Popular Comedy in Aristophanes

Author(s): Charles T. Murphy

Source: The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 93, No. 1, Studies in Honor of Henry T.
Rowell (Jan., 1972), pp. 169-189
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/292910
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 POPULAR COMEDY IN ARISTOPHANES.

Since the fundamental work of Korte and Pickard-Cambridge

earlier in this century, it has been the generally accepted theory
that Old Attic Comedy is a blend of two main ingredients: an
Attic-Ionic choral performance (the Komos) and a non-choral,
mimetic performance, farcical in nature and probably Doric in
origin.1 This view has, to be sure, been challenged by (among
others) H. Herter (Vom dionysischen Tanz zum komischenSpiel
[Iserlohn, 1947]), who argues that there is evidence to show that
both the choral and the actors' parts in Old Comedy descend
from performances of the Ithyphalloi in Attica. More recently,
L. Breitholtz, in a thoroughly skeptical examination of the
evidence (Die dorische Farce im griechischen Mutterland vor
dem 5. Jahrhundert. Hypothese oder Realitdt? [Stockholm,
1960]), asserts that there is no clear proof for the existence of
Doric farces on the Greek mainland early enough to have con-
tributed to the origins of Old Comedy. To this one might reply
that there is very little proof of almost anything in Greek
literary history before the fifth century B. C. We have to make
what we can of the texts preserved to us.
So far as the present paper is concerned, it makes no difference
whether the farcical scenes in Aristophanes derive from earlier
Doric comedies, which provided the origin of part of Old
Comedy, or not. There is certainly enough evidence to demon-
strate the existence of popular entertainments which were famil-
iar to Aristophanes and his audience, and from which he
borrowed material to season, so to speak, his literary comedies
and make them more acceptable to the "groundlings" in his
audience. The possibility, however, cannot be ruled out that he
used this type of material because he himself enjoyed it and
thought it funny. Although he and other comic writers speak
of some of the farcical material as " Megarian," it may be, as
Breitholtz argues, a mere pejorative term, meaning "stale and
1A K6rte, R.-E., XI, 8.v. Komodie; A. W.
Pickard-Cambridge,
Dithyramb, Tragedy, and Comedy (Oxford, 1927), hereafter referred to
as P-C.

169
170 CHARLES T. MURPHY.

vulgar." 2 Such comic themes may have been wide-spread in the

Greek world; one of the striking features of my study of these
farcical elements is the conservatism of low-class comedy. Many
of the jests and comic tricks to be discussed below could be
illustrated by American vaudeville and burlesque comics and
"
English music hall turns" earlier in this century. At any
rate, the purpose of this paper is not to prove anything about
the origins of comedy, but simply to point out and isolate
elements in Aristophanes' comedies which may contribute to
a reader's understanding and appreciation of the plays.
Let us look first at the literary evidence, especially at what
Aristophanes himself tells us. In a number of passages he
speaks of vulgar types of comedy and occasionally brags that
he himself avoids this sort of farce as below the dignity of
his own more elevated drama. This is, of course, mere banter:
probably he is criticizing his competitors in the comic festivals
for their use of such material. But he may also be making fun
of himself and his own comedy; a frequent trick of modern
comics is to comment on the badness of their own jokes. This
device might be called " deprecating while doing," or "comic
praeteritio" (" I will not, of course, use any of the following
stale jokes").3 In any case, as readers of Aristophanes know,
every vulgar trick he criticizes can be abundantly illustrated
from his own plays. Here are the most important passages.
In Ach., 729 ff., a Megarian enters to trade in Dicaeopolis'
new, open market. Having nothing to sell but his two daughters,
he proposes what he calls a Megarian device (McyapcKa TLS
/aXava) to find a purchaser for his girls. A masquerade scene
follows, with the two girls disguised as pigs and a series of
obscene word-plays based on the double meaning of choiros
(= pig, or female genitals). The suggestion has been made
that possibly disguise-tricks were a specialty of earlier farces.4
Both this scene and the next include characters speaking a
foreign dialect, which is also noted as a theme used in earlier
farces.
2 The nearest modern parallel that I can think of is a " Bronx cheer,'
which may or may not have originated in the Bronx.
8 The best example is in Frogs, 1-30, where Xanthias slips in two of
the jokes that Dionysus has forbidden as stale.
' See P-C., pp. 277-8.
 POPULAR COMEDYIN ARISTOPHANES. 171

In Clouds, 295-7, Strepsiades, in fright at the thunder of the

Cloud-chorus, threatens to ease himself on stage. Socrates tells
him not to behave like those " comic buffoons." The Greek word,
Tpvyo8alLwoveS,may suggest that the original comic actor was
considered a daimon, an attendant on Dionysus. Several scenes
in Aristophanes present characters who ease themselves-or
threaten to-on stage (Peace, 175-6; Birds, 65-8; Frogs, 479-
91). All of these refer to the effects of sudden terror on the
bowels.
More prolonged and less palatable to modern taste is the
easing-scene in Ecc., 311-71. Here Blepyrus, husband of Praxa-
gora, the leader of the Greek Women's Liberation Movement,
comes out of the house in his wife's clothes: she has sneaked out
with his clothes to attend the Ecclesia, dressed as a man. He has
had a violent attack of diarrhea, and proceeds to defecate on
stage, and discusses his predicament with a friend for all of 60
lines. The scene, to be sure, introduces one of the leading
characters and shows the straits to which he has been reduced
by his wife. But it is intolerably long and vulgar, and not (to
most modern tastes) a bit funny. We may suggest that Aristo-
phanes used it because it was one of those bits of coarse stage-
business to which his audience had become accustomed.
The Parabasis in the Clouds, 537-43, lists some of the tricks
of low comedy, which are not necessarily Doric and all are used
in Old Comedy and later farces:
(1) The use of the leather, red-tipped phallus attached to
the garments. There is hardly a play of Aristophanes in which
this is not used for some vulgar jest. See especially Ach., 156 ff.
(the Odomanti mercenaries), 592, and 1216-17; even in the
Clouds, that "chaste and maidenly comedy," it seems likely
that Strepsiades was so equipped (lines 653-4, 734). The obscene
use of the same property as a rope by the drunken Philocleon
in Wasps, 1342-4 defies description. According to the Scholiast
on Peace, 142, Trygaeus wore the same prop, and says he will
use it as a rudder if his beetle falls into the sea. The servant,
Peace, 879-80, is probably also so equipped. The visible phallus
provides a great deal of horse-play in the Lysistrata (especially
in the Myrrhina-Cinesias scene and the embassy-scenes) and
above all in the Thesmophoriazusae, where the detection and
172 CHARLES T. MURPHY.

