Aristophanic comedy

RESUMO: Amparados pela perspectiva de gênero, objetivamos discutir a estreita ligação existente entre a comédia aristofânica, a pólis ateniense e o feminino, especificamente no que diz respeito às esposas legítimas. Ao nos debruçarmos sobre a leitura das peças Lisístrata (411 a.C.), As Tesmoforiantes (411 a.C.) e Assembleia de Mulheres (392 a.C.), encenadas no contexto da Guerra do Peloponeso e posterior à derrota de Atenas (404 a.C.), acreditamos que a esposa legítima foi representada como mantenedora da cidade ateniense, uma vez que percebemos a ênfase em sua importância cívica por ser considerada um veículo justo de crítica nas peças aristofânicas. Ao problematizar os acontecimentos e decisões políticas de seu tempo, o comediógrafo o fez inserindo mulheres ativas em suas peças, responsáveis por aconselhar seus maridos sobre aquilo que julgavam prejudicial à pólis. Pela lei da cidadania, promulgada por Péricles e vigente a partir de meados do V século a.C. (450 a.C.), eram essas mulheres que carregavam o compromisso de reproduzir cidadãos atenienses, contribuindo para a manutenção da lógica democrática clássica. No presente artigo, examinamos alguns indícios documentais de Assembleia de Mulheres que nos auxiliam a pensar o problema da participação feminina na Atenas Clássica, bem como as peças Os Acarnenses (425 a.C.), Os Cavaleiros (424) e Rãs (405 a.C.), as quais apontam a natureza crítica das comédias aristofânicas. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Grécia Clássica; Relações de gênero; Comédia; Esposas legítimas. ABSTRACT: Based on the gender perspective, I discuss the close relationship between the Aristophanic comedy, the Athenian polis and the feminine, specifically the figure of legitimate wives. A close reading of Lysistrata (411 BC), Thesmophoriazusae (411 BC) and Assemblywomen (392 BC), staged in the context of the Peloponnesian War and subsequent defeat of Athens (404 BC), suggests that the legitimate wife was represented as maintainer of the Athenian city, since there is an emphasis on her civic importance as vehicle of criticism in Aristophanes' plots. The playwright did it by inserting active women in his plots in order to question events and political decisions of his time. Aristophanes' female characters were responsible for advising their husbands on what they judged to be harmful to the polis. With the citizenship law, established by Pericles in the middle of the fifth century BC (450 BC), women became a critical element in the definition of citizenship alongside men, thus contributing to the maintenance of the classical

Edited by Philip Walsh, Washington College

Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Aristophanes provides a substantive account of the reception of Aristophanes (c. 446-386 BC) from Antiquity to the present. Aristophanes was the renowned master of Old Attic Comedy, a dramatic genre defined by its topical satire, high poetry, frank speech, and obscenity. Since their initial production in classical Athens, his comedies have fascinated, inspired, and repelled critics, readers, translators, and performers. The book includes seventeen chapters that explore the ways in which the plays of Aristophanes have been understood, appropriated, adapted, translated, taught, and staged. Careful attention has been given to critical moments of reception across temporal, linguistic, cultural, and national boundaries.

Peace is one of Aristophanes’ most poetically resonant comedies. This work provides an analysis of a paratragic feature hitherto almost neglected by scholars, the figure of Prometheus, especially as characterised in Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound. In his poetical and parodistic texture, Aristophanes uses some of Prometheus’ most evident peculiarities to describe Trygeus and Hermes, once he has accepted to join the Greeks in the release of Peace; the observation of the different uses that Aristophanes makes of this paradigm throughout the comedy helps to understand the progression of action and characterization in Peace.

Short paper written for Phillips Exeter Academy's Liber Classics Magazine Volume 2: Women. This paper briefly explores how the perceived message of Lysistrata has changed as the cultural context around the play has changed. Edited by Blane Zhu, Pepper Pieroni, Kevin Zhu, and Sophia Cho.

