Triumph Songs, Reversal and Plautus' Amphitruo

Abstract

Partout dans la pièce on sent frémir la vie romaine. (Henri Janne) This paper aims to read Plautus'Amphitruoin the light of the Roman triumph. Local references and allusions to the triumph in theAmphitruohave often been pointed out, but only rarely has the play as a whole, with its story of the arrival home and treatment of a returning victorious general, been seen as reflecting the triumph. However, Mary Beard, in the recent collectionRome the Cosmopolis, has made this connection, seeing in theAmphitruoa theatrical and metatheatrical parody of thetriumphator. For Beard, the triumph is a ceremony which problematises issues of mimesis and representation. Thetriumphator, dressed and painted to imitate perhaps Jupiter himself, perhaps a statue of Jupiter, or perhaps the Etruscan Kings, exemplifies this problem. As Beard says, just as thetableaux vivants, carried at triumphs, with their depictions of thetriumphator's various achievements, can be seen as replications of reality, as artifice, or as pure and simple sham, so the general can be seen as Jupiter's double, as a living statue, or as an actor making a fool of himself at a costume party. According to Beard, what is at stake in thetriumphator's performance is the hermeneutic question of how can one tell the difference between ‘being’, ‘playing’ or ‘acting’ god. It is in this light that Beard locates theAmphitruo, reading the play as a parody of triumphal mimesis. Whereas thetriumphatorusually imitates Jupiter at the triumph, here Jupiter imitates thetriumphator.

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