Title: Aristophanes
1Aristophanes Birds 2
2Agenda
- Recap and Update
- Form and Theme
- Theme, Setting
- Dystopic Utopia?
3Recap and Update
4Play 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
5Athens 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)
6Birds 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
71st 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
8The Comic Formula
- Dilemma
- Solution
- Celebration
9The Comic Formula in Birds
- Dilemma
- Solution
- Celebration
- polupragmosune
- Escape
- Wedding feast
10Polupragmosune
meddlesomeness impertinence disturbance
11Subversion of Formula? (2ndary plot trajectory)
- Fraudulent persuasion
- Usurpation
- Domination
- polupragmosune
- Escape
- Wedding feast
12Theme, Setting
13Do 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)
14Some Vocabulary
- Utopia
- an imaginary, typically idyllic place, a
nowhere - Eutopia
- a (typically imaginary) good place
- Dystopia
- a (typically imaginary) bad place
15Comic Utopianism
- Longing for
- some-where
- some-time
- some-thing
- else
16Performance Interpretation
- Scene at pp. 256 ff.
- Pisthetairos
- Iris
- character motivation
17Questions
- 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
18Answers
- 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