Amphitryo home Plautus (Dramata)

AMPHITRVO

Author: Titus MacciusPlautus
Date:190-185 BC (according to David Christenson)
Model: unknown

Adaptations

Vital de Blois, Geta (Medieval)
John Gower, Confessio Amantis: liber secundus ll. 2459-2495 (c.1390)
Pandolfo Collenuccio, Anfitrione (1487)
Fernan Perez de Olivia, El Naseimiento de Hércules óComedia de Amphitrión (c.1525)
Lodovico Dulce, Il Marito (1545)
Luiz Vaz de Camões, Os Enfatriões (between 1544 and 1549)
Juan de Timoneda, Amphitrión (1559)
Nicholas Udall, Jacke Jugeler (1562/3)
Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors (borrows aspects of Amphitryo) (1591)
Unknown English Author, The Birthe of Hercules (1610)
Thomas Heywood, The Silver Age (printed in 1613)
Johannes Burmeister, Sacri Mater Virgo (Christianized version of Amphitryo) (1621)
Unknown, Amphitryon (1626 or earlier in Dresden)
Jean de Rotrou, Les Sosies (1638)
Jean de Rotrou, La Naissance d’Hercule (1650)
Isaac de Benserade, Amphitryon (1653)
Jean-BaptistePoquelin de Molière, Amphitryon (1668)
Unknown, Amphitryon (1679 preformed in Dresden)
John Dryden, Amphitryon, or The Two Sosias (1690)
Ludvig Holberg, Kildereisen (1724)
Ludvig Holbert, Henrik og Pernille (1724)
Antonio José da Silva, Amphitryão, ou Jupiter, e Alcmena (1736)
John Hawkesworth, Amphitryon, or The Two Sosias (1756)
Michel-Jean Sédaine, Amphitryon (1786)
Joseph Martin Kraus, conductor, Amphitryon (1787)
Johann Daniel Faulk, Amphitryon (1804)
Heinrich von Kleist, Amphitryon (Romanticist version of Amphitryon) (1807)
Jean Giraudoux, Amphitryon 38 (1929)
Nazi financed French film, Amphitryon (1936-37)
S.N. Behrman, Amphitryon 38 (1937)
Georg Kaiser, Zweimal Amphitryon (1944)
GuilhermeFigueirdo, Un deus dormia la en casa
Robert Oboussier, Amphitryon (1950)
Lloyd George and John Fostini, A God Slept Here (1957)
Harold Pinter, The Lover (1963)
Peter Hack, Amphitryon (1970)

Texts and Commentaries

Latin text on-line at the Perseus Project (Leo 1895)
Lindsay, W.M. 1904-1905. T. Macci Plauti Comoediae. 2 vols. Clarendon: Oxford.
Nixon, Paul. 1916-38. Plautus. 5 vols. Loeb Classical Library 60. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1:1-122.
Ernout, Alfred. 1932. Plaute. 7 vols. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1:8-75.
Sedgwick, W. B. 1960. Plautus: Amphitruo. Manchester: University of Manchester.
Cutt, Thomas and Jacob E. Nyenhuis. 1970. Plautus: Amphitruo. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Christenson, David. 2000. Plautus: Amphitruo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mahoney, Anne. 2004. Plautus: Amphitryo. Massachusetts: Focus.

English Translations available

Riley, Henry Thomas. 1912. The Comedies of Plautus. 2 vols. London: G. Bell and Sons. 2:1-62.

Translation on-line at the Perseus Project

Nixon, Paul. 1916-38. Plautus. 5 vols. Loeb Classical Library 60. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1:1-122.
Allison, Sir Robert. 1942. The Complete Roman Drama, ed. George Duckworth. 2 vols. New York: Random House. 1:8-57
Watling, E. F. 1964. Plautus: The Rope and Other Plays. New York: Penguin. 221-84.
Roche, Paul. 1968. Three Plays by Plautus. New York: Mentor. Reprint, Wauconda, Illinois: Bolchazy-Carducci, 1984. ***
Carrier, Constance. 1970. Five Roman Comedies, ed. Palmer Bovie. New York: E.P. Dutton. Reprint in Plautus: The Comedies, eds. David R. Slavitt and Palmer Bovie. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1995. 1:1-64.
Casson, Lionel. 1971. Plautus: Amphitryon and Two Other Plays. New York: W.W. Norton. 1-64.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