stripping of Euripides' kinsman, disguised as a woman and

rudely unveiled, is too vulgar for description in decent language
(lines 635-48).
Other topics in the passage of the Clouds include (2) mockery
of bald-heads: the stupid, bald old fool (senex stupidus) was a
stock character in the later mime. But Aristophanes, who was
prematurely bald, may have been protesting for personal reasons.
(Cf. Peace, 767-73.)
(3) The use of the kordax, a vulgar dance. Later (lines
553-6) Aristophanes complains that his rival Eupolis in his
Maricas "dragged in" a drunken old woman to perform this
dance, "she who was eaten by the beast." This sounds like a
travesty of the Andromeda myth.
(4) An old man who beats his companion with a stick, "to
hide the badness of his jokes." One might compare the modern
comic who hits the "straight-man" with a rolled-up newspaper
at his " punch-line." In any case, beating scenes in Aristophanes
(especially in driving off "intruders" or pests) are so frequent
that they need no listing.
(5) "Torch-scenes" : characters rushing on with lighted
torches, perhaps originally used in the Komos to singe (or
threaten to) the spectators. At the end of the Lysistrata (1216-
24), a character, variously identified, appears at the door of
the house where the Spartan and Athenian negotiators have
been dining, and threatens a group of bystanders, who seem to
be blocking the door, with a torch: "You there, why are you
sitting here? Do you want me to singe you with this torch?
No: it's a vulgar trick; I won't do it." To the audience:
"Still, if I must do it to please you, I'll have to put up with
it." Again, it seems that Aristophanes is poking fun at his
audience's taste for low comic tricks.5
More impressive is the use of torches in Thesm., 655-85. After
the discovery and binding up of the male intruder in the
women's festival, the chorus suggests that they light torches and
conduct a search of the precinct to see if any other men have

6 For an interesting discussion of the function and

staging of this
scene, see C. F. Russo, Aristofane, autore di teatro (Firenze, 1962), pp.
282-4.
 POPULAR COMEDY IN ARISTOPHANES. 173

sneaked in. To judge by the text of the choral song that follows,
the chorus must have performed a spectacular "torch-dance."
Torches are also used at the end of the Wasps (Philocleon
threatens to singe the injured and outraged guests who are fol-
lowing him), and in Ecc., 937 if., where a youth enters carrying
a torch on his way to a rendezvous with his girl-friend.
In the prologue of the Wasps (57-60), the slave Xanthias
tells the audience not to expect "jests stolen from Megara."
The following lines mention slaves throwing nuts to the audi-
ence, and " Heracles cheated of his dinner." Aristophanes him-
self in the Peace (960-3) uses a similar device-a slave throwing
sacrificial grain to the audience-to introduce an indecent pun
(KptO- = barley, or penis). The same trick is mentioned and
then pointedly avoided in Plutus, 795-9, where the god Plutus
says he prefers to receive his offerings of figs and sweets inside
the house: "for it isn't proper for a poet to throw figs and
sweets to the audience and make it laugh in this way." The
topic is then used to introduce a bit of personal satire against
a contemporary glutton, or "free-loader" : the wife replies:
Well said! For here's Deximachus standing up to grab the figs.
As for the "hungry Heracles," one of the most entertaining
scenes in the Birds (1565-1693) shows the gluttonous Heracles
drooling over a roast fowl, which the hero uses to persuade him
to accept the birds' peace-terms. Expecting to be invited to
share the roast, he is instead sent back to Olympus to prepare for
the hero's coming wedding.6
In the last of the great literary Parabases (Peace, 739-42),
Aristophanes boasts of his services to comedy by forcing his com-
petitors to give up the following stale and vulgar tricks:
(1) "Mocking at rags and warring with lice"; this may
be figurative, meaning aiming one's satire at trivial subjects.
But it may be literal; two passages in the Clouds (634, 696-
722) show Strepsiades "warring" with the bugs in his fleece.
6 The next three
lines in the Wasps (61-3), "Euripides degraded,"
and "cutting Cleon to pieces" probably refer to recent comedies of
Aristophanes: i. e., the poet promises not to repeat his recent comic
themes.
174 CHARLES T. MURPHY.

(2) The "hungry Heracles" is mentioned again.

