Egeon

Play

The Comedy of Errors

Summary

Egeon is the Syracusan merchant condemned to death in Ephesus at the play's opening for violating a law against Syracusans. His long expository account of being separated from his wife Emilia and their twin sons by a shipwreck establishes the play's backstory and supplies its emotional frame. He appears only in the opening and closing scenes, but his near-execution gives the farcical comedy a genuine stake — and his reunion with Emilia (now the Abbess) and both sons provides the play's resolution.

Notable Quotations

"A heavier task could not have been imposed / Than I to speak my griefs unspeakable." *(1.1)*

"O, had the gods done so, I had not now / Worthily termed them merciless to us." *(5.1)*

Cross-references

• The Comedy of Errors — the play
• Comedies
• character_antipholus_of_syracuse — his searching son
• character_antipholus_of_ephesus — his other son, raised in Ephesus