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III. Structure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2016

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The evidence of the comedies suggests a formal structure — perhaps conventional in earlier Old Comedy — which Aristophanes, at any rate, felt able to modify at pleasure. This formal structure is most complete in Wasps: certain components, in other plays, are either truncated or omitted. The structural elements are these:

(1) Prologue: the tragic prologue is defined by Aristotle (Po. 1449a 4) as ‘all that precedes the entry of the chorus’, and the same definition applies here. Aristophanes’ prologues introduce us to the theme and (directly or indirectly) to the ‘hero’. Dikaiopolis and Praxagora are ‘on stage’ from the beginning, with monologues that set the scene (the Pnyx, A. 20) or hint at a woman’s plot (E. 17, cf. L. 13, 39): so is Strepsiades, who informs us of his troubles (C. 5 ff.), and, in conversation with Pheidippides, of his plan to overcome them (107: cf. Euripides to Mnesilochos, T. 82 ff.). A dialogue between slaves — in Plutus, Karion’s monologue, 1 ff. —prepares us for the first sight of their masters: Philokleon is real to us (W. 87 ff.) before we see him (144), as is Trygaios (P. 54 ff.) before bis entry (62), and in both plays a slave undertakes the exposition of the ‘story’ (λóγoς) for the spectators (W. 54, P. 50: cf. Euelpides in Birds 30-48). Similarly, Demosthenes and his fellow-slave in Knights prepare us for the hated Paphlagonian, and the intended allegory is shown straightaway by a reference to Pylos (55).

Type
Research Article
Information
New Surveys in the Classics , Volume 13: Aristophanes , 1979 , pp. 6 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1979

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References

Notes

1. Modem theories of the structure of Aristophanic comedy are modifications of that of Zieliński, Th., Die Gliederung der altattischen Komödie (Leipzig, 1885)Google Scholar. See Mazon, P., Essai sur la composition des comédies d’Aristophane (Paris, 1904)Google Scholar; Händel, P., Formen und Darstellungsweisen in der aristophanischen Komödie (Heidelberg, 1963)Google Scholar; Pickard-Cambridge, DTC, pp. 194-229.

2. Schol. A. 211, Poll. IV.109. The four birds that precede the twenty-four (B. 268-87) are presumably not members of the chorus. Perhaps they ‘fly’ in and ‘Occupy a crest’ (279, cf. 292) by alighting on the roof of the skene (Dover, AC, p. 145). See, however, below p. 34, and (for various theories and discussions) Sifakis, p. 126 n. 5.

3. The motif of the appeal for help recurs in satyr-drama: cf. A. Dikty. 19, S. lehn. 33 ff.

4. Explicit stage-directions #(παρϵπιγραφρ03AF;) axe rare (B. 222, T. 129, F. 1263): it is improbable that any go back to Aristophanes himself. See Taplin, O., ‘Did Greek dramatists write stage instructions?’, PCPhS N.S. 23 (1977), 121-32Google Scholar.

5. See Dover, AC, pp. 177-8. There is adequate time for change of costume between 269 and 324. It is hard (despite άκούσει, F. 205) to believe that the frogs are merely heard, not seen, but the matter has engendered much discussion. See Sifakis, p. 125, n.l. MacDowell, D.M., ‘The Frogs’chorus’, CR N.S. 22 (1972), 3–5 Google Scholar, notes that their words, which are important, could only properly be heard if they were present.

6. Hypothesis V. 1-2.

7. For exhaustive discussion see Gelzer, T., Die epirrhematische Agon bei Aristophanes (Munich, 1960)Google Scholar; Pickard-Cambridge, DTC, pp. 200-4.

8. The opening speaker, like Euripides here, usually loses: cf. Right (C. 889), Philokleon (W. 248). Agorakritos, the Sausage-seller, is exceptional (K. 538).

9. Aristotle distinguishes the ‘wit’ (еитратгєХос) from the ‘buffoon’ (E.N. 1128a 4).

10. See Pickard-Cambridge, DTC, pp. 197-9.

11. An aulos (‘pipe’) is the usual accompanying instrument: the lyre accompaniment in F. 1284-95 is presumably pretended (cf. T. 101-25, Pl. 290 ff.). In F. 1309 ff. the ‘Muse of Euripides’ uses castanets.

12. Unless the coryphaios speaks the last two lines (1407-8), universally attributed to Demos. Cf. Pl. 1208-9 and (for a similar climactic comment from the chorus) F. 1531, Κλβοιρώυ &è μαχεσ δω...