The Pot of Gold - Classic Text | Alexandria
The Pot of Gold by Plautus: A comedic masterpiece shrouded in avarice, Aulularia, more commonly known as The Pot of Gold, presents a timeless exploration of greed and its corroding influence. Plautus's play centers on Euclio, an elderly Athenian who discovers a pot of gold buried beneath his hearth, a secret that transforms him from a thrifty pauper to a man consumed by paranoid miserliness. However, its very simplicity has often been misunderstood as merely a straightforward farce, obscuring the play's subtle commentary on societal values.
First staged around 205-184 BCE, during a period of significant social and economic transformation in Roman society, the play provides a window into the rise of individualism and the burgeoning obsession with wealth that characterized the era. While fragments of plays from earlier Greek New Comedy writers offer prototypes of similar characters and situations, Plautus’s extant text provides the most complete early example of this dramatic trope. The social unease reflected in the play, written during the Second Punic War's aftermath, may suggest anxieties about the accumulation of wealth in a period of reconstruction.
Over the centuries, The Pot of Gold has been reinterpreted and adapted countless times, influencing playwrights from Moliere, whose L'Avare owes a clear debt to Plautus, to Ben Jonson, whose The Alchemist presents a similarly cynical view of human nature. Interestingly, some scholars have posited that Shakespeare drew inspiration from Aulularia when creating Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, hinting at a far-reaching and multifaceted legacy. The character of Euclio, perpetually suspicious and comically guarding his buried treasure, has become an archetypal figure in Western literature, representing the destructive power of avarice.
Today, The Pot of Gold remains relevant as a potent commentary on the corrupting influence of wealth and the anxieties surrounding economic inequality. Its enduring appeal lies not only in its comedic brilliance but also in its unflinching portrayal of human fallibility. Does Euclio’s predicament reflect an eternal truth about human nature, or is Plautus simply holding a mirror up to the anxieties of his own time, a reflection that continues to resonate across the ages?