Plautus Amphitruo 1.1

Henry Thomas Riley (Translator)

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Amphitruo. Plautus. Henry Thomas Riley (Translator). London. 1913.

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Current edition Perseus

Amphitryon, or Jupiter in Disguise (English) (Plautus. The Comedies of Plautus, Volume 2. Riley, Henry Thomas, translator. London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1913.)

Editions (1)
Amphitruo Perseus (Plautus. Plauti Comoediae, Volume 1. Leo, Friedrich, editor. Berlin: Weidmann, 1895.) — 1.1 focus

Notes on the current edition

Amphitryon, or Jupiter in Disguise

1. Of young men: He alludes to the broils of the night, occasioned by the vagaries of wild and dissolute young men—perhaps not much unlike the Mohawks, whose outrageous pranks are mentioned in the Spectator and Swift’s Journal to Stella.
2. Officers of the watch: Literally, the Tresviri. As usual, though the Scene is laid in Greece , Roman usages are introduced by Plautus. The officers here mentioned were called nocturni Tresviri. It was their province to take up all suspicious characters found abroad during the night. They were attended, probably, by lictors, or subordinate officers, who are here referred to as homines octo validi, eight sturdy fellows.
3. Dealt out from there: He compares the gaol, or place of confinement, to a store-closet, and means to say, that as food is brought thence to be dressed, so shall he be brought from the gaol to be dressed, in the way of having his back lashed.
4. Abounding in servants: Dives operis. Literally, rich in labour, abounding in slaves to labour for him.
5. And glory: Adoreâ. This was literally the allowance or largest of corn which was distributed to troops after a victory; hence it figuratively signifies honor or glory.
6. Standing there: This seems to be the true meaning of statim in this passage.
7. With covered hands: He alludes here to the carrying of the velamenta, which were branches of olive, surrounded with bandages of wool, and held in the hands of those who sued for mercy or pardon. The wool covered the hand, and was emblematical of peace, the hand being thereby rendered powerless to effect mischief.
8. King Pterelas: Pterela, or Pterelas, was the son of Hippothoë, the cousin of Amphitryon and Alcmena. He had a daughter named Cymetho, or Cometho, and his fate was said to depend upon the preservation of a certain lock of his hair. Cymetho, smitten with love for Amphitryon, or, according to some accounts, for Cephalus, his associate in the enterprise, cut off the fatal lock, and, like Scylla, betrayed her father, who was afterwards slain by Amphitryon.
9. God of Night: Nocturnus is generally supposed here to mean the God of Night, though some Commentators have fancied that by it the Evening Star is signified.
10. Nor does Orion: Jugula means either the three stars composing the girdle of Orion or the Constellation Orion itself. It also was the name of two stars in the Constellation Cancer, or the Crab, which were also called Aselli, or the Little Asses. The plural, Jugulae, is more generally used. Septentriones was a name of the Ursa Major, or Greater Bear, also called by us Charles’s Wain. It received its name from septem, seven, and terriones, oxen that ploughed the earth, from its fancied resemblance to a string of oxen.
11. The Evening Star: Vesperugo is a name of Hesperus, or the Evening Star; while the Constellation of the Pleiades was sometimes known by the name of Vergiliae.
12. In best style: Optumo optume optumam operam. There is a clumsy attempt at wit in this alliteration.
13. Bad bargain at first: This line has been a little modified in the translation.
14. Take my mantle off once more: Detexere. This term was properly applied to the act of taking cloth, when woven, from off the loom. Sosia here uses it in the sense of stripping himself of It.
15. A Quintus: This is a poor attempt at wit. Mercury tells his fists that they thrashed four men into a lethargy yesterday; on which Sosia, in his apprehension, says that in that case he shall have to change his own name to Quintus; which signified the fifth, and was also in use as a name among the Romans; implying thereby that he shall be the fifth to be so mauled.
16. Stroking him down: He probably alludes to the soporific power of his caduceus, or wand.
17. Three nights running: He alludes to the length of the night, which was prolonged by Jupiter for the purpose of his intrigue. According to other writers, it was on the occasion when Hercules was begotten, seven months before this period, that three nights were made into one.
18. This person’s a wizard: We must remember that this is supposed to take place in the dark; and Sosia says that the man must surely be a wizard to guess that another person is so near him, and that he has been abroad till just now.
