Aristophanes and Alcibiades

The conventional view of Aristophanes bristles with problems. Important testimony for Alcibiades- paramount role in comedy is consistently disregarded, and the tradition that -masks were made to look like the komodoumenoi, so that before an actor spoke a word, the audience would recognize who was being attacked- is hardly ever invoked. If these testimonia are taken into account, a fascinating picture emerges, where the komodoumenoi are based on the Periclean household: older characters on Pericles himself, younger on Alcibiades. Aspasia, Pericles- mistress, and Hipparete, Alcibiades- wife, lie behind many female characters, and Alcibiades- ambiguous sexuality also allows him to be shown on the stage as a woman, notably as Lysistrata. There is a substantial overlap between the anecdotal tradition relating to the historical figures and the plotting of Aristophanes- plays. This extends to speech patterns, where Alcibiades- speech defect is lampooned. Aristophanes is consistently critical of Alcibiades- mercurial politics, and his works can also be seen to have served as an aide-mémoire for Thucydides and Xenophon. If the argument presented here is correct, then much current scholarship on Aristophanes can be set aside.

Michael Vickers, Jesus College, Oxford, UK.