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Aristophanes

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Aristophanes Birds 2 Dystopic Utopia? – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Aristophanes


1
Aristophanes Birds 2
  • Dystopic Utopia?

2
Agenda
  • Recap and Update
  • Form and Theme
  • Theme, Setting
  • Dystopic Utopia?

3
Recap and Update
  • Form and Theme

4
Play Facts, Background
tyranny
  • Playwright
  • ca. 450-ca. 388 BCE
  • Production
  • City Dionysia, 414
  • Current events
  • Melos, 416
  • Sicilian exp., 415-413
  • mutilation of Herms, 415
  • Cast
  • 22 solo roles
  • Euelpides Hopeful
  • Pisthetairos Persuasive Buddy
  • Tereus-Hoopoe
  • gods, humans etc.
  • non-speaking Basileia-Kingship
  • 24 choristers

5
Athens as Tyrant
So be aware that you hold this empire of yours
as you would a tyranny, one that you may well
have got unjustly, though for you to let it go
would be disastrous.(Pericles in Thucydides
History of the Peloponnesian War 2.63.2)
6
Birds Analysis (nums. pages)
1st parabasis
  • prologue (189 ff.)
  • complaint
  • backstory prologue
  • solution
  • parodos (215 ff.)
  • entry parade, battle scene
  • agon (epirrhematic scene, 215 ff.)
  • Pisthetairos debate with/pitch to birds
  • first parabasis
  • avian validation
  • episode (epirrhematic, 234 ff.)
  • inauguration
  • construction
  • pop-up, drubbing of interlopers
  • 2nd parabasis (250 ff.)
  • playwrights pitch
  • episode (epirrhematic, 252 ff.)
  • more pop-up, drubbing
  • choral song
  • Kleonymos the deserter
  • exodos (epirrhematic, 271 ff.)
  • divine embassy
  • matrimony
  • apotheosis
  • celebration

7
1st Parabasis - Analysis
  • kommation
  • may nightingale accompany chorus
  • parabasis proper
  • Ornithogony
  • Night gt Eros
  • Eros Chaos gt Birds
  • pnigos (choker)
  • rewards for worshipping birds
  • epirrhematic syzygy
  • ode
  • forest birds
  • epirrhema
  • audience invitation
  • antode
  • swans song
  • antepirrhema
  • advantages of wings

8
The Comic Formula
  • Dilemma
  • Solution
  • Celebration

9
The Comic Formula in Birds
  • Dilemma
  • Solution
  • Celebration
  • polupragmosune
  • Escape
  • Wedding feast

10
Polupragmosune
meddlesomeness impertinence disturbance
11
Subversion of Formula? (2ndary plot trajectory)
  • Fraudulent persuasion
  • Usurpation
  • Domination
  • polupragmosune
  • Escape
  • Wedding feast

12
Theme, Setting
  • Dystopic Utopia?

13
Do You Agree?
The fantasy of Birds fits the utopian mold .
birds, humans, and even gods are better off
under the new regime than they had been under
the old. (Henderson on Birds)
14
Some Vocabulary
  • Utopia
  • an imaginary, typically idyllic place, a
    nowhere
  • Eutopia
  • a (typically imaginary) good place
  • Dystopia
  • a (typically imaginary) bad place

15
Comic Utopianism
  • Longing for
  • some-where
  • some-time
  • some-thing
  • else

16
Performance Interpretation
  • Scene at pp. 256 ff.
  • Pisthetairos
  • Iris
  • character motivation

17
Questions
  • Is Cloudcuckooland a Better Place?
  • Birds, humans, and even gods are better off
    under the new regime, Henderson
  • Is Pisthetairos a Creon?
  • I dont care if youre a fleet of Irises /
    youve committed a violation, and the penalty /
    for that is death, Pisthetairos

18
Answers
  • good only if youre a bird
  • limited
  • underlying bad
  • police force working birds
  • clockwork-orange subversion
  • mankind has overarching control
  • p is hubristic
  • play doubts utopia
  • a frighteningly efficient eutopia
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