@article{1380773,
      recid = {1380773},
      author = {Damon, Cynthia,},
      title = {The mask of the parasite : a pathology of Roman patronage  /},
      publisher = {University of Michigan Press,},
      address = {Ann Arbor :},
      pages = {viii, 307 pages ;},
      year = {1997},
      note = {Based on the author's thesis (doctoral--Stanford  University, 1990).},
      abstract = {When Romans applied the term "parasite" to contemporaries  in dependent circumstances, or clientes, they were evoking  one of the stock characters of ancient Greek comedy. In the  Roman world the parasite was moved out of his native genre  into the literatures of invective and social criticism,  where his Greek origins made him a uniquely useful  transmitter of Roman perceptions. Whenever the figure of  the parasite is used to mask a person in Roman society, we  know that an effort of interpretation is underway. The fit  between the mask and its wearer is in the eyes of the  beholder, and in Rome the mask seemed to fit people in many  different situations: entrepreneurs, tax-farmers, lawyers,  female companions, philosophers, and poets. In The Mask of  the Parasite, Cynthia Damon maintains that the parasite of  Latin literature is a negative reflection of the cliens. In  Part One she assembles a composite picture of the comic  parasite using as evidence fragments of Greek comedy, works  from Greek writers of the imperial period whose works  reflect the comic tradition, and the ten complete plays of  Roman comedy in which a parasite appears. In parts two and  three she examines the ways in which Cicero and the  satirists use the figure of the parasite: Cicero in  belittling his opponents in court, Horace and Martial in  creating a negative foil for the poeta cliens, Juvenal in  painting contemporary patron/client relationships as  morally and spiritually bankrupt. The Mask of the Parasite  is a fascinating study of the intersection of literature  and society in ancient Rome. However, neither the parasite  nor patronage is confined to the Roman world. Students of  classical studies as well as students of literature and  cultural studies will find this to be a work of utmost  importance in understanding these complex issues of human  interaction. Cynthia Damon is Assistant Professor of  Classics, Amherst College.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1380773},
}