Popular Comedy in Aristophanes Author(s): Charles T. Murphy Source: The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 93, No.

1, Studies in Honor of Henry T. Rowell (Jan., 1972), pp. 169-189 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/292910 Accessed: 21/11/2010 17:05
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POPULAR COMEDY IN ARISTOPHANES. Since the fundamental work of Korte and Pickard-Cambridge earlier in this century, it has been the generally accepted theory that Old Attic Comedy is a blend of two main ingredients: an Attic-Ionic choral performance (the Komos) and a non-choral, mimetic performance, farcical in nature and probably Doric in origin.1 This view has, to be sure, been challenged by (among others) H. Herter (Vom dionysischen Tanz zum komischenSpiel [Iserlohn, 1947]), who argues that there is evidence to show that both the choral and the actors' parts in Old Comedy descend from performances of the Ithyphalloi in Attica. More recently, L. Breitholtz, in a thoroughly skeptical examination of the evidence (Die dorische Farce im griechischen Mutterland vor dem 5. Jahrhundert. Hypothese oder Realitdt? [Stockholm, 1960]), asserts that there is no clear proof for the existence of Doric farces on the Greek mainland early enough to have contributed to the origins of Old Comedy. To this one might reply that there is very little proof of almost anything in Greek literary history before the fifth century B. C. We have to make what we can of the texts preserved to us. So far as the present paper is concerned, it makes no difference whether the farcical scenes in Aristophanes derive from earlier Doric comedies, which provided the origin of part of Old Comedy, or not. There is certainly enough evidence to demonstrate the existence of popular entertainments which were familiar to Aristophanes and his audience, and from which he borrowed material to season, so to speak, his literary comedies and make them more acceptable to the "groundlings" in his audience. The possibility, however, cannot be ruled out that he used this type of material because he himself enjoyed it and thought it funny. Although he and other comic writers speak of some of the farcical material as " Megarian," it may be, as Breitholtz argues, a mere pejorative term, meaning "stale and
1A K6rte, R.-E., XI, 8.v. Komodie; A. W. Pickard-Cambridge, Dithyramb, Tragedy, and Comedy (Oxford, 1927), hereafter referred to as P-C.

169

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CHARLES T. MURPHY.

vulgar." 2 Such comic themes may have been wide-spread in the Greek world; one of the striking features of my study of these farcical elements is the conservatism of low-class comedy. Many of the jests and comic tricks to be discussed below could be illustrated by American vaudeville and burlesque comics and " English music hall turns" earlier in this century. At any rate, the purpose of this paper is not to prove anything about the origins of comedy, but simply to point out and isolate elements in Aristophanes' comedies which may contribute to a reader's understanding and appreciation of the plays. Let us look first at the literary evidence, especially at what Aristophanes himself tells us. In a number of passages he speaks of vulgar types of comedy and occasionally brags that he himself avoids this sort of farce as below the dignity of his own more elevated drama. This is, of course, mere banter: probably he is criticizing his competitors in the comic festivals for their use of such material. But he may also be making fun of himself and his own comedy; a frequent trick of modern comics is to comment on the badness of their own jokes. This device might be called " deprecating while doing," or "comic praeteritio" (" I will not, of course, use any of the following stale jokes").3 In any case, as readers of Aristophanes know, every vulgar trick he criticizes can be abundantly illustrated from his own plays. Here are the most important passages. In Ach., 729 ff., a Megarian enters to trade in Dicaeopolis' new, open market. Having nothing to sell but his two daughters, he proposes what he calls a Megarian device (McyapcKa TLS /aXava) to find a purchaser for his girls. A masquerade scene follows, with the two girls disguised as pigs and a series of obscene word-plays based on the double meaning of choiros (= pig, or female genitals). The suggestion has been made that possibly disguise-tricks were a specialty of earlier farces.4 Both this scene and the next include characters speaking a foreign dialect, which is also noted as a theme used in earlier farces.
2 The nearest modern parallel that I can think of is a " Bronx cheer,' which may or may not have originated in the Bronx. 8 The best example is in Frogs, 1-30, where Xanthias slips in two of the jokes that Dionysus has forbidden as stale.

' See P-C., pp. 277-8.

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In Clouds, 295-7, Strepsiades, in fright at the thunder of the Cloud-chorus, threatens to ease himself on stage. Socrates tells him not to behave like those " comic buffoons." The Greek word,
Tpvyo8alLwoveS,may suggest

