Plays Of Plautus

Front 1

Only mythological comedy of Plautus. Zeus comes to Thebes and seduced Amphitryon's wife Alcmena in the guise of Amphitryon himself, while Mercury accompanies him and impersonates Sosia, Amphitryon's slave.

Back 1

Amphitryon

Front 2

The comedy of asses

Back 2

Asinaria

Front 3

"The Comedy of the Golden Pot" The old miser Euclio has hidden a pot of gold, which is stolen and used to pay for a young man (Lyconides) to marry the woman he raped (Euclio's daughter, Phaedria), a strange marriage. The narrator is the Lar Familiaris

Back 3

Aulularia

Front 4

Double plot, with two Bacchises and two sets of lovers.

Back 4

Bacchides

Front 5

An old man has lost two sones, one stolen, the other (Philepolemus) taken as a prison of war. He obtains two Elean slaves as war booty and one of them turns out to be the stolen boy. He also gets Philepolemus back. No women in the this play.

Back 5

Captivi

Front 6

The most obscene and probably the latest of his old plays, an old man and his son both want to marry a foundling in their house.

Back 6

Casina

Front 7

The Comedy of the Casket

Back 7

Cistellaria

Front 8

The shortest surviving play of Plautus, ******** is a man whose name means "weevil," which is fitting since ******** acts as a parasite to a young man in love with a courtesan. A boastful soldier, Terapontigonus, also loves the woman, but ******** swindles the woman's pimp and tricks Terapontigonus (who turns out to be her sister).

Back 8

Curculio

Front 9

The classic " slave comedy." A slave helps his young master, who falls in love with two girls ina row. One turns out to be the young master's sister.

Back 9

Epidicus

Front 10

The basis for Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, two brothers Menaechmus, separated as infants, cause confusion when one arrives at the other's city.

Back 10

Menaechmi

Front 11

The Merchant

Back 11

Mercator

Front 12

Involving a swaggering soldier "The Braggart Soldier", the slave Palaestrio helps his master swindle a girl from the braggart soldier Pyrgopolinices.

Back 12

Miles Gloriosus

Front 13

"The Comedy of the Ghost" - Haunted House. The slave Tranio tricks his young master's father, Theopropides, into believing that his house is haunted by a ghost, to conceal the young master's liaison.

Back 13

Mostellaria

Front 14

The Girl from Persia

Back 14

Persa

Front 15

Exceedingly long and boring, it deals with a Carthaginian

Back 15

Poenulus

Front 16

One of Plautus's favorite plays as an old man, the slave ********* cheats his adversary Ballio, a pimp, to help his young master win the girl he loves.

Back 16

Pseudolus

Front 17

"The Cable/Rope." The slaveArcturus foretells the shipwreck of a wicked pimp Labrax, who is holding a girl of free parentage illegally. A chest with a cable, fished out of the sea, is involved in the final development.

Back 17

Rudens

Front 18

Premiered at the Plebeian games in 200 B.C., unique in that it had no plot.

Back 18

Stichus

Front 19

The Three Coins/The Threepenny Day

Back 19

Trinummus

Front 20

A favorite play of Plautus, though rather grim and not funny. A cunning slave, Phronesium, cheats three of her lovers.

Back 20

Truculentus

Front 21

The Comedy of the Satchel/The Chest

Back 21

Vidularia