(3) Slaves running away, deceiving their masters, and being
beaten, in order to work in stale jokes. Once again, Aristophanes
uses the same trick at the opening of the Knights (1-29): the
two household slaves of Demos come out after a beating and
discuss the advisability of running away.
So much for what Aristophanes himself tells us.7 We can add
to these passages a few notices about early farces, found in later
writers. The evidence is complicated and very tenuous; I skip
details here, referring the reader to the masterly treatment by
Pickard-Cambridge and the more recent investigation by Breit-
holtz.8 The locus classicus is in Athenaeus, XIV, 621 ff., where
we hear of the " deikelistai " in Sparta, who "mimed" in low
language such comic types as "fruit-stealers" and foreign doc-
tors speaking in dialect. Both are found in Aristophanes; food-
stealers in Ach., 809-10 and especially in Knights, 1192-1200;
dialect speakers in Ach., 729-951, as already noted. In the same
passage Athenaeus mentions other similar performances, though
some of them were obviously choral and not like the improvised
farces we assume as sources for Aristophanes' low comic scenes.
They are called variously " phallophoroi," "autokabdaloi,"
"phlyakes" (in south Italy), and "sophistai." The last term
suggests improvised performances given by experts, like the ac-
tors in the Italian Commedia dell' Arte. We may also note the
" Bryllichistai" at Sparta 9; these were probably non-dramatic
dances in honor of Artemis with men dressed as women and
(possibly) women dressed as men and wearing the phallus. This
is an early notice of transvestitism, which appears often in
later farce.
Presumably, this early form of farcical performances was not
written down until the activity of Epicharmus, who wrote com-
edies, or mimes, in Sicily around 485 B. C. or earlier.10 From
7 Because of limitation of
space, I omit a discussion of Frogs, 1-30,
with the references to defecating and vomiting. In any case, Aristo-
phanes seems here to be criticizing the use of such stale jokes by his
competitors in the Dionysiac contests. But see note 3 above.
P.-C., op. cit. (note 1), pp. 223-84; 353-415.
See P-C., pp. 253-9.
0 See P-C., pp. 353-63; 380-413.
 POPULAR COMEDY IN ARISTOPHANES. 175

the titles and fragments of his plays we learn that he was

partial to mythological burlesque (over half the titles) with
Heracles and Odysseus as favorite characters; he also dealt with
ordinary life and types (the first parasite in Greek comedy
appears in fr. 34-5); three titles suggest dramatized debates.
From literary sources, then, we can assume the existence of
popular farces in various parts of the Greek world in the fifth
century, perhaps going back to the sixth. Typical themes in-
clude dialect-scenes; burlesque of myth; scenes of disguising;
vulgar dances, sometimes with characters dressed in the clothing
of the opposite sex; stealing of food; scenes of characters easing
themselves on stage. The type-characters may have included a
stupid, bald-headed old man, who is often deceived; an old man
with a staff, with which he beats his companion; one or two
slaves who crack irrelevant jokes, occasionally throw nuts and
other edibles to the audience, and who run away and are beaten;
torch-scenes, in which the performers threaten to singe the
bystanders with their lighted torches. Very little of this comedy
was ever written down except by Epicharmus and his successors,
Phormus and Deinolochus, in Sicily. It has been suggested that
Aristophanes did not know the work of Epicharmus 11; if he
used some of the same farcical material, he probably learned
it nearer home.
There is some evidence that farcical scenes, including mytho-
logical travesty, were presented in Athens in less elevated, or
literary performances than the comedies that competed in the
theater of Dionysus. A well-known Attic vase of about 400 B. C.
represents a single, grotesque actor, representing Perseus, danc-
ing before an audience of two, a man holding a young lady on
his lap.12 The wooden platform with steps leading up to it is
a close parallel to the stage found in Phlyax comedy.13
We get a description of such private entertainments in Xeno-
phon's Symposium: after dinner a group of entertainers appear
" E. Wist,
"Epicharmos und die alte attische KomSdie," Rh.M.,
XCIII (1950), pp. 337-64.
13 Illustrated in M.
Bieber, History of the Greek and Roman Theater,
(2nd ed., Princeton, 1961), p. 48, fig. 202. (Hereafter referred to as
Bieber, GRT.)
18 For a discussion of Phlyax comedy, see below.
176 CHARLES T. MURPHY.

(2, 1): the troupe is directed by a Syracusan (again Sicily

seems the home of such popular entertainment), and consists of
a female flute-player, a dancing-girl, and a boy who could play
the cither and also dance. The entertainment first consisted of
juggling, acrobatics, and dancing; none of this is dramatic or
mimetic in nature, but we hear later (4, 55) that this same
Syracusan has a marionette-show which he exhibits to please
" simple-minded folk " rols appocnv. The evening then ends with
a bit of real miming, including music and dancing (9, 1-7: The
mime of Dionysus and Ariadne):

The Syracusan came in and announced: " Gentlemen, Ari-

adne will enter the room set apart for her and Dionysus;
next, Dionysus, a little drunk, will come to her; after this
they will play with each other."
Then, first of all, Ariadne entered, decorated as a bride,
and sat down on a chair. Before Dionysus appeared, there
was flute music in the Bacchic rhythm. . . . On hearing
this, Ariadne reacted so that everyone would realize she
was filled with joy at the sound, and though she did not
rise to meet him, it was obvious that she had difficulty
keeping still. When Dionysus saw her, he danced up like
one madly in love, and sat on her lap and embraced and
kissed her. She affected modesty, but still embraced him
most lovingly in return. (The guests when they saw this,
applauded and shouted, "Encore! ") When Dionysus rose
and drew Ariadne up to stand with him, there was a mimi-
cry of lovers kissing and fondling each other. The audience
gazed at a truly handsome Dionysus, a beautiful Ariadne,
not pretending but really kissing with their lips; all were
aroused as they watched. For they also heard Dionysus
asking her if she loved him, and her swearing that she did,
so that all those present would have sworn that the boy
and girl really loved each other. For they seemed not like
actors who had learned a role, but like those who were now
allowed to do what they had long desired. Finally, the
guests, seeing them embracing and apparently heading for
bed, got up, the unmarried swearing that they would get
married at once, while those already married mounted their
horses and rode off to their wives, to enjoy them.

