Odysseus Acanthoplex
Odysseus Acanthoplex | |
---|---|
Written by | Sophocles |
Characters | Odysseus, Telegonus, others |
Date premiered | ca. 414 BCE? |
Place premiered | Athens |
Original language | Ancient Greek |
Genre | Athenian tragedy |
Odysseus Acanthoplex (
Plot
The plot of Odysseus Acanthoplex was based on Telegony, which was part of the Epic Cycle.[5] As background to the plot of the play, Homer's Odyssey tells of Odysseus spending a year with the goddess Circe.[6] In the version of the myth that Odysseus Acanthoplex was based on, Odysseus and Circe had a son from this dalliance, Telegonus.
From what we know of the plot of the play, Telegonus arrived at Ithaca to reveal himself to his father. However, a fight ensued and Telegonus killed Odysseus without knowing who Odysseus was.[2][6] In the myth, Telegonus used a spear that had a venomous stingray spine to kill Odysseus.[6] The plot also dealt with the subsequent marriages between Telegonus and Odysseus' wife Penelope and between Circe and Odysseus' son by Penelope, Telemachus.[2]
Two of the extant fragments from the play refer to the oar Odysseus carried to appease the sea god
Sutton speculated that the play partially unfolded as follows. Early in the play, Odysseus related the directions from
Webster, who believes that Niptra and Odysseus Acanthoplex are the same play, believes that the play began with Odysseus' return home to Ithaca and his recognition by
Critical reception
In his Poetics, Aristotle used the plot of Odysseus Acanthoplex, under the title Odysseus Wounded, as one of three examples of an effective type of plot for tragedy in which a character performs a horrific deed to a relative in ignorance and only learns the truth after the fact.[4][7][10][11] The other examples Aristotle gave of this type of effective plot were Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and a play about Alcmaeon by 4th century BCE tragic playwright Astydamas.[7][10][11]
Roman philosopher Cicero[12] praised Pacuvius' play Niptra, which was an imitation of Sophocles' Odysseus Acanthoplex, because in Pacuvius' play Odysseus does not lament his wounds excessively, as Cicero believed the character did in Sophocles' play.[1]
Date
In The Lost Sophocles, D. F. Sutton suggests that Odysseus Acanthoplex was possibly first produced by about 414 BCE, which Sutton suggests is the same timeframe as Sophocles'
References
- ^ ISBN 0-674-99532-5.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4051-3183-4.
- ^ Webster, T.B.L.(1969). An introduction to Sophocles. Methuen. pp. 175, 178.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8191-4030-2.
- ^ Daiches, D. & Thorlby, A. (1972). Literature and western civilization, Volume 1. Aldus. p. 182.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7614-7559-0.
- ^ JSTOR 1087433.
- ^ Waldock, A.J.A. Sophocles the Dramatist. Cambridge University Press. p. 55.
- Webster, T.B.L.(1936). An Introduction to Sophocles. Oxford University Press. pp. 7, 177–178.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-14-044651-7.
- ^ ISBN 978-88-7949-307-9.
- ^ Cicero, Tusculanae disputationes 2.21.49