Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.64356/2233-1387.2025.29.2.217
Plautus’ Braggart Soldier in the Light of Gospel Anthropology
Drago Župarić
orcid.org/0000-0002-6393-4658
; University of Sarajevo - Faculty of Philosophy, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract
This paper explores the possibility of a theological reading of Plautus’ Miles Gloriosus, focusing on the braggart soldier Pyrgopolynices as a paradigmatic figure of vanity, self-delusion, and rhetorical emptiness. The laughter elicited by his boasting and illusion of grandeur is not mere entertainment but an act of exposing falsehood and human arrogance. The study places this comic mechanism in dialogue with patristic and scholastic insights on laughter as a means of unmasking vanity (Augustine, Aquinas, Evagrius Ponticus) and with New Testament anthropology. The Gospels, especially the Christological hymn in Philippians (2:6–11) and Paul’s reflections on weakness and grace, radically subvert the cultural logic of power by affirming humility and service as true greatness. In this perspective, Plautus’ comedy, though far from Christian revelation, inadvertently resonates with the Gospel message: laughter over Pyrgopolynices’ vanity symbolically clears the way for the truth of humility. Thus, comedy, despite its profane character, may serve as a form of spiritual pedagogy, revealing the emptiness of self-deception and offering laughter as the first step toward humility.
Keywords
Plautus; Miles Gloriosus; New Testament; comedy; pride; irony; rhetoric; theological reading
Hrčak ID:
343857
URI
Publication date:
28.1.2026.
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