9/15 JEFFREY JAMES HENDERSON William Goodwin Aurelio Professor
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The Odd Thesmophoria of Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae Habash, Martha Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Spring 1997; 38, 1; Proquest Pg
The odd Thesmophoria of Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae Habash, Martha Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Spring 1997; 38, 1; ProQuest pg. 19 The Odd Thesmophoria of Aristophanes' Thesmophoriaz usae Martha Habash EXPECTED FROM THE TITLE, Aristophanes' Thesmophoria zusae does in fact concern the Thesmophoria, that A:. annual, secret women's festival of Demeter and Kore held thoughout the Greek world. From line 277 the play is set at a Thesmophoria, but a very odd Thesmophoria, in which the poet demonstrates his bold, inventive, and creative genius at work in reshaping this 'festival'.1 Aristophanes employs suf ficient elements of the real Thesmophoria to make the pro ceedings recognizable, but he also adds as major components several non-Thesmophoric elements, introduced in part for sheer comic effect, and in part, I shall argue, to shape his Thes mophoria and his play into a form more arpropriate to the civic and religious purposes and atmosphere 0 the festival in which it was presented, the City Dionysia.2 I For studies of the poet's presentation of genuine Thesmophoric elements and themes, see H. Hansen, U Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae: Theme, Struc ture, and Production," Philologus 120 (1976) 165-85; A. Bowie, Aristophanes: Myth, Ritual and Comedy (Cambridge 1993); the role of mimesis in this play: F. Zeitlin, uTravesties of Gender and Genre in Aristophanes' Thesmo phoriazousae, " in H. Foley, ed., Reflections of Women in Antiquity (New York 1981) 169-217; M. DETIENNE, MThe Violence of Wellborn Ladies: Women in the Thesmophoria," in M. Detienne and J.-P. Vernant. edd., The Cuisine of Sacrifice among the Greeks, tr. -
Rethinking Athenian Democracy.Pdf
Rethinking Athenian Democracy A dissertation presented by Daniela Louise Cammack to The Department of Government in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Political Science Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts January 2013 © 2013 Daniela Cammack All rights reserved. Professor Richard Tuck Daniela Cammack Abstract Conventional accounts of classical Athenian democracy represent the assembly as the primary democratic institution in the Athenian political system. This looks reasonable in the light of modern democracy, which has typically developed through the democratization of legislative assemblies. Yet it conflicts with the evidence at our disposal. Our ancient sources suggest that the most significant and distinctively democratic institution in Athens was the courts, where decisions were made by large panels of randomly selected ordinary citizens with no possibility of appeal. This dissertation reinterprets Athenian democracy as “dikastic democracy” (from the Greek dikastēs, “judge”), defined as a mode of government in which ordinary citizens rule principally through their control of the administration of justice. It begins by casting doubt on two major planks in the modern interpretation of Athenian democracy: first, that it rested on a conception of the “wisdom of the multitude” akin to that advanced by epistemic democrats today, and second that it was “deliberative,” meaning that mass discussion of political matters played a defining role. The first plank rests largely on an argument made by Aristotle in support of mass political participation, which I show has been comprehensively misunderstood. The second rests on the interpretation of the verb “bouleuomai” as indicating speech, but I suggest that it meant internal reflection in both the courts and the assembly. -
Memory and the Rhetoric of Soteria in Aristophanes' Assembly
