El esclavo como ‘texto corporal’ y ‘cuerpo textual’ en los mimos de Herondas

Abstract

Slaves are an important part of Herondas’ mimes’ characters. They are mostly women, silent figures who, with some exceptions, see their existence reduced to the activity of their body, with which they fulfill the orders of their masters. However, this does not happen smoothly, because, lazy and indolent as they are, the slaves keep in permanent conflict with their owners. The scenes that recreate these confrontations, a topos of the genre, conclude with the threats of future punishment or its effective compliance. The marks of the master in the flesh of the slave are not only text written on his body (bodily text), but body text, upon which the mime focuses its attention.

Keywords

• slaves
• body
• torture
• mimiamb