Ancient Greece

I. Athenian Comedy
A. Origins: demes, City Dionysia, komodia, komos (Attic cup c. 470)

• "Old comedy" (5th C): political satire, chorus (Attic cup c. 500)
• "New comedy" (330-250 BC): domestic sitcoms, Menander (c.345-290)

B. Comic drama (Roman mosaic)

• prologue, episodes + odes, finale
• contemporary characters and plot: Athenian stereotypes + celebrity caricatures
  • comic formula: (X - Y) / Z + W = X + Y = : )
• typical scenes: agon (pp 104-20, 206-15), parabasis (pp 185-9, 215-6), komos
• laughter: masks and costumes, slapstick, jokes, insults, obscenity, parody

II. Aristophanes and the Comic Hero
A. Aristophanes (c. 455-385 BC): 11 comedies survive (about 20 more lost)

B. Lysistrata (411 BC): sex-strike & occupation

• plot (p 98, 100) and oath (p 102)
• protagonist and blocking characters
• dirty jokes: deserters (p 124), "Chanel" + "Rod", personified Reconciliation (p 142)
• sexist fantasy: women in control, what women want

C. Democratic laughter
"The essential spirit of Old Comedy is the ordinary man's protest, using his inalienable weapons of humor and fantasy, against those who are in some way stronger or better than he is: politicians, generals, artists, intellectuals, even gods." --Kenneth Dover (1973) 

III. Lysistrata in Athens
A. Wartime crisis

• Peloponnesian war, disaster in Sicily 413, revolts, emergency government
  • 10 Procouncils => "Magistrate" (Roman wall painting c. 50 AD)
• Lysistrata, oikos vs. polis ... it's the economy, stupid!
• acropolis, Parthenon, treasury, priestess of Athena (Lysimache)

B. Messages: serious or silly? policy or fantasy?

• sexist resolution: peace party, komos (Attic cup c. 480)
• policy: peace, panhellenism (p143) ... but status quo
• democracy: free speech, collective action, criticize leaders but not institutions
• subversive potential: democratic protest, missing the joke … feminism

Read for next class: Amos & Lang Ch. 13-14, Euripides Alcestis

Homework questions: due in class Tu Nov. 11