Alan H. Sommerstein
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199554195
- eISBN:
- 9780191720604
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199554195.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter examines what the scripts of Old Comedy have to say about the art of Old Comedy itself. So far as concerns the technique of the genre, all its practitioners seem to attach value to ...
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This chapter examines what the scripts of Old Comedy have to say about the art of Old Comedy itself. So far as concerns the technique of the genre, all its practitioners seem to attach value to originality, innovation, hard and careful work, and avoidance of crude methods of raising laughter; we also find a fair amount of discussion of detailed issues of structure, style, metre, music, special effects, and methods and targets of satire. These passages evidence clear criteria of artistic merit, tempered by an overriding need to keep all sections of the audience entertained. The well-known claim that comedy is of civic benefit is found, so far as our evidence goes, only in Aristophanes, and is coupled with a claim that he is under divine patronage and protection.Less
This chapter examines what the scripts of Old Comedy have to say about the art of Old Comedy itself. So far as concerns the technique of the genre, all its practitioners seem to attach value to originality, innovation, hard and careful work, and avoidance of crude methods of raising laughter; we also find a fair amount of discussion of detailed issues of structure, style, metre, music, special effects, and methods and targets of satire. These passages evidence clear criteria of artistic merit, tempered by an overriding need to keep all sections of the audience entertained. The well-known claim that comedy is of civic benefit is found, so far as our evidence goes, only in Aristophanes, and is coupled with a claim that he is under divine patronage and protection.
Ian C. Storey
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199259922
- eISBN:
- 9780191717420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259922.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter examines how popular Eupolis is among famous Old Comedy writers. It tries to evaluate these writers' works, and determines how often they make citations of Eupolis' works into their own ...
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This chapter examines how popular Eupolis is among famous Old Comedy writers. It tries to evaluate these writers' works, and determines how often they make citations of Eupolis' works into their own writings. It examines how Eupolis was regarded by writers, and how he was often compared with poets like Kratinos and Aristophanes. It determines Eupolis' position in the history of Old Comedy. It also assesses Platonios literary works and compares them with Eupolis'.Less
This chapter examines how popular Eupolis is among famous Old Comedy writers. It tries to evaluate these writers' works, and determines how often they make citations of Eupolis' works into their own writings. It examines how Eupolis was regarded by writers, and how he was often compared with poets like Kratinos and Aristophanes. It determines Eupolis' position in the history of Old Comedy. It also assesses Platonios literary works and compares them with Eupolis'.
Ian C. Storey
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199259922
- eISBN:
- 9780191717420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259922.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter begins by comparing Eupolis and Aristophanes, the latter being the only extant poet of Old Comedy. It differentiates the fragmentary remains of Eupolis from Aristophanes's. It discusses ...
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This chapter begins by comparing Eupolis and Aristophanes, the latter being the only extant poet of Old Comedy. It differentiates the fragmentary remains of Eupolis from Aristophanes's. It discusses the effect of the production of Marikas on the ‘war’ between the poets. It examines the paracomedies created by Old Comedy poets.Less
This chapter begins by comparing Eupolis and Aristophanes, the latter being the only extant poet of Old Comedy. It differentiates the fragmentary remains of Eupolis from Aristophanes's. It discusses the effect of the production of Marikas on the ‘war’ between the poets. It examines the paracomedies created by Old Comedy poets.
Alan H. Sommerstein
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199554195
- eISBN:
- 9780191720604
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199554195.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The Introduction outlines the chapters that follow, which contain a sample of the author's work in article form on Old Comedy over the last few decades. The Introduction also explains the sequence of ...
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The Introduction outlines the chapters that follow, which contain a sample of the author's work in article form on Old Comedy over the last few decades. The Introduction also explains the sequence of the chapters in the book and details the themes explored within.Less
The Introduction outlines the chapters that follow, which contain a sample of the author's work in article form on Old Comedy over the last few decades. The Introduction also explains the sequence of the chapters in the book and details the themes explored within.
Ian C. Storey
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199259922
- eISBN:
- 9780191717420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259922.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter describes Eupolis as a forgotten master of Old Comedy, ranked with Kratinos and Aristophanes. It attempts to discover Eupolis' profile and compares him with other well-known poets. It ...