Histos Supplement ( ) – MEMORY AND THE RHETORIC OF ΣΩΤΗΡΙΑ IN ARISTOPHANES’ ASSEMBLY WOMEN * Rob Tordoff Abstract : This paper presents a historicising reading of Aristophanes’ Assembly Women in the context of Athenian politics in 0 /. Aristophanes’ thematic engagement with memory and the rhetoric of σωτηρία (‘safety’, ‘preservation’, ‘salvation’) is a case study of ideological struggle over language in the politics of democratic Athens. The word evokes a long and tumultuous history of revolution in Athens stretching back to 9, when Athenian democracy first voted itself out of existence, as the assembly does in Assembly Women . Read from this perspective, Assembly Women is hardly less topical than Aristophanes’ fifth-century plays. On the contrary, history, memory, and the past were centrally topical in Athenian politics in late 0 s Athens, and all may be illuminated by an integrated study of the contemporary evidence of comedy, oratory, and historiography. Introduction n Assembly Women the assembly that Praxagora persuades to hand over power to the women of Athens Iis convoked for the purpose of debating the ‘ sôtêria ’ of the city; so too was the assembly summoned to Kolonos in 9, the assembly that gathered after the battle of Elateia in * I would like to thank Emily Baragwanath and Edith Foster for the invitation to present the paper on which this essay is based at a conference panel at the meeting of CAMWS in Iowa City, for the opportunity to contribute an essay to this collection, and for their historical and editorial expertise and advice. Thanks are due also to the anonymous reader, whose suggestions improved a number of aspects of my work. -
Slaves, Sex, and Transgression in Greek Old Comedy
Slaves, Sex, and Transgression in Greek Old Comedy By Daniel Christopher Walin A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Classics in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Mark Griffith, Chair Professor Donald J. Mastronarde Professor Kathleen McCarthy Professor Emily Mackil Spring 2012 1 Abstract Slaves, Sex, and Transgression in Greek Old Comedy by Daniel Christopher Walin Doctor of Philosophy in Classics University of California, Berkeley Professor Mark Griffith, Chair This dissertation examines the often surprising role of the slave characters of Greek Old Comedy in sexual humor, building on work I began in my 2009 Classical Quarterly article ("An Aristophanic Slave: Peace 819–1126"). The slave characters of New and Roman comedy have long been the subject of productive scholarly interest; slave characters in Old Comedy, by contrast, have received relatively little attention (the sole extensive study being Stefanis 1980). Yet a closer look at the ancestors of the later, more familiar comic slaves offers new perspectives on Greek attitudes toward sex and social status, as well as what an Athenian audience expected from and enjoyed in Old Comedy. Moreover, my arguments about how to read several passages involving slave characters, if accepted, will have larger implications for our interpretation of individual plays. The first chapter sets the stage for the discussion of "sexually presumptive" slave characters by treating the idea of sexual relations between slaves and free women in Greek literature generally and Old Comedy in particular. I first examine the various (non-comic) treatments of this theme in Greek historiography, then its exploitation for comic effect in the fifth mimiamb of Herodas and in Machon's Chreiai. -
Thesmophoriazusae by Aristophanes
Thesmophoriazusae by Aristophanes Have you ever looked closely at the masks of Comedy and Tragedy? The mask representing Melpomene, the Muse of Tragedy, has its mouth pulled down in an appropriate grimace. The mask of Thalia, Muse of Comedy, has the corners of its mouth pulled up. It’s not an easy grin; it looks almost forced - and that’s something to think about. When Walter Kerr, the celebrated drama critic, sat down to write about comedy, he found that he kept stumbling over tragedy. He realized that he really couldn’t deal with one without the other. If you go through the plots of serious plays, you discover that it wouldn’t take much to make them funny. You could turn “Hamlet” into something hilariously silly without too much effort. And it is only a slightly longer stretch to tease heavy material out of classic comedies. If you’ve ever been at a serious public gathering - at a church service or solemn civic ceremony - and something goes wrong, it suddenly becomes funny and you can find it hard not to laugh. Very often, ministers blend humor with sadness at funerals, making remarkably easy transitions from one to the other. It doesn’t detract from the solemnity of the occasion; the contrast actually heightens its serious impact. When Aristophanes wrote Thesmophoriazusae, he picked one of ancient Athens’ most serious and dislocating observances as a vehicle for poking fun at the tragic playwright, Euripides. While the classic Greeks loved food, wine, and merriment, their religious observances had a strong undercurrent of sadness, almost despair, in them. -
