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expected the second part of the adjacency pair request/response, Alcumena first denies the validity of the words which Juppiter has retracted, and then (as far as she is concerned) divorces him on the spot (an "unhappy" divorce!): an oblique if very emphatic refusal to shed her anger and forgive him. To drive home the firmness of her decision, she indirectly declares her intention to leave at once: iuben mi ire comites? ("Will you tell someone to accompany me?" 929). The force of this question is clear in context. |
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Juppiter refuses to accept her answer and ignores her request: Sanan es? ("Are you out of your mind?"); but she insists Si non iubes, / ibo egomet; comitem mihi Pudicitiam duxero ("If you won't, I'll go alone; I'll take my honor with me as an escort" 929930), again referring to Amphitruo's unkind words, which Juppiter (in his role as her husband) has yet to retract, as he has yet to swear the oath he knows is prerequisite to peace. Faced with such stubborn resistance to his pleas, and seeing her (probably) turn to leave, Juppiter must act quickly. |
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IVPP. Mane, arbitratu tuo ius iurandum dabo,
me meam pudicam esse uxorem arbitrarier.
id ego si fallo, tum te, summe Iuppiter,
quaeso, Amphitruoni ut semper iratus sies. |
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IVPP. Wait! since you want me to, I'll swear
that I believe my wife is chaste.
And if I lie, then I beg you, O highest Juppiter,
always to be angry at Amphitruo.
(9314) |
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The oath ought not be classified (as it would be by Austin) merely as an oath. It has a function: to persuade Alcumena to forgive him. And however dire it may seem to her, this oath is an inside joke between Juppiter (and hence, Plautus) and the audience. For Alcumena, meam refers to her, and Amphitruoni to the man she hears speaking before her; for Juppiter and the audience, meam may well refer to Juno, and Amphitruoni, rather than being a substitute for mihi, stresses the comic "infelicity" of the oath. Juppiter calls down his own wrath on the hapless Amphitruo. For Alcumena, the wrath of Juppiter could well mean death for her husband; and if the god is chuckling to himself and the audience laughing aloud, she is moved by the apparent severity of the oath, and at once puts in a word on her interlocutor's behalf: A, propitius sit potius ("May he be propitious instead!"). Juppiter assents, and seeing that she is both moved and distressed by the danger to which her interlocutor has seemingly exposed himself, he takes advantage and repeats his request: |
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IVPP. Confido fore;
nam ius iurandum verum te advorsum dedi.
iam nunc irata non es? |
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