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This chapter describes Eupolis as a forgotten master of Old Comedy, ranked with Kratinos and Aristophanes. It attempts to discover Eupolis' profile and compares him with other well-known poets. It investigates his reputation as a poet of Old Comedy and evaluates some of his recovered literary fragments. It also provides a translation of the collection of those fragments.Less
This chapter describes Eupolis as a forgotten master of Old Comedy, ranked with Kratinos and Aristophanes. It attempts to discover Eupolis' profile and compares him with other well-known poets. It investigates his reputation as a poet of Old Comedy and evaluates some of his recovered literary fragments. It also provides a translation of the collection of those fragments.
EDITH HALL
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199298891
- eISBN:
- 9780191711459
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199298891.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter explores the way in which the poets of Old Comedy — Cratinus and Pherecrates as well as Aristophanes — required actors to impersonate literary abstractions that were gendered feminine, ...
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This chapter explores the way in which the poets of Old Comedy — Cratinus and Pherecrates as well as Aristophanes — required actors to impersonate literary abstractions that were gendered feminine, such as Poetry and Comedy. The world-stage relationship took on an extremely concrete, vivid, and self-conscious form in a theatrical genre where actors playing ‘real’ members of the community, such as dramatists and other poets, abused other actors playing anthropomorphic feminine symbols of art. Poetic and theatrical innovations are visibly figured as sexual depravity and sexual violence.Less
This chapter explores the way in which the poets of Old Comedy — Cratinus and Pherecrates as well as Aristophanes — required actors to impersonate literary abstractions that were gendered feminine, such as Poetry and Comedy. The world-stage relationship took on an extremely concrete, vivid, and self-conscious form in a theatrical genre where actors playing ‘real’ members of the community, such as dramatists and other poets, abused other actors playing anthropomorphic feminine symbols of art. Poetic and theatrical innovations are visibly figured as sexual depravity and sexual violence.
Anna Peterson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- February 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190697099
- eISBN:
- 9780190697129
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190697099.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
As prelude to the discussions of the six chapters that follow, this introduction gives an overview of the evidence for the accessibility of Old Comedy—beyond Aristophanes’s extant plays—during the ...
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As prelude to the discussions of the six chapters that follow, this introduction gives an overview of the evidence for the accessibility of Old Comedy—beyond Aristophanes’s extant plays—during the Imperial era. It also lays out what have been perceived as the two primary ways that Imperial-era authors approached the genre: as a linguistic source and as a problem. In doing so, it provides a survey of the scholarly approaches adopted by the lexicographers (Julius Pollux, Phrynichus, the Anti-atticist) and Athenaeus. It also considers the persistent influence that the writings of Plato, Aristotle, and Hellenistic critics exerted on how later Greeks understood the genre. As examples of this, it discusses Dio Chrysostom’s commentary on the comic poets in Or. 33 (First Tarsian) and Aelian’s account of Socrates’s trial and execution in Historical Miscellany. The chapter concludes with an outline of the structure and argument of the other sections of the book.Less
As prelude to the discussions of the six chapters that follow, this introduction gives an overview of the evidence for the accessibility of Old Comedy—beyond Aristophanes’s extant plays—during the Imperial era. It also lays out what have been perceived as the two primary ways that Imperial-era authors approached the genre: as a linguistic source and as a problem. In doing so, it provides a survey of the scholarly approaches adopted by the lexicographers (Julius Pollux, Phrynichus, the Anti-atticist) and Athenaeus. It also considers the persistent influence that the writings of Plato, Aristotle, and Hellenistic critics exerted on how later Greeks understood the genre. As examples of this, it discusses Dio Chrysostom’s commentary on the comic poets in Or. 33 (First Tarsian) and Aelian’s account of Socrates’s trial and execution in Historical Miscellany. The chapter concludes with an outline of the structure and argument of the other sections of the book.
M. S. SILK
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199253821
- eISBN:
- 9780191712227
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199253821.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter argues that the Aristophanic plot-line often provides an impression of realist continuity because there are innumerable moments, or miniature sequences, of consequential action. It ...