Este breve estudo comparativo das comédias de Aristófanes Os Cavaleiros e Os Acarnenses pretende abordar a forma pela qual política do representante democrático da Atenas do século V a.C. era vista por Aristófanes, tal como a crítica que o comediógrafo faz da situação política da pólis, tendo em consideração o alvo maior da crítica nas duas peças, o representante político Cléon.

This article examines Aristophanes’ Clouds within the framework of the ritual events of the Great Dionysia, drawing parallels between those events and various textual and performative aspects of the play. It is argued that scholarship to date has largely subordinated the play’s ritual aspects, examination of which reveals that in fact Aristophanes has crafted a vigorous
defense of polis religion against the ‘new thinking’ and ‘new gods’ represented by the play’s foil, Socrates.

Aristophanes’ oeuvre is inextricably tied to the life and the fate of his native city Athens. The history, the political issues, and the people of Athens have always provided the central themes of his comic fictions. Aristophanes opposed the Peloponnesian War from the beginning, partly because of his upper-class origins. At first glance, he adopted the viewpoint of the ordinary farmers and smallholders of Attica, who were severely afflicted by the war; his celebration of peace is closely connected with the pleasures of the countryside. In reality, Aristophanes himself probably belonged to an aristocratic family of rich landowners and shared the deep conservatism and the antipathy towards radical demagogy that were typical of his class. His description of rural life concentrates exclusively on the joyful and hedonistic aspects and omits the hard labours of agricultural work; this is the characteristic attitude of a man who enjoyed the countryside as a place of holiday.

Aristophanes is an enemy of extreme democracy and advocates a more moderate constitution, which should be ruled by well-educated aristocrats. He defends the conservative and oligarchic leaders of his time and mercilessly attacks the radical populist demagogues, such as Cleon and his collaborators. In the final years of the Peloponnesian War, he similarly criticized the disastrous Cleophon, who misled the people of Athens to fatally wrong decisions, resulting in the total defeat and humiliation of Athens.

Even the imaginary and utopian worlds, which Aristophanes constructs in his fantastic comedies, such as the aerial city of Nephelokokkygia in the Birds and the world of Hades in the Frogs, are created by analogy to the city and culture of Athens, as inverted or distorted mirror images of the Athenian polis. Nephelokokkygia, an autonomous creation of fantasy, also serves as a kind of open and holistic parable of the unquenchable imperialistic ambition of Athens at the time of the Sicilian expedition. The underworld of the Frogs replicates the pessimistic atmosphere of the besieged Athens, a city on the verge of disaster, in which death prevails. Only the rituals of the Eleusinian Mysteries provide a source of joy and a hope of salvation in this brilliant and profoundly bitter play.

A close reading of three Aristophanic scenes in which non-elite Athenian citizen characters confront one another in ways which highlight issues relating to the operation of Athenian democratic social values. The analysis teases out an intricate comic interplay between foreground absurdism and background realism.

This is a comparison of Agathon’s role in Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazusae and Plato’s Symposium. Firstly, I examine the Platonic version, and the unique, idiosyncratic part Plato gives Agathon to play, as a host to all, and a hostage to Socrates. Secondly, I discuss his interaction with Inlaw, the ordinary Athenian, in Aristophanes’ play. Such parallel reading allows us not only to refine our outlook on the dramatic construction both of the “talking party” and of the comic performance, but also to capture how really poikilos, for better or worse, that urban love could be. Finally, I analyze the significance of this juxtaposition, as an intertext. Plato, I argue, produces a proper palinode of Agathon, as an erotikos and a mimetic poet. By taking seriously the face-to-face between Agathon and Agathon, two dissonant and yet compatible variations on one man, our picture of Athenian erotic culture emerges sharper, and in greater detail. 
Key words:
Eros, sensuality, praise, blame, softness, manliness, effeminacy, body, language.

