Aristophanes' Comedy of Names: A Study of Speaking Names in Aristophanes (Sozomena: Studies in the Recovery of Ancient Texts)

242 Pages·2010·0.97 MB·English

by  Nikoletta Kanavou

Nikoletta Kanavou
Aristophanes’ Comedy of Names
Sozomena
Studies in the Recovery of Ancient Texts
Edited
on behalf of the Herculaneum Society
by
Alessandro Barchiesi, Robert Fowler,
Dirk Obbink and Nigel Wilson
Vol. 8
De Gruyter
Nikoletta Kanavou
Aristophanes’ Comedy of Names
A Study of Speaking Names in Aristophanes
De Gruyter
ISBN 978-3-11-024706-0
e-ISBN 978-3-11-024707-7
ISSN 1869-6368
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Kanavou,Nikoletta,1977(cid:2)
Aristophanes’comedyofnames:astudyofspeakingnames
inAristophanes/NikolettaKanavou.
p. cm. (cid:2) (Sozomena: studies in the recovery of ancient
texts)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-3-11-024706-0(hardcover:alk.paper)
1.Aristophanes(cid:2)Criticismandinterpretation. 2.Greek
drama (Comedy) (cid:2) History and criticism. 3. Names in
literature. 4.Names,Greek. I.Title.
PA3879.K36 2010
8821.01(cid:2)dc22
2010042011
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TheDeutscheNationalbibliothekliststhispublicationintheDeutsche
Nationalbibliografie;detailedbibliographicdataareavailableintheInternet
athttp://dnb.d-nb.de.
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Preface
The idea for an extant study on comic literary onomastics originated in
my undergraduate years (1995–1999) at the University of Athens. One
of my professors there, I.-Th. Papademetriou (now Emeritus), was the
firsttodrawmyattentiontothepotentialof thesubject,andIamdeep-
ly thankful for his encouragement and for his inspirational teaching. I
then looked into significant Aristophanic names in the context of my
Oxford DPhil thesis (2005); this had a larger scope and devoted most
of its space to Homeric names, hence the present book is only partially
dependent on it. I am grateful to the A.G. Leventis Foundation for
granting mean award for doctoral study, to the Lilian Voudouris Foun-
dationandtoWorcesterCollege,Oxford,forfurtherfinancialhelp,and
above all to my thesis supervisor, Dr Stephanie West, for her guidance
and moral support.
During my years as a graduate student and beyond, the Oxford/
BritishAcademyresearchprojectALexiconof GreekPersonalNamespro-
vided an ideal opportunity for employment, which increased my
knowledge in onomastics and gave me access to a vast database of
names, some of which are still unpublished. Thanks are due to the di-
rector, Mrs E. Matthews, and the assistant editor, Mr R.W.V. Catling,
for enabling meto make the most of the Lexicon and for the useful skills
they have taught me.
EwenBowie,SimonHornblower andAnnaMorpurgo-Davies read
earlierversionsofmyworkonAristophanes(theformertwoasmythe-
sis examiners) and made valuable comments;so did the late Peter Fraser
and Nan Dunbar: their influence on this book has been significant. A
later stage of this work benefited substantially from a two-month stay
at the Fondation Hardt (April-May 2009), which enabled me to con-
centrate thoroughly on the task and tie up some loose ends. By then
I had left Oxford, and since the beginning of 2007 I was balancing
therigoursoffinishingthebookwiththoseof teachingundergraduates,
first at the University of Cyprus, and later at the Open University of
Cyprus and in Crete; but teaching courses on comedy provided further
inspiration. Research for the book, which started in the Bodleian and
Sackler libraries in Oxford, was eventually completed in the libraries
VI Preface
of the British, American and Italian Archaelogical Schools at Athens. I
am indebted to the staff of all these libraries for their help.
A number of friends and colleagues read parts of the nearly finished
book, improved my English and saved me from various errors. I thank
especially David Konstan, Patrick Finglass, Richard Catling, Catherine
Osborne, Antonis Petridis, Emily Baragwanath, Athanasios Vergados
and Robert Clear. Last, but not least, I would like to thank Sabine
Vogt and her colleagues at Walter de Gruyter for the smooth running
of the editorial process, and Dirk Obbink, who as series editor encour-
aged this project. Naturally responsibility for all remaining errors and
omissions is entirely my own.
Nikoletta P. Kanavou Athens, 21/09/2010
Contents
Abbreviations ........................................ XI
Notes ...............................................XIV
Introduction ......................................... 1
Terms and categories ................................... 1
Names and comedy .................................... 4
