L'aceto nel cuore

Abstract

In Plautus' theatre, a widespread element of the Roman material culture, as vinegar, becomes part of a well-structured metaphorical plane: from the image of sourness in feelings, which is long-running in the comic tradition, to the acetum as a metaphor of wit and cunning intelligence, lined with the meaning offered afterwards by Horace. In the Plautine comedy, vinegar, with effect from the gastronomic level, is connected with the representation of an acutus person, able to handle a situation full of unexpected events: in Pseudolus it results as a suitable synthesis of an effective simulatio. At the end we examine a passage of Rudens, in which 'salt' and 'vinegar' are conceived as necessary ingredients of a deceptive cooking.