Da Menandro a Eliano attraverso Terenzio. Personaggi comici fra corruttele e interferenze linguistiche

This article explains how the situation described by Aelian in the ninth of his 'Country Letters' is rooted in the comedy of Menander, from whom he cites a famous invective against the courtesan Thais. The story told in the letter reflects the plot of the 'Eunuchus', but surprisingly the names of the characters reveal that, instead of Menander, Aelian is thinking of the comedy of Terence. The switch from the Greek to the Latin playwright may well be a mental lapse, as we find in Siegmund Freud,and is explainable as an example of linguistic interference