Pot of Gold

Characters · Pot of Gold

The cast — who they are, and what they carry.

1. 01

   Euclio

   He is a poor old man who has suddenly come into possession of something valuable and has no idea what to do with it except hide it and worry about it. His miserliness is not simply greed. It is anxiety, the anxiety of a man who has always had nothing and cannot believe that having something will not be taken from him. He is comic because his fears are disproportionate and his behavior is absurd. He is also recognisably human because his fears come from a real place.

2. 02

   Phaedria

   Euclio's daughter and the most sympathetic figure in the play. She is in a genuinely difficult position, pregnant by a man who loves her but unable to speak about it, being promised in marriage to an old man she does not want, entirely dependent on circumstances she cannot control. She barely appears on stage but her situation drives the plot.

3. 03

   Megadorus

   The wealthy old neighbor who wants to marry Phaedria. He is not a villain. He is actually rather reasonable and has a long speech about the problems of marrying wealthy women and the advantages of marrying a poor but decent girl. He steps aside gracefully when the situation becomes clear.

4. 04

   Lyconides

   A young man who loves Phaedria. He is a standard figure of Roman New Comedy, the young man in love who needs help navigating the obstacles between himself and the girl he wants. He is decent enough to want to do the right thing and admit what he has done.

5. 05

   Strobilus

   Lyconides's slave and the one who actually steals the gold. Clever slaves are a central feature of Roman comedy and Strobilus fits the type, opportunistic, quick thinking, and entirely amoral about using whatever advantage presents itself.