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This chapter argues that the Aristophanic plot-line often provides an impression of realist continuity because there are innumerable moments, or miniature sequences, of consequential action. It explains that the apparent ‘jumps’ associated with Aristophanes' characters and plots are not only related in kind: they may be the same thing. It notes that Aristophanic Old Comedy is best seen as a sequence of relational states between one interest party — often but not always, one focal individual — and the world at large. It adds that the pattern involves a series of five states or stages: dissatisfaction, quest, conflict, victory, celebration.Less
This chapter argues that the Aristophanic plot-line often provides an impression of realist continuity because there are innumerable moments, or miniature sequences, of consequential action. It explains that the apparent ‘jumps’ associated with Aristophanes' characters and plots are not only related in kind: they may be the same thing. It notes that Aristophanic Old Comedy is best seen as a sequence of relational states between one interest party — often but not always, one focal individual — and the world at large. It adds that the pattern involves a series of five states or stages: dissatisfaction, quest, conflict, victory, celebration.
Ian C. Storey
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199259922
- eISBN:
- 9780191717420
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259922.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Eupolis (fl. 429–411 BC) was one of the best-attested of Aristophanes' rivals, and a major figure in the history of Athenian comedy. No complete work by this lost master has survived, but of his ...
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Eupolis (fl. 429–411 BC) was one of the best-attested of Aristophanes' rivals, and a major figure in the history of Athenian comedy. No complete work by this lost master has survived, but of his fourteen plays we have 500 fragments. These include 120 lines of his best-known comedy, Demoi (The Demes), which were discovered and published in 1911. Even in fragmentary form, Eupolis' plays shed interesting light on the whole range of issues — political, poetic, and dramatic — that make Aristophanes so perennially fascinating. This book provides a new annotated translation of all the remaining fragments, as well as a separate chapter on each lost play. It discusses Eupolis' career, redates the plays, examines how Eupolis was known in the ancient world, explores his relationship with Aristophanes (as both rival and collaborator), and delineates the distinct nature of the comedy that this prizewinning poet created.Less
Eupolis (fl. 429–411 BC) was one of the best-attested of Aristophanes' rivals, and a major figure in the history of Athenian comedy. No complete work by this lost master has survived, but of his fourteen plays we have 500 fragments. These include 120 lines of his best-known comedy, Demoi (The Demes), which were discovered and published in 1911. Even in fragmentary form, Eupolis' plays shed interesting light on the whole range of issues — political, poetic, and dramatic — that make Aristophanes so perennially fascinating. This book provides a new annotated translation of all the remaining fragments, as well as a separate chapter on each lost play. It discusses Eupolis' career, redates the plays, examines how Eupolis was known in the ancient world, explores his relationship with Aristophanes (as both rival and collaborator), and delineates the distinct nature of the comedy that this prizewinning poet created.
Carl A. Shaw
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199950942
- eISBN:
- 9780190222949
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199950942.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Comic dramatists of fifth-century Athens integrated a number of humorous (sometimes non-Athenian) modes of performance into their plays, which led to the decline of many of these earlier pre-comic ...
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Comic dramatists of fifth-century Athens integrated a number of humorous (sometimes non-Athenian) modes of performance into their plays, which led to the decline of many of these earlier pre-comic “genres.” Satyr drama, however, was exempt from this phenomenon during the fifth century, both because it was instituted at the City Dionysia before comedy and also because it had a clear and distinct religious, social, and aesthetic function. Through close analysis of a number of comic and satyric plays, as well as of visual evidence, this chapter examines the ways in which Old Comedy and satyr drama were interconnected but ultimately remained differentiated, even when comedy appropriated a chorus of satyrs. I pay special attention to comedy’s appropriation of satyr play after Euripides’ satyr-less Alcestis, comparing the role of satyrs/silens in the satyric world (romantic, playful, rustic, etc.) with that of the Old Comic world (aischrological, consequential, urban, etc.).Less
Comic dramatists of fifth-century Athens integrated a number of humorous (sometimes non-Athenian) modes of performance into their plays, which led to the decline of many of these earlier pre-comic “genres.” Satyr drama, however, was exempt from this phenomenon during the fifth century, both because it was instituted at the City Dionysia before comedy and also because it had a clear and distinct religious, social, and aesthetic function. Through close analysis of a number of comic and satyric plays, as well as of visual evidence, this chapter examines the ways in which Old Comedy and satyr drama were interconnected but ultimately remained differentiated, even when comedy appropriated a chorus of satyrs. I pay special attention to comedy’s appropriation of satyr play after Euripides’ satyr-less Alcestis, comparing the role of satyrs/silens in the satyric world (romantic, playful, rustic, etc.) with that of the Old Comic world (aischrological, consequential, urban, etc.).
