Transposing Aristophanes: the theory and practice of translating Aristophanic lyric

The reception of Aristophanes has gained extraordinary momentum as a topic of academic interest in the last few years. Contributions range from Gonda Van Steen's ground-breaking Venom in Verse. Aristophanes in Modern Greece to Hall and Wrigley's Aristophanes in Performance 421 BC–AD 2007, which contains contributions from a wide range of scholars and writers, a number of whom have had experience of staging Aristophanes' plays as live theatre. In Found in Translation, J. Michael Walton has also made strides towards marrying the theory of translation to the practice of translating Aristophanes (something I have myself also sought to do in print). And with the history of Aristophanic translation, adaptation, and staging being rapidly pieced together (in the English-speaking world at least, where Hall, Steggle, Halliwell, Sowerby, Walsh, and Walton, for example, have all made their own contributions), much of the groundwork has been laid for a study such as is attempted in this article. Here I aim to take a broad look across a range of translations in order to see how one particular text type within Aristophanic drama has been approached by translators, namely Aristophanes' lyric passages. The aim of this study will be to give both an insight into the numerous considerations that translators take into account when translating Aristophanic lyric and an impression of the range of end products that have emerged over the last two hundred years

Electra Loves Asyndeton. A Survey on Asyndetic Series of Imperatives in Ancient Greek Drama.

Indagine stilistica

Political Comedy in Aristophanes

This paper argues that Aristophanic comedy, although it takes contemporary political life as its point of departure, is not political in the sense of aiming to influence politics outside the theatre. Brief discussions of Clouds, Knights, Lysistrata and Acharnians are used to cast initial doubt on interpretations that attribute serious intent to Aristophanes. It is then argued that Aristophanes’ treatment of the poet’s role as adviser, abuse of the audience and of individuals, the themes of rich and poor and the power of the dêmos, support this conclusion. In general, the assumptions of Aristophanes’ comedy are too closely attuned to those of the majority of his audience to warrant inferences about Aristophanes’ own political attitudes. This conclusion throws light on the democracy’s exercise of control over the theatre. An appendix argues that the main unifying element in Aristophanic comedy is not theme, but plot, and that Aristophanes took more care over coherence of plot-structure than is sometimes recognised

"The Milk of Birds": A Proverbial Phrase, Ancient and Modern, and its Link to Nature

A curious phrase from ancient Greek, ὀρνίθων γάλα, finds parallels in Latin as lac gallinaceum and in Modern Greek, as και του πουλιού το γάλα. While the Greek phrases translate as "(and) the milk of (the) bird(s)", the Latin translates as "henʼs milk". This essay discusses the phrase in a select variety of Greek and Latin sources from the 5th century BCE to the 4th century CE, and its Modern Greek equivalent in the 21st century. In addition, it discusses the variety of meanings and uses found in those sources, and connections to the natural world. Information from ancient sources has been gleaned from a search of the Digital Loeb Classical Library online database. Information for modern use comes from informal interviews, Facebook messages, e-mails, and telephone messages of nine native speakers of Modern Greek from different parts of the Greek world, most of whom live in the United States. The essay discusses two points concerning the natural world: first, the phrase as found in the names of certain plants, and second, as a substance called crop-milk produced by members of the pigeon family. The linguistic connection between ancient and modern worlds and the parallels found in nature encourage scholars to look "outside the box" when investigating proverbs, proverbial expressions and proverbial phrases. The Modern Greek version of the phrase both confirms and expands the meanings of the ancient ones, thus suggesting that other connections between these ancient and modern languages may prove to be fruitful avenues of investigation.

The Work of Tragic Productions: Towards a New History of Drama as Labor Culture

Preliminary analysis of the representation of laborers in Greek tragedy and satyr drama

The Birds by Aristophanes

The Bird.s by Aristophanes was written in 414 B.C. and has remained a classic Greek comedy that is widely produced in classic theatres and university campuses. The plot surrounds Euelpides and Pisthetærus, two old Athenians, disgusted with the litigiousness, wrangling and sycophancy of their countrymen, and how they resolve to form a new society. As the action progresses, the two Athenians go to Cloud Cukooland to seek the help of the Hoopoe, King of the Birds, as well as the rest of the birds, in their attempt to build a new city. Euelpides and Pisthetaerus may be the inspiration for Neil Simon\u27s The Odd Couple,which is about two contrasting friends who believe that they can form a new society (marriage) when they cannot deal with their existing one. Of course, both the ancient couple and the contemporary one have a lot to learn

Social Class

Discussion of class structure in fifth-century Athens, historical constitution of theater audiences, and the changes in the comic representation of class antagonism from Aristophanes to Menander

Law and Sacrifice in Aristophanes’ <i>Birds</i>

Jurisprudence is a prominent theme in Birds with such technical details that Ruschenbusch could supplement his inventory of Solonian law from Aristophanes’ text. Associated with the legal moments of the comedy is the ritual of sacrifice, which motivates the plot and frames its most important events. The relationship between these two cultural systems is hardly incidental, as Derrida recognized in his seminal essay, “Force of Law,” which connects carnivorous sacrifice with the authority to make law. This paper explores how Aristophanes’ Birds affirms a contiguity between law and sacrifice to establish Peisetaerus as the sole juridical power in Nephelococcygia. (Párrafo extraído a modo de resumen) Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació