“Public” Places and “Marginal” Women: An Actress in Roman Catania

Abstract

An epitaph, found in Catania around 1731, mentions the mimas Aphrodito, Eutychus’ wife. The mime consisted of a show focused on mythological parodies or, more frequently, on erotic plots, it was a sort of “farce” recited by several actors accompanied by choristers and musicians and, above all, connoted by the beauty, often generously exhibited, of actresses and dancers, who could achieve considerable fame and high earnings. The black mark of infamia, however, damaged the mimae, associated by law to prostitutes: for this reason the use of the prestigious Latin language by individuals with Greek name does not authorize to think of an effective integration of Aphrodito inside the society of Catina. On the one hand the interest in restoration and expansion of the urban planning of the Etnean city, especially during the second century and, in particular, for the buildings used for the shows, on the other hand the attention specifically given by adoptive emperors to mime actors and shows allow to hypothesize a dating of the inscription of Aphrodito at the age of the Antonines.