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The Humour and Thematic Centrality of the Patera in Plautus' Amphitruo*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2013

Christopher B. Polt
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Extract

The patera (‘drinking-bowl’) of King Pterelas that Amphitruo brings back as a trophy of his victory over the Teleboeans plays a central role in Plautus' Amphitruo. Amphitruo and Sosia plan to show it off to Alcumena to impress her and to aggrandize their triumph, and this military bragging characterizes Amphitruo as a modified miles gloriosus (‘braggart soldier’). Jupiter steals it and, in disguise as Amphitruo, gives it to Alcumena, wooing her and further solidifying her belief that she has just spent the night with her husband. After Amphitruo accuses his wife of lying when she states that she has slept only with him and that he gave her the drinking-bowl, he commands Sosia to open their box containing it to prove otherwise; of course, it has vanished, and its disappearance leads to more confusion and accusations. The drinking-bowl thus also serves as a physical token that might establish a character's identity, just like the cistella (‘box’) of Plautus' Cistellaria or Rudens, but with the twist that Jupiter's manipulation of the token intensifies misunderstanding rather than dispels it, per the usual model of comic anagnorisis. In short, this prop contributes greatly to Amphitruo's characterization, narrative development, and metatheatrical play.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 60 , Issue 2 , October 2013 , pp. 232 - 245
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2013 

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Footnotes

*

I am grateful to Joy Reeber, Ted Gellar-Goad, Sharon James, Jim O'Hara, Emma Brobeck, and Quinn Stewart, as well as to Rob Shorrock and the anonymous reader for G&R, for their help on this article.

References

1 For Amphitruo as miles gloriosus, see Galinsky, G. K., ‘Scipionic Themes in Plautus’ Amphitruo', TAPhA 97 (1966), 203–35Google Scholar; Bond, R. P., ‘Plautus' Amphitryo as Tragi-comedy’, G&R 46 (1999), 203–20Google Scholar; Christenson, D. M., Plautus. Amphitruo (Cambridge, 2000), 28–9Google Scholar.

2 On recognition tokens generally, see Duckworth, G. E., The Nature of Roman Comedy. A Study in Popular Entertainment (Princeton, NJ, 1952), 146–8Google Scholar; Ketterer, R. C., ‘Stage Properties in Plautine Comedy III’, Semiotica 60 (1986), 29–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the patera and reversed anagnorisis in Amphitruo, see Ketterer 47–51.

3 Ketterer (n. 2), 69, n. 21, and Christenson (n. 1), 194, on Plaut. Amph. 260, point out the religious significance of the patera; cf. RE 19.2059–62 and suppl. 7.1026–30, Daremberg-Saglio 4.1.341.

4 For props and costuming that characterize the miles gloriosus, see Ketterer, R. C., ‘Stage Properties in Plautine Comedy I’, Semiotica 58 (1986), 201–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Marshall, C. W., The Stagecraft and Performance of Roman Comedy (Cambridge, 2006), 68–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Duckworth (n. 2), 412, n. 58. Rings are used as recognition tokens in Plaut. Curc. and Ter. Haut. and Hec., and serve as identity devices in Plaut. Bacch., Mil., Pseud., and Trin. Boxes or bags act as recognition tokens in Plaut. Cist., Rud., and Vid.

6 Ketterer (n. 2), 69, n. 21, notes the patera's unusualness, but thinks it is unclear whether Plautus' specification of the vessel has any point and that the form of the prop is irrelevant for the play's action. Macrobius long ago thought Plautus' prop choice a purposeful variation (Sat. 5.31.3–4). In all of Plautus, the word patera appears only in Amphitruo: see Lodge, G., Lexicon Plautinum, ii (Leipzig, 1933), 294Google Scholar.

7 Hom. Il. 14.323–4, 19.95–9; Hom. Od. 11.266–8; Hes. Theog. 526–7, 943–51; [Sc.] 1–56.

8 On the history, variant versions, and development of the Amphitruo myth, see RE 1.1572–7 and 1967–9; Shero, L. R., ‘Alcmena and Amphitryon in Ancient and Modern Drama’, TAPhA 87 (1956), 192–238Google Scholar; Stärk, E., ‘Die Geschichte des Amphitryonstoffes vor Plautus’, RhM 125 (1982), 275–303Google Scholar; Pace, C., ‘La coppa nel mito di Anfitrione: dallo σκύϕος di Archippo all'aurea patera di Plauto’, SemRom 1 (1998), 89–109Google Scholar; Faller, S., ‘Teleboae iniusti und König Pterelas patera: Identitätsbildung im Amphitruo des Plautus’, in Baier, T. (ed.), Studien zu Plautus' Amphitruo (Tübingen, 1999), 146–8Google Scholar; Christenson (n. 1), 45–55.

