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Aristophanes' Frogs and Women at the Thesmophoria

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Aristophanes' Frogs and Women at the Thesmophoria Aristophanes’ Women at the Thesmophoria and Frogs { Plan of session Women at the Thesmophoria; ‘Euripidean’ tragedy and Aristophanic comedy: an overview of the play’s para-tragic engagement Aristophanes’ attitude to Euripidean tragedy and its fluctuations in four comedies Aristophanic comedy, ‘Euripides’, ‘Aeschylus’ and literary criticism Frogs: The dramatic action and the main themes: the ‘journey in search of the best poetry’ strand of the play; and the ‘initiation in the mysteries’ strand of the play Why does ‘Aeschylus’ win in the Frogs? Overview of Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazousae and tragedy The Women at the Thesmophoria (411 BC) is a comedy structured and presented like a tragedy, especially a Euripidean tragedy It draws heavily on Euripides’ Alcestis, Telephos, Helen, Palamedes and Andromeda – as we will see. And engages with multiple motifs, conventions, techniques etc. recognised as tragic and/or Euripidean. Dramatic action ‘Euripides’ goes with his Kinsman to ask the young tragic poet Agathon for help in a crisis: the matrons of Athens, assembled for the celebration of the Thesmophoria, plan to decree his death because his scandalous heroines have alerted husbands to their hitherto secret misbehaviour. Would Agathon, who claims that his effeminacy enables him to create realistic female characters, be willing to disguise himself as a woman, infiltrate the Thesmophoria, and plead Euripides’ case? When Agathon refuses, the Kinsman volunteers to undertake the mission. Shaven and disguised as a woman, the Kinsman attends the festival and contributes a defence speech that outrages rather than mollifies the matrons: Euripides, he argues, has not revealed even the tiniest fraction of the whole truth. This is only the beginning of the parody of the Euripidean Telephos… The women become suspicious, and with the help of another Athenian effeminate, Cleisthenes, soon expose the Kinsman as a male intruder and sentence him to death. But the Kinsman, continuing the parody of Euripides’ Telephos, seizes a ‘hostage’ (a wine skin disguised as a baby girl) and takes refuge at an altar, where he is guarded first by Critylla, a tough old woman, and then by a barbarian Archer. This is the start of the parody of Euripides’ ‘escape-tragedies’ ‘Euripides’ tries to rescue the Kinsman by re-enacting rescue scenes from his own recent escape-plays (Palamedes, Helen, and Andromeda), but these fail to deceive Critylla and the Archer. Finally, Euripides disguises himself as an old bawd, distracts the Archer with a dancing girl, and frees the Kinsman, having promised the women that he will never again portray them unfavourably. PARATRAGEDY STARTS BIG (25 ff.) When does Agathon actually appear on stage? PARATRAGEDY STARTS BIG (25 ff.) The poet as craftsman PARATRAGEDY CONTINUES PARATRAGEDY CONTINUES PARATRAGEDY CONTINUES Supplication scene (Th. 179-80) Agathon’s response (Th. 193-4) Can you recognise the reference? Does it have any bearing to the rest of the play? (Th. 211-12) The costuming scene (and especially the act of transferring the costume from one character to the other): Thesm. 213ff., esp. 249ff. Cf. the ‘theory’ of mimesis earlier (Thesm. 154-6, p. 477) Meta-theatricality and (playful) reflection on current literary-critical discourses. Robson, J. E. (2005), ‘Aristophanes on How to Write Tragedy: What you Wear is What you are’, in McHardy, F., Robson, J. E., and Harvey, D. (eds.) (2005), Lost Dramas of Classical Athens: Greek Tragic Fragments, Exeter: 173–88. END OF PROLOGUE - CONSTRUCTION OF NEW SPACE - In tragedy, changes of scene are rare. Usually the unity of space (and time) is observed. - In some cases, e.g. in Eumenides, we have change of scene, but it is constructed carefully, especially with appropriate exits and entrances. - Here, how is the change of scene effected? Liberally, in an old-comedy way? Or in a way that resembles tragedy? See pp. 497-499 and consider especially exits and entrances AGON between Kinsman and Women (Thesm. 383-530) Defence speech: Here starts the lengthy parody of the most sensational scene of Euripides’ Telephos, and lasts for 300 lines! (Thesm. 467-764) Let us look at the famous Euripidean play, which Aristophanes parodied extensively at least twice in his career (in Acharnians in 425, and here in 411) Aristophanes RE-WORKS not only Euripides, but also Aristophanes! The Telephos by Euripides First time produced in 438, as part of the same tetralogy as Alcestis. It survives only in fragments. In myth, Telephos was the king of Mysia (to the south of Troy). Before the Trojan war, the Greeks had tried to conquer his city; he defeated them but was wounded by Achilles. His wound could not be cured and when he asked the oracle, he was told that he was going to be curd by whoever wounded him. Telephos set off for Greece to find Achilles. In the play by Euripides, Telephos went to Argos, to the palace of Agamemnon, disguised as a beggar. He intended to persuade