Greek Drama As Feminist Window on American Identity 1900-1925
Pre-print version of article forthcoming in K. Bosher, F. Macintosh, J. McConnell and Patrice Rankine (eds. 2014) The Oxford Handbook to Greek Drama in the Americas The Migrant Muse: Greek Drama as Feminist Window on American Identity 1900-1925 Edith Hall (KCL) The Quest for a New Muse Just before the academic rediscovery of ancient Greek drama in performance in the 1880s, Walt Whitman appealed for a new form of poetry to replace worn-out classicism, in ‘Song of the exposition’ (1871): Come, Muse, migrate from Greece and Ionia; Cross out, please, those immensely overpaid accounts. That matter of Troy, and Achilles’ wrath, and Eneas’, Odysseus’ wanderings; Place ‘Removed’ and ‘To Let’ on the rocks of your snowy Parnassus... For know a better, fresher, busier sphere – a wide, untried domain, awaits, demands you. But what, precisely, would be the nature of the Muse’s fresher, busier, untried North American domain? If she was to migrate from Greece and Ionia, how was she to adapt herself to a new destination far from her original home? This chapter looks at some ways in which American Modernist feminists used the Muse of Greek drama in the reconfiguration of American identity. Fifty years later, on July 7th 1921, Calvin Coolidge, Vice-President of the USA, addressed the American Classical League at UP in Philadelphia. Despite the tumultuous history 1 Pre-print version of article forthcoming in K. Bosher, F. Macintosh, J. McConnell and Patrice Rankine (eds. 2014) The Oxford Handbook to Greek Drama in the Americas of the intervening decades, he still defended the American tradition of classical education, even while confessing his desire for a distinctively American identity: We do not wish to be Greek. -
Aristophanes in Performance 421 BC–AD 2007
an offprint from Aristophanes in Performance 421 BC–AD 2007 Peace, Birds and Frogs ❖ EDITED BY EDITH HALL AND AMANDA WRIGLEY Modern Humanities Research Association and Maney Publishing Legenda: Oxford, 2007 C H A P T E R 16 ❖ A Poet without ‘Gravity’: Aristophanes on the Italian Stage Francesca Schironi Since the beginning of the twentieth century, Aristophanes has enjoyed a certain public profile: I have counted at least seventy-four official productions that have taken place in Italy since 1911. The most popular play by far seems to be Birds, which has taken the stage in sixteen different productions. Clouds is also reasonably popular, having been staged in twelve different productions. There have also been some interesting rewritings and pastiches of more than one play. But particularly striking is the relative infrequency with which Frogs — in my view one of Aristophanes’ most engaging comedies — has been produced: it has only seen public performance twice, in 1976 and in 2002.1 Indeed, it is one of those two productions of Frogs that attracted my attention: the most recent one, directed by Luca Ronconi at Syracuse in May 2002. As most people know by now, this performance excited many discussions, in Italy,2 as well as abroad,3 because of widespread suspicion that it had incurred censorship at the hands of Berlusconi’s government. I would like to reconsider this episode, not only because it is both striking and ambiguous, but above all because on closer inspection it seems to me a particularly good illustration of how theatre, and in particular ancient Greek and Roman theatre, ‘works’ in Italy. -
The Thesmophoriazusae
