Aristophanes' Frogs and Women at the Thesmophoria

56 Pages·2017·11.67 MB·English

Aristophanes’ Women
at the Thesmophoria
and Frogs
{
Plan of session
Women at the Thesmophoria; ‘Euripidean’ tragedy and

Aristophanic comedy: an overview of the play’s para-tragic
engagement

Aristophanes’ attitude to Euripidean tragedy and its fluctuations

in four comedies

Aristophanic comedy, ‘Euripides’, ‘Aeschylus’ and literary

criticism

Frogs: The dramatic action and the main themes: the ‘journey in

search of the best poetry’ strand of the play; and the ‘initiation in
the mysteries’ strand of the play

Why does ‘Aeschylus’ win in the Frogs?

Overview of Aristophanes’
Thesmophoriazousae and
tragedy
The Women at the Thesmophoria (411 BC) is a

comedy structured and presented like a
tragedy, especially a Euripidean tragedy

It draws heavily on Euripides’ Alcestis,

Telephos, Helen, Palamedes and Andromeda – as
we will see.

And engages with multiple motifs,

conventions, techniques etc. recognised as
tragic and/or Euripidean.
Dramatic action

‘Euripides’ goes with his Kinsman to ask the young tragic poet Agathon for help
in a crisis: the matrons of Athens, assembled for the celebration of the
Thesmophoria, plan to decree his death because his scandalous heroines have
alerted husbands to their hitherto secret misbehaviour. Would Agathon, who
claims that his effeminacy enables him to create realistic female characters, be
willing to disguise himself as a woman, infiltrate the Thesmophoria, and plead
Euripides’ case?

When Agathon refuses, the Kinsman volunteers to undertake the mission.
Shaven and disguised as a woman, the Kinsman attends the festival and
contributes a defence speech that outrages rather than mollifies the matrons:
Euripides, he argues, has not revealed even the tiniest fraction of the whole truth.
This is only the beginning of the parody of the Euripidean Telephos…

The women become suspicious, and with the help of another Athenian
effeminate, Cleisthenes, soon expose the Kinsman as a male intruder and
sentence him to death. But the Kinsman, continuing the parody of
Euripides’ Telephos, seizes a ‘hostage’ (a wine skin disguised as a baby girl) and
takes refuge at an altar, where he is guarded first by Critylla, a tough old woman,
and then by a barbarian Archer. This is the start of the parody of Euripides’
‘escape-tragedies’

‘Euripides’ tries to rescue the Kinsman by re-enacting rescue scenes from his own
recent escape-plays (Palamedes, Helen, and Andromeda), but these fail to deceive
Critylla and the Archer.

Finally, Euripides disguises himself as an old bawd, distracts the Archer with a
dancing girl, and frees the Kinsman, having promised the women that he will
never again portray them unfavourably.
PARATRAGEDY STARTS BIG (25 ff.)
When does Agathon
actually appear on stage?
PARATRAGEDY STARTS BIG (25 ff.)
The poet as craftsman
PARATRAGEDY CONTINUES
PARATRAGEDY CONTINUES
PARATRAGEDY CONTINUES
Supplication scene (Th. 179-80)


Agathon’s response (Th. 193-4)


Can you recognise the reference? Does it have any bearing to the rest of

the play?

(Th. 211-12)