that the original comic actor was

considered a daimon, an attendant on Dionysus. Several scenes in Aristophanes present characters who ease themselves-or threaten to-on stage (Peace, 175-6; Birds, 65-8; Frogs, 47991). All of these refer to the effects of sudden terror on the bowels. More prolonged and less palatable to modern taste is the easing-scene in Ecc., 311-71. Here Blepyrus, husband of Praxagora, the leader of the Greek Women's Liberation Movement, comes out of the house in his wife's clothes: she has sneaked out with his clothes to attend the Ecclesia, dressed as a man. He has had a violent attack of diarrhea, and proceeds to defecate on stage, and discusses his predicament with a friend for all of 60 lines. The scene, to be sure, introduces one of the leading characters and shows the straits to which he has been reduced by his wife. But it is intolerably long and vulgar, and not (to most modern tastes) a bit funny. We may suggest that Aristophanes used it because it was one of those bits of coarse stagebusiness to which his audience had become accustomed. The Parabasis in the Clouds, 537-43, lists some of the tricks of low comedy, which are not necessarily Doric and all are used in Old Comedy and later farces: (1) The use of the leather, red-tipped phallus attached to the garments. There is hardly a play of Aristophanes in which this is not used for some vulgar jest. See especially Ach., 156 ff. (the Odomanti mercenaries), 592, and 1216-17; even in the Clouds, that "chaste and maidenly comedy," it seems likely that Strepsiades was so equipped (lines 653-4, 734). The obscene use of the same property as a rope by the drunken Philocleon in Wasps, 1342-4 defies description. According to the Scholiast on Peace, 142, Trygaeus wore the same prop, and says he will use it as a rudder if his beetle falls into the sea. The servant, Peace, 879-80, is probably also so equipped. The visible phallus provides a great deal of horse-play in the Lysistrata (especially in the Myrrhina-Cinesias scene and the embassy-scenes) and above all in the Thesmophoriazusae, where the detection and

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stripping of Euripides' kinsman, disguised as a woman and rudely unveiled, is too vulgar for description in decent language (lines 635-48). Other topics in the passage of the Clouds include (2) mockery of bald-heads: the stupid, bald old fool (senex stupidus) was a stock character in the later mime. But Aristophanes, who was prematurely bald, may have been protesting for personal reasons. (Cf. Peace, 767-73.) (3) The use of the kordax, a vulgar dance. Later (lines 553-6) Aristophanes complains that his rival Eupolis in his Maricas "dragged in" a drunken old woman to perform this dance, "she who was eaten by the beast." This sounds like a travesty of the Andromeda myth. (4) An old man who beats his companion with a stick, "to hide the badness of his jokes." One might compare the modern comic who hits the "straight-man" with a rolled-up newspaper at his " punch-line." In any case, beating scenes in Aristophanes (especially in driving off "intruders" or pests) are so frequent that they need no listing. (5) "Torch-scenes" : characters rushing on with lighted torches, perhaps originally used in the Komos to singe (or threaten to) the spectators. At the end of the Lysistrata (121624), a character, variously identified, appears at the door of the house where the Spartan and Athenian negotiators have been dining, and threatens a group of bystanders, who seem to be blocking the door, with a torch: "You there, why are you sitting here? Do you want me to singe you with this torch? No: it's a vulgar trick; I won't do it." To the audience: "Still, if I must do it to please you, I'll have to put up with it." Again, it seems that Aristophanes is poking fun at his audience's taste for low comic tricks.5 More impressive is the use of torches in Thesm., 655-85. After the discovery and binding up of the male intruder in the women's festival, the chorus suggests that they light torches and conduct a search of the precinct to see if any other men have
6 For an interesting discussion of the function and staging of this scene, see C. F. Russo, Aristofane, autore di teatro (Firenze, 1962), pp. 282-4.

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sneaked in. To judge by the text of the choral song that follows, the chorus must have performed a spectacular "torch-dance." Torches are also used at the end of the Wasps (Philocleon threatens to singe the injured and outraged guests who are following him), and in Ecc., 937 if., where a youth enters carrying a torch on his way to a rendezvous with his girl-friend. In the prologue of the Wasps (57-60), the slave Xanthias tells the audience not to expect "jests stolen from Megara." The following lines mention slaves throwing nuts to the audience, and " Heracles cheated of his dinner." Aristophanes himself in the Peace (960-3) uses a similar device-a slave throwing sacrificial grain to the audience-to introduce an indecent pun
(KptO- =

barley, or penis).

The same trick is mentioned and

then pointedly avoided in Plutus, 795-9, where the god Plutus says he prefers to receive his offerings of figs and sweets inside the house: "for it isn't proper for a poet to throw figs and sweets to the audience and make it laugh in this way." The topic is then used to introduce a bit of personal satire against a contemporary glutton, or "free-loader" : the wife replies: Well said! For here's Deximachus standing up to grab the figs. As for the "hungry Heracles," one of the most entertaining scenes in the Birds (1565-1693) shows the gluttonous Heracles drooling over a roast fowl, which the hero uses to persuade him to accept the birds' peace-terms. Expecting to be invited to share the roast, he is instead sent back to Olympus to prepare for the hero's coming wedding.6 In the last of the great literary Parabases (Peace, 739-42), Aristophanes boasts of his services to comedy by forcing his competitors to give up the following stale and vulgar tricks: (1) "Mocking at rags and warring with lice"; this may be figurative, meaning aiming one's satire at trivial subjects. But it may be literal; two passages in the Clouds (634, 696722) show Strepsiades "warring" with the bugs in his fleece.
6 The next three lines in the Wasps (61-3), "Euripides degraded," and "cutting Cleon to pieces" probably refer to recent comedies of Aristophanes: i. e., the poet promises not to repeat his recent comic themes.

