The People of Aristophanes: A Sociology of Old Attic Comedy

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THE PEOPLE OF ARISTOPHANES

/JJ y

The People

of Aristophanes

Sociology of Old Attic Comedy

VICTOR EHRENBERG

Haec res agetur nobis, vobis fabula

PLAUTUS

SCHOCKEN BOOKS • NEW YORK

AW

£"33

/6/ A First SCHOCKEN PAPERBACK edition 1962

This edition is published by arrangement with

Harvard University Press

To

MAX and MARY GARY

HAROLD and MARION MATTINGLY

Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 62-13137

Printed in the United States of America

PREFACE

THIS paperback edition has given me the opportunity of mak-

ing a number of corrections in my book, most of them very

small. Only occasionally have I added references to more

recent literature. Though in all essentials a reprint of the

second edition of 1951, this can be regarded as an improved

edition. I am very glad indeed that it is now published in the

United States where I have been a Visiting Professor in 1958

and hope to lecture again in 1962. It is to my American

friends that I dedicate this edition.

The book was written during the years of distress and the

emigration to England from Prague, where I had been profes-

sor at the German University from 1929 to 1939. It was

published in 1943. For the first as well as the second edition

I enjoyed much help and useful criticism from many friends.

Both editions and the Italian translation (L'Atene di Aristo/ane,

1957) met with applause and criticism by reviewers. I have

learned a good deal from all of them.

The Preface to the first edition ended with the following

words which I should like to repeat, as they seem equally

suitable today: "To write history and to live history are two

very different things. Deeply grateful for guidance and pro-

tection during these years, I feel more than ever the inade-

quacy and insufficiency of my work. History has become our

fate; to live up to it is indeed difficult."

V. E.

London (England),

October 1961.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Preface v

List of Illustrations vii

Quotations and Abbreviations xi

Introduction i

\PTER

I Old Comedy 15

II The Comedies 43

III The Farmers 73

IV The Upper Classes 95

V Traders and Craftsmen 113

VI Citizens and Foreigners 147

VII The Slaves 165

VIII Family and Neighbours 192

IX Money and Property 219

X Religion and Education 253

XI War and Peace 297

XII Economics and the State 318

XIII The People and the State 337

Conclusion 360

Chronological Table 374

General Index 378

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE illustrations are not intended to give a survey of the archaeological

material connected, in one way or another, with the contents of this book.

Their sole purpose is to brighten the book by a few selected specimens

of works of art which in a language more impressive and illuminating

than that of words show what the Athenians were like. Many of the

illustrations belong to an earlier period than that of Old Comedy; never-

theless, they illustrate the essential facts. In the following list I have

mentioned the books or papers from which each copy was taken, or

to which it seems appropriate to refer; acknowledgments are due, for

the permission to print the illustrations, to the Journal of Hellenic Studies

and the following publishers: Les Belles Lettres, Paris; F. Bruckmann,

Munich; W. de Gruyter & Co., Berlin; Schroll & Co., Vienna;

R. Oldenbourg, Munich; H. Schoetz, Berlin.

PLATE FACING PAGE

I Types of Old Comedy: Two drunken men. —Terra-

cotta, fifth to fourth century, Berlin 8405 (A. Koster,

Die griech. Terrakotten, pi. 98) Frontispiece

II (a) Chorus of Pans (or Satyrs?), wearing masks and

drawers with phalloi (comedy or satyr drama?). — Krater,

fifth century, Brit. Mus. £467 (T. B. L. Webster, Der

Niobidenmaler, pi. 15 (a) (b))

(b) 'Comic' chorusof knights (or horsemen). — Amphora,

sixth century, Berlin Furtw. 1697 (M- Bieber, Denk-

maler zum Theaterwesen, pi. 66)

(c) 'Comic' chorus of birds. — Oinochoe, about 500 B.C.,

Brit. Mus. 6509 (Bieber, /.