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The Birth and Transfiguration of Comedy in Athens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

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The Greek theater produced not only a single triumphal procession of Dionysus. The god of tragedy made his way into the Renaissance and the baroque period through the story of Orpheus, given new dramatic and musical life. This was the theme of my study in Diogenes, 1959: “The Birth and Rebirth of Tragedy.” But the god of comedy was none other than the god of tragedy, and his path led, already in ancient times, to a particular dramatic genre: a genre which in its last, mild form became at the same time the vehicle of humanity, as the actual, great herald of Greek culture, and the model for European drama, inasfar as the latter did not purport to be a continuation of Greek tragedy.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1962 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

1 From Aristophanes: The Eleven Comedies, New York, Liveright Publish ing Corp.

Unless otherwise indicated in the notes, the quotations are translated by T. Jaeger.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid.

7 Adapted from The Fragments of Attic Comedy, ed. and trans. by John Maxwell Edmonds, Leiden, E. J. Brill.

8 From Aristophanes cit.

9 From Aristophanes cit.

10 From Greek Literature in Translation, ed. by Whitney J. Oates and Charles T. Murphy, New York, Longmans, Green and Co.

11 Ibid.

12 From Menander, Three Plays, trans. by L. A. Post, New York, E. P. Dutton and Company.

13 From Menander, Dyskolos, trans. by W. G. Arnott, London, The Athlone Press.

14 Ibid.