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Kleon's eyebrows (Cratin. fr. 228 K-A) and late 5th-century comic portrait-masks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

S. Douglas Olson
S. Douglas Olson*
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
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Extract

At Aristophanes, Equites 230–2, one of the slaves who speak the prologue informs the audience that, when the Paphlagonian (i.e. Kleon) appears onstage, his mask will not resemble him, for the σκεϒoπoιoí (‘stage-property manufacturers’ vel sim.) were afraid to make one that depicted him accurately. In an important article, K. J. Dover argued that it must in fact have been very difficult to create easily recognizable portrait-masks, and suggested that the joke in Eq. 230–2 may be that the Paphlagonian's mask is horribly ugly but allegedly still nowhere near ugly enough. In response, D. Welsh, following an anonymous ancient commentator on Lucian, argued that Cratinus fr. 228 K-A shows that the historical Kleon had strikingly unattractive eyebrows. Had anyone wished to caricature the demagogue's physical appearance, therefore, he coule easily have done so, and portrait-masks may not have been so uncommon after all. Welsh's argument is at first glance quite appealing, and has been endorsed without further comment or argument by Sommerstein and Storey. I suggest, however, that the ancient commentator was confused, and that Cratinus’ remark is much more easily explained by reference to what is known about the use of facial expression as a communicative strategy in classical and early Hellenistic Athens, particularly as it appears in the comic poets. Kleon's eyebrows were probably no more ugly than those of anyone else, although he may have used them in an offensive way, and as Dover saw long ago, Eq. 230–2 cannot be taken as evidence for the use of portrait-masks on the late 5th-century comic stage.

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , May 1999 , pp. 320 - 321
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1999

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References

1 Dover, K. J., ‘Portrait-masks in Aristophanes’, in Komoidotragemata: Studia Aristophanea viri Aristophanei W. J. W. Koster in honorem (Amsterdam, 1967), pp. 16–28 Google Scholar; reprinted in Greek and the Greeks: Collected Papers, Vol. I: Language, Poetry, Drama (Oxford and New York, 1987), pp. 267–78. The fact that real Athenians represented onstage in Aristophanes’ comedies are generally identified by name just as they appear suggests that they would not be organized otherwise, and thus lends some further support to the thesis that portrait-masks were not in common use in the late 5th century; cf. Olson, S. D., ‘Names and naming in Aristophanic comedy’, CQ 42 (1992), 316–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Welsh, D., ‘Knights 230–3 and Cleon's eyebrows’, CQ 29 (1979), 214–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Brown, E. L., ‘Cleon caricatured on a Corinthian cup’, JHS 94 (1974), 168 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, makes a similar point in passing.

3 Sommerstein, A. H. (ed. and trans.), The Comedies of Aristophanes, Vol. 2: Knights (Warminster, 1981), on 231–3Google Scholar; Storey, I. C., ‘ Wasps 1284–91 and the portrait of Kleon in Wasps ’, Scholia 4 (1995), 17.Google Scholar

4 Lateiner, D., Sardonic Smile: Nonverbal Behavior in Homeric Epic (Ann Arbor, 1995), pp. 3–17 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, offers a useful introduction to the subject, although with an emphasis on somewhat earlier material.

5 Cf. σv Ar. V. 36 ⋯ κλÉων ༐Χρῆτo øωνῇ Χαλεπῇ. καθάπερ καì ⋯τÉρωθι. [v. 1034]. ἦν δέ καì τήν ⋯Ψιν ảργαλÉoς.

6 Cf. the Homeric ὑπóδρα ỉδών (e.g. Il. 1.148), with the observations of J. P. Holoka, ‘Looking darkly (γπOΔPA ІΔΩN): reflections on status and decorum in Homer’, TAPA 113 (1983), 1–16; Lateiner (n. 4, above), pp. 12–13, 88–90.

7 Cf. σE Nu. 582 (glossing τàς ⋯øρûς σϒνήγoμεν) ༐πεì καì ⋯ κλÉων τoιoûτoς. εἶπε δέ ảνωτÉρω (i.e. at 348–55) ὅτι πάντας μιμoûνται.

8 Thanks are due an anonymous referee for his comments on an earlier draft of this paper.