ARISTOPHANES

(c.448 BC - c.385BC)

BACKGROUND

• little known
• friend to Socrates & Plato
• mentioned in Aristotle's Poetics
• appears as character in Plato's Symposium
• Born:
  • where? perhaps in Athens
  • when? (450-445)
• Family:
  • father =
    • Philippos
    • Athenian citizen
  • probably wealthy
  • due to his evidenced education
  • well versed in literature

    • esp. Homer (8th century BC)

• Athens:

  • along w/Sparta, leading political power

  • center of artistic & intellectual/philosophical development
• Playwrighting:
  • began submitting works to the annual religious festivals
    • the Lynaea & the City Dionysia
    • held in honor of Dionysus
    • (Greek god of music, poetry, fertility)
  • by 17-23 years of age
  • The Banqueters and The Babylonians
    • both from 426 BC & both lost
    • won second & first place, respectively
  • wit, mild humor, "attacks" on politicians
  • taken to court but due to mildness of wit, not severe
• The Knights wins first place
• The Peloponnesian War:
  • (431–404 BC)
  • between Athens and the Spartans
  • alliances
    • Athenian League = northern & eastern shores of Aegean
    • Peloponnesian Alliance (Peloponnese Region of southern Greece) = led by Sparta, central Greece, Corinth (naval)
  • strengths:
    • Athens = naval (triremes)
    • Sparta = land
  • 421-415:  Peace of Nicias (6-yr. peace)
  • 405: destruction of Athenian navy at Aegospotami
  • 404: blockade --> burned crops --> starvation --> surrender

BACKGROUND

• City Dionysia:
  • religious festival held in honor of Dionysus
    • Greek god of wine, fertility, agriculture
    • patron of music, poetry
    • son of Zeus & Semele
    • duality -
      • brings joy, ecstasy
      • brings brutal, unthinking rage
      • (like wine intoxication)
    • rites -
      • wild parties
      • religious ecstasies
      • orgies
      • (in woods, not temples)
  • spring festival
    • when leaves reappear on vines
  • drama competition
    • tragedies
    • comedies
  • 1st comedies performed at City Dionysia -
    • @ 490 BC
    • (at the Lynaea = @ 450 BC)
  • "dithyramb"
    • a song sung in honor of Dionysus
  • "komoidia"
    • Greek word for "comedy"
    • "kōmos" + "ōdē"
    • "revel" + "song"
    • festival had procession of singers & dancers (revelers)
    • bearing phallic symbol
    • (Dionysus as god of fertility)
  • comedic structure:
    • prologos (prologue)
    • parados (entry of the chorus)
    • argon (debate)
    • parabasis ('coming forward' of the chorus leader)
    • episodia (episodes)
    • exodus (final scene)
    • cordax (riotous dance- optional)

COMEDY

OLD COMEDY:

• (450-404)
• (Pericles to end of P. War)
• no restrictions
  • licentiousness
  • (anything goes)
• yet for refined culture:
  • borrows from Tragedy
  • poetry
  • heightened use of language
  • chorus
  • masked actors
  • scenery & staging
  • machinery
  • -->
  • Pantagruelism: 
    • comedy w/a serious purpose
    • dealing w/serious matters in a comical way
    • (from Rabelais' character)
• personal attacks, vilification
• dramatic mixture of
  • fantasy, satire, slapstick, bawdry
• mime, chorus, & burlesque
• caricature & lampooning
• Aristophanes
• stock characters:
  • lovers
  • cruel father
  • cunning slave
  • wily merchant
  • braggart soldier
• OLD vs. OTHER Comedies:
  • more domestic
  • more specific
  • personal attacks of public figures
    • political, religious, literary, philosophical

 COMEDY

• MIDDLE COMEDY:
  • (@ 404-320)
  • no chorus
  • no portrayal of public characters
  • no personal objects of ridicule
    • classes of people, not people
      • courtesans, parasites, revelers,
      • the self-conceited cook
    • general, not personal
    • literary & social faults, not political
    • satirize
  • criticism & review

• NEW COMEDY:
  • (@320-260 BC)
  • post-Peloponnesian War
    • disease, starvation
    • defeat, surrender
    • Spartans in control
    • --> depressed mood, dispiritedness
    • --> no tolerance for political satire
  • disillusionment, moral ambiguity
  • Menander
  • OLD vs. NEW:
    • OLD - the no-holds-barred rudeness
    • NEW - replaced by a more cautious, refined, and less spirited comedy
  • quite similar to Middle Comedy
    • mercenary soldier = development; big wallet & big mouth
  • influence on Roman Comedy
    • Plautus
    • Terence
    • (who translated & adapted Greek works)

STYLE

• comedy
  • earliest surviving
  • his plays = only extant copies of Greek Old Comedy (OL)
  • only 11 of 40 survive
• satire
• sardonic criticisms of
  • human foibles
  • religion, law
  • education
  • aristocracy
  • rules (Cleon in The Knights, 424, 1st prize)
  • philosophy (the Sophists in The Clouds, 423)
  • courts (jury system in The Wasps, 422)
  • Athenian society (The Birds, 414)
  • war (Lysistrata, 411)
  • other poets/playwrights (Euripides in Women Celebrating the Thesmophoria, 411, The Frogs)
  • drama (The Frogs, 405)
  • utopian visions (i.e. Plato's Republic in Women in Council, 392)
• insight into 5th-century BC Athens social & political life
  • Republic in decline
    • corruption
    • war
    • human foibles
    • debauchery

 STYLE

• poetic-drama:
  • drama w/poetry
  • rhythmic poetry
• comedy:
  • wit
  • satire
  • ridicule
  • farce
  • use of language
• scabrous:
  • scandalous, salacious
  • double entendre
  • bawdiness, bawdry
• women as leads:
  • Lysistrata
  • Ecclesiazusae (Women in Council/at Parliament)
  • Thesmophoriazusae
• 3 periods:
  • 424-421 BC
  • 414-405 BC (after law curbing political satires)
  • 405 BC
• Literary Criticism
  • The Frogs = 1st work of literary criticism
  • pre-dates Aristotle