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(2) The "hungry Heracles" is mentioned again. (3) Slaves running away, deceiving their masters, and being beaten, in order to work in stale jokes. Once again, Aristophanes uses the same trick at the opening of the Knights (1-29): the two household slaves of Demos come out after a beating and discuss the advisability of running away. So much for what Aristophanes himself tells us.7 We can add to these passages a few notices about early farces, found in later writers. The evidence is complicated and very tenuous; I skip details here, referring the reader to the masterly treatment by Pickard-Cambridge and the more recent investigation by Breitholtz.8 The locus classicus is in Athenaeus, XIV, 621 ff., where we hear of the " deikelistai " in Sparta, who "mimed" in low language such comic types as "fruit-stealers" and foreign doctors speaking in dialect. Both are found in Aristophanes; foodstealers in Ach., 809-10 and especially in Knights, 1192-1200; dialect speakers in Ach., 729-951, as already noted. In the same passage Athenaeus mentions other similar performances, though some of them were obviously choral and not like the improvised farces we assume as sources for Aristophanes' low comic scenes. They are called variously " phallophoroi," "autokabdaloi," "phlyakes" (in south Italy), and "sophistai." The last term suggests improvised performances given by experts, like the actors in the Italian Commedia dell' Arte. We may also note the " Bryllichistai" at Sparta 9; these were probably non-dramatic dances in honor of Artemis with men dressed as women and (possibly) women dressed as men and wearing the phallus. This is an early notice of transvestitism, which appears often in later farce. Presumably, this early form of farcical performances was not written down until the activity of Epicharmus, who wrote comedies, or mimes, in Sicily around 485 B. C. or earlier.10 From
7 Because of limitation of space, I omit a discussion of Frogs, 1-30, with the references to defecating and vomiting. In any case, Aristophanes seems here to be criticizing the use of such stale jokes by his competitors in the Dionysiac contests. But see note 3 above. P.-C., op. cit. (note 1), pp. 223-84; 353-415.

0 See P-C., pp. 353-63;

See P-C., pp. 253-9.

380-413.

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the titles and fragments of his plays we learn that he was partial to mythological burlesque (over half the titles) with Heracles and Odysseus as favorite characters; he also dealt with ordinary life and types (the first parasite in Greek comedy appears in fr. 34-5); three titles suggest dramatized debates. From literary sources, then, we can assume the existence of popular farces in various parts of the Greek world in the fifth century, perhaps going back to the sixth. Typical themes include dialect-scenes; burlesque of myth; scenes of disguising; vulgar dances, sometimes with characters dressed in the clothing of the opposite sex; stealing of food; scenes of characters easing themselves on stage. The type-characters may have included a stupid, bald-headed old man, who is often deceived; an old man with a staff, with which he beats his companion; one or two slaves who crack irrelevant jokes, occasionally throw nuts and other edibles to the audience, and who run away and are beaten; torch-scenes, in which the performers threaten to singe the bystanders with their lighted torches. Very little of this comedy was ever written down except by Epicharmus and his successors, Phormus and Deinolochus, in Sicily. It has been suggested that Aristophanes did not know the work of Epicharmus 11; if he used some of the same farcical material, he probably learned it nearer home. There is some evidence that farcical scenes, including mythological travesty, were presented in Athens in less elevated, or literary performances than the comedies that competed in the theater of Dionysus. A well-known Attic vase of about 400 B. C. represents a single, grotesque actor, representing Perseus, dancing before an audience of two, a man holding a young lady on his lap.12 The wooden platform with steps leading up to it is a close parallel to the stage found in Phlyax comedy.13 We get a description of such private entertainments in Xenophon's Symposium: after dinner a group of entertainers appear
" E. Wist, "Epicharmos und die alte attische KomSdie," Rh.M., XCIII (1950), pp. 337-64. 13 Illustrated in M. Bieber, History of the Greek and Roman Theater, (2nd ed., Princeton, 1961), p. 48, fig. 202. (Hereafter referred to as Bieber, GRT.) 18 For a discussion of Phlyax comedy, see below.

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(2, 1): the troupe is directed by a Syracusan (again Sicily seems the home of such popular entertainment), and consists of a female flute-player, a dancing-girl, and a boy who could play the cither and also dance. The entertainment first consisted of juggling, acrobatics, and dancing; none of this is dramatic or mimetic in nature, but we hear later (4, 55) that this same Syracusan has a marionette-show which he exhibits to please " simple-minded folk " rols appocnv. The evening then ends with a bit of real miming, including music and dancing (9, 1-7: The mime of Dionysus and Ariadne): The Syracusan came in and announced: " Gentlemen, Ariadne will enter the room set apart for her and Dionysus; next, Dionysus, a little drunk, will come to her; after this they will play with each other." Then, first of all, Ariadne entered, decorated as a bride, and sat down on a chair. Before Dionysus appeared, there was flute music in the Bacchic rhythm. . . . On hearing this, Ariadne reacted so that everyone would realize she was filled with joy at the sound, and though she did not rise to meet him, it was obvious that she had difficulty keeping still. When Dionysus saw her, he danced up like one madly in love, and sat on her lap and embraced and kissed her. She affected modesty, but still embraced him most lovingly in return. (The guests when they saw this, applauded and shouted, "Encore! ") When Dionysus rose and drew Ariadne up to stand with him, there was a mimicry of lovers kissing and fondling each other. The audience gazed at a truly handsome Dionysus, a beautiful Ariadne, not pretending but really kissing with their lips; all were aroused as they watched. For they also heard Dionysus asking her if she loved him, and her swearing that she did, so that all those present would have sworn that the boy and girl really loved each other. For they seemed not like actors who had learned a role, but like those who were now allowed to do what they had long desired. Finally, the guests, seeing them embracing and apparently heading for bed, got up, the unmarried swearing that they would get married at once, while those already married mounted their horses and rode off to their wives, to enjoy them. Noteworthy is the somewhat lascivious nature of this mime, which anticipates some of the features of the later Roman mime; also note the effect on the guests.