Noteworthy is the somewhat lascivious nature of this mime,

which anticipates some of the features of the later Roman mime;
also note the effect on the guests.
 POPULAR COMEDY IN ARISTOPHANES. 177

Not all of the evidence is in written form, and it is now time

to turn to a very brief examination of some of the relevant
archaeological material. Without full illustrations, one can
only give brief mention of the important items. In any case,
very little of it can be securely dated to the sixth or fifth
century.
A number of Corinthian vases from the sixth century B. C.
show figures with heavily padded stomachs and buttocks, and
some equipped with the phallus.14 The costume suggests the
costume of the actors in Old Comedy. Another Corinthian vase
depicts a scene of wine-stealers (Denkmdler, figs. 123-a-b); the
presence of a flute-player suggests a dramatic performance. The
names attached to three of the figures are of some interest:
"Eunous," perhaps the spirit of good will; "Ophelandros,"
giver of fertility and other benefits to men; "Omrikos" (later
spelled Ombrikos), which may mean the rain bringer. In other
words, all are spirits beneficial to mankind. The reverse of the
jar shows two of the thieves punished in the stocks. Another
sixth-century Corinthian vase (Denkmdler, fig. 122) shows
Dionysus and Hephaestus attended by ithyphallic daimones; al-
though this is probably not a theatrical scene, it indicates that
such figures were associated with Dionysus in the Peloponnesus
in the sixth century B. C. And there is surely some connection
between these figures and the dress of the actors of Old Comedy
in Athens, even if we cannot prove direct influence.
Another vase, found in Cyrene but probably of Attic manu-
facture (Denkmdler, fig. 125), dated about 400 B.C. shows a
caricature of the apotheosis of Heracles: a winged Athena-Nike
drives Heracles in a chariot, drawn by four centaurs, while a
figure in loose-fitting tights (the equivalent of nudity on the
stage) dances in front of the chariot. Again, we have a vase
that indicates familiarity with parodies of heroic myths and
includes a figures not unlike the later Phlyax-buffoons.
Although scenes from Attic Old Comedy do not appear to have
attracted Attic vase-painters, four vases found in the
Agora
excavations in 1954 show comic scenes.15 The vases represent
14P-C., figs. 33, 34, 35, 36. Cf. also M.
Bieber, Denkmdler, P1. 67-74.
(Hereafter referred to by title only.)
1 M.
Crosby, "Five Comic Scenes from Athens," Hesperia, XXIV
(1955), pp. 76-84. The fifth vase was a previously unpublished oinochoe
178 CHARLES T. MURPHY.

grotesque figures like the Phlyakes buffoons; one scene (Crosby,

no. 3, Obeliaphorai) closely parallels a Phlyax crater in Lenin-
grad: two grotesque figures carrying a roast of meat on a spit.
Miss Crosby believes (with Professor T. B. L. Webster) that
Phlyax-vases reflect scenes from Attic Old Comedy; but it is
equally possible that both Old Comedy and the Phlyakes took
scenes from a common source of popular comedy.
At this point we may treat briefly later forms of popular
entertainments which may be related to some of the farcical
scenes in Old Comedy. Most important is the series of Phlyax-
vases found throughout south Italy and Sicily.16
A Phlyax is a buffoon, but his name seems connected with
a root meaning, "increase, fertility, abundance."17 Hence he
may be taken to be an earth spirit of fertility, attendant on
Dionysus; several vases show one or two of these figures dancing
around Dionysus.18 But the word then comes to mean the kind
of grotesque performance in which such buffoons acted. Most of
the vases come from the fourth century B. C., after 360 B. C.
according to the expert, Trendall.
The Phlyax-buffoon wears tights (to suggest nudity), and a
phallus which often dangles below a short upper garment;
usually his buttocks and stomach are heavily padded (like the
actors in Old Comedy). The subjects of the vase-painting are
about equally divided between mythological travesty (33 listed
in Catteruccia) and scenes from daily life (29).
Only a few scenes can be described here. One of the most
famous vases (by Asteas of Paestum) parodies Zeus' visit to
Alcmene (Catteruccia, no. 1; Denkmdler, pl. 76), in which Zeus
aided by Hermes uses a ladder to climb up to Alcmene, waiting
at her window. A similar amorous adventure, without divine
characters (Bieber, GRT, fig. 501), suggests that shady, amor-
ous intrigues were among the subjects of these farces. In later
in the British Museum, purchased in Athens in the 1890's. The vases
from the Agora are dated by associated finds to about 400 B. C.
6
Conveniently catalogued in L. M. Catteruccia, Pittore vasoolari
italiote di soggetto teatrale comico (Rome, 1951). Unfortunately, the
illustrations in this volume are poor, and where possible I refer to
better plates in M. Bieber, Denkmaler, etc., and M. Bieber, GRT.
17
Catteruccia, op. cit., p. 9.
18
Catteruccia, nos. 14-22, pp. 28-32.
 POPULAR COMEDY IN ARISTOPHANES. 179

