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The Comic Fragments in their Relation to the Structure of Old Attic Comedy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

M. Whittaker
Affiliation:
Girton College, Cambridge

Extract

Aristophanic Comedy falls structurally into marked divisions, episodic and epirrhematic. The first is a very simple method of composition consisting of short iambic scenes, connected by choral stasima which are more or less relevant to the action. As a general rule these episodes occupy the second half of the play between the Parabasis and Exodos, and, since they show the hero enjoying the fruits of his earlier struggles, contribute little to the development of the plot. Many of the Comic Fragments in trimeters are probably taken from episodes, but any attempt to classify them would add nothing to knowledge of a play from the structural viewpoint. The case is otherwise with the epirrhematic parts of Comedy. These are of complicated structure, marked by the use of the syzygy, i.e. the correspondence of odes and epirrhemes on the plan abab and also by the use of the tetrameter, which is confined to these sections. They may be further differentiated among themselves by the metre used. In the Parodos anapaests, iambs and trochees are found, in the Agon iambs and anapaests, in the parabatic syzygy only trochees, in the ⋯πλο⋯ν anapaestic and aeolic tetrameters. Taking the use of the tetrameter as guide it is possible to classify certain of the Comic Fragments, and subject matter and the criterion of metre often give some indication of the particular epirrhematic section from which they are taken. Prologue and Exodos stand outside the scheme of both episodic and epirrhematic composition, being structurally self-contained. The former consists of iambic trimeters, not a simple means of differentiation, but sometimes subject matter affords convincing points of analogy with the Aristophanic Prologue. The Exodos shows a great variety of metres, but here again subject matter and Aristophanic analogy are of great value in classification.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1935

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References

page 181 note 1 Cf. Mazon, , Aristophane, p. 177Google Scholar. The generalization is borne out by examination of Aristophanes' extant plays.

page 181 note 2 All Aristophanic πλ are anapaestic, the eupolideans of the Nubes excepted.

page 181 note 3 Cf. Mazon, , Aristophane, p. 171Google Scholar.

page 182 note 1 Kock prints this with an interrogation mark, following Jacobs, . Addit. 261Google Scholar, but in view of Comedy's constant gibes at drunken women I venture to suggest that the lines have more point if taken as above.

page 182 note 2 Cf. Menander's Περικειρομένη, Plautus' Aulularia, Trinummus, Rudens.

page 182 note 3 Platonius XIII, 40.

page 182 note 4 Cf. Αίολοσίκων frag. 10.

page 183 note 1 Kock refers this to the Exodos and quotes Euripides' Cyclops v. 708–9 in support, but there is little verbal similarity between the two extracts and the Cratinus fragment would be inappropriate at the Exodos. A poet does not hide the identity of his chorus till the very moment when they are leaving the orchestra.

page 183 note 2 Cf. Equites v. 242 ff., Nubes v. 323 ff., Aves v. 260 ff.

page 183 note 3 Cf. Aves v. 294 ff., Thesmophoriazusae v. 280–1.

page 184 note 1 Cf. Equites, Nubes, Aves, Lysistrata for the normal usage, Vespae and Pax for analogy to this.

page 184 note 2 All metrical analysis is taken from J. W. White, Verse of Greek Comedy.

page 184 note 3 Cf. Nubes, Aves.

page 184 note 4 Vespae v. 291–315, Thesmophoriazusae v. 101–29, Ranae v. 324–35, 340–53.

page 184 note 5 This may be replaced by an epirrhemation of two tristichs (Lysistrata) delivered by the two agonists or omitted entirely (Nubes, Ranae, Ecclesiazusae, Plutus).

page 185 note 1 The scantiness of the fragments unfortunately admits of no distinction between Agon and Subagon.

page 185 note 2 Frag. 6.

page 185 note 3 Burs, . Jahresb., 1911, p. 251Google Scholar.

page 185 note 4 Demianczuk, , Supp. Com., p. 73Google Scholar.

page 185 note 5 Cf. Quintilian I, 10, 18.

page 185 note 6 Frag. 194, Nubes v. 555, Schol. V. The fragment is inconclusive, but the evidence of the Scholiast makes it practically certain that she did appear in the play.

page 185 note 7 Platonius XIII.

page 186 note 1 Athenaeus I, 21e.

page 186 note 2 Cf. Nubes v. 529. Frag. 198 shows the ‘improbus’ airing his sophistical knowledge, while frags. 205, 206, 221 show his effeminate way of life.

page 186 note 3 Galen, Lex Hippocrat. prooem. v. 706 in quoting frag. 222 says that it is the father who is putting the questions to his son.

page 186 note 4 Cf. Nubes v. 1328 ff.

page 186 note 5 Cf. Nubes, Ranae.

page 187 note 1 Kock compares Cicero, , Leges II, 37Google Scholar.

page 187 note 2 Acharnenses, Pax, Thesmophoriazusae.

page 187 note 3 Supp. Com., p. 31.

page 188 note 1 Zielinski, (Die Gliederung der altattischen Komoedie, p. 349)Google Scholar uses the term to describe an epirrheme containing a number of lines divisible by four.

page 188 note 2 Cf. Pax, Ranae.

page 188 note 3 Hermes 1904.

page 188 note 4 Equites, Nubes.

page 188 note 5 Acharnenses, Pax, Aves, Ranae.

page 189 note 1 Cf. Demianczuk, , Supp. Com., pp. 43 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 189 note 2 Cf. Körte, , Hermes 1912, pp. 276313Google Scholar for a detailed and illuminating commentary.

page 189 note 3 Cf. Plutarch, , Mor. 662eGoogle Scholar.

page 189 note 4 De reliquiis Com. Att., pp. 340, 353.

page 189 note 5 De reliquiis Com. Att., pp. 339 ff.

page 190 note 1 Cf. Equites, Vespae and in a much lesser degree Nubes and Aves.