SOURCE: "The Character of Bacchis in Terence's Heautontimorumenos," in American Journal of Philology, Vol. 116, No. 2, Summer, 1995, pp. 221-34.

In the excerpt below, Knorr contends that the courtesan Bacchis in The Self-Tormentor "actually has a good core below the surface of a grabbing prostitute."

Most readers of Terence have viewed the hetaera Bacchis in Heautontimorumenos as a stereotypical wicked prostitute, a greedy, hardnosed businesswoman, in short, "Terence's only mercenary courtesan" [G. E. Duckworth, The Nature of Roman Comedy, 1952]. Yet at least one passage in the play, namely Bacchis' speech in lines 381-95, does not quite fit into this negative picture of her character. Scholars who have noticed this, most recently Lefèvre and Brothers, usually evaluate this alleged inconsistency in her portrayal as a dramaturgical flaw on the part of Terence. Moreover, they assume that the Roman playwright inserted this scene into the original Greek plot.

In this essay...