periods, the "Adultery Mime," in which a clever young wife

deceives her stupid old husband, is very frequent.
As might be expected, Heracles is a common figure in these
mythological burlesques; he appears on at least seven vases
(Catteruccia, no. 2, 5-10). One shows him gorging himself in
the presence of an outraged Zeus, who seems to be aiming a
thunderbolt at him (Denkcmiler, p. 77); i. e., Aristophanes'
"hungry Heracles" again. Another (Denkmiiler, pl. 79) shows
Eeracles threatening Apollo, who has taken refuge on the roof
of his temple; another figure on the right may be Iolaus pre-
pared to snatch Apollo's bow if he falls off the roof. A fourth
mask hangs on the wall on the left.19
A fragment of a vase by Asteas (Denkmiiler, fig. 129) shows
a parody of the rape of Cassandra by Ajax, but with the roles
reversed: Ajax, attacked by Cassandra and an elderly priestess,
clings in terror to a statue of Athena. This comic inversion
of a well-known legend seems to be a frequent device of myth-
ological burlesque. Of considerable interest also is a travesty of
the Antigone-story (Denckmiler,fig. 130): the guard has brought
"Antigone" before Creon, but the alleged young lady has re-
moved her mask and is revealed as a bearded old man. His sex
is further emphasized by the appearance of a phallus under his
transparent robe. We may compare the stripping of the dis-
guised kinsman in Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae.
Other mythological subjects include the adventures of Odys-
seus, the birth of Helen from an egg, Pyrrhus about to slay
Priam, Oedipus and the sphinx, etc.
A few scenes of ordinary life are interesting, some because
they illustrate some of the themes of Old Comedy, others because
they anticipate scenes in Plautus and thus form a real link
between Greek farce and later comedy in Greece and Rome.
Two vases (Bieber, GRT, figs. 512-13) show punishments of
slaves or thieves. Commentators usually refer to the beating
scene in the Frogs (616 ff.) and the punishment of Euripides'
kinsman in the Thesmophoriazusae. Catteruccia, no. 17 shows
19 Miss Bieber in GRT, p. 131, makes the
interesting suggestion that
the four masks in this scene are forerunners of the four main stock
characters in the Oscan farces, or Atellanae: Pappus, Dossenus, Maccus,
and Bucco. This is mere conjecture, although I find it attractive.
180 CHARLES T. MURPHY.

an old friend: the "fruit-stealer." An elderly buffoon is run-

ning away, while the stolen fruit pours out of the folds of his
cloak.20 Harpo Marx used to have a similar act: a detective
investigating some thefts in a private house, one who prides
himself on his ability to recognize an honest man by his face,
vigorously shakes Harpo's hand: "A really honest man, if I
ever saw one." As he does so, quantities of silver pour out from
Harpo's voluminous sleeve. An ugly little scene (Catteruccia,
no. 65) shows a buffoon vomiting while a woman holds his head.
One recalls the scene in the Acharnians (580 ff.) where Dicaeo-
polis used a feather from Lamachus' helmet to induce vomiting.
Similar scenes of vomiting on stage are suggested in Cratinus,
fr. 251, and Aristophanes, fr. 49. Such vulgar tricks parallel the
threats of other characters to defecate on stage.
Connected with themes of later comedy are: (1) a scene of
a miser lying on his treasure chest, and apparently attacked by
two thieves (Denkmialer,pl. 84, 1); (2) a stern father leading
home a drunken son (Denkmdler, pl. 85, 1); (3) a younger and
an older man fighting for possession of a woman (Denkmdler,
pl. 84, 2); one thinks of the competition of father and son for
the possession of a female slave in several plays of Plautus.
This is a fair sampling of the themes of these vases. Probably
these farces were improvised and never written down. But the
plays were given literary form later by Rhinthon of Syracuse (or
Tarentum), who was active under the first two Ptolemies (i. e.,
early third century B. C.). Ancient testimonia call his plays
both Phlyakes and Hilarotragoidia. Rhinthon therefore may be
called the "inventor" (Greek, eVpepri) of Phlyax-comedy only
in the sense that Epicharmus was the "inventor" of the Dorian
mime: i. e., the first to elevate it to a written, literary form.
We have only a few titles preserved: 21 they include an
Amphitryon, an intermediary between Plautus' comedy and his
Greek source; we may also recall the Phlyax-vase of Asteas
20 I cannot
agree with Miss Bieber's interpretation (GRT, p. 138,
fig. 502a-b) that the old man is bringing the fruit to a beautiful young
lady on the reverse side of the vase. This is hardly the way to bring
a present of fruit to a girl-friend.
21 Kaibel, Comicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Berlin, 1899), pp. 183-9.
Also A. Olivieri, Frammenti della commedia greca, etc. (Naples, 1946-7).
 POPULAR COMEDY IN ARISTOPHANES. 181

mentioned above. Heracles, the constant figure in popular com-

edy; an Iphigenia in Aulide and I. in Tauris; Medea; Orestes;
and Telephus, a tragedy of Euripides which Aristophanes found
very funny and often parodied, especially in the Acharnians and
Thesmophoriazusae. We have a grotesque terracotta statuette,
probably of the early fourth century, showing Telephus holding
the infant Orestes as a hostage (Denkmrnler,no. 76, pl. 67, 4);
this suggests that this scene stuck in popular memory and was
often parodied. Finally, we may mention a Doulomeleagros
"Meleager as a Slave," perhaps in his courtship of Atalanta.
This is about all we know for certain about Rhinthon. As often
happens, when the Phlyax-farces became " literary," the impro-
vised popular farces tended to disappear; there are no Phlyax
vases certainly dated after the early 3rd century B. C.
Related in some way to the Greek Phlyakes are the native
south Italian farces later called Atellanae, from the town of
Atella in Campania near Naples. They are also called Oscan
farces, because they were originally in the Oscan Italic dialect.
Some connection between the two types is indicated by a vase
(Denkmdler, no. 125, fig. 133), which shows a figure like a
Phlyax-clown labelled "Santia," an Oscan form of Xanthias,
a frequent slave-name in Greek comedy.22
Like the Phlyakes, the Atellanae began as improvised, un-
written farces. They dealt with stock characters: the best known
are Maccus, the fool; Dossenus, the scheming hunchback;
Pappus, the stupid old man; and Bucco, a braggart. Livy, in
a famous passage (VII, 2, 8-12), asserts that these Oscan farces
were introduced into Rome, probably in the third century B. C.
Our main evidence, however, for the nature of these plays is
later, when in the first century B. C. they were written down by
Pomponius and Novius for an audience which had lost its taste
for the more polished palliatae. Over 100 titles are listed in
Ribbeck's Comicorum Romanorum Fragmenta (Lipsiae, 1898).

