Odysseus Acanthoplex

The plot of Odysseus Acanthoplex was derived from Telegony, part of the Epic Cycle. As background to the plot of the play, Homer's Odyssey tells of Odysseus spending a year with the goddess Circe. In the myth, Telegonus used a spear that had a venomous stingray spine to kill Odysseus. Classicist T.F. Hoey believes that the thematic development of Odysseus Acanthoplex was similar to that of Trachiniae. Sutton speculated that the play partially unfolded as follows. Early in the play, Odysseus related the directions from Tiresias described in The Odyssey in which he was supposed to carry an oar far inland as a sacrifice to Poseidon. He also related an oracle he received at Dodona telling him that he would be killed by his son. Believing that the oracle referred to Telemachus, he would have taken precautions against Telemachus killing him, but was unprepared when another son who he did not know of arrived and a fight ensued. The wounded Odysseus was brought on stage lamenting his wounds and denouncing the oracle for failing to predict that he would die at the hands of this stranger. Then Telegonus arrived on stage, and a recognition scene occurred in which Telegonus discovered that he killed his father and Odysseus realized that the oracle had come to pass. ==Critical reception==

In his Poetics, Aristotle used the plot of Odysseus Acanthoplex, under the title Odysseus Wounded, as one of three examples of an effective type of plot for tragedy in which a character performs a horrific deed to a relative in ignorance and only learns the truth after the fact. The other examples Aristotle gave of this type of effective plot were Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and a play about Alcmaeon by 4th century BCE tragic playwright Astydamas. praised Pacuvius' play Niptra, which was an imitation of Sophocles' Odysseus Acanthoplex, because in Pacuvius' play Odysseus does not lament his wounds excessively, as Cicero believed the character did in Sophocles' play. ==Date==

In The Lost Sophocles, D. F. Sutton suggests that Odysseus Acanthoplex was possibly first produced by about 414 BCE, which Sutton suggests is the same timeframe as Sophocles' Electra. Webster believes it was produced at a date close to that of Women of Trachis, which he dates to sometime before 431, due to perceived similarities with the structure of that play. ==References==