. 



ARISTOPHANES. 



ARISTOPHANES. 



3:1 



i bad declined to put himself at the bead of the exile* who 

 went to Italy. He went to Delphi to consult tho oracle, and there met 

 DaokaMtae, krni of lalysu* in Rhodes, who bad abo come to Delphi to 

 eonault the oraJe about the choice of a wife. Damagetua, being told to 

 marry the .laughter of the bravest of the Greeks, married a daughter 

 of Arbtomeoe*. Ariatomene* accompanied bb son-in-bw to Rhodes, 

 where he soon after died. Damagetua and the Rhodian* erected a 

 ipbllrflrl tomb to hb memory, and paid him the honours due to a hero. 

 Paoaania* saw bb monument in the city of Mrssene. In the battln of 



Lructra (B c. 370), in which the Tbebana under Epaminoodaa defeated 

 the Laoedsrmoniana, we are told that Ariatomenee again made hi* 

 appearance, and mainly contributed to the drfeat of hi* old enemie*. 

 Although the exploit* of ArUtoroeoes are erideutly mingled with fable, 

 there ninn no rmsou to doubt hi* exbtence, and that he waa the hero 

 of the eeeond Meaaenian war. 



(Abridged from the Bioyrapkical Dictionary of (Me Soeitty for tke 

 J'fiuio* of Uttful KwntUdyt.) 



ARIsTirPIIANES. a celebrated comic poet of Athena, eon of 

 fbilippna or Philippine*. Hu fint play wai exhibited on the Athenian 

 tag* B.C. 437, and hu bat ac. 388. There aeema every roaaon to 

 believe that he waa a native of Athena. He had three sons, whoae 

 namea are recorded. Hia life was entirely devoted to literature, and 

 he produced numerous pbys. He U the only writer of the old comedy 

 of whom we have any considerable remain*, and it i chiefly through hut 

 work* that we are able to form an opinion respecting this particular 

 specie* of dramatic composition. 



Aristophanes waa the author of fifty-four comedies (Snidas), of 

 which eleven have been preserved. Suidaa enumerates the same plajs 

 that we now posaeaa, and mentions no others as being extant In the 

 fourth year of the 1'eloponneaian war, B.C. 427, the poet brought out 

 hi* first play, entitled AorroAm, holding up to public contempt the 

 character of the spendthrift ; and next year he produced the ' Baby 

 Ionian*,' in which be attacked in no measured terms the demagogue 

 Cleon and the constituted authorities of Athena. Of these plays we 

 rnsssss only a few fragment*. 



In B.C. 425, during the sixth year of the Peloponneaian war, he 

 gained the first priae in a contest with EupolU and Crotinus. HU 

 play was entitled the ' Acharnian*,' in which he recommended to the 

 Athenians the cause of peace a* openly and as strongly as the nature 

 of the people whom be addressed would permit The scene lay chiefly 

 in Aehanne, one of the 'demi,' or small towns of Attica; and the 

 object he had in view was pointed out by introducing on the stage the 

 rustic Dioeopolia, who, disapproving of the obstinacy of his fellow- 

 cituena, bad concluded with the Spartans a separate peace, and is 

 exhibited in the full enjoyment of its fruit*. The result of the 

 opposite line of conduct U shown in the sufferings of Lamachus, who 

 b exposed to the want of the fint necessaries of life, and writhing 

 under aevere wound* received in the field of battle. 



Aristophanes had already made the demagogue Cleon writhe under 

 his satire ; but it waa not till D.C. 424 that he poured forth upon him 

 the full measure of his wrath. It was in that year that he produced 

 the ' Knight*,' or, aa Wioland more aptly designates it, the 

 ' Demagogues,' the moat valuable perhaps of all bis extant plays. 