9 Called a kylix at Paus. 5.18.3; depas by Charon at FGrH 262 F 2 (= Ath. 475b–c); karchesion by Pherecydes at FGrH 3 F 13a–c (= Ath. 474f, schol. MV on Hom. Od. 11.1266, and schol. AB on Hom. Il. 14.323; cf. Macrob. Sat. 5.21.3) and Herodorus at FGrH 31 F 16 (= Ath. 474f); skyphos by Anaximander at FGrH 9 F 1 (= Ath. 498b–c) and Archippus fr. 7 Kassel–Austin (= Ath. 499 b). See Stärk (n. 8), 280–1 and 301, and Pace (n. 8) for discussion of these.

10 For oversized stage properties in Roman comedy, see Marshall (n. 4), 69–70.

11 Theoc. Id. 24.4–5. For the possibility that Plautus knew Theocritus' poem and alludes to it in his Amphitruo, see Fantuzzi, M. and Hunter, R., Tradition and Innovation in Hellenistic Poetry (Cambridge, 2004), 260Google Scholar, n. 46. See also Wilamowitz, U., Euripides. Herakles, ii (Berlin, 1895), 226–7Google Scholar on Eur. HF 1078. On Euripides' Alkmene as a source for Plautus see Stewart, Z., ‘The Amphitruo of Plautus and Euripides' Bacchae’, TAPhA 89 (1958), 358–61Google Scholar; Lefèvre, E., Maccus Vortit Barbare. Vom tragischen Amphitryon zum tragikomischen Amphitruo (Wiesbaden, 1982), 29–38Google Scholar; Christenson (n. 1), 47–55.

12 Stewart (n. 11), 348–73. On the Roman audience's knowledge of Greek myth in Plautus' time, see Fraenkel, E., Plautine Elements in Plautus (Oxford, 2007), 65–8Google Scholar.

13 Riess, E., ‘Notes on Plautus’, CQ 35 (1941), 161–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Fantuzzi and Hunter (n. 11), 260, n. 46. On spolia opima generally, see Beard, M., The Roman Triumph (Cambridge, MA, 2007), 292–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Flower, H., ‘The Tradition of the Spolia Opima: M. Claudius Marcellus and Augustus’, ClAnt 19 (2000), 34–64Google Scholar.

14 See Flower (n. 13). Marcellus may have inspired aspects of the Plautine miles gloriosus: see Segal, E., Roman Laughter. The Comedy of Plautus (Cambridge, MA, 1968), 207Google Scholar, n. 53.

15 Janne, H., ‘L'Amphitruon de Plaute et M. Fulvius Nobilior’, RBPh 34 (1933), 515–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Halkin, L., ‘La parodie d'une démande de triomphe dans l'Amphitruon de Plaute’, AC 17 (1948), 297–304Google Scholar; Hermann, L., ‘L'actualité dans l'Amphitruon de Plaute’, AC 17 (1948), 317–22Google Scholar; Galinsky (n. 1); Beard, M., ‘The Triumph of the Absurd: Roman Street Theatre’, in Edwards, C. and Woolf, G. (eds.), Rome the Cosmopolis (Cambridge, 2003), 21–43Google Scholar (further developed in Beard (n. 13), 201–2, 253–6); O'Neill, P., ‘Triumph Songs, Reversal and Plautus' Amphitruo’, Ramus 32 (2003), 1–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the increasing importance of war booty and its public display in Plautus' time and plays, see Gruen, E., Studies in Greek Culture and Roman Policy (Leiden, 1990), 124–57Google Scholar.

16 For the text of Amphitruo I use de Melo, W., Plautus. Amphitryon. The Comedy of Asses. The Pot of Gold. The Two Bacchises. The Captives (Cambridge, MA, 2011)Google Scholar. All translations are my own unless otherwise indicated.

17 For the epico-tragic tone of Sosia's speech, which is modelled on the messenger speech from tragedy, see Fraenkel (n. 12), 236–8; Slater, N., ‘Amphitruo, Bacchae, and Metatheatre’, Lexis 5–6 (1990), 109Google Scholar, n. 18; Christenson (n. 1), 172–3, on Plaut. Amph. 186–261.

