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Aristophanic Costume: a Last Word

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

W. Beare
Affiliation:
Universtiy of Bristol

Extract

In my second article on this subject I asked Professor Webster to clarify his previous statements. My article was shown to him before publication, and his reply will be found immediately following it. I will confine my remarks here to a single point, because it is simple and decisive.

The only passage in ancient literature explicitly connecting the phallus with Old Comedy is Clouds 537 f. There Aristophanes says that his play does not wear ‘any stitched-on leather, hanging down, red-tipped, thick, to make the children laugh’. Webster, following Körte, throws all the emphasis on and interprets the passage as meaning ‘the phalli worn in this play do not hang down’. Asked why so much emphasis should be placed on the word , he makes no reply.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1959

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References

1 C.Q, N.s. vii (1957), 184f.

2 Jahr. Arch, viii (1893), 69.

3 ‘Undenkbar ist es, daB Aristophanes in einigen Stucken und bei einigen Personal den Phallos beibehalten, ihn anderswarts dagegen fortgelassen habe.’