Michel'Angelo Giacomelli (1695-1774), Archbishop of Chalcedon, editor of pagan and Christian authors and friend of J.J. Winckelmann, began work in the early 1750s on an annotated verse translation of Aristophanes' Lysistrata, which was followed by one of Ecclesiazusae (Le Arringatrici).  A fair copy of both was prepared for the press by Vincenzo Cavazzi, but publication was hindered by the obscenities in both translations, inappropriate for an ecclesiastic.  Giacomelli added translations of Thesmophoriazusae (Festeggianti Cerere) and of Frogs (Ranocchie: 1-315 only) to his own manuscript, but kept it to himself until 1772 when, assailed by conscientious scruples, he thought of destroying it but was dissuaded by the Jesuits of the Collegio Romano.  In 1773 the manuscript, as dangerous as innovative, fell into the hands of Cardinal Francisco Saverio de Zelada, who, in 1773, on the orders of Pope Clement XIV, proceeded with the dismantling of the Society of Jesus. Since, in previous years, Giacomelli had been an open supporter of the Jesuits, the manuscript became a real weapon of blackmail. Giacomelli's autograph has been rediscovered by the author of this monograph in the Biblioteca Capitular of Toledo (ms. BCT 105-14), so as he rediscovered Cavazzi's copy is in the University Library of Bologna (ms. BUB 3566).  Giacomelli's translation – the oldest in Italian, except for that of the brothers Rositini – is noteworthy for its deliberate concentration on the highly obscene "women's plays" and for the uncensored rendering of down-to-earth expressions, in contrast with other contemporary modern-language translations, which were expurgated and usually limited to the more "moral" plays, Wealth and Clouds.  Its language is Tuscan, free from the rigid dictates of the Accademia della Crusca and full of literary reminiscences, especially of Boccaccio. An unknown chapter in the history of classical studies that sheds light on eighteenth-century Rome, its cultural environments and on those who, for better or for worse, were their undisputed protagonists. This second volume contains the editio princeps of Giacomelli's Lisistrata (the first of four annotated translations of Aristophanes present in the ms. BCT 105-14), the original Greek text from Ludolph Küster's edition (the one followed by Giacomelli himself), the apparatus criticus, and a full explanatory commentary, in which the author,  by discussing the main problems of Aristophanes' text, creates a bridge between the positions of the eighteenth-century philology and those of today's research on Aristophanes.

Basing on Wilson’s edition (Aristophanis Fabulae, Oxford, 2007) the paper analyzes Ecclesiazusae’s prologue in order to identify the ethe of anonimous characters and the dramatic function of the koryphaios. Accordingly some lines are assigned to different characters than the last editions.

Solón considera que los actos injustos y la rapiña de los δήμου ἡγεμόνες provocan un ἕλκος en la ciudad (4.17, West). Esta metáfora subyace a la analogía cuerpo/πόλις, en la medida en que el conflicto político es caracterizado como una herida o enfermedad del cuerpo cívico y la causa radicaría en una pérdida del equilibrio y la armonía (Hope & Marshall, 2000:3-4).  Reproduciendo el mismo tópico, Aristófanes se vale de esta metáfora para dar cuenta del malestar de la ciudad causado por el demagogo Cleón. Mientras Dêmos siente pasión por la Síbila (Eq.61) y es el ἐρὠμενος (Eq.736) de Paflagonio-Cleón, es decir, el factor pasivo de una relación homosexual con el político, Filocleón sufre una νόσος (V. 71, 87) que, según Taillardat (1965: §307), es “toda pasión que se vuelve locura”. Por otra parte, Trigeo sufre una μανία (P.54), distinta de la los demás al increpar a Zeus por la guerra. Tanto la sexualidad pasiva como la locura son marcas de exclusión del cuerpo cívico, por lo que esta situación pone en riesgo la pertenencia de Dêmos y Filocleón al conjunto del δῆμος.
El objetivo del presente trabajo es analizar cómo opera este tópico en relación al conflicto político en las obras de Aristófanes y cómo éste, a su vez, se relaciona con las figuras que ponen en peligro la democracia.