MERCVRIVS-god
SOSIA-slave of Amphitryon
IVPPITER-king of the gods
ALCVMENA-wife of Amphitryon
AMPHITRYO-Alcmena’s husband, commander in chief of the Theban army
THESSALA-maid of Alcmena (slave)
BLEPHARO-captain of Amphitryon’s ship
BROMIA-maid of Alcmena (slave)

Act and Scene	Lines	Characters	Action
Prologue	1-152	Mercury	Mercury introduces the drama as a tragicomedy and relates the general plot to the audience.Amphitryon left his wife, Alcmena, pregnant when he went to fight for Thebes.While the husband is away, Jupiter appears disguised as Amphitryon and has sex with Alcmena.Mercury will be disguised as Sosia, Amphitryon’s slave to aid Jupiter.
I.i	153-462	Sosia Mercury	Amphitryon sends Sosia ahead of him to announce the victory over the Teleboans.Mercury plays a game with Sosia, scaring him off and delaying his arrival at the home.Mercury confuses Sosia of Sosia’s own identity and makes him flee back to the pier.
I.ii	463-498	Mercury	Mercury tells the audience that both Alcmena’s babies will be born at the same time, and Amphitryon will be told of all the god’s actions afterward.
I.iii	499-550	Jupiter Alcmena Mercury	Jupiter disguised as Amphitryon leaves Alcmena after a night that was prolonged by Jupiter himself for the extension of sex.
II.i	551-632	Amphitryon Sosia	Amphitryon does not believe Sosia’s story that Sosia encountered a doppelganger and thinks that he speaks drivel.
II.ii	633-860	Alcmena Amphitryon Sosia Thessala	Amphitryon’s (Jupiter’s) short stay brought Alcmena more grief than joy.Amphitryon thinks Alcmena will be overjoyed to see him, but Alcmena does not understand Amphitryon’s greetings and acts as if he has already been home.Neither Amphitryon nor Alcmena believe each other’s stories.
III.i	861-881	Jupiter	Jupiter admits to the audience that he is the Amphitryon imposter that is causing trouble.He will make everything right at the end so that Alcmena suffers no wrong to her reputation.
III.ii	882-955	Alcmena Jupiter	Alcmena threatens divorce to Amphitryon (Jupiter).Amphitryon (Jupiter) apologizes admitting the whole incident was a joke.Amphitryon (Jupiter) swears by Jupiter that Alcmena is a faithful wife.Alcmena forgives Amphitryon (Jupiter) of any wrong.
III.iii	956-983	Sosia Jupiter Alcmena	Amphitryon (Jupiter) sends Sosia to invite Captain Blepharo to lunch.Jupiter orders Mercury to delay the arrival of Amphitryon.
III.iv	984-1008	Mercury	Mercury satirizes the slaves of comedy and relays his plan to delay the real Amphitryon to the audience.
IV.i	1009-1020	Amphitryon	Amphitryon could not find Alcmena’s cousin Naucrates to prove his story to Alcmena.He becomes determined to further explore the matter of the disagreeing stories.
IV.ii	1021-1034	Mercury Amphitryon	Sosia (Mercury) acts drunk on the roof of Amphitryon’s house and angers Amphitryon.
lacuna	fragments	Mercury Amphitryon Alcmena Blepharo Sosia	Sosia arrives with Captain Blepharo, and Amphitryon (Jupiter) exits the house and argues with Amphitryon as to who is the real Amphitryon.They ask Captain Blepharo to decide who the real Amphitryon is, but after quizzing both, he cannot.
IV.iii	1035-1052	Jupiter Amphitryon Blephora	Captain Blepharo leaves confounded at the appearance of two Amphitryons.Amphitryon (Jupiter) leaves to observe the birth of the twins.Amphitryon angrily tries to make a mad dash into the house.
V.i	1053-1130	Bromia Amphitryon	Bromia announces the clash of thunder and the birth of Alcmena’s twin boys in a painless delivery.She says two serpents attacked the stronger baby, but he strangled the serpents. Bromia tells Amphitryon that Jupiter announced from the sky that the stronger baby was his, while the other baby was Amphitryon’s.Amphitryon has no trouble sharing with the king of the gods.
V.ii	1131-1143	Jupiter Amphitryon	Jupiter tells Amphitryon not to bother asking soothsayers what the events mean because he declares the stronger baby will do great things. He admits he slept with Alcmena and orders Amphitryon to live in harmony with Alcmena.
V.iii	1144-1146	Amphitryon	Amphitryon announces that he will abide by Jupiter’s will and asks the audience to applaud for the king of the gods.