18 On tragicomic inversion in the play, see Bond (n. 1), 203–30; see also Moore, T., ‘How Is It Played? Tragicomedy as a Running Joke: Plautus' Amphitruo in Performance’, Didaskalia Supplement 1 (1995)Google Scholar. On Alcumena's tragicomic sexuality, see Christenson, D., ‘Grotesque Realism in Plautus' Amphitruo’, CJ 96 (2001), 243–60Google Scholar. I follow Bond in interpreting the term ‘tragicomic’ to mean that the line between the tragically high/serious and the comically low/trivial is blurred, with one inverted into the other and vice versa.

19 On virtus as a distinctive trait of triumphatores and Amphitruo, see Galinsky (n. 1), 209–32, esp. 231 on the patera as a symbol of Amphitruo's virtus; Bond (n. 1), 206–9; O'Neill (n. 15), 1–38. On virtus broadly, see Earl, D. C., ‘Political Terminology in Plautus’, Historia 9 (1960), 235–43Google Scholar.

20 Christenson (n. 18). For the concept of ‘grotesque realism’, see Bakhtin, M., Rabelais and His World (Cambridge, MA, 1968), 18–27Google Scholar.

21 Examples in Schneider-Herrmann, G., Apulian Red-figured Paterae with Flat or Knobbed Handles (London, 1977)Google Scholar.

22 Alternative etymologies at TLL 10.692.38–7.

23 On Mercury and mercimonium see Fontaine, M., Funny Words in Plautine Comedy (Oxford, 2010), 164–8Google Scholar. For catalogues of Plautus' puns, including on names, see Spencer, E., Adnominatio in the Plays of Plautus (Rome, 1906)Google Scholar; Mendelsohn, C. J., Studies in the Wordplay of Plautus (Philadelphia, PA, 1907)Google Scholar; Brinkhoff, J., Woordspeling bij Plautus (Nijmegen, 1935)Google Scholar; Fontaine (this note), 283–90. These works make no mention of the puns on patera that I discuss in this article.

24 The diminutive as it was actually used in antiquity would, of course, have been patella, but this word ultimately derives from the prior form paterella: see Strodach, G., ‘Latin Diminutives in -ello/a and -illo/a: A Study in Diminutive Formation’, Language 9 (1933), 29–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar. And, at any rate, the rules of wordplay need not (and often cannot) be the same as those of linguistics or actual usage.

25 RE 22.1488–96. See also bibliography in n. 8 above.

26 On Alcumena's insatiable sexuality and its contribution to the play's ‘grotesque realism’, see Christenson (n. 18), 244–54.

27 Forehand, W., ‘Irony in Plautus' Amphitruo’, AJPh 92 (1971), 633–51Google Scholar.

28 Christenson (n. 1), 268, on Plaut. Amph. 785–6.

29 The word parens was certainly derived from pario; see OLD, s.v. parens 2, and TLL 10.352.61–4, and cf. Isid. Etym. 9.5.4 (parentes quasi parientes). Wordplay connecting pater and pario also occurs at Lucr. 4.1129: bene parta patrum fiunt anademata, ‘the well-begotten goods of fathers become headbands’ (on how love causes people to waste resources on frivolous things).

30 On respect/endearment, see Fraenkel (n. 12), 85; Dickey, E., Latin Forms of Address. From Plautus to Apuleius (New York, 2002), 120–8Google Scholar. On sexual connotations, see Lilja, S., Homosexuality in Republican and Augustan Rome (Helsinki, 1983), 21Google Scholar; Fontaine (n. 23), 213–16.

31 Phillips, J., ‘Alcumena in the Amphitruo or Plautus: A Pregnant Lady Joke’, CJ 80 (1984–5), 121–6Google Scholar; cf. Christenson (n. 18), 250, for puns on penis and penest at the end of Alcumena's hymn to virtus, line 652–3 (omnia adsunt / bona quem penest virtus, ‘all goods belong to the man who has virtus’).

32 On container metaphors, see Adams, J. N., The Latin Sexual Vocabulary (Baltimore, MD, 1982), 86–8Google Scholar.

33 Christenson (n. 1), 218, on Plaut. Amph. 422.

34 Bond (n. 1), 214–19.