This thesis is an analysis of the performance reception of Aristophanes’ Frogs across the English-speaking world; in which I include Britain, North America, Africa and Australasia. It will draw on the growing trend of performance reception as a branch of Classical Reception, approaching the material from both a classical and dramatic outlook.

Following an introduction which outlines the methodology, models and background literature, Chapter One outlines the academic reception of the play in the 20th and 21st centuries, drawing out key themes that have been interpreted as being within the play. Chapter Two discusses transmission and translation of the play, following the manuscript’s journey from ancient Athens to modern day English translations. Chapter Three discusses reflections on the play, that is other plays that are not direct adaptations, but can be seen to have been influenced by it in some way. Chapters Four, Five, Six and Seven focus on the theatrical reception of the play, divided geographically. Chapter three therefore focuses on Britain, chapter four North America and chapter six Africa and Australasia. Chapter five focuses solely on the most influential and high-profile adaptation, the 2004 Broadway version with music by Stephen Sondheim. These chapters draw patterns throughout the performance reception, both within individual geographical areas and across the thesis as a whole. Trends include politics, staging, music and the
pedagogical interest in performing Frogs.

The thesis will conclude with a short conclusion reiterating the general themes and trends seen throughout.

“La Favola in Aristofane” è la prima monografia espressamente dedicata allo studio dei testi favolistici presenti nelle commedie di Aristofane, principale esponente della commedia greca archaia e tra i maggiori drammaturghi di tutti i tempi.
Nella prima parte, l’autore focalizza la propria attenzione anzitutto sulla figura di Esopo, il favolista per antonomasia della letteratura greca, che Aristofane menziona in diverse occasioni e al quale si richiama sia in qualità di logopoiós, “creatore di favole”, che, più in generale, di sophós, “sapiente”, sulla base di una leggenda ‘biografica’ nota almeno a partire da Erodoto; analizza quindi le favole esopiche citate da Aristofane, indagandone funzioni e modalità di utilizzo nei drammi del commediografo.
La seconda parte è incentrata sulla disamina dei due mythoi, “favole” di creazione aristofanea, che compaiono nella Lisistrata, dedicati a Melanione e Timone.
Il volume si conclude con un’appendice dedicata alle storie sibaritiche delle Vespe, genere narrativo che presenta diverse affinità con la favola.

Este artículo tiene como objetivo presentar los avances de un trabajo de investigación sobre los diferentes tipos de referencias a la tragedia presentes en las comedias de Aristófanes. Para realizar dicho estudio, se ha partido de una clasificación, satisfactoria solo para fines prácticos, de este amplio y variado conjunto de alusiones y menciones. Específicamente, nos centraremos en la categoría que contempla escenas o episodios donde la acción dramática de una comedia se corresponde con la de una escena trágica.

This paper aims to critically analyse the testimonies concerning Athenian impiety trials of the classical period. First, it reaffirms the arguments that some of them must have been an invention of Hellenistic and later authors. Second, it presents a likely political background behind the historical cases. Third, it discusses a number of legal issues, along with new arguments concerning the procedures employed. Finally, it examines some less well-known material from the fourth century BCE. Overall, it seeks to provide a possibly coherent and comprehensive framework of Athenian impiety trials based on their shared characteristics.

Study of Kinesias, the Athenian "New Dithyrambist" often satirized by the Old Comic poets; in particular I examine the intersection of New Dithyramb and pre-Socratic philosophy, and the allegation that Kinesias "defecated on the Hekataia". Pre-print PDF, in proceedings of conference organized by A. Gostoli: Gli agoni poetico-musicali nella Grecia antica: Storia, religione, letteratura, Convegno Internazionale di Studi, Università degli Studi di Perugia Dipartimento di Lettere-Lingue, Letterature e Civiltà antiche e moderne October 27–29, 2015.