Carl A. Shaw
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199950942
- eISBN:
- 9780190222949
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199950942.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
From the second half of the fourth century through the first half of the third, satyr dramatists employed characteristic elements of Old Comedy in their satyric performances: looser metrical rules, ...
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From the second half of the fourth century through the first half of the third, satyr dramatists employed characteristic elements of Old Comedy in their satyric performances: looser metrical rules, paratragedy and, most notably, satire. Python’s Agen, for example, not only put Alexander the Great on stage, but also ridiculed the rebellious satrap Harpalus for his fondness for prostitutes and made paratragic allusion to Sophocles’ Electra. Lycophron and Sositheus provide similar satirical treatments of contemporary philosophers. This chapter explores these literary developments, suggesting that comedy’s own evolution influenced this shift. The final sections of the chapter show that satyr drama in the Roman era maintained a connection to comedy and the kômos up to the second century CE.Less
From the second half of the fourth century through the first half of the third, satyr dramatists employed characteristic elements of Old Comedy in their satyric performances: looser metrical rules, paratragedy and, most notably, satire. Python’s Agen, for example, not only put Alexander the Great on stage, but also ridiculed the rebellious satrap Harpalus for his fondness for prostitutes and made paratragic allusion to Sophocles’ Electra. Lycophron and Sositheus provide similar satirical treatments of contemporary philosophers. This chapter explores these literary developments, suggesting that comedy’s own evolution influenced this shift. The final sections of the chapter show that satyr drama in the Roman era maintained a connection to comedy and the kômos up to the second century CE.
Stephen V. Tracy
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520256033
- eISBN:
- 9780520943629
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520256033.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
In Athens during Pericles' time, one of the major forms of entertainment was the presentation at state expense of comedies that bristled with explicit attacks on public figures, who were often ...
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In Athens during Pericles' time, one of the major forms of entertainment was the presentation at state expense of comedies that bristled with explicit attacks on public figures, who were often present in the audience. These plays are known as Old Comedy. The only extant complete examples of Old Comedy are the wickedly inventive plays of Aristophanes, who was born about 455 B.C. and was very active throughout the years of the Peloponnesian War. Old Comedy flourished for the greater part of Pericles' public career, and he was naturally very often the butt of attacks. Characters in comedies call Pericles a tyrant, describe him as Zeus-like in his aloofness, and attack him for his womanizing (a common criticism of powerful men in every age). Aspasia, his Milesian common-law wife, was treated very harshly. In the Acharnians of Aristophanes, performed in 425, the lowly Athenian citizen Dicaeopolis—the Everyman and hero of the play—gives a mock-epic account of the origin of the war.Less
In Athens during Pericles' time, one of the major forms of entertainment was the presentation at state expense of comedies that bristled with explicit attacks on public figures, who were often present in the audience. These plays are known as Old Comedy. The only extant complete examples of Old Comedy are the wickedly inventive plays of Aristophanes, who was born about 455 B.C. and was very active throughout the years of the Peloponnesian War. Old Comedy flourished for the greater part of Pericles' public career, and he was naturally very often the butt of attacks. Characters in comedies call Pericles a tyrant, describe him as Zeus-like in his aloofness, and attack him for his womanizing (a common criticism of powerful men in every age). Aspasia, his Milesian common-law wife, was treated very harshly. In the Acharnians of Aristophanes, performed in 425, the lowly Athenian citizen Dicaeopolis—the Everyman and hero of the play—gives a mock-epic account of the origin of the war.
Isabelle Torrance
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199657834
- eISBN:
- 9780191745393
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199657834.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter contextualizes the metapoetic strategies of Euripides more broadly within the poetics of fifth‐century drama. It is shown that Aeschylus and Sophocles used some of the same techniques as ...
