Il mimo popolare come 'letteratura sommersa': il caso della Moicheutria

P.Oxy. III 413 preserves two texts, respectively known as Charition and Moicheu- tria, which represent without doubt the most important surviving testimonies for the so called ‘popular’ mime: these two texts appear to have been originally conceived for perfor- mance, and are of exceptional importance to the study of the history of the genre during the Roman Empire. It has been demonstrated that literary and popular mimes should not be viewed as separate spheres but as interdependent and engaged in an intense and dy- namic exchange: an example of which is provided by the structural and narrative analogies between Charition and Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris, Helen, Cyclops (inspired by the Od- yssey, Book 9), and by similarities between Herondas’ fifth Mimiamb and the Moicheutria. This paper aims to demonstrate that Moicheutria has another literary model: the intrigue, based on a mors ficta, is at the base of the plot of Menander’s Aspis. The narrative and dramaturgical affinities between the two texts suggest the hypothesis that the anonymous author of the Moicheutria could have been inspired by Menandrian Comedy.