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Not all of the evidence is in written form, and it is now time to turn to a very brief examination of some of the relevant archaeological material. Without full illustrations, one can only give brief mention of the important items. In any case, very little of it can be securely dated to the sixth or fifth century. A number of Corinthian vases from the sixth century B. C. show figures with heavily padded stomachs and buttocks, and some equipped with the phallus.14 The costume suggests the costume of the actors in Old Comedy. Another Corinthian vase depicts a scene of wine-stealers (Denkmdler, figs. 123-a-b); the presence of a flute-player suggests a dramatic performance. The names attached to three of the figures are of some interest: "Eunous," perhaps the spirit of good will; "Ophelandros," giver of fertility and other benefits to men; "Omrikos" (later spelled Ombrikos), which may mean the rain bringer. In other words, all are spirits beneficial to mankind. The reverse of the jar shows two of the thieves punished in the stocks. Another sixth-century Corinthian vase (Denkmdler, fig. 122) shows Dionysus and Hephaestus attended by ithyphallic daimones; although this is probably not a theatrical scene, it indicates that such figures were associated with Dionysus in the Peloponnesus in the sixth century B. C. And there is surely some connection between these figures and the dress of the actors of Old Comedy in Athens, even if we cannot prove direct influence. Another vase, found in Cyrene but probably of Attic manufacture (Denkmdler, fig. 125), dated about 400 B.C. shows a caricature of the apotheosis of Heracles: a winged Athena-Nike drives Heracles in a chariot, drawn by four centaurs, while a figure in loose-fitting tights (the equivalent of nudity on the stage) dances in front of the chariot. Again, we have a vase that indicates familiarity with parodies of heroic myths and includes a figures not unlike the later Phlyax-buffoons. Although scenes from Attic Old Comedy do not appear to have attracted Attic vase-painters, four vases found in the Agora excavations in 1954 show comic scenes.15 The vases represent
14P-C., figs. 33, 34, 35, 36. Cf. also M. Bieber, Denkmdler, P1. 67-74. (Hereafter referred to by title only.) 1 M. Crosby, "Five Comic Scenes from Athens," Hesperia, XXIV (1955), pp. 76-84. The fifth vase was a previously unpublished oinochoe

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grotesque figures like the Phlyakes buffoons; one scene (Crosby, no. 3, Obeliaphorai) closely parallels a Phlyax crater in Leningrad: two grotesque figures carrying a roast of meat on a spit. Miss Crosby believes (with Professor T. B. L. Webster) that Phlyax-vases reflect scenes from Attic Old Comedy; but it is equally possible that both Old Comedy and the Phlyakes took scenes from a common source of popular comedy. At this point we may treat briefly later forms of popular entertainments which may be related to some of the farcical scenes in Old Comedy. Most important is the series of Phlyaxvases found throughout south Italy and Sicily.16 A Phlyax is a buffoon, but his name seems connected with a root meaning, "increase, fertility, abundance."17 Hence he may be taken to be an earth spirit of fertility, attendant on Dionysus; several vases show one or two of these figures dancing around Dionysus.18 But the word then comes to mean the kind of grotesque performance in which such buffoons acted. Most of the vases come from the fourth century B. C., after 360 B. C. according to the expert, Trendall. The Phlyax-buffoon wears tights (to suggest nudity), and a phallus which often dangles below a short upper garment; usually his buttocks and stomach are heavily padded (like the actors in Old Comedy). The subjects of the vase-painting are about equally divided between mythological travesty (33 listed in Catteruccia) and scenes from daily life (29). Only a few scenes can be described here. One of the most famous vases (by Asteas of Paestum) parodies Zeus' visit to Alcmene (Catteruccia, no. 1; Denkmdler, pl. 76), in which Zeus aided by Hermes uses a ladder to climb up to Alcmene, waiting at her window. A similar amorous adventure, without divine characters (Bieber, GRT, fig. 501), suggests that shady, amorous intrigues were among the subjects of these farces. In later
in the British Museum, purchased in Athens in the 1890's. The vases from the Agora are dated by associated finds to about 400 B. C. 6 Conveniently catalogued in L. M. Catteruccia, Pittore vasoolari italiote di soggetto teatrale comico (Rome, 1951). Unfortunately, the illustrations in this volume are poor, and where possible I refer to better plates in M. Bieber, Denkmaler, etc., and M. Bieber, GRT. 17 Catteruccia, op. cit., p. 9. 18 Catteruccia, nos. 14-22, pp. 28-32.

