Editing Plautus (section)

===Female characters===
In examining the female role designations of Plautus's plays, Z.M. Packman found that they are not as stable as their male counterparts: a ''senex'' will usually remain a ''senex'' for the duration of the play but designations like ''matrona'', ''mulier'', or ''uxor'' at times seem interchangeable. Most free adult women, married or widowed, appear in scene headings as ''mulier'', simply translated as "woman". But in Plautus' ''Stichus'' the two young women are referred to as ''sorores'', later ''mulieres'', and then ''matronae'', all of which have different meanings and connotations. Although there are these discrepancies, Packman tries to give a pattern to the female role designations of Plautus. ''Mulier'' is typically given to a woman of citizen class and of marriageable age or who has already been married.  Unmarried citizen-class girls, regardless of sexual experience, were designated ''virgo''. ''Ancilla'' was the term used for female household slaves, with ''Anus'' reserved for the elderly household slaves. A young woman who is unwed due to social status is usually referred to as ''meretrix'' or "courtesan". A ''lena'', or adoptive mother, may be a woman who owns these girls.<ref>Z.M. Packman, "Feminine Role Designations in the Comedies of Plautus," ''The American Journal of Philology'' 120.2. (1999), pp. 245-258.</ref>