The mistaken identity plots of Greek and Roman comedy are notoriously formulaic: pirates, kidnappings, sale into slavery, threats of prostitution and then last-minute rescues through recognition. It can be hard to see why audiences kept coming back for new plays. The most familiar type is probably the “lost daughter” play, about a girl on the brink of prostitution who clutches her birth tokens through three or four acts until a legitimate father turns up by the fifth. She appears in many guises. Some lost daughters pass for prostitutes (e.g., in Plautus' Cistellaria and Terence's Andria, both adapted from Menandrian originals); others are living as concubines (e.g., in the Perikeiromenē) or as slaves (the Misoumenos, Sikyōnioi). Women can be “lost” in many different ways, however, and mistakes are made about other things than free birth and a legitimate father. This chapter looks at ways the stock device can be varied in order to try to explain why ancient audiences and playwrights found this premise so engaging. My focus is on how and why characters go wrong and my aim is to show how Menander managed to turn relatively simple errors about legal and social status into dramas full of conflict, emotion and even humor.

Disputes over the position a woman holds or ought to hold in a community figure prominently in almost every Menandrian play. The Sikyōnioi, Misoumenos, Perikeiromenē, and Hērōs feature heated arguments about the heroine's status, while the Dyskolos, Aspis, and Phasma explore more imaginative mistakes.