Chapter 17

Now we wish to tell the judges, in a friendly sort of way,All the blessings we shall give them, if we gain the prize today.[Rogers’ translation]

Now we wish to tell the judges, in a friendly sort of way,All the blessings we shall give them, if we gain the prize today.

Now we wish to tell the judges, in a friendly sort of way,

All the blessings we shall give them, if we gain the prize today.

[Rogers’ translation]

Aristophanes was bald-headed, and therefore the chorus humorously appeals for the votes of all those similarly afflicted; cf.Peace, vss. 765 ff.:

It is right then for all, young and old, great and small,Henceforth of my side and my party to be,And each bald-headed man should do all that he canThat the prize be awarded to me.[Rogers’ translation]

It is right then for all, young and old, great and small,Henceforth of my side and my party to be,And each bald-headed man should do all that he canThat the prize be awarded to me.

It is right then for all, young and old, great and small,

Henceforth of my side and my party to be,

And each bald-headed man should do all that he can

That the prize be awarded to me.

[Rogers’ translation]

TheBirds(vss. 1763 ff.) concludes with a sort of “Lo the conquering hero comes,” an adaptation of Archilochus:

Raise the joyous Paean-cry,Raise the song of Victory.Io Paean, alalalae,Mightiest of the Powers, to thee![Rogers’ translation],

Raise the joyous Paean-cry,Raise the song of Victory.Io Paean, alalalae,Mightiest of the Powers, to thee!

Raise the joyous Paean-cry,

Raise the song of Victory.

Io Paean, alalalae,

Mightiest of the Powers, to thee!

[Rogers’ translation],

where Rogers comments: “These triumphal cries not only celebrate the triumph of Pisthetaerus [in the play], but also prognosticate the victory of Aristophanes in the dramatic competition.” Similarly, at the end of theWomen in Council(vss. 1179 ff.):

Then up with your feet and away to go.Off, off to the supper we’ll run.With a whoop for the prize, hurrah, hurrah,With a whoop for the prize, hurrah, hurrah,Whoop, whoop, for the victory won![Rogers’ translation],

Then up with your feet and away to go.Off, off to the supper we’ll run.With a whoop for the prize, hurrah, hurrah,With a whoop for the prize, hurrah, hurrah,Whoop, whoop, for the victory won!

Then up with your feet and away to go.

Off, off to the supper we’ll run.

With a whoop for the prize, hurrah, hurrah,

Whoop, whoop, for the victory won!

[Rogers’ translation],

where the same editor and translator again comments as follows: “These Bacchic cries (Evoi, Evae) do not merely celebrate the success of Praxagora’s revolution, they also prognosticate the poet’s own success over his theatrical rivals in the Bacchic contest.” In tragedy we naturally could not expect anything so frank and undisguised as the first three passages just cited, but for the last two an adequate parallel is found in the tag which Euripides employed at the conclusion of hisIphigenia among the Taurians,Orestes, andPhoenician Maids:

Hail, reverèd Victory:Rest upon my life; and meCrown, and crown eternally.[Way’s translation],

Hail, reverèd Victory:Rest upon my life; and meCrown, and crown eternally.

Hail, reverèd Victory:

Rest upon my life; and me

Crown, and crown eternally.

[Way’s translation],

which the ancient scholiast and modern editors rightly interpret as a prayer for victory in the contest.

