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ARISTOPHANES (c. 448–385 B.e.1)
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See also:ARISTOPHANES (c. 448–385 B.e.1) , the See also:great comic dramatist and poet of See also:Athens. His See also:birth-See also:year is uncertain. He is known to have been about the same See also:age as See also:Eupolis, and is said to have been " almost a boy " when his first See also:comedy (The Banqueters) was brought out in 427 B.C. His See also:father See also:Philippus was a See also:land-owner in See also:Aegina. Aristophanes was an Athenian See also:citizen of the tribe Pandionis, and the deme Cydathene. The stories which made him a native of Camirus in See also:Rhodes; or of the See also:Egyptian See also:Naucratis, had probably no other See also:foundation than an See also:indictment for usur= pation of civic rights (Eevias ypa ) which appears to have been more than once laid against him by See also:Cleon. His three sons—Philippus, Araros and Nicostratus—were all comic poets. Philippus, the eldest, was a See also:rival of See also:Eubulus, who began to exhibit in 376 B.C. Araros brought out two of his father's latest comedies—the Cocalus and the Aeolosicon, and in 375 began to exhibit See also:works of his own. Nicostratus, the youngest, is assigned by See also:Athenaeus to the See also:Middle Comedy, but belongs, as is shown by some of the names and characters of his pieces, to the New Comedy also. Although tragedy and comedy had their See also:common origin in the festivals of See also:Dionysus, the See also:regular See also:establishment of tragedy at Athens preceded by See also:half a See also:century that of comedy. The Old Comedy may be said to have lasted about eighty years (470—390 B.c.), and to have flourished about fifty-six (46o—404 B.C.). Of the See also:forty poets who are named as having illustrated it the See also:chief were See also:Cratinus, Eupolis and Aristophanes. The Middle Comedy covers a See also:period of about seventy years (390–320 B.C.), its chief poets being See also:Antiphanes, See also:Alexis, See also:Theopompus and Strattis. The New Comedy was in vigour for about seventy years (320–250 B.c.), having for its foremost representatives See also:Menander, See also:Philemon and See also:Diphilus. The Old Comedy was possible only for a thorough See also:democracy. Its essence was a satirical censorship, unsparing in personalities, of public and of private life—of morality, of statesmanship, of See also:education, of literature, of social usage—in a word, of everything which had an See also:interest for the See also:city or which could amuse the citizens. Preserving all the freedom of banter and of riotous fun to which its origin gave it an See also:historical right, it aimed at associating with this a strong See also:practical purpose—the expression of a democratic public See also:opinion in such a See also:form that no misconduct or folly could altogether disregard it. That licentiousness, that grossness of allusion which too often disfigures it, was, it should be remembered, exacted by the sentiment of the Dionysiac festivals, as much as a decorous cheerfulness is expected at the See also:holiday times of other worships. This was the popular See also:element. Without this the entertainment would have been found See also:flat and unseasonable. But for a comic poet of the higher calibre the consciousness of a recognized See also:power which he could exert, and the See also:desire to use this power for the See also:good of the city, must always have been the uppermost feelings. At Athens the poet of the Old Comedy had an See also:influence analogous, perhaps, rather to that of the journalist than to that of the See also:modern dramatist. But the established type of Dionysiac comedy gave him an See also:instrument such as no public satirist has ever wielded. When See also:Moliere wished to See also:brand See also:hypocrisy he could only make his Tartuffe the central figure of a regular See also:drama, See also:developed by a regular See also:process to a just See also:catastrophe. He had no choice between touching too lightly and using sustained force to make a profound impression. The Athenian dramatist of the Old Comedy worked under no such limitations '[The See also:dates in the See also:text, as given by See also:Jebb, are retained. According to R. G. See also:Kent, Classical See also:Review (See also:April 1905, April 1906), Aristophanes was See also:born in 455, and died in 375 B.C.]of form. The wildest flights of extravagance were permitted to him. Nothing See also:bound him to a dangerous emphasis or a wearisome insistence. He could See also:deal the keenest thrust, or make the most See also:earnest See also:appeal, and at the next moment—if his See also:instinct told him that it was See also:time to See also:change the subject—vary the serious See also:strain by See also:burlesque. He had, in See also:short, an incomparable See also:scope for trenchant See also:satire directed by sure tact. Aristophanes is for us the representative of the Old Comedy. But his See also:genius, while it includes, also transcends the genius of the Old Comedy. He can denounce the frauds of a Cleon, he can vindicate the See also:duty of Athens to herself and to her See