CC - II : The Pot of Gold Summery

                      AUTHOR: Titus Maccius Plautus

”The Pot of Gold” is a play where the main motives are greed, cheapness and gold. The theme is Euclio’s cheapness and greed for gold. The play is easy to read and the author makes fun of people’s characteristics. There are four acts.

Euclio is a poor man who finds the pot of gold and gets materialistic richness with it but becomes poor in every other aspects of his life. He only thought about his gold. Phaedria is his daughter and she loves Lyconides. Megadorus is his uncle and he wants to marry Phaedria because he wants to settle down but in the end he gives up on that idea. Lyconides out of love for Phaedria gives up his inheritance just to be with Phaedria who is pregnant with his child.In the introduction Euclio found the gold and hid it, in the twist Megadorus wants to marry Phaedria, then the pot of gold disappears and in the end Euclio gets his pot of gold and Lyconides gets Phaedria.

 The play begins with a monologue by Euclio's household deity. He tells us that Euclio's grandfather once entrusted him with the guardianship of a pot of gold. The god has protected the secret of the pot of gold until now. He chooses to reveal the location of the treasure to Euclio because of the latter's daughter, Phaedria.

The household deity tells us that Phaedria has pleased him by her devotion to him. He also reveals that Phaedria has been ravished by a gentleman of high rank. The only reason the deity has given up the location of the gold is to ensure Phaedria's marriage to Lyconides, the man who ravished her.

Meanwhile, Euclio is obsessed by his newfound pot of gold. In his paranoia, he fears that even his servant, Staphyla, will learn of its whereabouts. Meanwhile, Staphyla knows that Phaedria is pregnant, and she despairs over her mistress's fate.

We next meet Megadorus and his sister, Eunomia. The siblings talk about marriage; Eunomia wants Megadorus to marry. However, Megadorus declares that he has no use for ladies of rank with high dowries. Instead, he wants Phaedria, Euclio's daughter. Ironically, the wealthy Megadorus is also Lyconides's uncle.

Having decided on his course of action, Megadorus goes to meet Euclio to ask for Phaedria's hand in marriage. For his part, Euclio thinks that Megadorus has discovered the secret of his treasure, and he panics. Megadorus, of course, has no inkling of the treasure. He lays out his suit to Euclio, who declares that he doesn't care if Megadorus makes a match of it with Phaedria. The only thing he won't provide is a dowry.

The two agree on the terms, and Euclio tells Staphyla that Phaedria is to marry Megadorus that day. The servant is distressed to hear this, for she knows that her mistress is already carrying Lyconides' child. Meanwhile, Megadorus hires a caterer and entertainers for the wedding.

As for Euclio, he is such a miser that he only purchases some frankincense and a wreath of flowers for his daughter's wedding. As the cooks and entertainers begin arriving, however, Euclio becomes progressively more anxious. He thinks that Megadorus has set up the cooks and servants to steal his gold. So, Euclio decides to carry his pot of gold around on his person.

Meanwhile, Megadorus is quite pleased with his match. He asks Euclio to have a drink to celebrate, but the latter refuses. Instead, Euclio makes his way to the temple of Faith and hides his pot of gold there. What he doesn't know, however, is that Strobilus (the servant of Lyconides) is spying on him for Lyconides's sake.

When Euclio leaves, Strobilus tries to look for the gold. He doesn't find it and is disappointed. Meanwhile, Euclio doubles back to check on his gold and catches Strobilus looking around the temple. He attacks Strobilus and searches him. However, he finds nothing on Strobilus and has to let the servant go. Next, Euclio hides his gold at the grove of Silvanus. This time, Strobilus manages to steal the gold from the grove.

Meanwhile, Lyconides confesses all to his mother, Eunomia. He tells her that he wishes to marry Phaedria, since it was he who violated the young woman. Eunomia agrees to help her son. For his part, Lyconides tries to reason with Euclio, who is aghast that Phaedria won't be marrying the wealthy Megadorus, after all. As for Megadorus, he renounces his claim on Phaedria.

