201comedy.html

"Old" Comedy

Origins

Bk. 2 of Aristotle’s Poetics lost
name comes from komos ("wild party")
animal chorus
ritual obscenity & abuse
actors wear large leather phallus

5th Century Comedy

488 Put on at City Dionysia (March)

Day 4 (after tragedies on 1-3)
5 Authors, 1 play each

440 Introduced at Lenaia (Feb.)

Staging

Chorus of 24 (vs. 12-15 in tragedy)
4 actors (vs. 3 in tragedy)
Masks (at least for main characters)
No unity of time/place
Constant violation of "fourth wall"

Structure

Hero dissatisfied with reality
(war, corruption, etc.)

***
A man with a plan ...

***
Agon:
hero vs. antagonist (or chorus)

***
Parabasis:
chorus delivers author’s "editorial"

***
Slapstick scene #1
Slapstick scene #2
Slapstick scene #3
(etc.)

***
Wild party, drinking, sex etc.

Aristophanes (?455-?386)

c. 40 plays (11 survive)

Utopian fantasy

Birds: utopian fantasy (polis in sky)
Women in the Assembly
Wealth: god’s sight restored

Social Satire

Wasps: mocks legal system
Clouds: satirizes Socrates as sophist

Peloponnesian War

Acharnians: "a separate peace"
Lysistrata: sex strike to end war
Peace: rescue mission to Olympus

Cleon

Knights: old man Demos & his slaves

Euripides

Women at the Thesmophoria
Frogs: Dionysos in underworld

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