Agathon’s Iliupersis in Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazusae

Abstract

At Thesmophoriazusae 101–129 Agathon sings a choral song about the fall of Troy. The choice of this theme serves two purposes. First, it connects this scene to the larger plot of the comedy by alluding to the role that Euripides envisions for Agathon, namely that of his “Trojan Horse” at the Thesmophoria. Second, it enables Aristophanes to make fun of Agathon by calling to the audience’s mind a famous failure of his, as the later testimony of Aristotle demonstrates.

Keywords:

• paratragedy in Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazusae
• Agathon as Euripides’ Trojan Horse
• Aristotle on Agathon’s failed Iliupersis

Aknowledgements

I am indebted to Prof. D. Kovacs, Prof. I. Petrovic, and Prof. A. Romano for advice on this paper. I am also grateful to the anonymous referee for their constructive feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 See Snyder (1974); Hansen (1976, 168–171); Duncan (2001); Saetta Cottone (2016, 12–15) where she summarizes the arguments advanced in Saetta Cottone (2003, 463–464; 2010, 216–220; 2015, 110–113); De Sanctis (2018, 33–35).

2 See Guglielmino (1928, 80); Rau (1967, 106–108); Paduano (1983, 85–86); Zimmermann (1985, 24–28); Silva (1987, 399–400); Pöhlmann (1988, 138); Sommerstein (1994, 164 ad 101–129); Kugelmeier (1996, 279–280); Parker (1997, 396–405); Furley and Bremer (2001, vol. 1, 353); Prato (2001, 168); Austin and Olson (2004, 87–88); Mastromarco and Totaro (2006, 449); Rosen (2006, 41–42); Saetta Cottone (2016, 181–182 ad 101–129).

3 See Bruns (1896, 156); Rhys Roberts (1900); Atkins (1934, 26); Cantarella (1967); Kleinknecht (1967, 102); Muecke (1982); Stohn (1993); Nieddu (2008–2009).

4 Hom. Il. 4.507–508; 5.447–450; 20.38–40, 68–72. These three deities also appear in a cult group in the Temple of Apollo Palatinus, dedicated by Octavian in 28 BCE in return for the victory over Sextus Pompey and Mark Antony (Prop. 2.31.15–16). It is no accident that the protection of Rome, founded by Trojan descendants – and now under the sway of the head of the gens Iulia, descended from Iulus/Ascanius, son of Aeneas – is entrusted to Apollo, Diana, and Leto.

5 “[Apollo,] who erected the walls of his land in the Simois region” (all translations are my own, unless otherwise noted).

6 Πατρίδι is the reading of manuscript Ravennas 429, the only one we can rely on for this passage (the surviving papyri fragments do not contain these lines, and manuscript Monacensis 492 is an apograph of R). Wecklein (1869, 547), followed by Richards (1903, 10), corrects it to πραπίδι (“with free mind”). Rogers (1904) corrects βοάν to βοᾷ, and has it agree with ἐλϵυθέρᾳ (“with a free song”).

7 This hypothesis has been recently revived and developed further by Bierl (2001, 170–173), who draws a parallel between Agathon and Apollo, the leader of the Muses.

8 The definition of the lyre as “Asian” also refers to the effeminate style of Agathon. Contra, see Pearson (1917, 211 ad fr. 287), who interprets this elliptical phrase as “the beating of the Asian land”.

9 An invocation to the lyre is quite odd in a hymn addressed to gods. This surprising presence can be explained not only with the fact that the lyre is the main attribute of Apollo, but also with the fact that for Agathon music is so important as to be considered quasi-divine. Similarly, Furley and Bremer (2001, vol. 2, 346) see in this invocation a reference to “the tyranny of music and musical instruments over words which was rampant in the ‘young dithyrambic poetry’”.

10 “Holding the torch sacred to the two chthonic goddesses.” Χθονίαιν is Meineke’s (1860) emendation of R’s Χθονίαις. The identification of the chthonic goddesses with Demeter and Persephone is undisputed since Schol. Ar. Thesm. 101.6: Χθονίαις δὲ τῇ Δήμητρι καὶ τῇ Κόρῃ (text Rutherford 1896).

11 “Should I then find you out from your song, since you do not wish to speak yourself?”

12 The apparent contradiction between the two theories advanced by Agathon has long drawn scholarly attention. For a thorough overview of all the different intrepretations of these lines, see Farmer (2017, 161 with bibliography). Paduano (1998, 97) advances an insightful and nuanced reading of this passage by suggesting that the two theories create a sense of reciprocal relationship between the poet and his poetry, “un sistema quasi circolare di cause e conseguenze, assimilazione e alienazione”.

13 For a broader discussion of these four paratragic scenes, see especially Rau (1967, 42–50); Dane (1984); Silk (1993, 494–495); Ruffell (2011, 214–260); Farmer (2017, 167–188).

14 On this topic, see also Platter (2007, 163).

15 This thesis is supported by Saetta Cottone (2016, 181 ad 101–129).

16 This hypothesis is put forward only in passing by Clements (2014, 142), who restricts himself to affirming that Agathon’s song is “probably a parody of the actual Agathon’s conjectured Ilioupersis, vel sim”.

17 In order to make sense out of this passage, Else rejects the integration <ἢ> proposed by Vahlen (1867, 33), and considers καὶ μὴ ὥσπϵρ Αἰσχύλος a parenthesis.