Aristophanes Acharnians

background:  dated 425 -- 3 years after Hippolytus and the debate on Mitylene

Origins  of comedy (like tragedy) in festivals of Dionysus.  

       At Athens,  Lenaia Jan/Feb and Greater Dionysia  in March.

Aristophanes, free-thinker and parodist of free-thinkers (famously in Clouds  of 423)

       Spokesman of Athenian character:

       anti-imperial farce in Babylonians   426 (representing enslaved Greeks, branded, as chorus of '

Babylonian slaves'? rescued by Dionysus?) Apparently outraged Cleon (advocate of genocide at Mitylene)

       Knights   424  portraying chorus of irascible old cavalry,

       personified Demos lords it over  Cleon et al. 

Paphlagon the tanner (=Cleon) vs.  Sausage-seller (lowest of the low, extrapolation of the idea that 

 'you don't have to be a sleazy character to succeed in politics but it sure helps.')

Characters in Acharnians: 

Chorus = tough, old farmers from the outlying deme of Acharnae (portrayed as subsistence farmers  

who make extra cash by burning off scrub and selling the charcoal in the city). 

Driven from their farms to take refuge inside the walls by annual attack of the Spartans, 

they are nonetheless rabidly pro-war.

Dicaeopolis = 'JustCity'.  Also a farmer who has had to abandon his farm and take refuge in the city, 

alienated and impoverished by the war.

Euripides = yes, the tragedian, author of Medea (431) and Hippolytus (428) among others.

Lamachus = one of the pro-war leaders, later served with Nicias in Sicily (and died there).

various visitors from Megara and Thebes; heralds, ambassadors, Dic.'s family; wedding party, etc.

'Prologue' =the scene before the entry of the chorus. 

Set in the Assembly on Pnyx Hill:    What happens ?

Outline the succeeding scenes.

e.g. Dicaeopolis celebrates the 'country Dionysia' p. 23. (cf. Doug Parker's classic version) 

What are the causes of the War, according to Dicaeopolis?

What does Ach tell us about the way Athenians saw themselves as a people?

       Note esp. Cross-section of Athenian audience p. 27 (lines 366ff); p. 40, etc.

or to put it another way, What’s wrong with Athens?