About the work
Hecyra ('The Mother-in-Law') is a comedy by the Roman playwright Terence and, unlike his other plays, is not based on Menander but on a lost original by Apollodorus of Carystus. Terence first staged it in 165 BC at the Ludi Megalenses, but the audience deserted the theatre on a rumour of a rope-dancer and boxing show; only the third attempt, in 160 BC at the Ludi Romani, succeeded.
Plot
Young Pamphilus secretly loves the courtesan Bacchis but is married off by his father and only grows fond of his wife Philumena after the wedding. While he is away, Philumena unexpectedly gives birth; her mother-in-law Sostrata falls under suspicion and is driven from the house, until a ring proves that Pamphilus himself — drunk and unrecognised, months earlier — is the father. Bacchis clears up the misunderstanding at the end without ever meeting Philumena on stage.
Cultural significance
Among Terence's six surviving plays, Hecyra is considered the most unusual: it dispenses with the cunning slaves typical of Roman comedy and lets its female characters resolve the conflict, a device scholars read as making it something of a 'problem comedy'.