Asinaria, which has been translated as The One with the Asses, is a comic play written in Latin by the Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus and is known as one of the great works of ancient Roman comedy. It is famous for containing the lines 'Lupus est homo homini, non homo, quom qualis sit non novit,' which has been translated as 'A man is a wolf rather than a man to another man, when he hasn't yet found out what he's like.' and 'Facias ipse quod faciamus nobis suades,' which has been translated as 'Practice yourself what you preach.'
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Synopsis[edit]
The play takes place in Athens, near the homes of the old man Demaenetus and the procuress Cleareta. Demaenetus is submissive to his wife Artemona, but wishes to help his son Argyrippus gain money to free his lover, Cleareta's hetaera Philenium. Demaenetus conspires with his slaves Libanus and Leonida to cheat his wealthy wife of the money. The trick succeeds, but Diabolus, Philenium's jealous lover, acts to have it revealed to Artemona, who confronts her son and husband at a banquet held by Cleareta.
Analysis[edit]
Asinaria belongs to the genre called fabula palliata, of Greek plays adapted for a Roman audience. This has caused a debate over Plautus' originality and creativity arguing contamination, while others point out that neither is redundant, or conflictual with Plautus' dramatic intentions.[1]
Characters[edit]
The initial reversal of roles comes from Demenetus and his wife Artemona, as he is the dependent on her dowry and she implicitly plays the strict paterfamilias. Classically, the paterfamilias is the obstacle in his dependent son's relationship, while Plautus makes Artemona the obstacle in front of Demenetus' desire for Philenium. Moreover, by introducing Demenetus in the role of a rival, Plautus disturbs the classical paradigm of the love triangle present in Miles Gloriosus (play) and Pseudolus.
Plautus takes great care to enrich his characters beyond their obvious roles. In this play, Demenetus is ostensibly cast as a senex, but he denies both the audience and his slave Libanus in their expectations to get angry over his son's affair with a prostitute. The play takes an unexpected turn with his stipulation to spend one night with Philenium. Thus Demenetus goes beyond both the strict father and the avuncular role of senex and becomes involved in a love triangle.[1]
Themes[edit]
The role of parents in their children's lives is represented through various perspectives in the play. With Artemona as the obstacle, Demaenetus as the dependent is cast in a traditionally adolescent role. His relation with Argyrippus is then set against Cleareta's with her daughter, both having lost the respect traditionally due to this position, one by a lack of funds and the second by her occupation. They are comparable in their appeal of filial piety to indulge their vices of lust and greed, respectively. The result is a materialistic abuse of conventional rules.
The power of money is apparent in the now familiar theme of moral corruption as Demaenetus is further infantilized by his lack of moral strength. Moreover, Argyrippus and Philenium are humiliated and made to beg and offer favours to Leonida and Libanus for the twenty minae. The theme of materialism pervades the play, turning Asinaria into a defense of the ethical structure of the ancient patriarchal family than against money and passion.[1]
Translations[edit]
References[edit]
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Asinaria&oldid=826580276'
Sarsina, Italy Plautus Quotes
Genre
Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254 â 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest works in Latin literature to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus. The word Plautine refers to both Plautus's own works and works similar to or influenced by his.
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Aulularia is a Latin play by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. The title literally means The Little Pot, but some translators provide The Pot of Gold, and the plot revolves around a literal pot of goldwhich the miserlyprotagonist, Euclio, guards zealously. The playâs ending does not survive, though there are indications of how the plot is resolved in later summaries and a few fragments of dialogue.
Plot summary[edit]
Lar Familiaris, the household deity of Euclio, an old man with a marriageable daughter named Phaedria, begins the play with a prologue about how he allowed Euclio to discover a pot of gold buried in his house. Euclio is then shown almost maniacally guarding his gold from real and imagined threats. Unknown to Euclio, Phaedria is pregnant by a young man named Lyconides. Phaedria is never seen on stage, though at a key point in the play the audience hears her painful cries in labor.