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periods, the "Adultery Mime," in which a clever young wife deceives her stupid old husband, is very frequent. As might be expected, Heracles is a common figure in these mythological burlesques; he appears on at least seven vases (Catteruccia, no. 2, 5-10). One shows him gorging himself in the presence of an outraged Zeus, who seems to be aiming a thunderbolt at him (Denkcmiler, p. 77); i. e., Aristophanes' "hungry Heracles" again. Another (Denkmiiler, pl. 79) shows Eeracles threatening Apollo, who has taken refuge on the roof of his temple; another figure on the right may be Iolaus prepared to snatch Apollo's bow if he falls off the roof. A fourth mask hangs on the wall on the left.19 A fragment of a vase by Asteas (Denkmiiler, fig. 129) shows a parody of the rape of Cassandra by Ajax, but with the roles reversed: Ajax, attacked by Cassandra and an elderly priestess, clings in terror to a statue of Athena. This comic inversion of a well-known legend seems to be a frequent device of mythological burlesque. Of considerable interest also is a travesty of the Antigone-story (Denckmiler,fig. 130): the guard has brought "Antigone" before Creon, but the alleged young lady has removed her mask and is revealed as a bearded old man. His sex is further emphasized by the appearance of a phallus under his transparent robe. We may compare the stripping of the disguised kinsman in Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae. Other mythological subjects include the adventures of Odysseus, the birth of Helen from an egg, Pyrrhus about to slay Priam, Oedipus and the sphinx, etc. A few scenes of ordinary life are interesting, some because they illustrate some of the themes of Old Comedy, others because they anticipate scenes in Plautus and thus form a real link between Greek farce and later comedy in Greece and Rome. Two vases (Bieber, GRT, figs. 512-13) show punishments of slaves or thieves. Commentators usually refer to the beating scene in the Frogs (616 ff.) and the punishment of Euripides' kinsman in the Thesmophoriazusae. Catteruccia, no. 17 shows
19 Miss Bieber in GRT, p. 131, makes the interesting suggestion that the four masks in this scene are forerunners of the four main stock characters in the Oscan farces, or Atellanae: Pappus, Dossenus, Maccus, and Bucco. This is mere conjecture, although I find it attractive.

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an old friend: the "fruit-stealer." An elderly buffoon is running away, while the stolen fruit pours out of the folds of his cloak.20 Harpo Marx used to have a similar act: a detective investigating some thefts in a private house, one who prides himself on his ability to recognize an honest man by his face, vigorously shakes Harpo's hand: "A really honest man, if I ever saw one." As he does so, quantities of silver pour out from Harpo's voluminous sleeve. An ugly little scene (Catteruccia, no. 65) shows a buffoon vomiting while a woman holds his head. One recalls the scene in the Acharnians (580 ff.) where Dicaeopolis used a feather from Lamachus' helmet to induce vomiting. Similar scenes of vomiting on stage are suggested in Cratinus, fr. 251, and Aristophanes, fr. 49. Such vulgar tricks parallel the threats of other characters to defecate on stage. Connected with themes of later comedy are: (1) a scene of a miser lying on his treasure chest, and apparently attacked by two thieves (Denkmialer,pl. 84, 1); (2) a stern father leading home a drunken son (Denkmdler, pl. 85, 1); (3) a younger and an older man fighting for possession of a woman (Denkmdler, pl. 84, 2); one thinks of the competition of father and son for the possession of a female slave in several plays of Plautus. This is a fair sampling of the themes of these vases. Probably these farces were improvised and never written down. But the plays were given literary form later by Rhinthon of Syracuse (or Tarentum), who was active under the first two Ptolemies (i. e., early third century B. C.). Ancient testimonia call his plays both Phlyakes and Hilarotragoidia. Rhinthon therefore may be called the "inventor" (Greek, eVpepri) of Phlyax-comedy only in the sense that Epicharmus was the "inventor" of the Dorian mime: i. e., the first to elevate it to a written, literary form. We have only a few titles preserved: 21 they include an Amphitryon, an intermediary between Plautus' comedy and his Greek source; we may also recall the Phlyax-vase of Asteas
20 I cannot agree with Miss Bieber's interpretation (GRT, p. 138, fig. 502a-b) that the old man is bringing the fruit to a beautiful young lady on the reverse side of the vase. This is hardly the way to bring a present of fruit to a girl-friend. 21 Kaibel, Comicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Berlin, 1899), pp. 183-9. Also A. Olivieri, Frammenti della commedia greca, etc. (Naples, 1946-7).

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mentioned above. Heracles, the constant figure in popular comedy; an Iphigenia in Aulide and I. in Tauris; Medea; Orestes; and Telephus, a tragedy of Euripides which Aristophanes found very funny and often parodied, especially in the Acharnians and Thesmophoriazusae. We have a grotesque terracotta statuette, probably of the early fourth century, showing Telephus holding the infant Orestes as a hostage (Denkmrnler, no. 76, pl. 67, 4); this suggests that this scene stuck in popular memory and was often parodied. Finally, we may mention a Doulomeleagros "Meleager as a Slave," perhaps in his courtship of Atalanta. This is about all we know for certain about Rhinthon. As often happens, when the Phlyax-farces became " literary," the improvised popular farces tended to disappear; there are no Phlyax vases certainly dated after the early 3rd century B. C. Related in some way to the Greek Phlyakes are the native south Italian farces later called Atellanae, from the town of Atella in Campania near Naples. They are also called Oscan farces, because they were originally in the Oscan Italic dialect. Some connection between the two types is indicated by a vase (Denkmdler, no. 125, fig. 133), which shows a figure like a Phlyax-clown labelled "Santia," an Oscan form of Xanthias, a frequent slave-name in Greek comedy.22 Like the Phlyakes, the Atellanae began as improvised, unwritten farces. They dealt with stock characters: the best known are Maccus, the fool; Dossenus, the scheming hunchback; Pappus, the stupid old man; and Bucco, a braggart. Livy, in a famous passage (VII, 2, 8-12), asserts that these Oscan farces were introduced into Rome, probably in the third century B. C. Our main evidence, however, for the nature of these plays is later, when in the first century B. C. they were written down by Pomponius and Novius for an audience which had lost its taste for the more polished palliatae. Over 100 titles are listed in Ribbeck's Comicorum Romanorum Fragmenta (Lipsiae, 1898).
22I have already mentioned (above, note 19) Miss Bieber's suggestion that the masks shown on the Heracles-Apollo scene (Denkmdler, pl. 79) are related to four of the stock characters in the Atellanae. Such a relationship is what we should expect to find in south Italy and Sicily in the 4th-3rd centuries B. C., i.e. a mixture of native Italic figures with characters from the contemporary Greek farces.

