIENT CULTURE
AND REPRESENTATION
OxfordStudiesinAncientCultureandRepresentationpublishessignificantinter-
disciplinary research into the visual, social, political, and religious cultures of the
ancientMediterraneanworld.Theseriesincludesworkthatcombinesdifferentkinds
of representations that are usually treated separately. The overarching programme
istointegrateimages,monuments,texts,performances,andritualswiththeplaces,
participants,andbroaderhistoricalenvironmentthatgavethemmeaning.
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Mimetic Contagion
fi ’
Art and Arti ce in Terence s Eunuch
ROBERT GERMANY
1
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3
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UnitedKingdom
OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship,
andeducationbypublishingworldwide.Oxfordisaregisteredtrademarkof
OxfordUniversityPressintheUKandincertainothercountries
©RobertGermany2016
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FirstEditionpublishedin2016
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PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyOxfordUniversityPress
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LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016935701
ISBN 978–0–19–873873–2
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Taïdeè,laputtanacherispuose
aldrudosuoquandodisse“Hoiograzie
grandiapote?”:“Anzimaravigliose!”
Inferno18.133–5
Gratitude is often easy to express for things of short genesis, but this book has
been very long in coming to fruition. Its first glimmer of life was in September
2000, my second week of graduate school, as a delirious hallway conversation
between Shadi Bartsch, Phil Horky, and myself. It fashioned itself almost imme-
diately into a dissertation project, but was slower in arrival than its first flash
presaged, due to my own lumbering pace in connecting the grad school dots.
Ioweafine,highdebtofthankstothefacultyoftheDepartmentofClassicsatthe
UniversityofChicagoforthetrainingandencouragementtheygavemeandthe
patience they showed me throughout. But while gratitude is due to all, special
thanksmustgotomythesisadvisors,ShadiBartsch,DavidWray,andJa(cid:1)sElsner,
whowereunstintingintheirsupportandtheirguidancewiththisproject.
The last couple years of my tenure as a grad student were spent teaching at
TrinityUniversity,whereonceagainIfoundmyselftherecipientofmaterialand
moralsupportwellbeyondmydesert.ThefacultyandthestudentsatTrinitywere
trulyremarkableintheirwillingnesstothinkaboutmimesisandcomedywithme
asIwrotethebetterpartofthisbook,andthefactthatmanyofthemarestilldear
friends at some years’ remove is hard to extricate from their love and intelligent
conversationasIworkedthroughthismaterial.Amongmanynamesthatoughtto
bementioned,IcanhardlyfailtosingleoutErwinCook,whofirsttaughtmeto
read Homer when I was an undergraduate at the University of Texas and once
again at Trinitywas an irreplaceable interlocutorand a model of what a classicist
mightbe.
An animal is born once, a man perhaps twice, and such creatures are thus
limited in their reasonable claim of terroir, but a plant successfully moved from
one pot or earth to another gains a new native soil. This book has survived and
thrived in transplantation to Haverford College, and the thanks I owe to this
academic environment are immense. My colleagues at Bryn Mawr College and
otherclassiciststhroughoutthegreaterPhiladelphiaareahavebeeninterestedand
supportiveandhavetaughtmemorethantheyknoworthanIcanreadilycompass
here in words. But I must make special mention of my colleagues at Haverford,
Deborah Roberts and Bret Mulligan, whose friendship, feedback, and unfailing
encouragementhavemademylifethesepastsevenyearstheenvyofallwhoknowme.
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vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Icouldnothaveaskedforamoreconduciveenvironmentforintellectualgrowth,
productivework,orhappiness.
Without the generosity of Haverford College in funding my junior leave
(2011–12) and intermittent course releases throughout, I could never have com-
pleted this book, nor would it have the shape it has without the criticism
and encouragement I received when presenting pieces of it as papers, twice at
Chicago under the auspices of the Rhetoric and Poetics Workshop, in 2005
at CACW/CAPN, in 2011 at the University of Pennsylvania, and in 2013 at the
University of Manchester. Terry Snyder and Margaret Schaus and Haverford
Librarieshavebeenagreathelpwithlocatingandpurchasingimagepermissions.
AtOUPHilaryO’SheaandAnnieRosehavebeenadelighttoworkwith,andthe
anonymous readers have astounded me with the care they have taken and the
intelligence and sympathy of their response. I wish I knew their identities so
I could thank them by name for some of the most thoughtful criticism I have
everreceived.Icanonlyhopethattheywillreadthisandknowthattheyhavethis
stranger’s gratitude and admiration. In case such a wide dispersion of thanks be
felt to mitigate my own responsibility for the mistakes and lapses in judgment in
thisbook,IshouldbeclearthatIclaimthoseformyown,attributabletomyown
oversight or obstinance and not to the hermeneutic and editorial help I have
received along the way.I sightothink thatafter so manyyears in gestationsuch
errors must persist, but as Robert Burton said of his own slim tome, “I do easily
grant,ifarigidcensurershouldcriticizeonthiswhichIhavewrit,heshouldnot
findthreesolefaults,asScaligerinTerence,butthreehundred.”
ItisadebtofadifferentkindthatIowetomymother,whoseformativelove,
thirst for life, and boundless inquisitiveness were always the beginning of every-
thing.Withoutthesupportofmyclosestfriendsandconfidantsthesefifteenyears
would have been too arid for this book’s growth, but they have also taught me
things that show up throughout the book and suffuse its perspective. I name, in
orderofthedateofourfirstlove,PhilHorky,DawnLaValle,Fr.PatReardon,and
Alex Petkas. In this same category, though no doubt with an intensity not to be
matched, aremyfourchildren:Grace, Ada,Elias,andJack.Fromthemmuch of
thisbookhasbeenborrowedintheformoftimeandattention,buttheyhavealso
fedmeallalongtheway.Aboveallelsemywife,Dianna,withoutwhomnothing.
ItistoherIdedicatethisbookinaffection,admiration,andthanks.
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FRONTISPIECE. Rembrandt’s Danaë (1636)
PhotocourtesyoftheStateHermitageMuseum,St.Petersburg
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CONTENTS
ListofIllustrations xi
Introduction 1
1. JudgingChaerea:TheRoleofthePainting 28
2. QuickeningImages:MimeticContagioninCulticandEroticArt 49
3. LifelikeLikeness:MimeticContagioninthePhilosophicalTradition 72
4. MimeticContagioninTerence’sRome 95
5. MimicRape:GenreSwitchingandRoleConfusion 120
6. ThePoeticsofContamination 157
Epilogue 178
183
Bibliography
197
Index