Abstract
In the fifth and fourth century BC in Athens, old age did not confer automatically respect and authority, in fact, an old person's worth was based on one's ability to remain a functioning member of society. The cultural script of ageing was determined by biological changes in the body, but also by a social construct influenced by intellectual, economic and political considerations. Furthermore attitudes towards old age like gender and ethnicity reflected the habit in Greek culture of dividing the world into mutually exclusive categories, in this case youth versus old age.
Aristophanes presents in his comedies irascible and randy old men in situations that inspired ridicule and derision. These characters can be seen to represent existing anxieties in public life (polis) and in the private sphere (oikos) in classical Athens. The grotesque portrayal of old men as stock characters in Old Comedy continued into the fourth century's New Comedy as portrayed in the plays by Menander.
This paper examines the historical context of Old Comedy, the role of costumes and masks in theatrical performances, the role of the audience, and the importance of the concept of self-control and courage in the definition of manliness in young and old men. It investigates the ideal behaviour expected from the elderly and its importance and in the public sphere and in the household. It also discusses the consequences of wars and poverty on older people and how their theatrical characters came to epitomise dispossessed social groups such as the farming community and war veterans. In the comedies the concept of old age was also interpreted differently by aristocratic and democratic citizens.
In addition, this paper explores the social, legal and financial consequences incurred when this model was transgressed. To understand these tensions and anxieties this paper researches literary sources, such as Old and New Comedy, philosophical treatises together with archaeological artefacts. It argues that older people behaving in a transgressive manner, without moderation (sophrosune), suscitated among the younger generation contempt together with fear of loss of reputation, wealth and household stability. It also argues that older people were fearful of social marginalisation in the public sphere together with loss of physical and financial security at the hand of the younger generation. This paper concludes that the representation of mental and physical disabilities of older people together with the theme of rejuvenation in Aristophanic Old Comedy, constitute Athenian social, cultural and political allegories.

(English below)
Resumen. El presente artículo examina las diversas referencias a fiestas dionisíacas atenienses que se encuentran diseminadas en las Ranas de Aristófanes, con el fin de establecer la función que realizan y cómo contribuyen a perfilar la personalidad de Dioniso, el protagonista de dicha obra. Las Leneas son aludidas por ser la fiesta en la que se estrenó la comedia, y las Antesterias porque abrían temporalmente el mundo de los muertos, lo que es apropiado en un viaje al Más Allá como el que se pone en escena. Se analizan también varias referencias a los Misterios de Eleusis en la párodo, ya que muchos autores han visto en Yaco una epiclesis de Dioniso. El estudio de los himnos a Yaco en la párodo y de varios paralelos de la época permite asegurar que no está identificado con Dioniso, sino que es un dios eleusinio. Se concluye que las menciones de las fiestas dionisíacas tratan de enfatizar la faceta cívica del dios y su patronazgo del teatro, una institución vital para enardecer a los atenienses en un momento de grave crisis como el final de la Guerra del Peloponeso.

Abstract. This article examines the various references to Athenian Dionysian festivals that are scattered throughout Aristophanes’ Frogs, in order to establish the function they perform and how they contribute to shaping the personality of Dionysus, the play’s protagonist. The Lenaia are alluded to as the festival on which the comedy premiered, and the Anthesteria because they temporarily opened the world of the dead, which is appropriate in a journey to the Afterlife such as the one staged. Several references to the Eleusinian Mysteries are also discussed in the parodos, as many authors have seen in Iacchus an epiclesis of Dionysus. The study of the hymns to Iacchus in the parodos and of several parallels of the period makes it possible to ascertain that he is not identified with Dionysus, but that he is an Eleusinian god. It is concluded that the mentions of the Dionysian festivals are intended to emphasize the civic aspect of the god and his patronage of the theatre, a vital institution for enlivening the Athenians at a time of serious crisis such as the end of the Peloponnesian War.