THE THESMOPHORIAZUSAE by Aristophanes THE THESMOPHORIAZUSAE Table of Contents THE THESMOPHORIAZUSAE............................................................................................................................1 by Aristophanes..............................................................................................................................................2 i THE THESMOPHORIAZUSAE THE THESMOPHORIAZUSAE 1 THE THESMOPHORIAZUSAE by Aristophanes This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online. http://www.blackmask.com CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY EURIPIDES MNESILOCHUS, Father−in−law of Euripides AGATHON SERVANT OF AGATHON HERALD WOMEN CLISTHENES A MAGISTRATE A SCYTHIAN POLICEMAN CHORUS OF THESMOPHORIAZUSAE−Women celebrating the THESMOPHORIA (SCENE:−Behind the orchestra are two buildings, one the house of the poet AGATHON, the other the Thesmophorion. EURIPIDES enters from the right, at a rapid pace, with an air of searching for something; his father−in−law MNESILOCHUS, who is extremely aged, follows him as best he can, with an obviously painful expenditure of effort.) MNESILOCHUS Great Zeus! will the swallow never appear to end the winter of my discontent? Why the fellow has kept me on the run ever since early this morning; he wants to kill me, that's certain. Before I lose my spleen antirely, Euripides, can you at least tell me where you are leading me? EURIPIDES What need for you to hear what you are going to see? MNESILOCHUS How is that? Repeat it. No need for me to hear.... EURIPIDES What you are going to see. MNESILOCHUS Nor consequently to see.... EURIPIDES What you have to hear. MNESILOCHUS What is this wiseacre stuff you are telling me? I must neither see nor hear? EURIPIDES Ah! but you have two things there that are essentially distinct. MNESILOCHUS Seeing and hearing? EURIPIDES Undoubtedly. MNESILOCHUS In what way distinct? EURIPIDES In this way. -
The Rise of Authoritarianism in a Democratic Regime in Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen1
The rise of authoritarianism in a democratic regime in Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen1 Greice Drumond2 Abstract: The plot of Assemblywomen tells the story of a coup organized by a group of women to conquer power and administrate the city of Athens. By examining the historical and dramatic elements in this comedy, we seek to comprehend the use of the notions of liberty and democracy, taking into consideration that through the drama we glimpse on what can happen when democracy is undermined. Aristophanes made use of artistic liberty to re- define the parameters of his art, showing a new form of comedy and how liberty can contribute to the development of art and society. Keywords: Athenian democracy; Aristophanic comedy; Assemblywomen; liberty; coup. Resumo: A trama de Assembleia de Mulheres conta a história de um golpe organizado por um grupo de mulheres para conquistar o poder e adminis- trar a cidade de Atenas. Ao examinar os elementos históricos e dramáticos desta comédia, buscamos compreender o uso das noções de liberdade e democracia, levando em consideração que, nesse drama cômico, entrev- emos o que pode acontecer, quando a democracia se encontra enfraquecida. Além desse aspecto narrativo, Aristófanes fez uso da liberdade artística para redefinir os parâmetros de sua arte, apontando um novo formato de comédia e mostrando como a liberdade pode contribuir para o desenvolvi- mento da arte e da sociedade. Palavras-chave: democracia ateniense; comédia aristofânica; Assembleia de Mulheres; liberdade; golpe. Introduction The play Assemblywomen (Ecclesiazousai)3 presents us with an opening scene of wom- en preparing themselves to attend the essential democratic institution of Athens’s governing body, the ἐκκλεσία [“Assembly”]. -
CX247/CX347: Sexuality and Gender in Antiquity (2015/16)
