Provocative Statements. Discuss with your partner the questions you receive
from the professor.
1. The fact that Aristophanes and other comic poets treat the gods with
irreverence in their plays proves that they were atheists, and that the
Athenian audience did not take their religion seriously.
2.. The fact that Plato has Socrates say that prejudice against him resulted
from a comic playwright’s portrayal of him as “making the weaker argument
stronger”, and of “not believing in the gods which the city worships”
proves that Aristophanes’ play CLOUDS was responsible for Socrates’ execution
(399 BCE).
3. The fact that comedies were produced at two different places (Theater
of Dionysos and Lenaion) proves that they were more popular than tragedies,
which were only produced in one place (Theater of Dionysos).
4. The fact that comedies were performed after tragedies proves that
they were more popular, because they were saved for last, as a treat, and
a ‘payoff’ for sitting through the boring tragedies and satyr plays.
5. The fact that comedies had diction more colloquial and realistic than
tragedy and satyr plays, and that they contained obscenities, proves that
people liked them more, because they were easier to understand, and to relate
to.
6. The fact that it cost money to attend a dramatic performance in Athens
proves that the poor attended seldom, if at all.
7. The fact that Dionysiac religion is the ultimate origin of Greek dramatic
festivals proves that there is somewhere in every play a reference to his
worship.
8. The fact that some modern scholars use the time designations “BC”
(before Christ) and “AD” (Anno Domini, Year of our Lord) proves
that they value Christianity over all other religions.
9. The fact that Aristophanes wrote his plays for white slave-owning
imperialistic males proves that he was a racist war-mongering chauvinist,
and has nothing to say to women, people of color, or third-world victims
of colonialism.
10. The fact that women were in the audience for all dramas proves that
the ancient Athenians had an open society and equal rights.
11. The fact that women were forbidden from attending the theater in
ancient Athens proves that the ancient Athenians had a closed society and
did not care about equal rights.
12. The fact that Athenian comedies were based on obscenity proves that
the ancient Greeks were sex-obsessed and lost their civilization because
of their homosexual relations and preoccupation with the phallus.
13. The fact that only eleven of Aristophanes’ plays survive from antiquity
proves that early Christians rightly destroyed two-thirds of his output
on moral grounds.
14. The fact that eleven of Aristophanes’ plays survive from antiquity
proves that early Christians lovingly preserved these rare examples of pure
Attic dialect and Athenian cultural values.
15. The fact that Aristophanes was a right-winger and hated the radical
democracy proves that Athenian comedy was a Republican stronghold that believed
in small government, tax cuts for the rich, the death penalty, and a strong
military.
16. The fact that the “agon” was a central part of Athenian
Old Comedy proves that the Athenians loved to hear debates, and didn’t care
who won them, thus showing that they were bereft of absolute moral beliefs
about what is right and what is wrong.
17. The fact that Attic comedies and tragedies were paid for by public
funds and approved by public magistrates proves that the people of Athens
themselves, personally, approved of the contents of each play.
18. The fact that Aristophanes has upper-class and conservative biases
proves that his audience shared his views.
19. The fact that Aristophanes ridiculed the general Cleon so much and
the fact that Cleon was re-elected general right after a particularly bitter
attack on him in the first-prize-winning Knights (424) proves that the Athenians
could enjoy political satire and still approve of its victims.
20. The fact that there were legal restrictions on what comedy writers
could say in their plays had a tremendous effect on Aristophanes.
21. The fact that there were no legal restrictions on what comedy writers
could say in their plays resulted in Cleon’s personal legal attacks on Aristophanes.
22. We can tell the purpose of Aristophanes in every play he writes,
because the Parabasis tells us how he really feels.