Greek and Roman Comedy: Translations and Interpretations of Four Representative Plays

331 Pages·2001·3.4 MB·English

by  Shawn O'Bryhim

00-T1535-FM 2/20/01 5:34 PM Page i
GREEK
A N D
ROMAN
COMEDY
00-T1535-FM 2/20/01 5:34 PM Page ii
E D I T E D B Y
S H A W N O ’ B R Y H I M
With contributions by
George Fredric Franko
Timothy J. Moore
Shawn O’Bryhim
S. Douglas Olson
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS, AUSTIN
00-T1535-FM 2/20/01 5:34 PM Page iii
GREEK
A N D
ROMAN
COMEDY
TRANSLATIONS
AND INTERPRETATIONS
OF FOUR
REPRESENTATIVE PLAYS
00-T1535-FM 2/20/01 5:34 PM Page iv
This book has been supported by an endowment dedicated to classics and the ancient
world, funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the
Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the James R. Dougherty, Jr. Foundation, and the
Rachael and Ben Vaughan Foundation, and by gifts from Mark and Jo Ann Finley, Lucy
Shoe Meritt, Anne Byrd Nalle, and other individual donors.
Copyright © 2001 by the University of Texas Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First edition, 2001
Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to Per-
missions, University of Texas Press, P.O. Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713-7819.
(cid:2)(cid:2) The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso
z39.48-1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Paper).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Greek and Roman comedy : translations and interpretations of four representative
plays/editedbyShawnO’Bryhim;withcontributionsbyGeorgeFredricFranko...
[et al.].—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn0-292-76054-x(cloth:alk.paper)—isbn0-292-76055-8(pbk.:alk.paper)
1. Classical drama (Comedy)—Translations into English. 2. Classical drama
(Comedy)—History and criticism. I. O’Bryhim, Shawn, 1960– II. Franko,
George Fredric.
pa3629 .g74 2001
880(cid:3)21—dc09
00-064879
00-T1535-FM 2/20/01 5:34 PM Page v
C O N T E N T S
Preface, vii
Aristophanes and Athenian Old Comedy by S. Douglas Olson, 1
3 Introduction
14 The Politics of Comedy and the Problem of the Reception of
Aristophanes’ Acharnians
33 Select Bibliography
35 A Note on the Translation
36 Acharnians
Menander and Greek New Comedy by Shawn O’Bryhim, 83
85 Introduction
96 Dance, Old Man, Dance!: The Torture of Knemon in Menander’s
Dyskolos
110 Select Bibliography
112 Dyskolos; or, The Grouch
Plautus and Roman New Comedy by George Fredric Franko, 147
149 Introduction
169 Cleostrata in Charge: Tradition and Variation in Casina
187 Select Bibliography
189 Casina
Terence and Roman New Comedy by Timothy J. Moore, 241
243 Introduction
253 Who Is the Parasite?: Giving and Taking in Phormio
265 Select Bibliography
266 Phormio
THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
00-T1535-FM 2/20/01 5:34 PM Page vii
P R E F A C E
Every year several new translations of ancient tragedy appear. If not for the rel-
atively few translations of ancient comedy, the general reader might think that
the Greeks and Romans were humorless wrecks, obsessed with death and dis-
aster. Nothing could be further from the truth. The ancients had a robust sense
of humor that encompassed everything from politics to sexuality. The scarcity
of new translations of ancient comedies may stem from any number of fac-
tors, including the erroneous belief that what is serious is by definition more
worthwhile than what is humorous. It is my hope that this book will dispel this
misconception.
Although this volume will be of interest to the general reader, it is meant
primarily as a textbook for university students in basic courses on classical civ-
ilization, classical literature in translation, Great Books, English, and theater. I
have taught several of these courses over the years and have been frustrated by
the lack of a text that contains representative works of all extant comic play-
wrights and includes introductions to each author and essays on their plays. My
only recourse has been to instruct my students to buy several different texts in
order to cover these authors, which is very costly and inadequate for our needs.
Hence the impetus for this book.
Four scholars of ancient comedy have contributed to this volume. Since
every comic playwright whose work survives is represented here, the reader
can form a fairly good picture of the types of comedy that were produced in
Greece and Rome from the fifth to the second century b.c.It is not our inten-
tion to present the “greatest hits” of ancient comedy or those works that are
most easily produced on stage. On the contrary, we chose these plays because
they are representative of each author’s corpus. The inclusion of Lysistrata,for
example, would have been a mistake, because it is not representative of
Aristophanes’ work and would give the reader an inaccurate picture of Aristo-
phanic comedy.ThesubstitutionofMenander’sSamiaforDyskoloswouldhave
requiredsubstantialadditionsbythetranslatorbecauseofitsfragmentarystate,
thus making it more of an adaptation than a translation.
Some readers favor loose translations that border on adaptations. How-
ever,thecreationofmodernizedversionsoftheseplaysrunscontrarytothephi-
losophybehindourtranslations:theyshouldbesmoothandreadable,butshould
stay as close to the ideas and tone of the text as possible. As a result, theywill
beusabletwentyyearsfromnow,whenolderadaptationsfilledwithephemeral
vii
00-T1535-FM 2/20/01 5:34 PM Page viii
viii Greek and Roman Comedy
slang will have been replaced by newer adaptations filled with ephemeral slang.
Andwhilealltranslationsare,bynature,adaptations,verylooseonescanoften
mislead those who wish to understand the culture in which the originals were
written.Inanattempttoavoidthis,thetranslatorshavefollowedafewgeneral
guidelines in preparing their translations: avoid anachronisms; remain true to
the original; translate all songs and significant changes of meter into verse; and
includethebareminimumofstagedirections.Stagedirectionsarenotfoundin
the ancient manuscripts, so only exits, entrances, and a few directions that are
absolutely necessary have been included here. Cues imposed by translators can
act as a straitjacket upon imagination and creativity; their absence frees each
reader to determine how each play might have taken shape on stage.
Since ancient comedies are sometimes inextricably bound to the time in
which they were written, the best way to understand these translations is to
read the elements of each section in the order in which they appear. The in-
troduction includes information about the author and the category into which
his comedy falls. A plot summary at the end of the introduction provides the
background necessary to understand the events and characters discussed in the
essay, which concentrates on an important theme in the play. After reading
these sections, the reader will be in a better position to fully enjoy the transla-
tion and to appreciate the artistry of the author of the play. However, the for-
mat is very flexible, thus allowing the book to be used in several ways. The
reader can concentrate on just a couple of authors, gain a general understand-
ing of ancient comedy by reading all of the introductory chapters in order, or
simply read the plays in isolation.
One word of caution: relatively few ancient comedies survive. There were
other authors who probably wrote significantly different—and perhaps bet-
ter—playsthantheonespresentedhere,buttheirworkshavebeenlost.There-
fore, to know the plays in this book is not to know all there is about ancient
comedy. This is only an introduction to the genre. Some of the plays in this
book are incomplete; sometimes substantial elements are missing, and other
times just a few lines. In such cases, the translators have supplied what they
deemed necessary to make the plays comprehensible to the modern reader.
These additions are contained within brackets and in most cases are guesses
based upon a few surviving words or letters. Other interpretations are possible
and are encouraged.
Shawn O’Bryhim, Arcadia, Indiana, January24, 2000
00-T1535-FM 2/20/01 5:34 PM Page ix
GREEK
A N D
ROMAN
COMEDY