Plautus Poenulus 1.3

Henry Thomas Riley (Translator)

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

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Current edition Perseus

Poenulus, or The Young Carthaginian (English) (Plautus. The Comedies of Plautus, Volume 2. Riley, Henry Thomas, translator. London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1913.)

Editions (1)
Poenulus Perseus (Plautus. Plauti Comoediae, Volume 2. Leo, Friedrich, editor. Berlin: Weidmann, 1896.) — 1.3 focus

Notes on the current edition

Poenulus, or The Young Carthaginian

1. Have an auction: Some Commentators have fancied that a play is intended upon the resemblance of the word auctio in this line and anctor in the preceding one.
2. Dwelling in my mouth: He says that his master may sell his own house, for he seems to have taken up his abode in his (Milphio’s) mouth in reference to his having continually to speak of him or to him.
3. By your liberty: His liberty being a thing non-existent.
4. More my part: He alludes to the common trick of slaves taking to flight.
5. Effect this adroitly: Plautus designedly makes Agorastocles talk in this disjointed and unintelligible manner, both for the purpose of showing his own distraction and teasing Milphio. He does not, however, seem likely to hurt his own interest by his promises. Given connectedly, his words stand thus (as given in a Note to Warner’s Translation): Should I not give you your liberty to-day, if you do what you have promised—if you impose upon the pander, and deliver Adelphasium to me—I do not deserve so many Philippeans of gold as there are dead men in the shades, waves in the sea, or star in the sky.
6. Need of an Oedipus: Juno, in her displeasure against the city of Thebes, sent the Sphinx, in order to wreak her vengeance against the inhabitants. This was a monster with the face and speech of a woman, the wings of a bird, and the rest of the body resembling that of a dog or a lion. The monster proposed enigmatical questions to all with whom it met, and those who could not explain them it devoured. On the Oracle being consulted, they were informed that they would not get rid of the monster unless they could find out the meaning of a certain enigma, which was, What is that animal that has four feet in the morning, two at noon, and three at night? Oedipus, at length, explained this as meaning a man, who crawls on all-fours during infancy, during manhood stands on two legs, and, when old, makes use of a stick as a third leg to support him. On hearing this, the monster, in despair, knocked out its brains against a rock.