But if this were the extent of the influence which the fact of there being a contest exercised upon Greek drama, the matter might quickly be dismissed. Actually, however, the system involved deeper consequences. It is unnecessary here to rehearse the cumbersome process by which the judges were appointed and rendered their decision upon dramatic events (seep. 272, below). While designed to prevent bribery or intimidation, it had two other effects as well. One was that, since we have no reason to believe that the choice of judges was restricted in any way or that they were not selected from the entire free population, the judges would therefore represent the average intelligence and taste, and a poet who cared for victory had to accommodate himself to this situation and could not make his appeal merely to the superior attainments of the favored, intellectual class. Secondly, like most officials at Athens, the judges were liable to be called to account for their conduct. In fact on the second day after the conclusion of the City Dionysia a special popular assembly was held in the theater for the express purpose of airing complaints concerning the management of the festival; and if the judges were thought to have been recreant to their duties or guilty of favoritism, action could be taken against them at that time while the popular anger was still hot and by the votes ofthe very persons whose wishes had been balked. The total effect of these arrangements was to render the judges extremely sensitive to the public’s expression of opinion, which was manifested by whistling, catcalls, applause, knocking the heels against the seats, etc. Especially in the dithyrambic contests, where tribal rivalry entered in, feeling sometimes ran very high and personal encounters were not infrequent. To quell such riotous disorders it became necessary to appoint certain officials to maintain order, like sergeants-at-arms. In view of these conditions, it is not surprising that Plato[304]complains that the choice of victor had practically been intrusted to a general show of hands and that the necessity of pleasing the popular taste had corrupted the very poets themselves. Let us consider just how this tendency manifested itself.

First of all, then, in theKnights, Aristophanes appeals to the audience to impress the judges by a hearty burst of applause; cf. vss. 544 ff.:

So seeing our Poet beganIn a mood so discreet, nor with vulgar conceit rushed headlong before you at first,Loud surges of praise to his honour upraise; salute him, all hands, with a burstOf hearty triumphant Lenaean applause,That the bard may depart, all radiant and brightTo the top of his forehead with joy and delight,Having gained, by your favour, his cause.[Rogers’ translation]

So seeing our Poet began

In a mood so discreet, nor with vulgar conceit rushed headlong before you at first,

Loud surges of praise to his honour upraise; salute him, all hands, with a burst

Of hearty triumphant Lenaean applause,

That the bard may depart, all radiant and bright

To the top of his forehead with joy and delight,

Having gained, by your favour, his cause.

[Rogers’ translation]

But some of Aristophanes’ contemporaries stooped far lower than this. In theWaspshe warns the audience not to expect “two slaves scattering nuts among the spectators out of a basket” (vss. 58 f.), animadverting upon a scene in a recent play by Eupolis. Again, in thePlutus(vss. 789 ff.) one of the characters refuses an invitation to have titbits distributed and adds: “It is beneath the dignity of a poet to scatter figs and delicacies to the spectators, and on these terms to force their laughter.” In thePeace(vss. 962 ff.) he ridiculed such practices by providing every spectator with at least one grain of barley! A moredrastic parody was perpetrated by Hegemon, who brought a cloakful of stones into the orchestra to be thrown at the spectators! It is only fair to state that Aristophanes did not lower himself by using such unprofessional appeals, but the point which I am urging is confirmed by the practice of his rivals and by the fact that he sometimes explains his own defeats by his unwillingness to resort to their methods.

From the nature of the case, tragedy could exhibit no appeals so undisguised as the above. To judge from Plato’s language, just cited, in some of the tragedies of his day we might have found closer parallels to these artifices of the comic playwrights. Nevertheless, fifth-century tragedy does reveal how the tragic poets tickled the palates of their auditors. They did this in two ways: first, they appealed to national pride by rewriting the mythology in such a way as to assign to Athenian worthies a part which non-Attic tradition did not recognize; and secondly, they aroused the chauvinistic spirit by the sentiments, whether eulogistic of Athens or derogatory to her enemies, which they placed in their characters’ mouths. These points might be illustrated at great length; it will suffice to mention a few examples.