09/24/21 CX247/CX347: Sexuality and Gender in Antiquity | University of Warwick CX247/CX347: Sexuality and Gender in View Online Antiquity (2015/16) Aeschines. n.d. Against Timarchus. http://0-www.loebclassics.com.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/view/aeschines-timarchus/1919/ pb_LCL106.1.xml. Andrea Nye. 1989. ‘The Hidden Host: Irigaray and Diotima at Plato’s Symposium.’ Hypatia 3 (3): 45–61. http://0-www.jstor.org.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/stable/3809787. Aristophanes. n.d. Assemblywomen | Loeb Classical Library. http://0-www.loebclassics.com.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/view/aristophanes-assemblywo men/2002/pb_LCL180.245.xml. ———. n.d. Clouds | Loeb Classical Library. http://0-www.loebclassics.com.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/view/LCL488/1998/volume.xml. ———. n.d. Clouds | Loeb Classical Library. http://0-www.loebclassics.com.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/view/LCL488/1998/volume.xml. Aristotle. n.d. Generation of Animals. Loeb Classical Library. http://0-www.loebclassics.com.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/view/LCL366/1942/volume.xml. ———. n.d. Politics. Loeb Classical Library. http://0-www.loebclassics.com.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/view/LCL264/1932/volume.xml. ———. n.d. Politics | Loeb Classical Library. http://0-www.loebclassics.com.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/view/aristotle-politics/1932/pb_L CL264.3.xml?result=1&rskey=BFeRhi. Ashley Cooper, Maurice, and Xenophon. 1810. The Cyropædia, Or, The Institution of Cyrus. Philadelphia: B.B. Hopkins & Co. http://0-opac.newsbank.com.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/select/shaw/22117. Barnard, Laura S., and Aristophanes. 1987. Aristophanes’ Clouds. Vol. Bryn Mawr Greek commentaries. -
Acropolis in Lysistrata, 149, 152, 157 81; 430: 79; 438: 78; 440–44: 79; Addison, J., 175N. 14 422–24: 73; 496–556: 176; 4
Index Acropolis in Lysistrata, 149, 152, 157 81; 430: 79; 438: 78; 440–44: 79; Addison, J., 175n. 14 422–24: 73; 496–556: 176; 497– Aelian, Varia Historia 2.13: 63 501: 81; 516–18: 82; 517–38: Aeschines 1.75: 19 51n. 53; 566–68: 69; 576–77: 69; Aeschylus, 107n. 51 578: 70; 594–97: 70; 595: 71; Agamemnon 1560–61: 104n. 41 597–625: 176; 598: 72; 608–17: Eumenides 321, 428: 178n. 22 72, 618: 72; 619: 73; 626: 73; Agariste, 120n. 18, 121 626–718: 201n. 70; 633–40: 82; Agathon (in Plato’s Symposium), 1 636–40: 92n. 18; 641–51: 109n. Agoracritus, 105, 106, 107 55; 836: 77; 929: 77; 971: 77; aid¯os (shame), 128–30 988: 77; 1037–39: 77; 1041: 77; Alcibiades, 41, 119–25, 132 1069: 77; 1228: 77 Ameling, W., 46n. 28 Assemblywomen, 148n. 11, 149, 173, Amphitheus, 59 192–211, 216–17 Andocides, 114, 117, 121, 123n. 30 635: 199; 638–40: 198; 725–28: 1.14: 118n. 11; 1.15: 121, 136n. 62; 202; 767: 204; 1038–42: 206; 1.16: 121; 1.36: 115n. 3, 116n. 7, 1043–44: 206; 1057: 178n. 21; 118n. 11; 1.38: 135n. 60; 1.62: 1112–83: 198; 1138: 198; 134; 1.75: 92n. 19 1147–48: 208; 1155–56: 208; Antiphon, 136n. 63 1158–62: 208n. 84; 1181–82: aret¯e (public virtue), 8, 30, 31, 33n. 10, 208n. 84 36, 38, 39–40, 41, 42, 80, 90, 92, Babylonians, 17n. 42, 88n. 5, 98n. 33 128n. -
The Child of Leda and the Conclusion of Lysistrata
The Child of Leda and the Conclusion of Lysistrata Lysistrata ends as the “Child of Leda” escorts choruses of men and women off stage: ἁγεῖται δ᾽ ἁ Λήδας παῖς ἁγνὰ χοραγὸς εὐπρεπής. 1315 (Reverman, 2006, 236-260; Henderson, 1987, 91f; 218ff; Sommerstein, 1990, xvii) The “Child of Leda” is, of course, Helen. But in the context of a recurrent theme of this play, the child is also Lysistrata herself, linked by clear similarities with and distinct differences from her Homeric paradigm. Helen is mentioned in Lysistrata. Shortly after Lysistrata has disclosed the rough outline of her plan for a sex strike, her Spartan ally Lampito reminds her (and others) of a prior time when sexual excitement resulted in the cessation of ear: ὁ γῶν Μενέλαος τᾶς Ἑλένας τὰ μᾶλά πᾳ 155 γυμνᾶς παραϊδὼν ἐξέβαλ᾽, οἰῶ, τὸ ξίφος. (Henderson, 1980,179)) Famous as the episode is, it recurs here – but with a significant difference. Lysistrata’s plot succeeds, after all, not because of one woman’s beauty (or strategic use of it) but because of many women, and from many parts of the Greek world. She is as Panhellenic in her clever means and in her ultimate goal as Helen was in her impact (Gumpert, 2001, 97). The beautiful weaver, lover of clothing and sex, wise in her knowledge of oracles, and attentive to “reputation” who started a war now becomes a beautiful weaver, lover of clothing and of sex, wise in her knowledge of oracles and attentive to “reputation” who ends one-- for the sake of all women, not just one.