22I have already mentioned (above, note 19) Miss Bieber's sugges-
tion that the masks shown on the Heracles-Apollo scene (Denkmdler,
pl. 79) are related to four of the stock characters in the Atellanae.
Such a relationship is what we should expect to find in south
Italy and
Sicily in the 4th-3rd centuries B. C., i.e. a mixture of native Italic
figures with characters from the contemporary Greek farces.
182 CHARLES T. MURPHY.

It must be noted that these later authors obviously reflect many

types of earlier comedy; hence, many titles suggest New Com-
edy: e. g., Adelphi, Citharista, Hetaera, Gemini, Synephebi, and
Leno.
But many titles suggest the continuation of the earlier, sub-
literary farces. The ever-popular mythological burlesque, which
goes back at least to Epicharmus' time, is found in such titles as
Andromache, Ariadne, Armorum Iudicium, Autonoe, Hercules
Coactor (i. e., as a bill-collector). Of special interest is Agamem-
no Suppositus, which suggests that someone was disguised as
Agamemnon, probably for purposes of deception.
Other titles suggest sketches of ordinary life and common
social types (as in Epicharmus and the Phlyakes): e. g.,
Agricola, Augur, Fullones, Piscatores, and Medicus (doctors are
a favorite butt of comedy in all ages).
The names of the stock characters turn up also in the titles:
Bucco Adoptatus, Duo Dosseni (possibly a play of deception, or
else just mistaken identity, like Plautus' Menaechmi); Pappus
Agricola; Sponsa Pappi (which may be the situation of the
stupid old man deceived by his young wife); also a whole series
of Maccus-plays: Macci Gemini (mistaken identity again),
Maccus Miles, Maccus Copo, and Maccus Virgo, another example
of transvestitism, with plenty of opportunity for crude slap-
stick. A fragment of Pomponius' Macci Gemini indicates the
same sort of masquerade: a character cries out:

A! perii! non puellula est. numquid nam abscondidisti

Inter nates?
What was hidden "inter nates" is, of course only too clear, and
perhaps indicates that the actors in the Atellanae sometimes
wore the phallus. In any case, the scene reminds us of the
detection of Euripides' kinsman in Thesm. (635-48), and of
the narrative of the slave Olympio at the end of Plautus' Casina
(873-937): he has entered a dark room to take his new "bride "
Casina, who turns out to be a burly fellow-slave, who has been
substituted for Casina. Although the text is corrupt, there is
no doubt how Olympio discovered the deception!
Another fragment, from a play called Kalendae Martiae (the
matron's festival of the Matronalia, when women stayed home
 POPULAR COMEDY IN ARISTOPHANES. 183

to receive presents), suggests a similar masquerade: one char-

acter says:
Vocem deducas oportet, ut videantur mulieris verba.
Another replies:
Iube modo adferatur munus, vocem reddam ego
tenuem et tinnulam.

Similarly, in Aristophanes' Thesm., 266 ff., Euripides' kinsman

is directed to speak in a womanish voice.
So far, I think, we have pretty good evidence that some of
the themes and characters of older Greek farces persisted in the
Atellanae and eventually came to Rome, where Plautus worked
them into his palliatae.23
The last form of ancient drama remains to be mentioned,
the mime, into which all forms of earlier comedy tended to
merge under the Roman Empire.24 The origin of the form is
Greek, and goes back at least to Epicharmus, as we have seen.
It became extremely popular in the Hellenistic and Graeco-
Roman world. Without listing all the evidence here, I think
it is fairly clear that many of the same types appeared as in
earlier farces: e.g., the fool, often bald; 25 we also hear of a
character called Ardalio, a glutton perhaps related to Manduccus
and Dossenus of the Atellanae; fools and parasites also appear.
It seems clear, however, that the mime was not so limited in
types as the Phlyakes and the Atellanae; it drew its characters
from all sorts and conditions of mankind.
Themes are also wider in range; many of the titles of Laberius
suggest New Comedy.26But mythological parody continues: the
longest text preserved to us, a papyrus from the second century
of the Christian era, Chariton,27 gives a quasi-parody of the
28
See especially G. E. Duckworth, The Nature of Roman Comedy
(Princeton Univ. Press, 1952), ch. 1, 2; also A. McN. G. Little,
"Plautus and Popular Comedy," H.S.C.P., XLIX (1938), pp. 205-28.
24 The fundamental work is, of course, H. Reich, Der Mimus
(Berlin,
1903). Other discussions in Bieber, GRT; Little, op. cit. (n. 23 above).
26 A character is addressed as "calve" in the
Atellana, Piscatores, of
Pomponius.
26See Ribbeck, op. cit.,
pp. 339-59.
27
Originally published by Grenfell and Hunt, Oxy. Pap., III (London,
184 CHARLES T. MURPHY.

situation in Euripides' Iphigenia in Tauris, with a cruel bar-

barian king, a retinue who talk unintelligible gibberish (like the
" Persian " in the Acharnians), a fool who supplies vulgar stage-
business (principally by loudly breaking wind to imitate the
drums which accompany parts of the action).
One theme was, or became very popular: the adultery mime,
a plot with a stupid old husband deceived by his clever young
wife and her lover.28 Ovid in his defence of his love poetry
(Tristia, II, 497-514) remarks that mimes are always presenting
"illicit love affairs, in which an elegant lover appears and the
clever wife deceives her stupid husband." He adds, "When the
lover has deceived the husband by some novel device (aliqua
novitate), he is applauded and wins the prize by popular ac-
claim." Juvenal (VI, 41-4) also mentions a mime in which the
lover, surprised by the unexpected return of the husband, hides
in a chest, where he is in danger of being smothered. A similar
theme is found in another Greek papyrus fragment: 29 a jealous
woman is in love with her young slave, who rejects her (cf. Hero-
das, Mime V). An unwanted husband seems to have figured in
the plot, for in one scene she plans to poison him. There is
perhaps some justification in the charges of Christian writers that
the mimes were all about indecent subjects. " Here (i. e., in the
mimes, says Dio Chrysostom) are to be seen nothing but forni-
cation, adultery, courtesans, men pretending to be women, and
soft-limbed boys." Note in passing the reference to the old
motif of transvestitism.
It is a well-known fact that none of the plots of Greek and
Roman Comedy,as far as we know, used the theme of the unfaith-
ful wife deliberately deceiving her husband. But we have seen
evidence that this limitation is not true of more popular comic
forms: e. g., the Phlyax vase mentioned above showing a lover
climbing a ladder to his lady's window, or the Atellana entitled
Sponsa Pappi.