Names and Aristophanes ................................ 10
Some methodological points ............................. 20
1 Acharnians ........................................ 24
1.1 Dikaiopolis and Lamachos ....................... 24
1.2 The opening scene: names in the Assembly .......... 30
1.3 Miscellaneous jokes............................. 35
1.4 Naming the chorus ............................. 36
1.5 Satire of war-lovers and other individuals ........... 37
1.6 Uncertain cases ................................ 44
2 Knights ........................................... 49
2.1 Agorakritos and Paphlagon ....................... 49
2.2 Demos ...................................... 55
2.3 Other joke-names in the satire of Kleon ............ 57
2.4 Jokes with deities’ names ........................ 63
2.5 Other jokes with names ......................... 65
3 Clouds ........................................... 67
3.1 Strepsiades and Pheidippides ...................... 67
3.2 Satire of individuals ............................ 74
3.3 Jokes at the expense of sophists ................... 76
4 Wasps ............................................ 80
4.1 Philokleon vs Bdelykleon ........................ 80
4.2 Jurymen names ................................ 83
4.3 The opening scene ............................. 85
VIII Contents
4.4 Philokleon’s escape efforts and the relationship with his
son ......................................... 86
4.5 Personal satire ................................. 89
4.5.1 Kleon .................................. 89
4.5.2 The braggers ............................. 90
4.5.3 Theoros ................................. 92
4.5.4 Others .................................. 94
5 Peace............................................. 98
5.1 Trygaios and his peace .......................... 98
5.2 Personifications ................................ 100
5.3 Joke-names ................................... 101
5.4 The chorus and the play’s final scene ............... 103
6 Birds ............................................. 105
6.1 Peisetairos and Euelpides ........................ 105
6.2 Other significant names ......................... 110
6.3 Bird-chorus and other bird-inspired joke names ...... 116
6.4 Naming the bird-city and first visitors .............. 121
6.5 Divine names (non bird-related) ................... 123
6.6 The chorus’ final songs .......................... 126
7 Lysistrata ......................................... 129
7.1 Lysistrata and Myrrhine ......................... 129
7.2 Chorus ...................................... 134
7.3 Other prominent names ......................... 136
7.4 Jokes with names .............................. 140
8 Thesmophoriazusae .................................. 146
8.1 The significance of anonymity .................... 146
8.2 The women’s names ............................ 147
8.3 An obscene naming joke ........................ 153
8.4 Names and Euripidean parody .................... 154
8.5 The play’s final scene ........................... 155
9 Frogs ............................................. 159
9.1 Opening scene and the journey to Hades ........... 159
9.2 Sexual naming jokes ............................ 161
9.3 More comic names from the Underworld ........... 163
9.4 Public life and politics .......................... 165
Contents IX
9.5 Names in the satire of literature ................... 168
9.6 Glyke and Mania .............................. 169
10 Ecclesiazusae ....................................... 171
10.1 Praxagora and Blepyros ......................... 171
10.2 Chorus and husbands ........................... 173
10.3 Other speaking characters ........................ 176
10.4 Jokes on public figures .......................... 176
10.5 Miscellaneous jokes............................. 178
10.6 Names in the new regime scenes .................. 179
11 Wealth ........................................... 183
11.1 The main hero ................................ 183
11.2 Personifications ................................ 184
11.3 Other named characters ......................... 186
11.4 Naming jokes ................................. 187
Concluding remarks ................................... 189
Appendix 1: The fragments of Aristophanes’ lost plays ........ 194
Appendix 2: Slave-names in the extant comedies ............. 197
Appendix 3: Analysis of Table ........................... 203
Bibliography ......................................... 208
Index of Names ...................................... 220
Subject Index ........................................ 225