19. His beast’s back: Jumento suo. Literally, on his beast of burden.
20. Somebody: Nescio quis. Literally, I know not who. For the sake of the joke, he pretends to think that this is the name of some one mentioned by Mercury; and says that as he is not that person, he is all right.
21. Vulcan enclosed in your horn: Volcanum in cornu. Literally, Vulcan in your horn; alluding to the horn lantern which Sosia is carrying.
22. Whip-scoundrel: Verbero. This word, as a substantive, properly means a bad slave, who had been whipped— a rascal or scoundrel. As a verb, it means I beat. Sosia chooses, for the sake of the quibble, to take it in the latter sense, and tells Mercury that he lies; meaning to say that he (Mercury) is not beating him (Sosia).
23. It is kept pure: , It is generally supposed that in these words indelicate allusion is intended; but it is not so universally agreed on what nature is.
24. To be exalted: He probably means by this, that he will beat him to such a degree that he will be obliged to be carried off, either dead or unable to move a limb— elevated on the shoulders of other men.
25. Laid hands on me: Usufecisti. Usufacere was a term used in law, to signify the taking possession of a thing by the laying of hands thereon. this, Sosia means to say, Mercury has most effectually done.
26. Associate: This poor pun is founded on the similarity of sound between Sosia and socius, a companion or associate.
27. Angry with Sosia: There is something comical in the absurdity of this oath. Mercury, personating Sosia, says that if he breaks it, the result must be that Mercury (i. e., himself): will be angry with Sosia, the person in whose favour he is pretending to take the oath.
28. The Persian port: Plautus is here guilty of an anachronism; for the Portus Persicus, which was on the coast of Eubœa, was so called from the Persian fleet lying there on the occasion of the expedition to Greece, many ages after the time of Amphitryon.
29. By my troth: Hercle. Literally, by Hercules. Hypercritical Commentators have observed, that Plautus is guilty in this Play of a grammatical anachronism, in putting the expletive, Hercle, in the mouths of persous at a time when Hercules is supposed to be yet unborn. They might with as much justice accuse him of anachronism in putting the Roman language into the mouths of persons at a time when that language did not as yet exist. He merely professes to embody the sentiments of persons in bygone days in such language as may render them the most easily intelligible to a Roman audience.
30. An earthen pot: Hirneam. Hirnea was an earthen vessel for holding wine. It was said to receive its name from the Greek word ὄρνις a bird, because it originally bore the figure of a bird.
31. Looked in a glass: He seems to speak of looking in a mirror as something uncommon for a slave to do. Probably the expense of them did not allow of their being used by slaves. The specula, or looking-glasses, of the ancients, were usually made of metal, either a composition of tin and copper or of silver; but in later times, alloy was mixed with the silver. Pliny mentions the obsidian stone, or, as it is now called, Icelandic agate, as being used for this purpose. He also says that mirrors were made in the glass-houses of Sidon, which consisted of glass plates with leaves of metal at the back. These were probably of an inferior character. Those of copper and tin were made chiefly at Brundisium. The white metal formed from this mixture soon becoming dim, a sponge, with powdered pumice-stone, was usually fastened to the mirrors made of that composition. They were generally small, of round or oval shape, and having a handle. The female slaves usually held them while their mistresses were performing the duties of the toilet. Sometimes they were fastened to the walls, and they were occasionally of the length of a person’s body, like the cheval glasses of our day
32. When dead: It is generally thought that he is punning here upon the word imago, and alludes to the practice of carrying the imagines, or waxen images of their ancestors, in the funeral processions of the Patricians—an honor, he says, that will never befall him when he is dead. Douza, however, thinks that he is playing upon the expression ludos facere, which has the double meaning of to impose upon a person, or to give a spectacle of gladiators after the death of a person of Patrician rank; and that he means to say that the act ludos faciendi is being applied to him (in the first sense): while alive, a thing that (in the second sense) will never befall him when dead.
33. Cap of freedom: When a slave was made free, after his manumission his head was shaved, and a cap put upon it in the Temple of Feronia, the Goddess of Freedmen.