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This chapter contextualizes the metapoetic strategies of Euripides more broadly within the poetics of fifth‐century drama. It is shown that Aeschylus and Sophocles used some of the same techniques as Euripides, implicitly in their tragedies, and explicitly in their satyr‐dramas. The importance of metapoetry in satyr‐drama is stressed, since this genre was much closer to comedy in its overt use of metapoetic strategies but was composed by the tragedians. Euripides shares some techniques with the old comedians, but there are others that do not cross the boundaries of genre. It is concluded that Euripides exploited both old and new metapoetic techniques in his dramas, and that he did so far more pervasively than Aeschylus and Sophocles, but that his strategies remained appropriate to the tragic genre.Less
This chapter contextualizes the metapoetic strategies of Euripides more broadly within the poetics of fifth‐century drama. It is shown that Aeschylus and Sophocles used some of the same techniques as Euripides, implicitly in their tragedies, and explicitly in their satyr‐dramas. The importance of metapoetry in satyr‐drama is stressed, since this genre was much closer to comedy in its overt use of metapoetic strategies but was composed by the tragedians. Euripides shares some techniques with the old comedians, but there are others that do not cross the boundaries of genre. It is concluded that Euripides exploited both old and new metapoetic techniques in his dramas, and that he did so far more pervasively than Aeschylus and Sophocles, but that his strategies remained appropriate to the tragic genre.
Mario Telò
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226309699
- eISBN:
- 9780226309729
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226309729.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Aristophanes, whose eleven surviving plays are all that remain of Old Comedy, has been stereotyped since ancient times as the poet who brought order and stability to this rowdy theatrical genre. But ...
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Aristophanes, whose eleven surviving plays are all that remain of Old Comedy, has been stereotyped since ancient times as the poet who brought order and stability to this rowdy theatrical genre. But how did this image arise, and why were the rivals Cratinus and Eupolis relegated to secondary status and merely fragmentary survival? This book traces Aristophanes’ supremacy, paradoxically, back to the defeat of his Clouds at the Great Dionysia in 423 BCE. Both Wasps (422) and the revised Clouds (419–417), the two plays at the center of this study, depict the earlier Clouds as a failed attempt by Aristophanes, the good son, to heal the comic audience—reflected in the plays in a pair of dysfunctional fathers. Through this narrative of failure, Aristophanes advances a “proto-canonical” discourse that anticipates the contours of the Hellenistic comic canon by elevating his aesthetic mode while delegitimizing his rivals. Aristophanic comedy is cast as a prestigious object, an expression of the supposedly timeless values of dignity and self-control. This discourse, which depends on both internal and external textual connections, is grounded in the distinctive feelings that different comic modes purportedly transmitted to an audience. In Wasps and Clouds the Aristophanic style is figured as a soft, protective cloak meant to shield an audience from debilitating competitors and restore it to paternal responsibility and authority. Aristophanes’ narrative of afflicted fathers and healing sons, of audience and poet, is thus shown to be at the center of the proto-canonical discourse that shaped his eventual dominance.Less
Aristophanes, whose eleven surviving plays are all that remain of Old Comedy, has been stereotyped since ancient times as the poet who brought order and stability to this rowdy theatrical genre. But how did this image arise, and why were the rivals Cratinus and Eupolis relegated to secondary status and merely fragmentary survival? This book traces Aristophanes’ supremacy, paradoxically, back to the defeat of his Clouds at the Great Dionysia in 423 BCE. Both Wasps (422) and the revised Clouds (419–417), the two plays at the center of this study, depict the earlier Clouds as a failed attempt by Aristophanes, the good son, to heal the comic audience—reflected in the plays in a pair of dysfunctional fathers. Through this narrative of failure, Aristophanes advances a “proto-canonical” discourse that anticipates the contours of the Hellenistic comic canon by elevating his aesthetic mode while delegitimizing his rivals. Aristophanic comedy is cast as a prestigious object, an expression of the supposedly timeless values of dignity and self-control. This discourse, which depends on both internal and external textual connections, is grounded in the distinctive feelings that different comic modes purportedly transmitted to an audience. In Wasps and Clouds the Aristophanic style is figured as a soft, protective cloak meant to shield an audience from debilitating competitors and restore it to paternal responsibility and authority. Aristophanes’ narrative of afflicted fathers and healing sons, of audience and poet, is thus shown to be at the center of the proto-canonical discourse that shaped his eventual dominance.
GIDEON NISBET
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199263370
- eISBN:
- 9780191718366
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199263370.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter begins with a close reading of Nikarkhos' longest extant epigram, an elaborate sexual and scatological parody of Homer known in a papyrus copy from Oxyrhynchus as well as from the ...