1903) pp. 41-57; but now most conveniently found in D. L. Page, Select
Papyri, III: Literary Papyri (Loeb Class. Lib., 1950), pp. 336-49.
28
Cf. R. W. Reynolds, "The Adultery Mime," C. Q., XL (1946), pp.
77-84. (This article came to my attention after most of the present
paper was written.)
29 Page, op. cit., pp. 351-61.
 POPULAR COMEDY IN ARISTOPHANBS. 185

I believe that such dramatic scenes were known to Aristophanes

and his audience through the popular farces of his day. Although
he never used them as subjects for his plots, there are several
references in speeches to the deception of husbands by clever,
unfaithful wives. Aristophanes seems to have had a high opin-
ion of women and their intelligence, but he constantly satirizes
them as wine-bibbers and sex-pots. This is probably part of
the traditional mockery and lampooning of the Dionysiac fes-
tival.
The best evidence is found in the speeches in the Thes-
mophoriazusae, especially in the Kinsman's alleged defence of
Euripides. This " defence" consists of relating various mis-
demeanours of women which Euripides has not revealed to their
husbands. Some of the episodes sound like echoes of an " adul-
tery mime," and I believe that Aristophanes and his audience
had witnessed such scenes in the popular farces of the day.
They can hardly refer to real life in Athens in the fifth century
B. C.
The most striking example comes in Thesm., 498-502. The
Kinsman, relating a series of women's escapades, says: "And
he (Euripides) has not yet told how a wife by showing her
husband a robe (-yKvKAov)in the rays of the sun, got her lover
out of the house concealed (by the robe)." One may see here
almost a miniature scenario for a very brief adultery mime:
the wife gets her husband out of the house on some pretext and
receives her lover; the husband returns unexpectedly (perhaps
having some suspicions). The wife, in desperation to get her
lover out, has a sudden inspiration: she holds up a large gar-
ment for her husband to admire, which serves as a screen behind
which her lover escapes. This sounds like one of those novel
devices to deceive the husband which Ovid says wins the applause
and favor of the spectators.
Less amusing, but more vulgar is the scene described in lines
476-89:
Not to mention anyone else, I myself know I am guilty
of many dirty tricks: worst was this, when I'd been married
only three days, and my husband was sleeping beside me.
I had a lover who had deflowered me at the age of seven.
He, yearning for me, came to the door and scratched it.
I recognize the sound at once and start downstairs quietly,
186 CHARLES T. MURPHY.

but my husband asks, 'where are you going?' 'Where?

I have a terrible pain in the stomach; I'm going to the
privy.' 'All right, go ahead.' And then he ground up vari-
ous herbs (i. e., to help her pains), while I, pouring water
on the door-hinge (to keep it from creaking), went out
to my lover and enjoyed him, leaning over and holding on
to a laurel-bush beside the statue of Apollo Aguieus.
Once again we might reconstruct a short mime; like the previous
example, it requires only three actors and a simple stage arrange-
ment (a house-door on one side, with part of an interior and
an exterior) which can be paralleled on Phlyax vases.
Briefer references to women's deceptive tricks are found in
the 'Apat of the Heraldress, who invokes curses on slaves who
tell tales against their mistress to the master, or who being
sent (presumably to a lover) bear a false message: curses are
also aimed at lovers who do not fulfill their promises (lines
340-4). The speech of the First Woman (383 ff.) mentions
men coming home from the theater and searching the house
for hidden lovers.
Another possible mime, though not on adultery, may be de-
tected in lines 502-16. Another deception practiced by wives
was the substitution of a baby purchased from elsewhere as their
own. Apparently a wife who could not bear offspring for her
husband was most vulnerable and might be easily divorced. The
Kinsman's story again has dramatic possibilities. A woman of
his acquaintance had pretended to be in labor for ten days,
while she looked for an available baby to buy. Her frantic
husband ran around buying up drugs to speed her delivery. An
old woman (probably the midwife) finally smuggled in a new-
born baby in a crock, with its mouth stopped up with honey. The
women get the husband out of the room, remove the baby, who
then cries vigorously. The old woman runs out to the man and
congratulates him: "A lion! A lion has been born to you, your
spit-and-image, just like you in everything, including his penis."
Once again we have a cast of three, a simple stage-setting, part
indoors, part outside the front door.
It is usually stated that scenes derived from popular farces
are found mainly in the second part of the plays (i. e., after the
Parabasis). But a careful reading of the comedies, with the
evidence here collected in mind, will show that such popular
 POPULAR COMEDYIN ARISTOPHANES. 187