Euclio's frustration is further compounded when he discovers that his pot of gold is gone. He blames Lyconides, who vehemently denies any knowledge of the gold. Meanwhile, Strobilus tells Lyconides what he has found. For his part, Lyconides orders Strobilus to hand the gold over. The two have an argument, but Lyconides prevails. He returns the gold to Euclio, who is so happy to get his treasure back that he agrees to the marriage between Lyconides and Phaedria. Ironically, Euclio later bequeaths the pot of the gold to the couple as a wedding gift.

Genre: comedy

Time: unspecified

Place: Euclio’s house, temple, woods

SUMMERY :

 gold from everyone. In the meantime Lyconides and Phaedria fell in love. Megadorus wants to settle down and he goes to Euclio and asks for his daughter’s hand. Euclio said yes just because Megadorus didn’t ask for dowry.

Euclio went to bury the pot into the woods but Lyconides servant Strobilus saw him and stole the pot. Lyconides asked Megadorus to let him have Phaedria. After that the Houshold Ghost of Euclio’s house tells the story of an old cheap man who also found gold and Phaedria prayed to him every day and in the end he gave the pot of gold to Euclio so he could have dowry for Phaedria.

Euclio yelled at his servant because he thought she was spying on him. Megadorus and Euclio met on the street and Megadorus was rushing the wedding so Euclio got scared about his gold. He said yes to the wedding just because Megadorus didn’t ask for dowry. Everyone arrived to Euclio’s house to prepare the wedding.

When Euclio heard all of that rumor coming out his house he was convinced that somebody was about to steal his gold. Euclion hit one of the men in his house because he thought he was trying to rob him. He was convinced that Megadorus prepared all of this just so he could get his hands on the pot of gold. Megadorus lead a monologue from which we find out he is a really honest man.

Megador thinks out loud and Euclio eardrops on him. Euclion is still scared for hisgold so he goes to hide it in the temple. Strobilus knows that Lyconides loves Phaedria and that he wants to marryher. Strobilus follows Euclio while Lyconides begs his mother to talk his uncle Megadorus out of the wedding.

The pregnant Phaedria goes into labor right when Euclio realized his pot it missing and he goes crazy.

In the end Storbilus appears and tells Lyconides that he found the pot of gold. Lyconides demands that the gold returns to Euclio and the story end there because the rest of it was lost. Is is assumed that Lyconides returns the pot of gold and in return gets Phaedria.

Characters Analysis

   

Euclio – 

cheap old man who lived with his servant and his daughter. With the help of his household God he finds the pot of gold and becomes obsessed with keeping it safe. He became selfish and suspicious of everyone. He was scared of marrying his daughter because he didn’t want to give dowry to anyone. He accepted Megadorus proposal because he didn’t ask for dowry. His gold was more important that anything else.

Phaedria – 

Euclio’s daughter and she is in love with Lyconides. They have a child together and it is believed that they get married at the end

Lyconides –

 in love with Phaedria. He does not care that she is poor and that her father will give her away without dowry. He tried everything just to be with her and their child.

Household God –

he managed the whole situation and played around with the characters because he wanted to teach them the real values of life

Plautus Biography

Titus Maccius Plautus is the biggest Roman comedy writer. He lived between 254 and 184 BC. He worked as a stage worker, actor in Rome and then he got himself into some debts and became a slave.                        

Plautus style, filled with folk talk and jokes, became a role model to many other writers. Because of many works were written in his tone he is considered to have written over 130 comedies while some believe that he only wrote 21 works that are completely his. The most popular ones are “Aulularia” or “The Pot of Gold” and “Maneachmi”.

In his works, he showed everyday city life scenes but he introduced rough comedy, music parts and elements of burlesque into the Greek comedy.

The Plautus comedy is recognizable by the clever servant who has the most important role and twists the plot. Plautus is considered to be one of the most skilled descriptors of human characteristics tha