Aristophanes
Acharnians, Knights, and Clouds are three of the most revered works by Aristophanes. These works are of particular interest to this discourse because they have clear political and social nuances which affected the manner in which they were received in Ancient Athens. The discussion posits that Aristophanes had concrete political concerns and he utilized his craft as a dramatist to expose these matters with the purpose of affecting change in society in a manner that was revolutionary and in so doing Aristophanes laid the foundation for modern philosophical thought.
Aristophanes, the Greek Dramatist, has long been revered as the father of Old Comedy[footnoteRef:1], authoring nearly 40 comedies 11[footnoteRef:2] of which are extant. These eleven works are the only Greek comedies to survive in their entirety. The influence of Aristophanes on drama has not been as significant as his impact on literature. His influence, however, in the field of literature has been significant particularly as it relates to authors such as Rabelais and Fielding[footnoteRef:3]. The limited influence of Aristophanes on drama is due to the highly localized subject matter explored in his works. Most often these highly localized themes were political in nature. Arguments concerning the purpose of the politically themed work of Aristophanes abound. For instance, Heath argues that the use of political themes in Aristophanes works were not designed to influence politics outside the theatre.[footnoteRef:4],[footnoteRef:5] Others such as Starkie and Neil, contend that Aristophanes dedicated himself to influencing politics both inside and outside the theatre. I argue that Aristophanes had concrete political concerns and he utilized his craft as a dramatist to expose these matters with the purpose of affecting change in society in a manner that was revolutionary and in so doing Aristophanes laid the foundation for modern philosophical thought. [1: Old comedy refers to the "initial phase of ancient Greek comedy (c. 5th century bc), known through the works of Aristophanes. Old Comedy plays are characterized by an exuberant and high-spirited satire of public persons and affairs. Composed of song, dance, personal invective, and buffoonery, the plays also include outspoken political criticism and comment on literary and philosophical topics ("Old Comedy")."] [2: The works and their publication dates are Acharnians (425), Knights (424), Clouds (423), Wasps (422), Peace (421), Birds (414), Lysistrata (411), Women at the Festival (Thesmaphoriazousae) (410), Frogs (405), Women in Parliament (Ecclesiazousae) (392), and Plutus (388) ("Aristophanes").] [3: Francois Rabelais a major writer of the French Renaissance. Henry Fielding was an English Dramatist of Satire. ] [4: Heath, Malcolm. (1987) Political Comedy in Aristophanes. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht] [5 A.W. Gomme, in " Aristophanes and Politics," argues that all examinations concerning the political themes of Aristophanes should be based "on the supposition that Aristophanes was not a politician but a dramatist, an artist; a man, that is, whose purpose is to give us a picture-in his case a comic picture-not to advocate a position (102)."]
Political Themes in Aristophanic works
Whitaker (1935) contends that Aristophanes early plays are devoid of plot and instead focused on preposterous situations, usually having a direct relationship to some political or social problem of the time. These problems were then roughly sketched and exploited in a succession of loosely connected scenes. For example, in the Acharnians,
"an Athenian citizen, weary of the war, makes a private treaty with the enemy and consequently enjoys the advantages of trading with them. The iambic scenes develop the ludicrous possibilities of the invention, and enable Aristophanes to hit out at people he dislikes -- politicians, busybodies, philosophers. Characters are often burlesques of contemporary Athenians, and even the gods. These earlier plays are an astonishing mixture of fantasy, unsparing (and often violently unfair) satire, brilliant verbal wit, obscenity, literary and musical parody, exquisite lyrics, hard-hitting political propaganda, and uproarious farce. Aristophanes was essentially a popular dramatist, fond of slapstick and comic business. The Frogs marks the transition to a quieter form of comedy in which personal and political invective plays a smaller part and the plot is more elaborate (Whitaker, 1935)."[footnoteRef:6] [6: Whittaker, M. 1935. The Comic Fragments in Their Relation to the Structure of Old Attic Comedy. The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. ae, p. 181]
Indeed a great deal of Aristophanes early works were influenced by his political ideals and the political climate of the time as it pertained to classical Athens particularly as it related to the Peloponnesian War[footnoteRef:7]. Aristophanes exploration of politics in his plays began in 426 BC with the controversial work Babylonians. This work was so contentious that...
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