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It must be noted that these later authors obviously reflect many types of earlier comedy; hence, many titles suggest New Comedy: e. g., Adelphi, Citharista, Hetaera, Gemini, Synephebi, and Leno. But many titles suggest the continuation of the earlier, subliterary farces. The ever-popular mythological burlesque, which goes back at least to Epicharmus' time, is found in such titles as Andromache, Ariadne, Armorum Iudicium, Autonoe, Hercules Coactor (i. e., as a bill-collector). Of special interest is Agamemno Suppositus, which suggests that someone was disguised as Agamemnon, probably for purposes of deception. Other titles suggest sketches of ordinary life and common social types (as in Epicharmus and the Phlyakes): e. g., Agricola, Augur, Fullones, Piscatores, and Medicus (doctors are a favorite butt of comedy in all ages). The names of the stock characters turn up also in the titles: Bucco Adoptatus, Duo Dosseni (possibly a play of deception, or else just mistaken identity, like Plautus' Menaechmi); Pappus Agricola; Sponsa Pappi (which may be the situation of the stupid old man deceived by his young wife); also a whole series of Maccus-plays: Macci Gemini (mistaken identity again), Maccus Miles, Maccus Copo, and Maccus Virgo, another example of transvestitism, with plenty of opportunity for crude slapstick. A fragment of Pomponius' Macci Gemini indicates the same sort of masquerade: a character cries out: A! perii! non puellula est. numquid nam abscondidisti Inter nates? What was hidden "inter nates" is, of course only too clear, and perhaps indicates that the actors in the Atellanae sometimes wore the phallus. In any case, the scene reminds us of the detection of Euripides' kinsman in Thesm. (635-48), and of the narrative of the slave Olympio at the end of Plautus' Casina (873-937): he has entered a dark room to take his new "bride " Casina, who turns out to be a burly fellow-slave, who has been substituted for Casina. Although the text is corrupt, there is no doubt how Olympio discovered the deception! Another fragment, from a play called Kalendae Martiae (the matron's festival of the Matronalia, when women stayed home

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to receive presents), suggests a similar masquerade: one character says: Vocem deducas oportet, ut videantur mulieris verba. Another replies: Iube modo adferatur munus, vocem reddam ego tenuem et tinnulam. Similarly, in Aristophanes' Thesm., 266 ff., Euripides' kinsman is directed to speak in a womanish voice. So far, I think, we have pretty good evidence that some of the themes and characters of older Greek farces persisted in the Atellanae and eventually came to Rome, where Plautus worked them into his palliatae.23 The last form of ancient drama remains to be mentioned, the mime, into which all forms of earlier comedy tended to merge under the Roman Empire.24 The origin of the form is Greek, and goes back at least to Epicharmus, as we have seen. It became extremely popular in the Hellenistic and GraecoRoman world. Without listing all the evidence here, I think it is fairly clear that many of the same types appeared as in earlier farces: e.g., the fool, often bald; 25 we also hear of a character called Ardalio, a glutton perhaps related to Manduccus and Dossenus of the Atellanae; fools and parasites also appear. It seems clear, however, that the mime was not so limited in types as the Phlyakes and the Atellanae; it drew its characters from all sorts and conditions of mankind. Themes are also wider in range; many of the titles of Laberius suggest New Comedy.26But mythological parody continues: the longest text preserved to us, a papyrus from the second century of the Christian era, Chariton,27 gives a quasi-parody of the
28 See especially G. E. Duckworth, The Nature of Roman Comedy (Princeton Univ. Press, 1952), ch. 1, 2; also A. McN. G. Little, "Plautus and Popular Comedy," H.S.C.P., XLIX (1938), pp. 205-28. 24 The fundamental work is, of course, H. Reich, Der Mimus (Berlin, 1903). Other discussions in Bieber, GRT; Little, op. cit. (n. 23 above). 26 A character is addressed as "calve" in the Atellana, Piscatores, of Pomponius. 26See Ribbeck, op. cit., pp. 339-59. 27 Originally published by Grenfell and Hunt, Oxy. Pap., III (London,

