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Laches at Acanthus: Aristophanes, Wasps 968–9*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Extract
The purpose of this short note is to explain a joke in Aristophanes, Wasps. If the explanation is accepted, our knowledge of Athenian political and military history in the later 420s is enhanced.
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- Copyright © The Classical Association 1999
Footnotes
*
This note has benefited from much sage advice. Amongst others, I am especially grateful to J. Marr, S. D. Olson, P. J. Rhodes, J. Wilkins, and, in particular, D. M. MacdDowell. All responsibility is mine, of course.
References
1 See Macdowell, D. M., Aristophanes and Athens (Oxford, 1995), pp. 167–9Google Scholar; Olson, S. D., ‘Politics and poetry in Aristophanes’ Wasps’, TAPhA 126 (1996), 129–50Google Scholar, esp. 138–42 for a valuable analysis of the dog-trial scene.
2 ‘Good Sir, have pity on the distressed! For this Labes eats both scraps and prickly bones, and never stays in the some place. But the other, what a sort he is—only a stay-at-home! For he stays heresemicolon and if someone brings things, he demands his share of themsemicolon if he doesn't get, he bites.’
3 ‘Amphis also praises the wine from the city of Acanthus: A. Where are you from? Tell me. B. From Acanthus. A. Then by the gods, while a citizen of the finest wine, are you not rough and bear the very name of your city in your habits, but do not have the manners of its citizens?amprsquo;
Note also ἄκανθαι in a phrase, apparently proverbial (and opaque to the scholiast), mentioned elsewhere in Aristophanes (fr. 499 K–A).
4 E.g. Ach. 134–54semicolon cf. Wasps 42, 599, 1220, with Archibald, Z. H., The Odrysian Kingdom of Thrace (Oxford, 1998).Google Scholar
5 On places in Thrace (including Acanthus), see Zahrnt, M., Olynth und die Chalkidier (Munich, 1971).Google Scholar As for possible wordplay on Thrace, compare the shift of aspirate in Χρνσó/κúσθoν at Ar. Birds 670: Dunbar, N., Aristophanes’ Birds (Oxford, 1995), pp. 422–3.Google Scholar
6 See Hornblower, S., ‘The religious dimension to the Peloponnesian War, or, what Thucydides does not tell us’, HSCPH 94 (1992), 169–97Google Scholar, esp. 181–90, who rightly notes that the people of Trachis are said by Thucydides to have considered an appeal to Athens too, not only Sparta. If we take Thucydides at his word, there was evidently an opening for Athenian diplomacy in Trachis, whether by Laches or not. The Spartan involvement did not last long (Thuc. 3.93semicolon 5.52). See also Malkin, I., Myth and Territory in the Spartan Mediterranean (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 219–35Google Scholar, esp. p. 224 on Brasidas and Heraclea. Of course, Sophocles, Trachiniae had put the region on the Athenian stage: its date remainselusive, but seems to have been before 422: See Easterling, P. E., Sophocles: Trachiniae (Cambridge, 1982), pp. 19–23 Google Scholar, preferring a date between 457 and c. 430semicolon cf. Athen. 11.461e with Asheri, D., ‘Eracle, Eraclea e i Cylicranes: mitologia e decolonizzazione nella Grecia del IV sec. a. C.’, Ancient Society 6 (1975), 33–50 Google Scholar, esp. 35.
7 The appropriate food for dogs was an issue (of morality, practicality, and humour) in Comedy and beyond, whether revolting scraps (e.g. Aristophanes, Plutus 293), quality scraps (e.g. Arrian, cyneg. 13.1–3), or absurd luxury (e.g. Eubulus, fr. 90 = Athenaeus, 12.553a–b)semicolon see further the wealth of evidence gathered in Woysch-Méautis, D., La répresentation des animaux et des êtres fabuleux sur les monuments funèraires grecques de l'époque archaïque à la fin du IVe siècle (Lausanne, 1982).Google Scholar I am grateful to Diane Braund for these references.
8 Fornara, C. W., The Athenian Board of Generals from 501 to 404. Historia Einzelschrift 16 (Wiesbaden, 1971), p. 75 Google Scholarmakes the point.
9 Plato, Laches 181b with Develin, R., Athenian officials, 684–321 B.C (Cambridge, 1989), p. 133 Google Scholar semicolon cf. Mitchell, L.G., Greeks Bearing Gifts: the Public Use of Private Relationships in the Greek World (Cambridge, 1997), p. 199.Google Scholar There is no real evidence that Laches was prosecuted upon his return from Sicily, beyond inferences from Wasps ( Gomme, A. W., A Historical Commentary on Thucydides 2 [Oxford, 1956], pp. 430–1Google Scholar is properly sceptical on the play and its ancient commentators), which have encouraged the view that Laches was not re-elected general in the years that followed (notably, Lewis, D. M., ‘Double representation in the Strategia’, JHS 81 [1961], 118–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 119–20semicolon cf. Hornblower, S., A Commentary on Thucydides 1 [Oxford, 1991], pp. 491–2Google Scholar). Clearly, Laches suffered criticism, but he was still very prominent and active in Athenian politics through the late 420s, with the truce of 423 and the Peace of Nicias.
10 Develin (n. 9), p. 136.
11 Indeed, though the language of cheese and rind (as it seems to be) suggests otherwise, is it possible that the cities of Wasps 924–5 might be cities of the north, not of Sicily, with the mortar as Thrace? At Peace 228ff. we find the mortar of war, with Cleon and Brasidas in Thrace as pestles.
12 MacDowell (n. 1), p. 168. Cf. also Rhodes, P. J., Thucydides: History iii (Warminister, 1994), p. 268.Google Scholar
13 Mastromacro, G., Storia di una commedia di Atene (Florence, 1974), pp. 47–64 Google Scholar, with MacDowell (n. 1), p. 168 n. 29. On Mastromarco's attempt to separate various drafts of Wasps, I share Macdowell's, critical perspective: CR 26 (1976), 170–1.Google Scholar
14 Meiggs, R., The Athenian Empire (Oxford, 1972), p. 338 Google Scholar was sensitive to such a parallel.