Widow of Ephesus

The widow of Ephesus is an ancient story, the subject matter of which has often been taken up in world literature. The versions of Petronius , who incorporated this story into the novel Satyricon (Chapters 111, 112), as well as the one in the Appendix Perottina to the Fables of Phaedrus have come down to us from ancient times .

content

A widow from Ephesus mourns her deceased husband in the cemetery. She watches over his grave, does not eat anything and wants to follow her beloved husband into death. Nearby, a soldier keeps watch over several crucified robbers. He has to be extremely careful that no corpse is taken down for the funeral, otherwise he faces a court martial and possibly the death penalty as well. This soldier notices the widow, comforts her, wins her love and stays with her more and more. He neglects his guard duty and one night the body of a crucified person is stolen. The soldier is afraid of the punishment and wants to kill himself. But the widow gave him her husband's corpse as a replacement, posteroque die populus miratus est qua ratione mortuus isset in crucem "and the next day the people wondered how a dead man had climbed onto the cross" (Petronius, Satyricon, 112, 8 ).

Reception of the substance

White, Christian Felix : The matron of Ephesus. A comedy in one act , 1748.
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : The Matron of Ephesus 1790, dramatization, one-act fragment.
Karl Amadeus Hartmann : The widow of Ephesus , opera composed 1929/30 (last part of the wax museum titled cycle of five small operas).
Eugen d'Albert : The Widow of Ephesus , opera composed around 1930, not performed.
Christopher Fry , A phoenix too much ( A Phoenix too frequent ), 1947 dramatization.
Hermann Reutter : The Widow of Ephesus , opera composed in 1954, new version in 1966.

literature

Elisabeth Frenzel : Substances of world literature. A lexicon of longitudinal sections of the history of poetry (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 300). 8th, revised and expanded edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-520-30008-7 , pp. 834-837.
Gerlinde Huber : The motif of the 'widow of Ephesus' in Latin texts from antiquity and the Middle Ages (= Mannheim contributions to linguistic and literary studies. 18). Narr, Tübingen 1990, ISBN 3-87808-847-7 .

credentials

↑ http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/petronius1.html Petronius, Satyricon
↑ http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/phaedrapp.html Fable XV in the appendix Perottina
↑ Prints of the 18th century (VD18) / The Matron of Ephesus. Retrieved June 16, 2020 .
↑ MDZ reader | Band | The matron of Ephesus / Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim | The matron of Ephesus / Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim. Retrieved January 14, 2019 .

[1] ttp://www.thelatinlibrary.com/petronius1.html Petronius, Satyricon

[2] ttp://www.thelatinlibrary.com/phaedrapp.html Fable XV in the appendix Perottina

[3] Prints of the 18th century (VD18) / The Matron of Ephesus. Retrieved June 16, 2020 .

[4] MDZ reader | Band | The matron of Ephesus / Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim | The matron of Ephesus / Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim. Retrieved January 14, 2019 .