''Geta'', a twelfth-century

elegiac comedy Elegiac comedy was a genre of medieval Latin Latin literature, literature—or Medieval theatre, drama—which survives as a collection of about twenty texts written in the 12th and 13th centuries in the liberal arts schools of west central France ( ...

by Vitalis of Blois, is a loose adaptation of

Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus (; c. 254 – 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the gen ...

’ play, ''

Amphitryon Amphitryon (; Ancient Greek: Ἀμφιτρύων, ''gen''.: Ἀμφιτρύωνος; usually interpreted as "harassing either side", Latin: Amphitruo), in Greek mythology, was a son of Alcaeus, king of Tiryns in Argolis. His mother was named ei ...

''. Both tell the story of how

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...

, transforming himself to look like

, sleeps with Amphitryon’s wife, Alcmena. But in ''Geta'', Amphitryon is not a

Greek military The Hellenic Armed Forces ( el, Eλληνικές Ένοπλες Δυνάμεις, Ellinikés Énoples Dynámis) are the military forces of Greece. They consist of the Hellenic Army, the Hellenic Navy, and the Hellenic Air Force. The civilian ...

leader but a

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

, and

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...

, the child who is born from the union of the god and Alcmena, is not even mentioned.Plautus, ''Plautus'', trans. Paul Nixon (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1916). In both stories, Amphitryon’s servant, who is sent on ahead to his master’s estate to announce Amphitryon’s homecoming to Alcmena, is turned away by Mercury, who is disguised as that very servant, and who convinces him that he (Mercury) is the real servant; but in ''Geta'', this trickery is aided by sophistical arguments, which serve to ridicule

sophists A sophist ( el, σοφιστής, sophistes) was a teacher in ancient Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Sophists specialized in one or more subject areas, such as philosophy, rhetoric, music, athletics, and mathematics. They taught ' ...

in general who style themselves philosophers.

Notes

{{Reflist Comedy books Fabliaux 12th-century Latin books