Αντικείμενο της μελέτης μας αποτελεί η προσέγγιση του αριστοφανικού έργου από μια εντελώς ιδιάζουσα οπτική. Δε θα μας απασχολήσει δηλαδή η φύση και λειτουργία του κωμικού ή η τυπολογία των ηρώων του αντικείμενα άλλωστε για τα οποία υπάρχουν ιδιαίτερα εύστοχες αναλύσεις (Thiercy) Ι986). Δε θα αναφερθούμε ακόμα στον ιστορικό και κοινωνικό περίγυρο που δημιούργησε τις κωμωδίες του(Ευελπίδης: 1962) ούτε στην αποδοχή του από το κοινό της Αθήνας του 5ου και 4ου Π.χ. αιώνα (Conford: 1972 Dover: Ι978) Δε θα θίξoυμε τέλος τα ποικίλα προβλήματα σκηνικής απόδοσης του Αριστοφάνη στη σύγχρονη εποχή θέμα που απασχολεί έντονα θεωρητικούς και πρακτικούς του θεάτρου.

Μερικά νέα στοιχεία πάνω στην κατασυκοφαντημένη παράσταση των Εκκλησιαζουσών του 1904 στη Νέα Σκηνή του Κωνσταντίνου Χρηστομάνου. Το άρθρο θέτει υπό αμφισβήτηση την άποψη ότι η παράσταση αποτελεί χαρακτηριστικό δείγμα μιας περιόδου καλλιτεχνικού εκτροχιασμού της Νέας Σκηνής. Η πληρότητα του σκηνοθετικού οράματος και η συστοιχία καινοτομιών στη συγκεκριμένη παράσταση προδίδουν ένα ενιαίο όραμα του σκηνοθέτη για τα τρία αρχαία δράματα που πρόλαβε να σκηνοθετήσει στο θίασό του και μας καλούν να επανεξετάσουμε τη θέση της παράστασης στην πορεία διαμόρφωσης της Αριστοφανικής συνταγής ανεβάσματος που επικράτησε στο ελληνικό θέατρο κατά το μεγαλύτερο μέρος του 20ού αιώνα.

Abstract
The scholia to Plutus state that lines 290-301 are a parody of Philoxenos of Cythera’s Cyclops, from which Aristophanes allegedly took some literal quotes. This is the ancient interpretation, but it's possible to argue that the shepherd’s bag and the wild herbs (l. 298) are sexual metaphors that have escaped notice by scholars.

Gli scolî al Pluto affermano che i versi 290-301 sono una parodia del Ciclope di Filosseno di Citera, da cui Aristofane avrebbe tratto diverse citazioni letterali. Questa è l'interpretazione antica, ma è possibile sostenere che la a sacca di cuoio e le erbe selvatiche (v. 298) sono metafore sessuali passate finora inosservate agli studiosi.

Con la sua fantasia inesauribile, Aristofane è senza dubbio uno dei veri inventori del teatro europeo. Ma proprio la fantasia esplosiva di Aristofane ha impedito per molto tempo alla critica di considerare la sua produzione alla stregua di quella di autori ritenuti più seri e drammaturgicamente inquadrati. Questo studio si propone di offrire una nuova prospettiva sulla tecnica teatrale di Aristofane, a partire da un’indagine della gestione dello spazio scenico nelle sue commedie: non tanto una ricostruzione della messa in scena, ma un’interpretazione in chiave semiotica della creazione, diegetica e mimetica, dello spazio in cui si muove l’azione teatrale. Tramite una prospettiva aperta e comparata, il libro offre una nuova lettura di tutte le commedie superstiti, e una riconsiderazione complessiva e radicale del teatro di Aristofane: un teatro fondato interamente sullo scontro fra identità e poteri contrapposti, innescato dalla miccia formidabile dell’eroismo comico, capace di stravolgere, inventare e dominare.