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This chapter begins with a close reading of Nikarkhos' longest extant epigram, an elaborate sexual and scatological parody of Homer known in a papyrus copy from Oxyrhynchus as well as from the Anthology. More even than Loukillios, Nikarkhos models his comic exaggeration and coarse humour on Aristophanes. He is best known as an imitator of Loukillios' skoptic technique and of individual poems by him, but the chapter demonstrates that he also satirically rewrites Loukillian originals and develops his own comic scenarios (including humorous contests), using a distinct range of satirical stereotypes to present an independent skoptic persona.Less
This chapter begins with a close reading of Nikarkhos' longest extant epigram, an elaborate sexual and scatological parody of Homer known in a papyrus copy from Oxyrhynchus as well as from the Anthology. More even than Loukillios, Nikarkhos models his comic exaggeration and coarse humour on Aristophanes. He is best known as an imitator of Loukillios' skoptic technique and of individual poems by him, but the chapter demonstrates that he also satirically rewrites Loukillian originals and develops his own comic scenarios (including humorous contests), using a distinct range of satirical stereotypes to present an independent skoptic persona.
Anna Peterson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- February 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190697099
- eISBN:
- 9780190697129
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190697099.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book examines the impact that Athenian Old Comedy had on Greek writers of the Imperial era. It is generally acknowledged that Imperial-era Greeks responded to Athenian Old Comedy in one of two ...
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This book examines the impact that Athenian Old Comedy had on Greek writers of the Imperial era. It is generally acknowledged that Imperial-era Greeks responded to Athenian Old Comedy in one of two ways: either as a treasure trove of Atticisms, or as a genre defined by and repudiated for its aggressive humor. Worthy of further consideration, however, is how both approaches, and particularly the latter one that relegated Old Comedy to the fringes of the literary canon, led authors to engage with the ironic and self-reflexive humor of Aristophanes, Eupolis, and Cratinus. Authors ranging from serious moralizers (Plutarch and Aelius Aristides) to comic writers in their own right (Lucian, Alciphron), to other figures not often associated with Old Comedy (Libanius) adopted aspects of the genre to negotiate power struggles, facilitate literary and sophistic rivalries, and provide a model for autobiographical writing. To varying degrees, these writers wove recognizable features of the genre (e.g., the parabasis, its agonistic language, the stage biographies of the individual poets) into their writings. The image of Old Comedy that emerges from this time is that of a genre in transition. It was, on the one hand, with the exception of Aristophanes’s extant plays, on the verge of being almost completely lost; on the other hand, its reputation and several of its most characteristic elements were being renegotiated and reinvented.Less
This book examines the impact that Athenian Old Comedy had on Greek writers of the Imperial era. It is generally acknowledged that Imperial-era Greeks responded to Athenian Old Comedy in one of two ways: either as a treasure trove of Atticisms, or as a genre defined by and repudiated for its aggressive humor. Worthy of further consideration, however, is how both approaches, and particularly the latter one that relegated Old Comedy to the fringes of the literary canon, led authors to engage with the ironic and self-reflexive humor of Aristophanes, Eupolis, and Cratinus. Authors ranging from serious moralizers (Plutarch and Aelius Aristides) to comic writers in their own right (Lucian, Alciphron), to other figures not often associated with Old Comedy (Libanius) adopted aspects of the genre to negotiate power struggles, facilitate literary and sophistic rivalries, and provide a model for autobiographical writing. To varying degrees, these writers wove recognizable features of the genre (e.g., the parabasis, its agonistic language, the stage biographies of the individual poets) into their writings. The image of Old Comedy that emerges from this time is that of a genre in transition. It was, on the one hand, with the exception of Aristophanes’s extant plays, on the verge of being almost completely lost; on the other hand, its reputation and several of its most characteristic elements were being renegotiated and reinvented.
Ed Sanders
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199897728
- eISBN:
- 9780199356973
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199897728.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
The chapter opens with an analysis of the emotional dynamics behind the text-audience relationship in Old Comedy. Plato’s suggestion (in the Philebus) that we go to the comic theatre to see our ...
