Odysseus Acanthoplex

Odysseus Acanthoplex
Written by	Sophocles
Characters	Odysseus, Telegonus, others
Date premiered	ca. 414 BCE?
Place premiered	Athens
Original language	Ancient Greek
Genre	Athenian tragedy

Odysseus Acanthoplex (Ancient Greek: Ὀδυσσεὺς ἀκανθοπλήξ, Odysseus Akanthoplēx, "Odysseus wounded by a spine"; also known as Odysseus Wounded, Odysseus Spine-struck and Odysseus Wounded by the Spine) is a lost play by the Athenian dramatist Sophocles. Several fragments are extant. The plot told of Odysseus' death, accidentally killed by his son Telegonus. Some scholars believe that another Sophocles' title, Niptra (Νιπτρα, "The Footwashing", "The Washing"), is the same play as Odysseus Acanthoplex. Dana Sutton, however, disputes this, suggesting that Niptra was a separate play dealing with Odysseus' return to Ithaca but not with his death.

The plot of Odysseus Acanthoplex was based on Telegony, which was 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 version of the myth that Odysseus Acanthoplex was based on, Odysseus and Circe had a son from this dalliance, Telegonus.

From what we know of the plot of the play, Telegonus arrived at Ithaca to reveal himself to his father. However, a fight ensued and Telegonus killed Odysseus without knowing who Odysseus was. In the myth, Telegonus used a spear that had a venomous stingray spine to kill Odysseus. The plot also dealt with the subsequent marriages between Telegonus and Odysseus' wife Penelope and between Circe and Odysseus' son by Penelope, Telemachus.

Two of the extant fragments from the play refer to the oar Odysseus carried to appease the sea god Poseidon. Several extant fragments make reference to the oracle of Zeus at Dodona. Other than one reference in Trachiniae, these are the only extant references to Dodona in Sophocles' works. Classicist T.F. Hoey believes that the thematic development of Odysseus Acanthoplex was similar to that of Trachiniae. According to archaeologist Thomas B. L. Webster, the plot of Odysseus Acanthoplex had a diptych form, i.e., in two parts, analogous to Sophocles' extant Ajax, Trachiniae and Antigone.

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