Illustration: Mycenaean Fresco from the “Palace of
Nestor” at Pylos. ca. 13th Century BCE. Watercolor by Piet de Jong.
1. “Observations on the Opening Scene of Aristophanes’
Wasps” Borthwick, E Kerr. Classical Quarterly. Oxford:
1992. Vol. 42, Iss. 1; pg. 274
The importance of verbal references, stage properties and
gestures in the opening scene of Aristophanes’ play “Wasps” is
discussed. These items are important since stage directions are meager.
2. “Madness on the comic stage: Aristophanes’ Wasps and Euripides’ Heracles” Simone Beta. Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies. Cambridge: Summer 1999. Vol. 40, Iss. 2; pg. 135, 23 pgs
Beta discusses the similarities between Aristophanes’ play “Wasps” and Euripides’ play “Heracles” and puts forward a hypothesis that could explain their resemblance.
Article URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:pqd&rft_val_fmt=ori:fmt:kev:mtx:journal&genre=article&rft_id=xri:pqd:did=000000074819787&svc_dat=xri:pqil:fmt=html&req_dat=xri:pqil:pq_clntid=13929
ARISTOPHANES’ WASPS ends in a highly unusual way. So far as we know, the final scene is a unicum in Greek comic production: one of the main characters of the play, the old juror Philocleon, is portrayed as completely crazy and out of control. Philocleon’s folly has something
in common with the madness that blinds Heracles in the famous Euripidean tragedy; moreover, the juror’s insanity is a theme that runs through the whole comedy. May we suspect then that there is a connection between Aristophanes’ Wasps and Euripides’ Heracles? The aim of this paper is to underscore the similarities between the two plays and-with due caution-to put forward a hypothesis that could explain this resemblance.
Madness as theme of the comedy If compared with Trygaios in Peace, who feeds a dung-beetle with the purpose of using it as a horse and flying up to Mt Olympos, or Peisetairos in Birds, who intends to build a town midway between gods and men, the main character of the Wasps seems pretty sensible: he simply likes serving on juries every day. And yet, for the whole play, Aristophanes portrays him as a real madman-quite surreptitiously, at least at the beginning of the play, but much more clearly in the exodus.
3. “The Politics of Aristophanes’ Wasps ” by David Konstan in TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION 115 (1985) 27-46.
My purpose in this paper is to show how Aristophanes’ Wasps
is political. I shall argue that the complex of traits by which the major
characters and the chorus are constructed, and which enables the movement of the plot, expresses a specific political conception of the role of the courts in Athens. I shall not seek to determine, in the first instance, whether chance jokes or remarks may betray the author’s own voice or opinions. Rather, I propose to show that a political or ideological perspective on the court system is implicit in the baic narrative and dramatic strategies — what may be called the deep structure — of the Wasps.
4. “Politics and Poetry in Aristophanes’ Wasps” by S. Douglas Olson in TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION 126 (1996) 129-150.
A response to David Konstan’s article (1985, above). In this paper, I will argue that the political ideology implicit in Wasps is far less ‘anti-democratic’ and the play as a whole far more coherent and dramatically sophisticated than either Konstan’s analysis or those of earlier critics have suggested.
5. “Aristophanes’ Wasps: the Relevance of the Final Scenes” by J. Vaio in GREEK, ROMAN AND BYZANTINE STUDIES 12 (1971) pp. 335-351.
6. “Catharsis and Dream-Interpretation in Aristophanes’
Wasps” by Kenneth J. Reckfordin Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-), Vol. 107. (1977), pp. 283-312.
Full Text on line: Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0360-5949%281977%29107%3C283%3ACADIAW%3E2.0.CO%3B2-M
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