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The chapter opens with an analysis of the emotional dynamics behind the text-audience relationship in Old Comedy. Plato’s suggestion (in the Philebus) that we go to the comic theatre to see our friends suffering misfortunes, and this is phthonos, is discussed, and this compared with Aristotle’s epichairekakia (Schadenfreude/spite). There is some similarity to the ‘reversal’ associated with the ‘carnival’ approach to comedy, where powerful individuals could be lampooned with impunity for some short period. The chapter suggests that one of Old Comedy’s functions is to provide a safety valve for the potentially explosive build-up of hostility between the functional elite and other citizens in democratic Athens. Passages of Aristophanes’ Acharnians, Knights, and Wasps are then discussed, in which politicians, ambassadors, and generals are satirized as groups, and individuals lampooned by name. It is argued that the reasons for hostility (phthonos) toward these groups for various supposed sharp practices are the same that allow them to be effective butts of comedy.Less
The chapter opens with an analysis of the emotional dynamics behind the text-audience relationship in Old Comedy. Plato’s suggestion (in the Philebus) that we go to the comic theatre to see our friends suffering misfortunes, and this is phthonos, is discussed, and this compared with Aristotle’s epichairekakia (Schadenfreude/spite). There is some similarity to the ‘reversal’ associated with the ‘carnival’ approach to comedy, where powerful individuals could be lampooned with impunity for some short period. The chapter suggests that one of Old Comedy’s functions is to provide a safety valve for the potentially explosive build-up of hostility between the functional elite and other citizens in democratic Athens. Passages of Aristophanes’ Acharnians, Knights, and Wasps are then discussed, in which politicians, ambassadors, and generals are satirized as groups, and individuals lampooned by name. It is argued that the reasons for hostility (phthonos) toward these groups for various supposed sharp practices are the same that allow them to be effective butts of comedy.
Isabelle Torrance
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199657834
- eISBN:
- 9780191745393
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199657834.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book is the first detailed study of self-conscious aspects of Euripidean drama. This book argues that Euripides employed a complex system of metapoetic devices in order to draw the audience’s ...
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This book is the first detailed study of self-conscious aspects of Euripidean drama. This book argues that Euripides employed a complex system of metapoetic devices in order to draw the audience’s attention to the novelty of his compositions, and that these are interwoven with issues of thematic importance, whether social, theological or political. The metapoetic strategies discussed include intertextual allusions to earlier poetic texts, especially to Homer, Aeschylus and Sophocles, often developed around unusual and memorable language or imagery, deployment of recognizable trigger words referring to plot construction, novelties, or secondary status, and self-conscious references to fiction implied through allusion to writing. Metapoetic techniques in tragedy, satyr-drama and old comedy are compared in the final chapter in order to demonstrate first that the Greek tragedians commonly exploited metapoetic strategies, second that metapoetry is far more pervasive in Euripides than in the other tragedians, and third that, while Euripides shares some metapoetic techniques with old comedy, these remain implicit in his tragedies (but not in his satyr-dramas) as the tragic genre requires. Acknowledging the extensive metapoetic games in the plays of Euripides helps us to understand the nature of Euripidean drama.Less
This book is the first detailed study of self-conscious aspects of Euripidean drama. This book argues that Euripides employed a complex system of metapoetic devices in order to draw the audience’s attention to the novelty of his compositions, and that these are interwoven with issues of thematic importance, whether social, theological or political. The metapoetic strategies discussed include intertextual allusions to earlier poetic texts, especially to Homer, Aeschylus and Sophocles, often developed around unusual and memorable language or imagery, deployment of recognizable trigger words referring to plot construction, novelties, or secondary status, and self-conscious references to fiction implied through allusion to writing. Metapoetic techniques in tragedy, satyr-drama and old comedy are compared in the final chapter in order to demonstrate first that the Greek tragedians commonly exploited metapoetic strategies, second that metapoetry is far more pervasive in Euripides than in the other tragedians, and third that, while Euripides shares some metapoetic techniques with old comedy, these remain implicit in his tragedies (but not in his satyr-dramas) as the tragic genre requires. Acknowledging the extensive metapoetic games in the plays of Euripides helps us to understand the nature of Euripidean drama.
Ed Sanders
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199897728
- eISBN:
- 9780199356973
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199897728.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
Emotions vary between cultures, especially in their eliciting conditions, social acceptability, forms of expression, and co-extent of terminology. This book examines the sensation, expression, and ...
