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Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen

Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen. Persuasion = Salvation?. Agenda. Epideixis Final preview Discussion Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen and peithō Play and Context Athens 404-387 BCE Which Lens( es )? Assemblywomen via Weber, Michels , Finley. Epideixis. Final preview. Our Modest Proposal….

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Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen

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  1. Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen Persuasion = Salvation?

  2. Agenda • Epideixis • Final preview • Discussion • Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen and peithō • Play and Context • Athens 404-387 BCE • Which Lens(es)? • Assemblywomen via Weber, Michels, Finley Aristophanes Assemblywomen

  3. Epideixis Final preview

  4. Our Modest Proposal… We live in a time of overpopulation, we die in a time of great starvation. [dicolon: antithesis, anaphora, homoioteleuton] Though these problems seem infinite, our solution is infantile: [dicolon: antithesis, paronomasia] in conception, in execution, in every conceivable fashion. [tricolon crescendo] For I propose we eat our young. “Eat our young?” you gasp. Yeah, eat them and thereby save them [paradox] — save them from privation and our species from extinction. [dicolon: homoiotelueton] Aristophanes Assemblywomen

  5. Discussion Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen and peithō

  6. Two Quotes… Assemblywomen Isocrates Antidosis “They recognize that Lady Persuasion (Peithō) is one of the gods, ... but when men aspire to share the power which the goddess possesses, they claim that such aspirants are being corrupted....” (sect. 249) [CHORUS TO PRAXAGORA] “Now summon all your eloquence, / your shrewdness , wit and common sense! / Yours is the skill: to you must fall / the task of speaking for us all.” (p. 241) Aristophanes Assemblywomen

  7. Questions • Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen as… • endorsement • critique of (feminine?) peithō? Aristophanes Assemblywomen

  8. Comments. . . endorsement critique implausible scheme doesn’t work real-world unworkability combination extreme democracy socialism • peitho’s power for good OR bad • inevitable imperfection • combination Aristophanes Assemblywomen

  9. Play and Context Athens 404-387 BCE

  10. Dramatic, Thematic Structure Crisis. . . Remedy. . . Planning, execution coup Conception, enactment communalism Probation collectivization tug of war Celebration • Poverty • Inconstancy • Selfishness • Stasis? De Luca. Aristophanes' Male and Female Revolutions. Rothwell. Politics and Persuasion in Aristophanes' Eccleziazusae. Scholtz. Concordia Discors ch4. Aristophanes Assemblywomen

  11. Historical Background (cont’d) Pnyx, Assembly meeting 404 Athens’ defeat. Oligarchic episode. 403 Amnesty decree. (Don’t think badly!). Restoration of democracy. Establishmentof nomothetai (“law-givers”). Aristophanes Assemblywomen

  12. Historical Background (cont’d) Hoplites fighting 395-387 Corinthian War. c. 392 Assemblywomen produced. Aristophanes Assemblywomen

  13. Historical Background (cont’d) 338 Battle of Chaeronea. 337/6 Anti-tyranny decree. 336-323 Reign of Alexander III ("the Great") of Macedon. 322 Macedonians overthrow Athenian democracy. Aristophanes Assemblywomen

  14. Isocrates on stasis and its Avoidance “And when we have freed ourselves of material privation, which dissolves comradeship and drives kin to become enemies and incites all humanity to war and stasis, then there will be no avoiding homonoia among us or genuine good will.” (Antidosis 174) Aristophanes Assemblywomen

  15. Cognitive Triangle? homonoia (consensus) isēgoria (free speech) stasis (strife)

  16. Which Lens(es)? Assemblywomenvia Weber, Michels, Finley

  17. Lenses • Despotic/oligarchic gynaecocracy? (Michels) “The preponderant elements of the movement, the men who lead and nourish it, end by undergoing a gradual detachment from the masses and are attracted within the orbit of the ‘political class’ ” (Political Parties) • Charismatic gynaecocracy? (Weber) “… devotion to the exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual person, and of the normative patterns or order revealed or ordained by him” (Economy and Society) • Pragmatic gynaecocracy? (Finley) Democracy’s “substantive promises”: “what counts is that the people expected results and at times, sometimes for long periods, felt satisfied with them” (Ancient History) Aristophanes Assemblywomen

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