For this play, we have a verse synopsis, a cast list, some fifty lines of the opening scene, another fifty badly damaged lines from later in the play, and some quoted fragments. The eponymous Hero (perhaps a family ‘guardian spirit’) does not appear in the surviving lines, but almost certainly spoke a postponed prologue, after the conversation between two servants which opens the play.
An unmarried girl had twins (as a result of rape), a boy and a girl, and she gave them to a foster-parent to rear. Then, later, she married the man who had raped her. The foster-father, not realizing the connection, pledged the twins to this man. A servant in the house fell in love with the girl, thinking she was a servant too. A neighbour had raped her, and the servant was willing to take the blame for that. Her mother, who did not know the true story, was furious. When all became clear, the old man recognized and found his children, and the man who raped her, willingly married the girl.
GETAS, a servant of? Pheidias
DAOS, a servant of Laches
A HERO, who speaks the Prologue
MYRRHINE, the twins’ mother
LACHES, the twins’ father
PHEIDIAS, a neighbour
SOPHRONE, a Nurse
SANGARIOS, a servant
GORGIAS, the male twin
SCENE: a district of Attica, called Ptelea. There are two houses, one belonging to Laches, the other to Pheidias.
[Enter GETAS and DAOS, from their respective houses.]
GETAS: Daos, you look to me as if you’ve committed some frightful crime, and are expecting any minute to be shackled and sent to the tread-mill. You’re obviously in trouble – why else do you keep beating your head? Why do you stop and tear your hair? Why the groans?
DAOS: Oh, God.
GETAS: I knew it, you poor sod. Look, if you’ve got a few coppers put together, shouldn’t you hand them over to me for a while, until1 you get yourself sorted out? I’m your friend, and I feel for [10] you.
DAOS: That’s silly talk. I’m in trouble, Getas, real trouble.
GETAS: (Line missing.)
DAOS: Don’t damn a man, please, when he’s in love.
GETAS: In love? you?
DAOS: In love. Me.
GETAS: Your master’s giving you more than double rations. A bad thing, Daos. Your diet’s probably too rich.
DAOS: It’s my heart that’s affected, Getas, when I look at a young girl in our house, an innocent girl, a servant like myself.
GETAS: A servant, is she?
DAOS: Yes. Well, in a way. A shepherd called Tibeios, who’d been a [20] slave when he was young, used to live here at Ptelea. He had these twins, he said – Plangon, the girl I love –
GETAS: Yes, I’m with you.
DAOS: – and the boy, Gorgias.
GETAS: Is that the boy who works with your folks now as a shepherd?
DAOS: That’s him. Their father Tibeios, when he was getting on a bit, borrowed money from my master to help feed them, then borrowed some more when food was scarce, and then he starved [30] to death.
GETAS: Perhaps when your master wouldn’t give him a third loan?
DAOS: Maybe so. Well, after he died, Gorgias borrowed a little more, and gave the old man a decent funeral. Then he came here to us, bringing his sister with him, and he’s staying until he works off the debt.
GETAS: And what about Plangon?
DAOS: She works with my mistress, spins, serves at table. She’s quite young – Getas, you’re laughing at me!
GETAS: No, no, of course I’m not.
DAOS: She’s really ladylike, Getas, behaves very nicely.
GETAS: So what about you? What are you doing to help yourself? [40]
DAOS: I’ve tried nothing sneaky – wouldn’t dream of it – but I’ve spoken to Master, and he’s promised to let her live with me when he’s had a word with her brother.
GETAS: You’re sitting pretty.
DAOS: Not so pretty. Master’s been out of the country for three months – some private business in Lemnos. We’re still hoping.2 If only he’d come safely home.
GETAS: You’re a good chap. I hope his journey abroad has been profitable.
There follows some talk of sacrifice and wood-carrying (perhaps for the sacrifice), and an indication of a choral interlude.
The rest of the play is very fragmentary, but the fragments seem to indicate a scene or scenes at the beginning of the fourth or fifth acts. Laches and Myrrhine converse about Plangon’s marriage.
LACHES: You poor woman.
MYRRHINE: What?
LACHES: Well, obviously, madam – [aside] Oh, devil take it.
MYRRHINE: You’re mad. what a suggestion! [70]
LACHES: What I shall do, what I’ve long made up my mind to do – she’s sweating, she’s quite confused – I tell you, Myrrhine, I was beautifully taken in by a bleating shepherd…
Myrrhine and someone else (? Sophrone, or ? Laches) converse about rape.
MYRRHINE: Sad’s my fate, my sufferings are unique, and impossible to exaggerate.
(?)LACHES:… Did someone once rape you?
MYRRHINE: Yes, indeed.
(?)LACHES: Have you any idea who it was? [80]
Laches and Myrrhine finally discover that they are the twins’ parents.
LACHES: Tell me first, was this eighteen years ago?
MYRRHINE: I’m not the only one to whom such things happen. But yes, if you like.
LACHES: Things are getting clearer. How has your rapist never been identified? How come he deserted you? Exactly when…?
There are also a few short fragments quoted from the play by later authors, but they are not very illuminating.