SOURCE: "Success and Failure in the Adelphoe," in The Classical World, Vol. 73, No. 4, December, 1979-January, 1980, pp. 221-36.

In the essay below, Greenberg compares the parenting theories of Micio and Demea in The Brothers.

The Adelphoe of Terence presents an uncomfortable amalgam of the serious and the comic. In one of the most startling comic reversals in ancient comedy, the elder, sterner brother, Demea, achieves a final farcical triumph which is in strong and jarring contrast with the seemingly serious and approving treatment of Micio and Micio's theories on child raising throughout the preceding bulk of the play, This contrast has caused such critical discomfort for so long a time that any attempt to explain or soothe it away seems doomed to failure. The issue is further complicated by attempts to connect Terence with his lost originals in Greek New Comedy. In what follows, we shall largely ignore the...