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situation in Euripides' Iphigenia in Tauris, with a cruel barbarian king, a retinue who talk unintelligible gibberish (like the " Persian " in the Acharnians), a fool who supplies vulgar stagebusiness (principally by loudly breaking wind to imitate the drums which accompany parts of the action). One theme was, or became very popular: the adultery mime, a plot with a stupid old husband deceived by his clever young wife and her lover.28 Ovid in his defence of his love poetry (Tristia, II, 497-514) remarks that mimes are always presenting "illicit love affairs, in which an elegant lover appears and the clever wife deceives her stupid husband." He adds, "When the lover has deceived the husband by some novel device (aliqua novitate), he is applauded and wins the prize by popular acclaim." Juvenal (VI, 41-4) also mentions a mime in which the lover, surprised by the unexpected return of the husband, hides in a chest, where he is in danger of being smothered. A similar theme is found in another Greek papyrus fragment: 29 a jealous woman is in love with her young slave, who rejects her (cf. Herodas, Mime V). An unwanted husband seems to have figured in the plot, for in one scene she plans to poison him. There is perhaps some justification in the charges of Christian writers that the mimes were all about indecent subjects. " Here (i. e., in the mimes, says Dio Chrysostom) are to be seen nothing but fornication, adultery, courtesans, men pretending to be women, and soft-limbed boys." Note in passing the reference to the old motif of transvestitism. It is a well-known fact that none of the plots of Greek and Roman Comedy,as far as we know, used the theme of the unfaithful wife deliberately deceiving her husband. But we have seen evidence that this limitation is not true of more popular comic forms: e. g., the Phlyax vase mentioned above showing a lover climbing a ladder to his lady's window, or the Atellana entitled Sponsa Pappi.
1903) pp. 41-57; but now most conveniently found in D. L. Page, Select Papyri, III: Literary Papyri (Loeb Class. Lib., 1950), pp. 336-49. 28 Cf. R. W. Reynolds, "The Adultery Mime," C. Q., XL (1946), pp. 77-84. (This article came to my attention after most of the present paper was written.) 29 Page, op. cit., pp. 351-61.

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I believe that such dramatic scenes were known to Aristophanes and his audience through the popular farces of his day. Although he never used them as subjects for his plots, there are several references in speeches to the deception of husbands by clever, unfaithful wives. Aristophanes seems to have had a high opinion of women and their intelligence, but he constantly satirizes them as wine-bibbers and sex-pots. This is probably part of the traditional mockery and lampooning of the Dionysiac festival. The best evidence is found in the speeches in the Thesmophoriazusae, especially in the Kinsman's alleged defence of Euripides. This " defence" consists of relating various misdemeanours of women which Euripides has not revealed to their husbands. Some of the episodes sound like echoes of an " adultery mime," and I believe that Aristophanes and his audience had witnessed such scenes in the popular farces of the day. They can hardly refer to real life in Athens in the fifth century B. C. The most striking example comes in Thesm., 498-502. The Kinsman, relating a series of women's escapades, says: "And he (Euripides) has not yet told how a wife by showing her husband a robe (-yKvKAov)in the rays of the sun, got her lover out of the house concealed (by the robe)." One may see here almost a miniature scenario for a very brief adultery mime: the wife gets her husband out of the house on some pretext and receives her lover; the husband returns unexpectedly (perhaps having some suspicions). The wife, in desperation to get her lover out, has a sudden inspiration: she holds up a large garment for her husband to admire, which serves as a screen behind which her lover escapes. This sounds like one of those novel devices to deceive the husband which Ovid says wins the applause and favor of the spectators. Less amusing, but more vulgar is the scene described in lines 476-89: Not to mention anyone else, I myself know I am guilty of many dirty tricks: worst was this, when I'd been married only three days, and my husband was sleeping beside me. I had a lover who had deflowered me at the age of seven. He, yearning for me, came to the door and scratched it. I recognize the sound at once and start downstairs quietly,

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but my husband asks, 'where are you going?' 'Where? I have a terrible pain in the stomach; I'm going to the privy.' 'All right, go ahead.' And then he ground up various herbs (i. e., to help her pains), while I, pouring water on the door-hinge (to keep it from creaking), went out to my lover and enjoyed him, leaning over and holding on to a laurel-bush beside the statue of Apollo Aguieus. Once again we might reconstruct a short mime; like the previous example, it requires only three actors and a simple stage arrangement (a house-door on one side, with part of an interior and an exterior) which can be paralleled on Phlyax vases. Briefer references to women's deceptive tricks are found in the 'Apat of the Heraldress, who invokes curses on slaves who tell tales against their mistress to the master, or who being sent (presumably to a lover) bear a false message: curses are also aimed at lovers who do not fulfill their promises (lines 340-4). The speech of the First Woman (383 ff.) mentions men coming home from the theater and searching the house for hidden lovers. Another possible mime, though not on adultery, may be detected in lines 502-16. Another deception practiced by wives was the substitution of a baby purchased from elsewhere as their own. Apparently a wife who could not bear offspring for her husband was most vulnerable and might be easily divorced. The Kinsman's story again has dramatic possibilities. A woman of his acquaintance had pretended to be in labor for ten days, while she looked for an available baby to buy. Her frantic husband ran around buying up drugs to speed her delivery. An old woman (probably the midwife) finally smuggled in a newborn baby in a crock, with its mouth stopped up with honey. The women get the husband out of the room, remove the baby, who then cries vigorously. The old woman runs out to the man and congratulates him: "A lion! A lion has been born to you, your spit-and-image, just like you in everything, including his penis." Once again we have a cast of three, a simple stage-setting, part indoors, part outside the front door. It is usually stated that scenes derived from popular farces are found mainly in the second part of the plays (i. e., after the Parabasis). But a careful reading of the comedies, with the evidence here collected in mind, will show that such popular