Agamemnon to mediate so that he sees Achilles. In a scene of the play, as Agamemnon and Menelaus were discussing the impending invasion to Troy, they started discussing paying the Mysians for having defeated them. Telephos, pretending that he is a Greek soldier who had been wounded in the battle against Mysia, intervened to speak in support of the Mysians. In that famous speech, he said that the Mysians had done nothing wrong. They had been attacked and they they defended themselves. The Greeks would have done the same, he said He also accused Agamemnon for making profit from the war, and Menelaus for dragging the whole of Greece to a war for the sake of a woman. The Greeks who were present were outraged as the ‘beggar’s insolence. At that moment, they received news that a spy had infiltrated the army camp. After investigation, they found him out. With his life in danger, Telephos seized the baby Orestes, found refuge on the altar as a suppliant, and threatened that he would kill the child if they did not let him go. By taking Orestes as hostage, he achieved a compromise, revealed his identity and received his cure. The Aristophanic Telephos-scene Thesm. 467-764 Kinsman-’Telephos’ defense speech: (Th. 467ff.) It is not surprising, ladies, that you are very keenly enraged at Euripides when he slanders you this way, indeed that your bile is aboil. Why, let me have no profit in my children if I myself don’t hate the man; I’d have to be crazy not to! Still, we should permit open discussion among ourselves: we’re on our own and there will be no leaking of what we say. Why are we bringing that man up on these charges, and getting so angry with him just for mentioning two or three of our misdeeds, out of the thousands of others he knows we’ve committed? I myself to begin with, not to mention anyone else, have a lot of awful things on my conscience. I’ll tell you maybe the worst. I’d been married only three days, and my husband was sleeping beside me. The reaction of the women (Th. 520-30) The Kinsman carries on revealing the women’s offenses, and when attacked, he becomes aggressive…. 574-654 The news about the spy from the honorary ‘woman’, Cleisthenes The investigation , the questioning and the discovery of the Kinsman The removal of the disguise and the revelation of the phallus The Kinsman on the altar being guarded 655-85 Chorus searches for spies – song including material from equivalent scene in Telephos The ‘child’-hostage scene (689-764) The seizing of Mica’s baby and the infanticide Extended paratragic character: language, metre, themes, ethical and religious reflections, climax in singing Euripides’ ‘escape’- tragedies (cf. Frogs 81) The threat to violate the ‘suppliant’ and the infanticide The women’s bibulousness….. Kinsman Light me up and burn me down! Mica (unwrapping the baby) As for you, off with How dare you? You’ve undressed my child— this Cretan swaddling, quickly. And for disgusting!—a tiny baby! Kinsman your death, my child, blame but a single Tiny? It is pretty small at that. How many years woman, your mother! What is this? The old? Three Wine-Jug Festivals or four? baby girl’s become a skin full of wine, and Mica wearing Persian booties to boot! Women, That’s about right, plus a Dionysia. But give it back! Kinsman you overheated dipsomaniacs, never No, by Apollo there! passing up a chance to wangle a drink, a Mica great boon to bartenders but a bane to us— Then we’ll incinerate you. not to mention our crockery and our Kinsman woolens! By all means, incinerate away. (producing a knife) But Mica and Mania re-enter with firewood. this little girl will get sacrificed on the spot. Mica Mica Pile them on nice and thick, Mania. Don’t do it, I beseech you! Do what you want with Kinsman me, for this one’s sake. Go ahead, pile them on. But tell me one Kinsman thing: do you claim to have given birth to You’ve a good mother’s instincts. But nonetheless this? this girl’s going to get her throat cut. Mica Mica Carried it all ten months myself. 49 Ah my baby! Give me the slaughter bowl, Mania, so I can at least catch my own child’s blood. Kinsman Kinsman You carried it? Hold it under there; I’ll do you this one favor. Mica (Kinsman slashes the wineskin) By Artemis, I did. Kinsman What’s the proof—seventy-five, was it? Comedy and Iconography: the Telephos Krater T Comedy and Iconography: the Telephos Krater What do you observe as regards the relation between vase-painting and text?; How do you interpret the fact that this Apulian Bell-krater is dated around 40 years after the production of Thesmophoriazousae? Oliver Taplin, 1993, Comic Angels, Oxford In conclusion: The engagement of the Thesmophoriazousae with Euripides’ Telephos is extremely extensive and works on multiple levels QUESTION: Do you think that the radical alteration of the ending has a significance in the way comedy presents tragedy? Parody of Euripides’ Palamedes (765-84) Palamedes was produced in 415 (alongside Alexandros, Trojan Women and Sisyphus) In Troy, the hero Palamedes (to whom the invention of the alphabet is attributed) was unjustly accused by Odysseus that he betrayed the Greeks.
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