Aristophanes and Alcibiades : echoes of contemporary history in Athenian comedy / Michael Vickers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vickers, Michael J., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Politics in literature.

Greek drama (Comedy)--History and criticism.

Greek drama (Comedy).

Alcibiades--In literature.

Alcibiades.

Aristophanes--Characters--Alcibiades.

Aristophanes.

Aristophanes--Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (264 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin, [Germany] ; Boston, [Massachusetts] : De Gruyter, 2015.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The conventional view of Aristophanes bristles with problems. Important testimony for Alcibiades’ paramount role in comedy is consistently disregarded, and the tradition that “masks were made to look like the komodoumenoi, so that before an actor spoke a word, the audience would recognize who was being attacked” is hardly ever invoked. If these testimonia are taken into account, a fascinating picture emerges, where the komodoumenoi are based on the Periclean household: older characters on Pericles himself, younger on Alcibiades. Aspasia, Pericles’ mistress, and Hipparete, Alcibiades’ wife, lie behind many female characters, and Alcibiades’ ambiguous sexuality also allows him to be shown on the stage as a woman, notably as Lysistrata. There is a substantial overlap between the anecdotal tradition relating to the historical figures and the plotting of Aristophanes’ plays. This extends to speech patterns, where Alcibiades’ speech defect is lampooned. Aristophanes is consistently critical of Alcibiades’ mercurial politics, and his works can also be seen to have served as an aide-mémoire for Thucydides and Xenophon. If the argument presented here is correct, then much current scholarship on Aristophanes can be set aside.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

Chapter 1. Political Allegory in Aristophanes

Chapter 2. Wordplay; Pericles, Alcibiades and Aspasia on Stage

Chapter 3. Pericles (and Alcibiades) on Stage: The Story So Far

Chapter 4. The Tragic Context: the Case of Euripides’ Ion

Chapter 5. Happy Families: Plutus i

Chapter 6. Home Economics: Plutus ii

Chapter 7. “The Woman of Old”: Euripides’ Helen and Andromeda

Chapter 8. “Alcibiades is a Woman’s Man”: Lysistrata

Chapter 9. Alcibiades in Gaol: Thesmophoriazusae

Chapter 10. Frogs: Nothing to Do With Literature

Chapter 11. Aspasia on Stage: Ecclesiazusae

Conclusion

Appendix 1 Alcibiades’ “Servile Birth”, Alcibiades’ “Matrophilia”: Inventions of the Stage?

Appendix 2. The Athenian Plague of 430–428 BC

Appendix 3. Keith Sidwell’s Aristophanes the Democrat

Bibliography

Index Locorum

General Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9783110427912

3110427915

9783110427950

3110427958

OCLC:

928462715