also:allies, with a stinging scorn and a force of patriotic indignation which makes the poet almost forgotten in the citizen. He can banter See also:Euripides with an ingenuity of See also:light mockery which makes it seem for the time as if the leading Aristophanic trait was the See also:art of seeing all things from their prosaic See also:side. Yet it is neither in the denunciation nor in the mockery that he is most individual. His truest and highest See also:faculty is revealed by those wonderful bits of lyric See also:writing in which he soars above everything that can move See also:laughter or tears, and makes the clear See also:air thrill with the notes of a See also:song as See also:free, as musical and as See also:wild as that of the See also:nightingale invoked by his own See also:chorus in the Birds. The speech of Dikaios See also:Logos in the Clouds, the praises of See also:country See also:life in the See also:Peace, the See also:serenade in the Ecclesiazusae, the songs of the Spartan and Athenian maidens in the Lysistrata, above all, perhaps, the chorus in the Frogs, the beautiful See also:chant of the Initiated,—these passages, and such as these, are the true glories of Aristophanes. They are the strains, not of an artist, but of one who warbles for pure gladness of See also:heart in some See also:place made See also:bright by the presence of a See also:god. Nothing else in See also:Greek See also:poetry has quite this wild sweetness of the See also:woods. Of modern poets See also:Shakespeare alone, perhaps, has it in See also:combination with a like richness and fertility of See also:fancy. Fifty-four2 comedies were ascribed to Aristophanes. Forty-three of these are allowed as genuine by See also:Bergk. Eleven only are extant. These eleven form a See also:running commentary on the See also:outer and the inner life of Athens during See also:thirty-six years. They may be ranged under three periods. The first, extending to 420 B.C., includes those plays in which Aristophanes uses an absolutely unrestrained freedom of See also:political satire. The second ends with the year 405. Its productions are distinguished from those of the earlier time by a certain degree of reticence and caution. The third period, down to 388 B.c., comprises two plays in which the transition to the See also:character of the Middle Comedy is well marked, not merely by disuse of the parabasis, but by See also:general self-See also:restraint. I. First Period. (1) 425 B.C. The Acharnians.—Since the defeat in See also:Boeotia the peace party at Athens had gained ground, and in this See also:play Aristophanes seeks to strengthen their hands. Dicaeopolis, an honest countryman, is determined to make peace with See also:Sparta on his own See also:account, not deterred by the angry men of Acharnae, who crave vengeance for the devastation of their vineyards. He sends to Sparta for samples of peace; and he is so much pleased with the flavour of the Thirty Years' See also:sample that he at once concludes a treaty for himself and his See also:family. All the blessings of life descend on him; while Lamachus, the See also:leader of the See also:war party, is smarting from See also:cold, See also:snow and wounds. (2) 424 B.C. The Knights.—Three years before, in his Babylonians, Aristophanes had assailed Cleon as the typical See also:demagogue. In this play he continues the attack. The Demos, or See also:State, is represented by an old See also:man who has put himself and his See also:household into the hands of a rascally Paphlagonian steward. See also:Nicias and See also:Demosthenes, slaves of Demos, contrive that the Paphlagonian shall be supplanted in their See also:master's favour by a sausage-seller. No sooner has Demos been thus rescued than his youthfulness and his good sense return together. (3) 423 B.C. The Clouds (the first edition; a second edition was brought out in 422 B.c.).—This play would be correctly described as an attack on the new spirit of intellectual inquiry and culture rather than on a school or class. Two classes of 2 [Or " forty-four " (See also:reading p1' for 4' in Suidas).l thinkers or teachers are, however, specially satirized under the general name of " Sophist " (v. 331)—r. The See also:Physical Philosophers—indicated by allusions to the doctrines of Anaxagoras, Heraclitus and See also:Diogenes of See also:Apollonia. 2. The professed teachers of See also:rhetoric, belles lettres, &c., such as See also:Protagoras and Prodicus. See also:Socrates is taken as the type of the entire tendency. A youth named Pheidippides—obviously meant for See also:Alcibiades —is sent by his father to Socrates to be cured of his dissolute propensities. Under the discipline of Socrates the youth becomes accomplished in dishonesty and impiety. The conclusion of the play shows the indignant father preparing to See also:burn up the philosopher and his See also: In the second half of the play a change comes over the See also:dream of Philocleon; from litigation he turns to literature and See also:music, and is congratulated by the chorus on his happy See also:conversion. (5) 421 B.C.' The Peace.