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Aristophanes
- 1. Aristophanes By, John Fiore
- 2. Early Life - Helived from 446 B.C.- 386 B.C. in Athens as the son of Philippus- a landowner in Aegina. - Of all the writers of “Old Comedy,” only his works remain. - Other comics such as Magnes, Cratinus, and Crates works were lost. - He was the greatest comic writer of his day and age in 5th century B.C. - Not much is known about his life, however it is known he came from a wealthy family and received an excellent education. - Only eleven of his forty-three plays have survived till today.
- 3. His Age ofComedy - When he began writing his comedies democracy was crumbling in Greece. - People were tired on the Peloponnesian War and were grieving the loss of Pericles. - This would set Aristophanes’ tone for his comedies throughout his life as those of apprehension and grief. - His first two comedies, The Banqueters and The Babylonians have been lost. - These plays were criticising war profiteers, more specifically Cleon, the succesor of Pericles. - First surviving play was called The Acharnians, written during the sixth year of the war and was the world’s first anti-war comedy. - It was inspired by the suffering people of Attica surrounding Athens that was exposed to war. - The plot was based on a farmer, Dicaeopolis, who was tired of war, and sets out to make a secret peace with the Spartans. - His fellow citizens called him a traitor, and he was forced to plead for his life.
- 4. Structure - In hisplays, Aristophanes uses the effect of iambic hexameter. - By using this he achieves an effect resembling natural speech. - His realistic use of metre makes it ideal for both dialogue and soliloquy, for example, before the arrival of the chorus when the audience is introduced to the main issues in the plot. - The Acharnians opens with these three lines by the hero Dicaeopolis: How many are the things that vex my heart! Pleasures are few, so very few - just four - But stressful things are manysandthousandsandheaps! - This is a device that he freuqently uses, arranging the syntax so that the final word in a line comes as a comic climax. - The final word is an example of another device uses called invented compound words.
- 5. His Attacks OnCleon - Cleon possibly took legal action against Aristophanes after his third comedy was written saying it was slander against the polis. - However, in his comedy, Aristophanes distinguishes between the polis and his real target, Cleon: ἡμῶν γὰρ ἄνδρες, κοὐχὶ τὴν πόλιν λέγω, μέμνησθε τοῦθ᾽ ὅτι οὐχὶ τὴν πόλιν λέγω, ἀλλ᾽ ἀνδράρια μοχθηρά, παρακεκομμένα... People among us, and I don't mean the polis, Remember this - I don't mean the polis - But wicked little men of a counterfeit kind.... - Aristophanes repeatedly mocks Cleon in his later plays, but they had little effect on his political career as he was later elected to the board of ten generals.
- 6. His Plays - Inhis next play, The Knights, Aristophanes again bashed Cleon using satire. - He could not find an actor to play the role of Cleon because his power was so great at the time and nobody dared to impersonate him. - Aristophanes played this role himself, which no comic had doen before. - He smeared his face with wine dregs mocking Cleon’s reputation as a alcoholic. - The people of Athens were quick to recognize this as their tyrannical leader and although the play had no real political effect, it won first prize at a festival.
- 7. The Clouds - Hisplays were not always mocking political figures and he often made his sharpest attacks on cultural figures. - In, The Clouds, he discusses the great thinker Socrates. - The story revolves around an old man named Strepsiades who was in debt because of his son’s gambling problem. - Desperate to gain his fortune back, he enrolls ins Socrates’ Thinking Shop in order to confute his creditors with logic. - On the day of his first lessons, he finds Socrates sitting in a suspended basket contemplating the sun. -He was confused by this and decided to have his son educated instead. - This play was summed up as an attack on the new spirit of intellectual inquiry and culture.
- 8. The Wasps - Thiscomedy is a satire of the deteriation of Athens, which was one of his favorite themes. - Philocleon, a follower of Cleon, becomes so addicted to courtroom drama that he has to be confined to his house by his son. - He becomes so desperate to escape and get back to the courtroom cases that he tries to escape through as chimney and gets stuck. - He is eventually rescued by his fellow jurors who appear to help him as a swarm of wasps. - This quotes underlies one of the main themes in his play: “Hunger knows no friend but its feeder.”
- 9. The Frogs - Inhis play, The Frogs, he attacked his favorite target, the tragic poet Euripides. - In the play, Dionysus becomes annoyed that there is no major dramatist on stage and wishes to bring Euripides back to life. - He dresses as Hercules and goes to the underworld to beg Pluto to allow Euripides to return with him back to Athens. - However the great warrior-poet Aeschylus is not convinced that Euripides is the best choice to bring back from the dead. - The literary duel that follows is one of the most remarkable parodies in dramatic literature.
- 10. Later Life - Aristophaneswrote other plays one in particular called, The Peace, which sums up the treaty between Athens and Sparta. - His later plays moved back to politics but he soon gave up on them as they had no effect on current politics. - It would be nineteen years before who wrote another play about politics and by that time it became too dangerous to make a direct attack on leaders. - Three years after Socrates was put to death, Aristophanes passed away.
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