Tag Archives: Ancient Greek Comedies

December 12, 2014 · 3:00 pm

THESMOPHORIAZUSAE (circa 411 B.C.): ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY

Just one of many translations available.

Just one of many translations available.

This comedy by Aristophanes was one that I was planning on covering very soon when I started posting my reviews of Attic Old Comedy a few years ago. For various reasons it kept falling by the wayside even though its subject matter was surprisingly relevant to ongoing controversies here in present day America, especially on college campuses.   

THE TITLE

The title Thesmophoriazusae has been rendered in different ways over the centuries – as Thesmophoria Women (the most literal translation), as Women Celebrating the Thesmophoria, and even as The Poet and the Women. 

The Thesmophoria was an annual festival in ancient Greece, a festival that marked the myth about the goddess Demeter’s descent into the Netherworld to rescue her daughter Persephone, who had been stolen away by Hades, the god who ruled over the land of the dead. The festival was reserved for women only and was their version of the male initiation rites performed at all-male festivals.

The female celebrants lived in tents on the hill called the Pnyx for the three days of the Thesmophoria, which took place around the time of the autumn crop-sowing.

THE PREMISE  

The premise of Thesmophoriazusae hits so close to home in these days of the repulsive Political Correctness Police that the seeming unlikelihood of it was one of the reasons I kept postponing my examination of it. Its storyline has always seemed to me like it was lifted straight from accounts of any of the countless pro-censorship rallies mounted by various groups of perpetually offended fools on campuses across the country. Continue reading →

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November 6, 2014 · 10:47 pm

MARIKAS (circa 421 B.C.): ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY

EupolisBalladeer’s Blog presents another look at an ancient Greek Comedy. This time around it’s one written by Eupolis who – along with Aristophanes and Cratinus – was one of the Big Three of Attic Old Comedy.

MARIKAS (c 421 B.C.) – This was the second comedy to emerge in the new subgenre of Attic Old Comedy called “the Demagogue Comedy”. Aristophanes led the way a few years earlier with The Knights, his comedy attacking the politician Cleon. The play Marikas finds Eupolis attacking the demagogue Hyperbolus, whose reputation for character assassination by way of overstatement lives on in our language by way of the word “hyperbole”.  

As with most ancient Greek comedies Marikas has survived only in fragmentary form. Those fragments, along with contemporary references in surviving works, provide what is known about the play. Marikas, the title character, was used by Eupolis to represent the politician Hyperbolus the same way Aristophanes had used the Paphlagonian to represent Cleon in The Knights. Continue reading →

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October 23, 2014 · 10:37 pm

CALLIPPIDES (circa 400 BC), THE ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY

Annoy your friends with your pretentiousness: refer to shows like I Love Lucy and Make Room for Daddy as "Parathespian Comedies."

Annoy your friends with your pretentiousness: refer to shows like I Love Lucy and Make Room for Daddy as “Parathespian Comedies.”

Balladeer’s Blog presents another examination of an ancient Greek comedy. Callippides was written by the comedian Strattis and falls into that comic poet’s specialized area: Parathespian Comedies.

Another fun element of our shared humanity with the ancient Athenians who flocked to attend these plays is the fact that even 2,400 years ago audiences were fascinated and entertained by the trappings of “showbiz”. “Parathespian Comedies” were just one of the many sub-genres of ancient Greek comedy but Strattis is the writer most associated with them … by me and the .000001 percent of the population who are into such things.

Yes, a few thousand years before I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Seinfeld and other such sitcoms the spectators at the Theatre of Dionysus were laughing at comedies depicting what it was like to be one of the performing, writing and singing stars of the Athenian stage. The Parathespian Comedies sometimes featured fictional stars as the characters but would also depict real-life figures of the stage in stories that were either wholly fictional or based on backstage gossip of the time.  

Callippides was based on the real-life actor and megastar of ancient Greek tragedies. In this particular case Strattis presented a very unflattering comedic poke at Callippides, making jokes that depicted him as a William Shatner-esque ham instead of the accomplished thespian he was often hailed as.   Continue reading →

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September 12, 2014 · 2:43 pm

ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY: AUTOLYCUS circa 420 B.C.

Jesse Ventura: Wrestler turned governor of Minnesota

Jesse Ventura: Wrestler turned governor of Minnesota

With the ongoing domestic violence situation with the NFL’s Ray Rice, the fake “drowning rescue” at USC plus the usual number of other scandals plaguing high-profile athletes at the moment this seemed a good time to examine the ancient Greek comedy Autolycus. This play was written by Eupolis who, along with Aristophanes and Cratinus constituted the Big Three of Attic Old Comedy. As with so many comedies of the time period Autolycus has survived only in fragmentary form, unfortunately.

THE PLAY

The title character of Eupolis’ comedy Autolycus was an Athenian athlete who earned a high degree of fame for his performance at the Great Panathenaia in 422 B.C. To simplify the concept the Great Panathenaia was a “local” version of the Olympic games and did not have participants from all over the known Western World.

Like so many figures from ancient Athens Autolycus had both male lovers and female lovers. The plot of this comedy dealt with the way in which Autolycus’ male lover Kallias – a wealthy heir – had begun grooming Autolycus for a run at political office. The play depicted Autolycus (son of Lykon) as being all muscles and no brains, prompting Kallias to insist his lover be “coached up” on politics by one of Lykon’s servants – an erudite man who suffered financial losses and was reduced to the lackey class in Athens.  

Once again we have an ancient Greek comedy with a theme we can still relate to today. On one level we can picture unlikely figures like Arnold Schwarzeneggar or Jesse Ventura successfully winning gubernatorial races despite their public reputations as “jocks” instead of statesmen. On a deeper level the theme of the comedy can also be applied to ANY figures who are deemed politically viable because of their accomplishments in a field COMPLETELY unrelated to the skills necessary to the art of governing.   Continue reading →

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May 2, 2012 · 1:29 pm

ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY: PLUTOI (WEALTH GODS) C 429 BCE

“Their side’s billionaires are evil! Our side’s billionaires are wonderful!”

Balladeer’s Blog’s latest look at ancient Greek comedies deals with another work by Cratinus who, along with Aristophanes and Eupolis, constituted the Big 3 of Attic Old Comedy.

This time around I’ll examine the comedy Plutoi, aka Wealth Gods and the way in which it dealt with issues that are still relevant to us over 2,400 years later. 

 For more background information on the subject of ancient Greek comedies click here: https://glitternight.com/ancient-greek-comedies/

THE PLAY

This comedy opens as the audience is told Continue reading →

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