And this is a lesson which I suspect you must have learnt out of Homer; for he, speaking of
Autolycus, the maternal grandfather of Odysseus, who is a favourite of his, affirms that
Then came the ghost of my dead mother Anticlea, daughter to
Autolycus. I had left her alive when I set out for Troy and was moved to tears when I saw her, but even so, for all my sorrow I would not let her come near the blood till I had asked my questions of Teiresias.
This helmet had been stolen by
Autolycus out of Eleon when he broke into the house of Amyntor son of Ormenus.
Longtime visitors of the Bristol Renaissance Faire who remember "Moonie the Magnif'Cent" will be pleased to see Philip Earl Johnson putting his many talents to use as
Autolycus, a thieving minstrel on the make.
Subsequently, Protea changes herself a second time to become the ghost of Ulysses, in which form she rescues her husband-to-be Petulius (seemingly a renamed version of
Autolycus from Metamorphoses 8) from a wily Siren.
This is crystallized in The Winter's Tale, where we see the cutpurse, rogue and ballad-seller
Autolycus's strategies of deceit, telling customers that his ballads are "very pitiful, and as true" (4.4.281).
Wittek first considers Shakespeare's treatment of
Autolycus, a ballad maker, in The Winter's Tale (1609-10).
Mike Hugo steals much of the second half as loveable rogue
Autolycus, who keeps the thread running through Bohemia and Sicily.
We are also introduced to the scapegrace
Autolycus, one of the few genuinely amusing comedy characters in Shakespeare.
When I got the Hercules script, I thought, 'When is the cruel villain on a horse going to turn up?' But when it was
Autolycus with wickedly sarcastic, funny lines, for me, it was exciting.
His band of travelling companions includes soothsayer Amphiaraus (Ian McShane), warrior
Autolycus (Rufus Sewell) and mute orphan Tydeus (Aksel Hennie).