elements may be found in all parts of the play, especially in

the prologue and in iambic scenes before and after the Agon.
The Thesmophoriazusae especially seems to be built up of popu-
lar themes throughout. It includes transvestitism: in the pro-
logue, Agathon appears dressed in women's clothes, to facilitate
his composition of a women's chorus. The transformation of
the Kinsman to a woman takes place on stage, in a riotously
vulgar scene: he submits to a painful shave, and superfluous
body-hair is singed off by a torch (perhaps a reminiscence of
" torch-scenes " mentioned
earlier). Later in the play, Euripides
appears disguised as an old hag. Incidentally, the purpose of the
last two disguises is to achieve deception, to fool somebody (as
often). In the various speeches at the women's meeting, we get
descriptions of women's wiles to deceive their husbands, which
I have already discussed. When the news reaches the women
that a man has sneaked into their meeting, the Kinsman tries
to put off the awful moment when he will be interrogated and
detected by claiming to have to ease himself (apparently on
stage, again). His discovery follows; he is stripped, and the
leather phallus which he wears beneath his robe betrays his sex,
despite his frantic efforts to conceal it. Then follows a choral
song and dance with torches, while the women search the orches-
tra to see if any more men are lurking about. After a brief,
incomplete Parabasis, in which the women defend their sex,
we got a series of mythological burlesques of Euripidean tra-
gedies: they include the Telephus, with a wineskin taking the
place of the infant Orestes as hostage, the Helen, and the An-
dromeda. The final scene includes a Scythian policeman speak.
ing a barbarous dialect, and a suggestive dance, which may
remind us of the lascivious mime of Dionysus and Ariadne
described in Xenophon's Symposium.
The Knights is filled with farcical elements: in order to
satirize Athenian political life, and especially the demagogue
Cleon, Aristophanes uses a common popular theme: the decep-
tion of a stupid, old master (here Demos, the Athenian people)
by clever, unscrupulous slaves.30 The opening of the play sets

80 Cf. Little, op. cit. (note

23), p. 213. It hardly needs to be said that
this is a very common theme in Plautus.
188 CHARLES T. MURPHY.

the tone of the type of popular "slave-comedy." Two slaves

come on stage weeping; they have just been beaten inside by
the brutal Paphlagonian (= Cleon). They lament together in
a sort of "weeping cadenza" (line 10), then discuss whether
they should run away or find another means of outwitting the
Paphlagonian. Guided by an oracle, they find another prospec-
tive slave of Demos, a Sausage-seller (" Hotdog vendor"), who
because of his vulgarity, impudence, and shamelessness, can
outdo the Paphlagonian as a rival for his master's favor. In
part, the competition between the Paphlagonian and the Sau-
sage-seller is presented as an erotic rivalry; both slaves are in
love with Demos and seek his favors; this may be a vulgar degra-
dation of a famous remark in Pericles' Funeral Oration (Thuc.,
II, 43, 1). Included in the first part of the play is a slanging
match, or trading of insults between the two "slaves"; this
too was a popular form of entertainment as we see from some
of the more realistic pastorals of Theocritus, and from certain
scenes in Plautus (convicia in Latin).31
The second part of the play is a contest between the rival
slaves before the Master, Demos himself. For a while the pre-
tense of a "slave-drama" is dropped and the material is purely
political, while Aristophanes heaps charges of political corrup-
tion on Cleon. But at the end we return to the slave-drama:
as we have seen, one of the characters in early farce was the
food or fruit-stealer. In one of the final scenes (1151-1205),
the slaves seek to win over Demos' favor by gifts of food. After
a few donations, the Sausage-seller runs out of food, while the
Paphlagonian, Cleon, still has a choice roast rabbit to present.
Here the Sausage-seller is inspired to pull what he calls a clown-
ish trick (1194: fwOoXxov ... r.). He pretends to see a foreign
embassy arriving, loaded with cash for bribes; Cleon runs off
to extort his share and while his back is turned, the Sausage-
seller steals the rabbit and gives it to Demos. It is noteworthy
that one of the Sausage-seller's qualifications for political life,
mentioned in an earlier passage (417-28), was his success in
stealing food in the Agora. In this way, Aristophanes degrades
the competition of politicians to a vulgar, slavish trick of steal-

31Cf. particularly Pseudolus, 357-68.

 POPULAR COMEDY IN ARISTOPHANES. 189

ing food, and to drive home his point, he refers immediately to

Cleon's claiming the victory at Sphacteria (1201), the credit
for which (in Aristophanes' opinion) belonged to Demosthenes.
It seems probable that this whole scene was funnier to the
Athenian audience because they recognized in it elements from
familiar, popular farces, and that Aristophanes was able in
this way to make his fierce charges and satire against Cleon
and other demagogues more palatable.
To conclude: it seems to me likely that many scenes and
bits of comic stage-business are directly imitated from a sub-
literary, farcical type of performance known to the Greeks of
the fifth century B. C. I do not claim the case is proved: in
fact, as I remarked at the beginning, the purpose of this essay
is not to prove anything, but to suggest ideas which may help
readers of Aristophanes to appreciate and enjoy more fully his
comedies. I do not think these ideas have been sufficiently taken
into account in the usual criticism and evaluation of the plays.
It might be argued that the genius and originality of Aristo-
phanes lay in his ability to combine these vulgar and often stale
tricks with his more elevated " Comedy of Ideas." In the better
comedies such tricks are used to illustrate, to make more con-
crete and vivid, the general theme of the play. Criticism of
the poet's dramatic technique should take this material into
account. I think this is a more valid method than the traditional
approach by way of the Aristotelian rules of probability, neces-
sary sequence of action, complications, suspense, and logical
solution: concepts which apparently did not concern Aristo-
phanes very urgently.
Finally, it may be added that great comedy in all ages is
rooted in popular entertainment. Not to mention Plautus again,
the clowns and fools in Shakespeare seem to derive from medi-
eval sources and popular entertainments. It is well known that
Moli6re used scenes and elements from the popular Commedia
dell' Arte in his plays. It seems to me highly probable that
Aristophanes followed the same practice.

CHARLEST. 3MURPHY
OBELIN COLLEGE.