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Aristophanes and Agathon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

W. Rhys Roberts
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Extract

In this paper I propose to inquire what estimate of the tragic poet Agathon may be derived from the plays of Aristophanes; to consider how far the view thus inferred can be confirmed from independent sources of information; and to touch lightly upon the general question of literary criticism in Aristophanes.

Aristophanes possesses so many higher titles to fame that it is easy to forget that he may from one point of view be regarded as the earliest of literary critics, and that to his poems, either directly, or indirectly through the scholiasts, we owe much of our knowledge of certain aspects of Greek literary history. It is true that, as a poet-critic, he confines his criticisms almost entirely to the poets. But among these he refers by name to some forty or fifty,—one or two of them epic poets, a few lyric, a larger number writers of comedy, and a still larger number writers of tragedy.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 20 , November 1900 , pp. 44 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1900

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References

page 45 note 1 For this verse translation, as well as for those which follow I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Arthur S. Way.

page 46 note 1 Thesm. 100. ibid. 130–133.

page 47 note 1 Plat., Symp. 197Google Scholar C, D, E: Jowett's translation is given in the text.

page 47 note 2 Plat., Symp. 198Google Scholar C:

page 48 note 1 Philostr., Vit. Soph. i. 9Google Scholar, —The fragments of Agathon are in some ways the best and most impartial authority of all. But (1) they are few and short, (2) they may owe their preservation rather to their peculiarities than to their representative character (hence the importance of collateral testimony such as that just quoted), (3) they are, in some cases, of doubtful ascription. Examined from the point of view last mentioned, they remind us of the many uncertainties which attend our knowledge of the remains even of the three great tragedians. How glad, for instance, we should be to have a final determination of the authorship of that line about the wisdom of tyrants being derived from converse with the wise, which Plato in the Republic (viii. 568 A) ascribes to Euripides, but which later authorities (and most modern editors) assign to the Locrian Ajax of Sophocles.

page 48 note 2 Dionys. Hal., de admir. vi dicendi in Demosth. 1033Google Scholar R:

page 49 note 1 ibid. 1035 R: The words in inverted commas are an attempted restoration by Weil.

page 49 note 2 Ael., Var. Hist. xiv. 13Google Scholar: where is clearly intended to imply

page 49 note 3 Ran. 84,

page 49 note 4 Such lines as :—

Ach. 909. Ran. 82.

page 49 note 5 The ambiguous expression is (Ran. 85), which in any case seems to glance at the convivial disposition of Agathon.

page 50 note 1 Plat., Symp. 175 E, 198 AGoogle Scholar; Protag. 315 D. In later writers, ὁ καλὸς Ἀγάθων has become almost a stereotyped phrase.

page 50 note 2 The dramatic date of the Symposium is 416 B.C., when Agathon won his first tragic victory. He may have been about thirty at the time.

page 50 note 3 Aristoph. Thesm. 148 ff. In the Thesmophoriazusae Agathon composes with his singing robes about him and in the sun's genial glow.

page 50 note 4 Cp. Plat., Protag. 315Google Scholar D, —For Antiphon's tribute to Agathon, reference may be made to Aristot, . Eudemian, Ethics iii. 5.Google Scholar

page 50 note 5 Thesm. 29, ibid. 187,

page 51 note 1 Agathon is exhibited by means of the in Thesm. 96, and so is Euripides in Ach. 409. With the attitude of the in the Thesmophoriazusae may be compared that of Cephisophon as described in Ran. 944, 1408, 1453, and in Fragm. 316.

page 51 note 2 Ran. 826:—

page 51 note 3 Plut., Quaest. Conviv. 645Google Scholar E: For the proverb see Leutsch and Schneidewin, , Paroemiogr. Gr. i. p. 2.Google Scholar

page 51 note 4 Aristot, . Poet. xviii. 7.Google Scholar

page 51 note 5 ibid. xviii. 5.

page 51 note 6 Plat., Symp. 196Google Scholar E: The words spaced are from the Sthenoboea of Euripides, (Fragm. 663)Google Scholar:—

page 51 note 7 Plat., Symp. 176Google Scholar A: ibid. 221 B: Cp. Aristoph, . Nub. 362Google Scholar:—

page 52 note 1 Plat., Symp. 223Google Scholar C, D.

page 52 note 2 Aristot, . Poet. ix. 7, 8.Google Scholar

page 53 note 1 The Thesmophoriazusae was produced in 411 B.C.; the lost Gerytades at an uncertain date, most probably in 407 B.C. For the Gerytades in relation to Agathon, cp. schol. ad Luciani Rhetor. Praec. ap. Cramer, . Anecd. iv. p. 269, 20Google Scholar: Of the Thesmophoriazusae there was a second edition (or rather a second version), in which occurred the line (Fr. vii.) (so Otto Jahn for comparing Pers. Sat. i. 85, ‘crimina rasis librat in antithetis’).

page 53 note 2 Ran. 73 ff.

page 53 note 3 Thesm. 170, Ach. 138–140, Thesm. 169, Ran. 85, ibid. 87. The names of [fifteen or sixteen of these minor tragic poets occur in Aristophanes.

page 54 note 1 Ran. 88 ff.

page 54 note 2 Vesp. 1081, Pax 356, Ran. 184; Pax 835; Ran. 706, 1425.

page 54 note 3 ‘Longinus,’ de Subl. xxxiii. 5.

page 54 note 4 This weakness of Agathon we might perhaps have inferred from certain stray hints in the Symposium (e.g. p. 194 B, C), even if they had stood alone.

page 55 note 1 Ran. 88 ff., Av. 904–958, Vesp. 57 ff.

page 55 note 2 Aristot, . Poetics ix. 7Google Scholar, 8 (S. H. Butcher's translation).