Illustrating Aristophanes

Abstract

Editions of Aristophanes need illustrations. By this I do not mean illustrations of theatrical antiquities in the shape of terracottas, vases, etc., that help us to visualise the appearance of the actors and the Greek theatre. Such a visualisation is, I think, proper in dealing with drama, but there are in Aristophanes two other visual aspects. There is first a wealth of vocabulary that refers to objects that the audience of his day would have seen in the theatre in the form of properties. One need only mention such things as Dicaeopolis' chopping board (τὸ ἐπίξηνον τοδί, Ach. 366), Strepsiades' whirl (διὰ τουτονί τὸν δῖνον, Nub. 1473), Prometheus' parasol (τοντί τὸ σκιάδϵιον, Av. 1508), and the pots and pans in Ecclesiazusae (τὰ σκϵυάρια ταυτὶ, Ecc. 753). These properties can be thought of as naturalistically made or fantastically exaggerated. The second group of words comes in the form of mental pictures—images, however weak, that the mention of an object will raise. Much of the richness of effect and of a play's texture is conveyed by these two groups of words, the immediacy of the comic situation is sharpened by the visual and mental images. Old Comedy more than most Greek literature is rooted in contemporary life, and one is anchored in late fifth century Athens as much by the impedimenta as by the political jests.