 He held up before tho Athenian people a faithful picture of their own 

 character with a boldness which we cannot but admire, knowing, as 

 we do, that they allowed any one to be brought upon the stage except 

 themaelrea. Athena b represented as a house, and its master is a 

 stupid old gentleman. Demos (people); Nicias and Demosthenes are 

 his slave*, and Cleon l.U confidential servant, or slave-driver ; Agora- 

 critoa, a sausage teller, is the person whose destiny it is to subvert the 

 demagogue. Thu* the dramatia persona are few, and the plot is 

 perhaps still more meagre; it oonaba of humiliating picture* of 

 Cleon, and a succession of proof* to Demos that this favourite servant 

 is wholly unworthy of the trust and confidence reposed in him. Aa 

 an hbtorical document however this pUy cannot be too highly valued, 

 as furnishing a strong and faithful, though by no means favourable, 

 picture of one of the most singular nations of antiquity. It U said 

 that no one waa found with sufficient nerve to act the part of Cleon, 

 or to make a mask to represent him, and that ArUtophanes waa him- 

 *lf oblige.) to appear on the stage in that character with his face 

 merely painted. 



Next year. B.C. 428, he produced another pUy, tho ' Clouds, 1 which 

 only gained the third prUe. It contain, a powerful and aevere attack 

 oa the school* of the sopbuU, a race of philosopher* who "could make 

 the worse appear the better reason; " but nothing, in our judgment 

 aa jgMify the personal atUck which the poet makes on Socrates, 

 whoae character, aa far aa we can form an opinion of it, was very 

 different from that which is represented in the pby. Tho plot in 

 simple and clear; it b wrought up in a masterly ktyle by a variety of 

 comic incident*, and the characters are full of humour. Strepriade* 

 i* the moat prominent; his rusticity strangely contrast* with the 

 pedantry of the lopbUU. HU sun has ruined him by hb extrava- 

 gance, and be b willing to have recourse to any pbn, however unprin- 

 cipled, which he think* likely to extricate himself from hU embarrass 

 menu. He imagine* that he baa discovered a resource in the school of 

 Socratee, by the sopbbtry and chicanery of whose doctrines, he 

 expect* to be relieved from the dunning of hb creditor*. He present*, 

 bimaelf before the philosopher whom he and* impended aloft in a 



basket; and the whole dialogue which follows between two characters 

 so forcibly contrasted b conceived in the very beat style of the author. 

 At bat however Strepsiades b convinced that hU genius doe* not lie 

 in that direction, and he determines to send hU son Pheidippidea to 

 benefit by the philosopher's instructions. The youth makes groat 

 proficiency, which he shows in hb dealings with hU creditors and by 

 beating his father, and then trying to convince the old gentleman that 

 it U all right The pby dotes with Strepsbdea setting fire to the 

 school house of Socrates and burning out all hb disciples a signifi- 

 cant hint which, coupled with tho concluding verses of the play, wait 

 well calculated to raise a religious persecution against Socratee. 

 (Wieland, 'Alt Mu*.,' U. 2; Hermann, Pncf. xix.; see also the 'Cloud*' 

 of Aristophanes, by F. O. Welcker.) 



In ac. 422 appeared th ' Wasps,' an attack upon tho jurisprudence 

 of Athena, levelled chiefly at that numerous class of citizens who 

 gained a livelihood by executing the office of ' dicast,' an office some- 

 what resembling that of our Westminster special jurymen ; but the 

 parallel to be complete would require that the same special jui , 

 should be almost daily in attendance, and should be eager to discharge 

 the duty. Philocleon is described a* absolutely phrensied with that 

 passion of which all hia countrymen partook a taste for litigation 

 and frequenting the courts of bw. HU son Bdelycleou endeavour* to 

 reclaim him ; but force, persuasion, and argument, are all tried in vain. 

 At bit the son proposes to convert hb house into a court of justice, 

 and to supply it with all suitable pomp. The old gentleman U pleased 

 with the scheme, and the theft of a Sicilian cheeee by a house-dog 

 enable* him to put it into immediate execution. To understand this 

 pby require* a minute acquaintance with the manners of the Athenians, 

 and also with their judicial system. This play furnished Racine with 

 the idea of hi* ' Plaideurs.' 



