Amphitryon (Plautus play)

Plot

Amphitryon begins with a prologue given by the god Mercury, in which he gives some background information to the audience. Amphitryon and his slave Sosia have been away at war and are returning to Thebes. Meanwhile, the god Jupiter is sleeping with Amphitryon's wife Alcmena. Jupiter is in the guise of Amphitryon so that Alcmena is unaware that he is not her husband.

Mercury's job is to buy his father Jupiter some time by deceiving those who would interfere. He changes his appearance to look like the slave Sosia, and when the real Sosia arrives, he beats him up and sends him away from the house. Thoroughly confused by having been beat up by himself, Sosia returns to the ship to relay what happened to his master Amphitryon.

The following morning, Amphitryon sets off for the house, annoyed by his slave's foolish-sounding story. Jupiter departs only moments before Amphitryon arrives, and when Alcmena sees her real husband, she is confused as to why he has returned so quickly. Amphitryon doesn't appreciate this strange welcome after being gone for so many months, and confusion turns to anger and jealousy after learning that she has slept with a man who is not himself. He goes off to the harbour to fetch a witness.

Now Jupiter returns to enjoy a second session with Alcmena. He calms her anger and sends her into the house. Before going in to join her he orders his son Mercury to keep Amphitryon away. Mercury seizes the opportunity to have more fun, this time teasing Amphitryon by throwing water and a tile at him from the roof of the house.

(There are some missing pages in the text at this point.)

A nurse comes out and reports that Alcmena has miraculously given birth to twin boys. One is the son of Amphitryon, the other is Hercules, the son of Jupiter. To quell Amphitryon's anger, Jupiter now returns and explains to Amphitryon what he did. Amphitryon is then honored to have shared his wife with a god.

Metrical structure

Plautus's plays are traditionally divided into five acts; these are referred to here for convenience, since many editions make use of them. However, it is not thought that they go back to Plautus's time, since no manuscript contains them before the 15th century. Also, the acts themselves do not always match the structure of the plays, which is more clearly shown by the variation in metres.

The usual metrical pattern is to begin each section with iambic senarii (which were spoken without music), then a song (canticum) in various metres, and finally each section is rounded off by trochaic septenarii, which were apparently recited to the accompaniment of tibiae (a pair of reed pipes). Moore calls this the "ABC succession", where A = iambic senarii, B = other metres, and C = trochaic septenarii.

Metrically this play can be divided into five sections, each section having two parts, as follows:

:1. The gods cause mischief: ABC, AC :2. Amphitruo's distress: BC, BC :3. The gods cause mischief again: AC, ABAC :4. Amphitruo's distress: (A)...C (there is a gap in the text here) :5. Everything is explained: BC, AC

An unusual metrical feature of the play is the large number of lines of iambic octonarii, more than any other Plautus play. The octonarii occur especially in the two messenger speeches, one describing Amphitruo's battle, and the other describing the birth of Hercules, each of which has a similar pattern of (a) iambic octonarii (type a), (b) other metres, (c) iambic octonarii (type b). Another passage of iambic octonarii is Mercury's gleeful speech in act 3 (lines 984–1005), anticipating the fun he is going to have teasing Amphitruo.

Mercury teases Sosia

• Prologue (1–152): iambic senarii (152 lines)

• Act 1.1 (153–262): iambic octonarii (type a); polymetric; iambic octonarii (type a); cretic; iambic octonarii (type b) (110 lines)

• Act 1.1 (cont.) (263–462): trochaic septenarii (200 lines)

Jupiter departs

• Act 1.2 (463–498): iambic senarii (36 lines)

• Act 1.3 (499–550): trochaic septenarii (52 lines)

Amphitruo is annoyed with Sosia

• Act 2.1 (551–585): mainly bacchiac, then trochaic (35 lines)

• Act 2.1 (cont.) (586–632): trochaic septenarii (47 lines)

Amphitruo is annoyed with Alcumena

• Act 2.2 (633–653): mainly bacchiac (20 lines)

• Act 2.2 (cont.) (654–860): trochaic septenarii (207 lines)

Jupiter returns

• Act 3.1–3.2 (861–955): iambic senarii (95 lines)

• Act 3.3 (956–973): trochaic septenarii (18 lines)

Mercury teases Amphitruo

• Act 3.3 (cont.) (974–983): iambic senarii (10 lines)

• Act 3.4 (984–1005): iambic octonarii (mixed type) (22 lines)

• Act 3.4 (cont.) (1006–1008): iambic senarii (3 lines)

• Act 4.1–4.2 (1009–1034): trochaic septenarii (26 lines)

Amphitruo's distress again

::(At this point there is a gap of about 300 lines in the text. A few fragments quoted by the grammarian Nonius in iambic senarii indicate that these lines included another quarrel between Amphitruo and Alcumena. At some stage Sosia returns with the ship-captain Blepharo and Amphitruo quarrels with Sosia. Jupiter now appears, making it difficult for Blepharo to decide which is the real Amphitruo.)