According to Attic tradition, Medea sojourned for a while at Athens. Euripides took advantage of this fact in order to introduce the Aegeus episode into hisMedeaand thus bring the Attic king into connection also with an earlier part of the Colchian’s career. His character in this play is presented in agreeable contrast to that of both Medea and Jason, and his chivalry in offering Athens to Medea as an asylum from her enemies would bring a thrill of pride to every Attic heart. Furthermore, his presence served to motivate the famous choral ode (vss. 824 ff.) beginning:

O happy the race in the ages oldenOf Erechtheus, the seed of the blest Gods’ line,In a land unravaged, peace-enfolden,Aye quaffing of Wisdom’s glorious wine, etc.[305][Way’s translation]

O happy the race in the ages oldenOf Erechtheus, the seed of the blest Gods’ line,In a land unravaged, peace-enfolden,Aye quaffing of Wisdom’s glorious wine, etc.[305]

O happy the race in the ages olden

Of Erechtheus, the seed of the blest Gods’ line,

In a land unravaged, peace-enfolden,

Aye quaffing of Wisdom’s glorious wine, etc.[305]

[Way’s translation]

Athens as a place of refuge for suppliants was a favorite note: the conduct of Demophon in Euripides’Children of Heraclesand that of Theseus in Euripides’Suppliantsand Sophocles’Oedipus at Colonusmust have given great pleasure to an Athenian audience.

Still more striking are the sentiments of the dramatic characters. When Euripides’Children of Heracleswas produced, the Spartans were accustomed to invade and ravage Attica every year. To the ancestors of these pillagers Iolaus says in the play (vss. 309 ff.):

Boys, we have put our friends unto the test:—If home-return shall ever dawn for you,And your sires’ halls and honours ye inherit,Saviours and friends account them evermore,And never against their land lift hostile spear,Remembering this, but hold them of all statesMost dear.[Way’s translation]

Boys, we have put our friends unto the test:—

If home-return shall ever dawn for you,

And your sires’ halls and honours ye inherit,

Saviours and friends account them evermore,

And never against their land lift hostile spear,

Remembering this, but hold them of all states

Most dear.

[Way’s translation]

Think what indignation at such ingratitude must have welled up in every spectator’s heart! Later on in the same play (vss. 1026 ff.) the Argive king, Eurystheus, whom Athens has just defeated in battle, is made to say:

But I bestowOn Athens, who hath spared, who shamed to slay me,An ancient oracle of Loxias,Which in far days shall bless her more than seems, etc.[Way’s translation]

But I bestowOn Athens, who hath spared, who shamed to slay me,An ancient oracle of Loxias,Which in far days shall bless her more than seems, etc.

But I bestow

On Athens, who hath spared, who shamed to slay me,

An ancient oracle of Loxias,

Which in far days shall bless her more than seems, etc.

[Way’s translation]

Again, in Euripides’Alcestis(vs. 452) the chorus of Pheraean elders drags in an allusion to “wealthy, splendid Athens,” using the adjective λιπαραί. Aristophanes said (Acharnians, vs. 640) that the Athenians could refuse nothing to anyone who applied this epithet to their city. In Euripides’Trojan Womenthe choreutae are represented as wondering to what part of Greece the allotment of the spoils will send them, and express the wish that they “might come to the renowned, heaven-blest land of Theseus” (vss. 208 f.). There was absolutely no reason why Trojans should entertain such a partiality toward Athens, and this undramatic sentiment is frankly directed to theamor patriaeof the playwright’s compatriots. In the same poet’sAndromachethe title-character is made to burst out into the following invective against Sparta (vss. 445 ff.):

O ye in all folk’s eyes most loathed of men,Dwellers in Sparta, senates of treachery,Princes of lies, weavers of webs of guile,Thoughts crooked, wholesome never, devious all,—A crime is your supremacy in Greece! etc.[306][Way’s translation]

O ye in all folk’s eyes most loathed of men,

Dwellers in Sparta, senates of treachery,

Princes of lies, weavers of webs of guile,

Thoughts crooked, wholesome never, devious all,—

A crime is your supremacy in Greece! etc.[306]

[Way’s translation]

Thus, in effect the mythological heroes were dragged upon the stage before the Athenian populace and forced to affirm: “Your friends shall be my friends, and your enemies my enemies.”