The pby of the ' Bird* ' was exhibited (B.C. 414) in the seventeenth 

 year of the Peloponnesian war, and during the absence of the 

 Salaminia, an official ship which was dispatched to bring back 

 Alcibiade* from Sicily. (Thucyd. vL 53.) In the 'Transactions of 

 the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin' (1327), there U an essay by 

 Silvern on the ' Birds ' of Aristophanes, the object of which is to 

 demonstrate that the key to the true interpretation of the pby U only 

 to be found by referring to the date of the exhibition and the mission 

 of the Salaminia. [Aix-tniADBS.] 



In ac. 406 appeared the ' Frogs,' in which ArUtophanes attacks, 

 with little generosity, the poet Euripides, who had lately died. 

 Bacchus descends to the infernal regions in search of a good tragic 

 writer, and, after lUtening to a trial of skill between -Eschylua and 

 Euripides, decides that the merits of the former are far superior to 

 those of the latter. 



The best of hU other extant works U the ' Plutua,' which appeared 

 first in B.C. 403, and again twenty years afterwards ac. 388. It doea 

 not belong to the old comedy, not does it appear to have any reference 

 to political subjects, being intended probably to vindicate the conduct 

 of Providence in its ordinary distributions of wealth, and to show the 

 great tendency of riches to corrupt the morals of those who poirosn 

 them. The other plays which have been preserved are the ' 1'eace ' 

 (ao. 419); ' Thesmophoriaxusoi ' (ac. 411), an attack on Euripides, in 

 which the plot is better managed than in most of the other plays ; 

 ' LyaUtrste ' (B.C. 411) ; ' Ecclesiazuste ' (B.C. 392). 



Aristophanes is distinguished by the exuberance of his wit, hU 

 inexhaustible fund of comic humour, and the Attic purity and great 

 simplicity of hu language. HU allusions are sometimes necessarily 

 obscure, and in many cases they are grossly obscene. The exact rank 

 which he ought to hold among ancient comic writers it U difficult to 

 assign, as none of their entire works have been preserved ; but if we 

 are inclined to trust the judgment of Plutarch, he was in every 

 respect inferior to Menander (vol ix. p. 387, ed. Iteuk). Plato how- 

 ever U said to have had a high admiration of ArUtophanes, and 

 recommended the perusal of hu plays to Dionysius tho younger as the 

 best mode of acquiring the purity of the Attic dialect. 



The pbys of ArUtophanes, especially in tho choral parts, often con - 

 tain passages of great poetical beauty, but hia subject did not allow 

 such efforts to be either frequent or of any great length. Where 

 Aristophanes appears to be speaking in hU own person, he is tho 

 advocate of morality, and the unsparing censurer of the gross and 

 degrading habits of many of bis countrymen. He was a friend to 

 peace, and, to hia credit, the enemy of Cleon. The real test of hi* 

 character must bo the ' Clouds.' We do not see bow it b possible to 

 esteem the character of Socrates, and at the same time to believe that 

 ArUtophanes was an honest man. All the explanations and apologies 

 with respect to this exhibition of Socrates appear to us unsatisfactory 

 Probably Aristophanes may have turned the philosopher into ridicule 

 without knowing or caring what bU doctrines were. Aristophanes 

 often introduce* the godi hi the most degrading situations, and he 

 makes an undisguised mockery of all the deities of Olympus. How 

 this was tolerated, even in bis age, it is difficult to understand. 



There are numerous editions of the plays of Aristophanes. The 

 first edition was printed at the Aldine press in Venice, 1498, folio, 

 containing only nine pbys. One of the most complete, containing a 

 Latin version, an index, and a largo collection of notes, is thut of 

 Bekker, in 5 vola. 8vo., Loud., 1829. Tho latest EnglUh edition of all 

 the playi b by Wheelwright into blank yene 2 vols. 8vo., 1837 