• Act 4.3 (1035–1052): trochaic septenarii (18 lines)

Alcumena gives birth

• Act 5.1 (1053–1085): iambic octonarii (type a); other metres; iambic octonarii (type b) (33 lines)

• Act 5.1 (cont.) (1086–1130): trochaic septenarii (45 lines)

Jupiter explains

• Act 5.2 (1131–1143): iambic senarii (13 lines)

• Act 5.2 (cont.) (1144–1146): trochaic septenarii (3 lines)

Adaptations

The plot of Amphitryon was adapted in the 1550s into Jack Juggler, one of the earliest examples of English comedy.

In 1621 the German poet laureate Joannes Burmeister published a Neo-Latin adaptation, titled Mater-Virgo (The Virgin Mother), about the Nativity of Jesus. In it Amphitryon became Joseph, Alcmena became the Virgin Mary, and Sosia became the angel Gabriel. The last known copy of the book went missing from the Berlin library in World War II and exists now only in fragments.

Translations

• Henry Thomas Riley, 1912
• Paul Nixon, 1916
• Sir Robert Allison, 1942
• E. F. Watling, 1964
• Paul Roche, 1968
• Constance Carrier 1970
• Lionel Casson 1971
• David Christenson 2008 Review in Bryn Mawr Classical Review
• Prof. Jerry Respeto, 2009
• Wolfang de Melo, 2011
• David M. Christenson, 2000. Titus Maccius Plautus: Amphitruo (Cambridge).

References

References

1. W. de Melo (2011), ''Plautus: Amphitryon'', (Loeb edition), pp. 7–8.
2. Porter, John (2002). [https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2002/2002.09.17/#:~:text=190%2D185%20B.C.%20As%20C. Review of David M. Christenson's ''Titus Maccius Plautus: Amphitruo'' (CUP; 2000)] in ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review''.
3. W. de Melo (2011), ''Plautus: Amphitryon'', (Loeb edition), p. 7.
4. Merrill, F. R. (1972). ''Titi Macci Plauti Mostellaria'', p. xix.
5. For details of the metres used in each line, see the [http://romancomedy.wustl.edu/ Database by Timothy J. Moore of ''The Meters of Roman Comedy''], Washington University in St Louis.
6. Moore, Timothy J. (2012), ''Music in Roman Comedy''. Cambridge University Press, pp. 237-42, 253-8, 305-8, 367-71.
7. Moore, Timothy J. (2012), ''Music in Roman Comedy''. Cambridge University Press, pp. 182–183.
8. This play has 113 lines of iambic octonarii, according to Moore's database [http://romancomedy.wulib.wustl.edu/ ''The Meters of Roman Comedy''] {{Webarchive. link. (2022-09-22 , compared with only 323 in all the other nineteen plays together. In general Plautus makes much less use of iambic octonarii than Terence, who has about 200 on average per play.)
9. Type a, in [[Cesare Questa]]'s classification, is the type with a central dieresis or break; type b has a break after the ninth element: Questa, Cesare (2007). ''La Metrica di Plauto e Terenzio''. Urbino: Quattro Venti, p. 349.
10. W. de Melo (2011), ''Plautus: Amphitryon'', (Loeb edition), pp. 5–6.
11. Fontaine, Michael. 2015. ''Joannes Burmeister: Aulularia and Other Inversions of Plautus''. Leuven: Leuven University Press.
12. Plautus. (1912). "The Comedies of Plautus". G. Bell and Sons.
13. Plautus. (1916). "Plautus, I, Amphitryon. The Comedy of Asses. The Pot of Gold. The Two Bacchises. The Captives". Loeb Classical Library.
14. Sir Robert Allison. (1942). "The Complete Roman Drama". Random House.
15. Plautus. (1964). "Plautus: The Rope and Other Plays". Penguin.
16. Plautus. (1968). "Three Plays by Plautus". Mentor.
17. Constance Carrier. (1970). "Five Roman Comedies". E.P. Dutton.
18. Plautus. (1971). "Plautus: Amphitryon and Two Other Plays". W.W. Norton.
19. Plautus. (2011). "Plautus, Vol. I: Amphitryon; The Comedy of Asses; The Pot of Gold; The Two Bacchises; The Captives". Loeb Classical Library.