Euclio is persuaded to marry his daughter to his rich neighbor, an elderly bachelor named Megadorus, who happens to be the uncle of Lyconides. This leads to much by-play involving preparations for the nuptials. Eventually Lyconides and his slave appear, and Lyconides confesses to Euclio his ravishing of Phaedria. Lyconidesâ slave manages to steal the now notorious pot of gold. Lyconides confronts his slave about the theft.
At this point the manuscript breaks off. From surviving summaries of the play, we know that Euclio eventually recovers his pot of gold and gives it to Lyconides and Phaedria, who marry in a happy ending. In the Penguin Classics edition of the play, translator E.F. Watling devised an ending as it might have been originally, based on the summaries and a few surviving scraps of dialogue.[1] Other writers over the centuries have also written endings for the play, with somewhat varying results (one version was produced by Antonio Urceo in the late 15th century, another by Martinus Dorpius in the early 16th century).
Key themes[edit]
The figure of the miser has been a stock character of comedy for centuries. Plautus does not spare his protagonist various embarrassments caused by the vice, but he is relatively gentle in his satire. Euclio is eventually shown as basically a good-hearted man who has been only temporarily affected by greed for gold.
The play also ridicules the ancient bachelor Megadorus for his dream of marrying the nubile and far younger Phaedria. The silly business of preparing for the marriage provides much opportunity for satire on the laughable lust of an old man for a young woman, in a clever parallel to Euclioâs lust for his gold. Again, Megadorus is eventually shown as sensible and kind-hearted enough to abandon his foolish dream.
Plautusâ frequent theme of clever servants outwitting their supposed superiors finds its place in this play too. Not only does Lyconidesâ slave manage to filch Euclioâs beloved gold, but also Euclioâs housemaid Staphyla is shown as intelligent and kind in her attitude toward the unfortunately pregnant Phaedria.
Adaptations[edit]
Another play, Querolus seu Aulularia, was at one time ascribed to Plautus but is now believed to be a late 4th-century Latin imitation. It provides a kind of sequel in which Euclio dies abroad and informs a parasite of the hiding place of his treasurer, which the latter is to share with Euclio's son Querolus.
During the Renaissance there were a number of adaptations of the Aulularia. One of the earliest was Giovanni Battista Gelli's La Sporta (The Basket), which was published in Florence in 1543. A Croatian version by Marin DržiÄ was titled Skup (The Miser, 1555) and set in Dubrovnik. In 1597 Ben Jonson adapted elements of the plot for his early comedy The Case is Altered. At about the same time it was also used by the Danish Hieronymus Justesen Ranch (1539â1607) as the basis for his play Karrig Nidding (The Stingy Miser).
The very successful Dutch play, Warenar, based on Aulularia, was written by Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft and Samuel Coster in 1617. In 1629, the German poet laureate Joannes Burmeister published a Neo-Latin adaptation, also called Aulularia, that reworked Plautus' comedy to a play featuring Achan and Rahab from the biblical Book of Joshua.[2]Molière's French adaptation, L'Avare of 1668, was even more successful and thereafter served as the basis for dramatic imitations, rather than Plautus' work.[3]
Translations[edit]
References[edit]
Plautus PlaysExternal links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aulularia&oldid=898576944'
/ ËplÉâtÉs /
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Ti·tus Mac·ci·us[tahy-tuhâs mak-see-uhâs]/ËtaɪâtÉs ËmækâsiâÉs/, c254âc184 b.c.,Roman dramatist.
Dictionary.com UnabridgedBased on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
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British Dictionary definitions forplautusnoun
Titus Maccius (ËtaɪtÉs ËmæksɪÉs). ?254â?184 bc, Roman comic dramatist. His 21 extant works, adapted from Greek plays, esp those by Menander, include Menaechmi (the basis of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors), Miles Gloriosus, Rudens, and Captivi
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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