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elements may be found in all parts of the play, especially in the prologue and in iambic scenes before and after the Agon. The Thesmophoriazusae especially seems to be built up of popular themes throughout. It includes transvestitism: in the prologue, Agathon appears dressed in women's clothes, to facilitate his composition of a women's chorus. The transformation of the Kinsman to a woman takes place on stage, in a riotously vulgar scene: he submits to a painful shave, and superfluous body-hair is singed off by a torch (perhaps a reminiscence of " torch-scenes " mentioned earlier). Later in the play, Euripides as an old hag. Incidentally, the purpose of the appears disguised last two disguises is to achieve deception, to fool somebody (as often). In the various speeches at the women's meeting, we get descriptions of women's wiles to deceive their husbands, which I have already discussed. When the news reaches the women that a man has sneaked into their meeting, the Kinsman tries to put off the awful moment when he will be interrogated and detected by claiming to have to ease himself (apparently on stage, again). His discovery follows; he is stripped, and the leather phallus which he wears beneath his robe betrays his sex, despite his frantic efforts to conceal it. Then follows a choral song and dance with torches, while the women search the orchestra to see if any more men are lurking about. After a brief, incomplete Parabasis, in which the women defend their sex, we got a series of mythological burlesques of Euripidean tragedies: they include the Telephus, with a wineskin taking the place of the infant Orestes as hostage, the Helen, and the Andromeda. The final scene includes a Scythian policeman speak. ing a barbarous dialect, and a suggestive dance, which may remind us of the lascivious mime of Dionysus and Ariadne described in Xenophon's Symposium. The Knights is filled with farcical elements: in order to satirize Athenian political life, and especially the demagogue Cleon, Aristophanes uses a common popular theme: the deception of a stupid, old master (here Demos, the Athenian people) by clever, unscrupulous slaves.30 The opening of the play sets
80 Cf. Little, op. cit. (note 23), p. 213. It hardly needs to be said that this is a very common theme in Plautus.

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the tone of the type of popular "slave-comedy." Two slaves come on stage weeping; they have just been beaten inside by the brutal Paphlagonian (= Cleon). They lament together in a sort of "weeping cadenza" (line 10), then discuss whether they should run away or find another means of outwitting the Paphlagonian. Guided by an oracle, they find another prospective slave of Demos, a Sausage-seller (" Hotdog vendor"), who because of his vulgarity, impudence, and shamelessness, can outdo the Paphlagonian as a rival for his master's favor. In part, the competition between the Paphlagonian and the Sausage-seller is presented as an erotic rivalry; both slaves are in love with Demos and seek his favors; this may be a vulgar degradation of a famous remark in Pericles' Funeral Oration (Thuc., II, 43, 1). Included in the first part of the play is a slanging match, or trading of insults between the two "slaves"; this too was a popular form of entertainment as we see from some of the more realistic pastorals of Theocritus, and from certain scenes in Plautus (convicia in Latin).31 The second part of the play is a contest between the rival slaves before the Master, Demos himself. For a while the pretense of a "slave-drama" is dropped and the material is purely political, while Aristophanes heaps charges of political corruption on Cleon. But at the end we return to the slave-drama: as we have seen, one of the characters in early farce was the food or fruit-stealer. In one of the final scenes (1151-1205), the slaves seek to win over Demos' favor by gifts of food. After a few donations, the Sausage-seller runs out of food, while the Paphlagonian, Cleon, still has a choice roast rabbit to present. Here the Sausage-seller is inspired to pull what he calls a clownHe pretends to see a foreign ish trick (1194: fwOoXxov ... r.). loaded with cash for bribes; Cleon runs off embassy arriving, to extort his share and while his back is turned, the Sausageseller steals the rabbit and gives it to Demos. It is noteworthy that one of the Sausage-seller's qualifications for political life, mentioned in an earlier passage (417-28), was his success in stealing food in the Agora. In this way, Aristophanes degrades the competition of politicians to a vulgar, slavish trick of steal31Cf. particularly Pseudolus, 357-68.

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ing food, and to drive home his point, he refers immediately to Cleon's claiming the victory at Sphacteria (1201), the credit for which (in Aristophanes' opinion) belonged to Demosthenes. It seems probable that this whole scene was funnier to the Athenian audience because they recognized in it elements from familiar, popular farces, and that Aristophanes was able in this way to make his fierce charges and satire against Cleon and other demagogues more palatable. To conclude: it seems to me likely that many scenes and bits of comic stage-business are directly imitated from a subliterary, farcical type of performance known to the Greeks of the fifth century B. C. I do not claim the case is proved: in fact, as I remarked at the beginning, the purpose of this essay is not to prove anything, but to suggest ideas which may help readers of Aristophanes to appreciate and enjoy more fully his comedies. I do not think these ideas have been sufficiently taken into account in the usual criticism and evaluation of the plays. It might be argued that the genius and originality of Aristophanes lay in his ability to combine these vulgar and often stale tricks with his more elevated " Comedy of Ideas." In the better comedies such tricks are used to illustrate, to make more concrete and vivid, the general theme of the play. Criticism of the poet's dramatic technique should take this material into account. I think this is a more valid method than the traditional approach by way of the Aristotelian rules of probability, necessary sequence of action, complications, suspense, and logical solution: concepts which apparently did not concern Aristophanes very urgently. Finally, it may be added that great comedy in all ages is rooted in popular entertainment. Not to mention Plautus again, the clowns and fools in Shakespeare seem to derive from medieval sources and popular entertainments. It is well known that Moli6re used scenes and elements from the popular Commedia dell' Arte in his plays. It seems to me highly probable that Aristophanes followed the same practice.
CHARLEST. 3MURPHY
OBELIN COLLEGE.