It would be easy greatly to extend this list, but I shall close with two instances in which it is particularly obvious that dramatic illusion has been sacrificed. In Euripides’Suppliantsthe Theban herald inquires, “Who is despot of this land?” which gives Theseus an opportunity to say (vss. 403 ff.):

First, stranger, with false note thy speech began,Seeking a despot here. Our state is ruledNot of one only man: Athens is free.Her people in the order of their courseRule year by year, bestowing on the richAdvantage none; the poor hath equal right.[Way’s translation]

First, stranger, with false note thy speech began,

Seeking a despot here. Our state is ruled

Not of one only man: Athens is free.

Her people in the order of their course

Rule year by year, bestowing on the rich

Advantage none; the poor hath equal right.

[Way’s translation]

Equally effective with any jingoes in the audience would be the scene in thePersians. Here Aeschylus “pays a pleasant compliment to Athenian vanity” by means of the following dialogue (vss. 231 ff.):

Atossa.Where, O friends, is famous Athens on the broad face of the earth?Chorus.Far in the west: beside the setting of the lord of light the sun.Atossa.This same Athens, my son Xerxes longed with much desire to take.Chorus.Wisely: for all Greece submissive, when this city falls, will fall.Atossa.Are they many? do they number men enough to meet my son?Chorus.What they number was sufficient once to work the Medes much harm.Atossa.Other strength than numbers have they? wealth enough within themselves?Chorus.They can boast a fount of silver, native treasure to the land.Atossa.Are they bowmen good? sure-feathered do their pointed arrows fly?Chorus.Not so. Stable spears they carry, massy armature of shields.Atossa.Who is shepherd of this people? lord (ἐπιδεσπόζει) of the Athenian host?Chorus.Slaves are they to no man living, subject to no earthly name.Atossa.How can such repel the onset of a strong united host?Chorus.HowDarius knew in Hellas, when he lost vast armies there.[Blackie’s translation]

Atossa.Where, O friends, is famous Athens on the broad face of the earth?

Chorus.Far in the west: beside the setting of the lord of light the sun.

Atossa.This same Athens, my son Xerxes longed with much desire to take.

Chorus.Wisely: for all Greece submissive, when this city falls, will fall.

Atossa.Are they many? do they number men enough to meet my son?

Chorus.What they number was sufficient once to work the Medes much harm.

Atossa.Other strength than numbers have they? wealth enough within themselves?

Chorus.They can boast a fount of silver, native treasure to the land.

Atossa.Are they bowmen good? sure-feathered do their pointed arrows fly?

Chorus.Not so. Stable spears they carry, massy armature of shields.

Atossa.Who is shepherd of this people? lord (ἐπιδεσπόζει) of the Athenian host?

Chorus.Slaves are they to no man living, subject to no earthly name.

Atossa.How can such repel the onset of a strong united host?

Chorus.HowDarius knew in Hellas, when he lost vast armies there.

[Blackie’s translation]

From a dramatic standpoint these questions are out of place, since Atossa’s ignorance is improbable and is shown to be feigned by vss. 348 and 474 f. The first question is especially artificial. Nevertheless, point by point Atossa has drawn out all the distinctive points of pride in her son’s enemies: their commanding influence, their numbers, their resources, their national weapon, their freedom, and their previous exploits. Aeschylus valued dramatic verisimilitude less highly than the fervent response that each of these couplets would evoke in every Athenian breast.

So we see that the tragic playwrights, more subtly than their comic confrères but fully as effectively, knew how to commend themselves to the good graces of the populace by incidents and sentiments no less palatable than the nuts and figs of comedy. If such conduct seem to some to be beneath the dignity of transcendent geniuses like Aeschylus and Euripides, a corrective may be found in the words of Schlegel:[307]“The dramatic poet is, more than any other, obliged to court external form and loud applause. But of course it is only in appearance that he thus lowers himself to his hearers; while, in reality, he is elevating them to himself.”

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