Aristophanes: Myth, Ritual and Comedy PDF
Preview Aristophanes: Myth, Ritual and Comedy
This book places the plays of Aristophanes in their contemporary context and tries to answer the question: What aspects of Greek, and especially Athenian, culture did the comedies of Aristophanes bring into play for their original audiences? It makes particular use of the structural analysis of Greek rituals and myths to demonstrate how their meanings and functions can be used to interpret the plays which are themselves shown to be constructed according to similar patterns. This information is then used to suggest ways in which twentieth-century audiences may read the plays in terms of contemporary literary theories and concerns: modern interpretation is thus grounded in ancient ways of thinking. This is the first book to apply the techniques of structural anthropology systemati- cally to all the comedies. It differs from earlier studies in that it does not impose a single interpretative structure on the plays, either individually or as a group, but argues that each play operates with a range of different structures, and that groups of plays use similar structures in different ways. Students and scholars of Aristophanes and of ancient Athenian society and its myths and rituals will find this work valuable to them. All Greek is quoted in translation and the book is written to be accessible to readers from a variety of disciplines. ARISTOPHANES ARISTOPHANES MYTH, RITUAL AND COMEDY A.M. BOWIE Lecturer in Literae Humaniores in the University of Oxford and Fellow of The Queen's College CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www. Cambridge. org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521440127 © Cambridge University Press 1993 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1993 Reprinted 1994,1995 First paperback edition 1996 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Bowie, A.M. Aristophanes: myth, ritual, and comedy /A. M. Bowie. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 44012 2 (hardback) 1. Aristophanes - Criticism and interpretation. 2. Greek drama (Comedy) - History and criticism. 3. Mythology, Greek, in literature. 4. Ritual in literature. I. Title. PA3879.B84 1993 882'.01-dc20 92-39415 CIP ISBN-13 978-0-521-44012-7 hardback ISBN-10 0-521-44012-2 hardback ISBN-13 978-0-521-57575-1 paperback ISBN-10 0-521-57575-3 paperback Transferred to digital printing 2005 To Peter (f)iXq) OVTOJS jS CONTENTS Preface page xiii Abbreviations xv 1 Introduction i 2 Acharnians 18 The 'Unjust' and 'Just' Cities 18 Telephus 27 Another view of Dicaeopolis 32 The Anthesteria 35 Polis and deme 39 3 Knights 45 Rites of passage 45 Knights and ephebeia 52 Knights and the succession 58 Knights and Athens 66 Sausage-Seller and salvation 74 4 Wasps 78 Wasps and transition 78 Philocleon's agones 81 Philocleon redivivus 93 Implications 96 5 Clouds 102 Strepsiades' ephebeia 102 Socrates goes 112
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