—In its advocacy of peace with Sparta, this play, acted at the Great See also:Dionysia shortly before the conclusion of the treaty, continues the purpose of the Acharnians. Trygaeus, a distressed Athenian, soars to the See also:sky on a See also:beetle's back. There he finds the gods engaged in pounding the Greek states in a See also:mortar. In See also:order to stop this, he frees the goddess Peace from a well in which she is imprisoned. The pestle and mortar are laid aside by the gods, and Trygaeus marries one of the handmaids of Peace. II. Second Period. (6) 414 B.C. The Birds.—Peisthetaerus, an enterprising Athenian, and his friend Euelpides persuade the birds to build a city—" See also:Cloud-See also:Cuckoo-See also:borough "—in See also:mid-air, so as to cut off the gods from men. The See also:plan succeeds; the gods send envoys to treat with the birds; and Peisthetaerus marries Basileia, daughter of See also:Zeus. Some have found in the Birds a See also:complete historical See also:allegory of the Sicilian expedition; others, a general satire on the prevalence at Athens of See also:head-strong caprice over law and order; others, merely an aspiration towards a new and purified Athens—a dream to which the poet had turned from his See also:hope for a revival of the Athens of the past. In another view, the piece is mainly a protest against the religious fanaticism which the incident of the See also:Hermae had called forth. (7) 411 B.C. The Lysistrata.—This play was brought out during the earlier stages of those intrigues which led to the revolution of the Four See also:Hundred. It appeared shortly before See also:Peisander had arrived in Athens from the See also:camp at See also:Samos for the purpose of organizing the oligarchic policy. The Lysistrata expresses the popular desire for peace at any cost. As the men can do nothing, the See also:women take the question into their own hands, occupy the citadel, and bring the citizens to surrender. (8) 411 B.C. The Thesmophoriazusae (Priestesses of See also:Demeter).—This came out three months later than the Lysistrata, during the reign of terror established by the oligarchic conspirators, but before their See also:blow had been struck. The political meaning of the play lies in the absence of political allusion. Fear silences even comedy. Only women and Euripides are satirized. Euripides is accused and condemned at the See also:female festival of the Thesmophoria. (9) 405 B.C. The Frogs.—This piece was brought out just when Athens had made her last effort in the Peloponnesian War, eight months before the See also:battle of See also:Aegospotami, and about fifteen months before the taking of Athens by See also:Lysander. It may be considered as an See also:attempt to distract men's minds from public affairs. It is a See also:literary See also:criticism. See also:Aeschylus and Euripides See E. See also:Curtius, Hist. of See also:Greece, iii. (Eng. trans. p. 275).were both lately dead. Athens is beggared of poets; and Dionysus goes down to Hades to bring back a poet. Aeschylus and Euripides contend in the under-See also:world for the See also:throne of tragedy; and the victory is at last awarded to Aeschylus. (II) 388 B.C. The See also:Plutus (See also:Wealth).—The first edition of the play had appeared in 408 B.C., being a symbolical See also:representation of the fact that the victories won by Alcibiades in the See also:Hellespont had brought back the god of wealth to the treasure-chamber of the See also:Parthenon. In its extant form the Plutus is simply a moral allegory. Chremylus, a worthy but poor man, falls in with a See also:blind and aged wanderer, who proves to be the god of wealth. Asclepius restores eyesight to Plutus; whereupon all the just are made See also:rich and all the unjust are reduced to poverty.
Among the lost plays, the following are the chief of which anything is known:
I. The Banqueters (na reXeos), 427 B.c.—A satire on See also:young Athens. A father has two sons; one is brought up in the good old school, another in the tricky subtleties of the new; and the contrast of results is the chief theme.
2. The Babylonians, 426 B.c.—Under this name the subject-allies of Athens are represented as " Babylonians "—barbarian slaves, employed to grind in the See also: A comedy called The Islands is conjectured to have dealt with the sufferings imposed by the war on the insular tributaries. The Triphales was probably a satire on Alcibiades; the Storks; on the tragic poet See also:Patrocles.
In the Aeolosicon—produced by his son Araros in 387 B.C.—Aristophanes probably parodied the See also:Aeolus of Euripides. The Cocalus is thought to have been a See also:parody of the See also:legend, according to which a Sicilian See also: The service which he could render in this way was, however, only negative. He could hardly be, in any See also:positive sense, a political or a moral teacher for Athens. His rooted antipathy to intellectual progress, while it affords easy and wide scope for his wit, must after all, See also:lower his intellectual See also:rank. The great minds are not the enemies of ideas. But as a mocker—to use the word which seems most closely to describe him on this side—he is incomparable for the See also:union of subtlety with See also:riot of the comic 2 [The date is uncertain; others give 392 and 389.] See also:imagination. As a poet, he is immortal. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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