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Emotions vary between cultures, especially in their eliciting conditions, social acceptability, forms of expression, and co-extent of terminology. This book examines the sensation, expression, and literary representation of envy and jealousy in Classical Athens. Previous scholarship has primarily taken a lexical approach, focusing on usage of the Greek words phthonos (envy, begrudging, jealousy, spite) and zêlos (emulative rivalry). This has value, but also limitations, because a) the discreditable nature of phthonos renders its ascription or disclamation suspect, and b) there is no Classical Greek label for sexual jealousy. A complementary approach is therefore required, which reads the expressed values and actions of entire situations. Building on recent developments in using emotion ‘scripts’ to read complex scenarios in classical texts, this book applies to Athenian culture and literature insights on the contexts, conscious and subconscious motivations, subjective manifestations, and indicative behaviors of envy, jealousy, and related emotions, derived from modern (post-1950) philosophical, psychological, psychoanalytical, sociological, and anthropological scholarship. This enables an exploration of both the explicit theorization and evaluation of envy and jealousy in ancient Greek texts, and also the more oblique ways in which they find expression across a variety of genres—in particular philosophy, oratory, comedy, and tragedy.Less
Emotions vary between cultures, especially in their eliciting conditions, social acceptability, forms of expression, and co-extent of terminology. This book examines the sensation, expression, and literary representation of envy and jealousy in Classical Athens. Previous scholarship has primarily taken a lexical approach, focusing on usage of the Greek words phthonos (envy, begrudging, jealousy, spite) and zêlos (emulative rivalry). This has value, but also limitations, because a) the discreditable nature of phthonos renders its ascription or disclamation suspect, and b) there is no Classical Greek label for sexual jealousy. A complementary approach is therefore required, which reads the expressed values and actions of entire situations. Building on recent developments in using emotion ‘scripts’ to read complex scenarios in classical texts, this book applies to Athenian culture and literature insights on the contexts, conscious and subconscious motivations, subjective manifestations, and indicative behaviors of envy, jealousy, and related emotions, derived from modern (post-1950) philosophical, psychological, psychoanalytical, sociological, and anthropological scholarship. This enables an exploration of both the explicit theorization and evaluation of envy and jealousy in ancient Greek texts, and also the more oblique ways in which they find expression across a variety of genres—in particular philosophy, oratory, comedy, and tragedy.
Franco V. Trivigno
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198778226
- eISBN:
- 9780191830105
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198778226.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
This paper analyses the portrayal of Hippias as a comic impostor, or ἀλαζών, in Plato’s Hippias Major. First, the comedy involves an appropriate attack on Hippias, a self-ignorant pretender to ...
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This paper analyses the portrayal of Hippias as a comic impostor, or ἀλαζών, in Plato’s Hippias Major. First, the comedy involves an appropriate attack on Hippias, a self-ignorant pretender to knowledge of the fine, and diagnoses the philosophical source of his self-ignorance by examining two instructive mistakes: Hippias takes fineness to be perceiver-relative and to concern causing pleasure. Second, the goal of the absent questioner device is to expose Hippias as an impostor for the reader and to make an important point about the appropriate relationship between discourse, refutation, and ridiculousness. For Socrates, it is a way to get Hippias to engage in philosophical conversation aimed at the truth—arguably his only path to genuine fineness—and thereby make him a better person. Last, his blindness is crucial to the dialogue’s comedic unity and its consistency with other dialogues. If so, then doubts about the Hippias Major’s authenticity should be put to rest.Less
This paper analyses the portrayal of Hippias as a comic impostor, or ἀλαζών, in Plato’s Hippias Major. First, the comedy involves an appropriate attack on Hippias, a self-ignorant pretender to knowledge of the fine, and diagnoses the philosophical source of his self-ignorance by examining two instructive mistakes: Hippias takes fineness to be perceiver-relative and to concern causing pleasure. Second, the goal of the absent questioner device is to expose Hippias as an impostor for the reader and to make an important point about the appropriate relationship between discourse, refutation, and ridiculousness. For Socrates, it is a way to get Hippias to engage in philosophical conversation aimed at the truth—arguably his only path to genuine fineness—and thereby make him a better person. Last, his blindness is crucial to the dialogue’s comedic unity and its consistency with other dialogues. If so, then doubts about the Hippias Major’s authenticity should be put to rest.
