That Aristophanes is happy comically to depict religious activity is not in doubt.1 Most striking is the oath-swearing in Lysistrata, which begins chaotically with discussion of the appropriate victim and is conducted almost exclusively in terms of explicitly described sexual activity;2 Philocleonâs prayer to the hero Lycus to escape the house ends with a promise that he will not urinate or relieve himself on his fence;3 and Mnesilochusâ prayer to the Thesmophoro expresses his hopes for his children in mildly sexual terms.4
What is noticeable about these passages, however, is that they are in iambic, not lyric, metres. This article will consider those lyric passages of Aristophanes which have in some way a âsacredâ aspect to them to see whether, in a comic genre known for its free use of such material in social and political spheres, obscenity or other apparently inappropriate material plays a role or not,5 and if they do, how they are handled. The very obviously comic, burlesque, and obscene features in the hymns and rituals raise the question of how far comic lyrics can be thought of as âseriousâ sacred acts in the play,6 as opposed to simply parodies or burlesques to be enjoyed by an audience familiar with the conventions of the relevant religious genres.7 As we shall see, the answer is that obscenity is found in these lyrics but in strictly controlled and varied ways: âsacrednessâ is largely and subtly maintained.
There lurks of course the question of what was âobsceneâ, etc. to ancient Greeks, and to which Greeks, where and when.8 Here is not the place for a full discussion, but many of the examples discussed below involve what one may generally term aischrologia. That this was something out of the âordinaryâ is shown by the fact that the sources specifically mention its presence in a relatively small number of rituals involving the inversion of normal existence, such as those when women gathered apart from men. The subjects of this aischrologia are mainly sexual and scatological, and in Greek literature they are largely confined to iambus, satyr-play and comedy.9 When marking something as âobsceneâ or âribaldâ, therefore, I do not imply that this would have shocked audience members: obscenity is, as it were, in certain contexts, a religious duty.
1 Ritual Humour in Greece and Elsewhere
Such rituals can easily be paralleled elsewhere in the world.10 In different ways they mark âmarginalâ periods which both act as âsafety-valvesâ for the release of tensions in society through mockery of the sexual and political norms, and yet at the same time reinforce those structures. Amongst the most spectacular examples is that of the Yaqui Indians of Mexico, who will perform all manner of scatological gestures when the name of the Virgin Mary or of Jesus is mentioned at certain ritually specialised times of the year.11 The mixture of crudity and sophistication that can be found is well illustrated by the songs of the âCharioteerâ of Lord Lingaraj, a form of Shiva, at the Hindu rite in Orissa.12 From his chariot, he throws out rhyming or rhythmical verses, which employ allusions, puns, and imagery alongside the very direct and explicit obscenities directed at participants and religious beliefs: âthe chariot songs are not simply crude and unsophisticated dirty limericks, but compact symbolic messages that refer simultaneously to many basic features of their religion. Their songs remind them of their relationship with their deityâ.13 The parallels with Aristophanes will become clear.
Given the paucity of evidence, we do not know much in detail about the obscenity used in Greece: the language used in the sources is rather general.14 However, âauthorisedâ playfulness, enjoyment, and scurrility are found in a number of places, especially in the cults of Demeter and Dionysus.15 Thus, on their way to Eleusis for the Mysteries, the Initiates were subjected to insults (gephyrismos) when crossing a bridge (or bridges),16 which in some way reflected the grieving Demeterâs laughter at Iambeâs antics.17 Men and women exchanged insults at Pellene at the festival of Demeter Musia;18 on Anaphe at that of Apollo Aigletes;19 at the festival of Damia and Auxesia at Epidaurus and on Aegina;20 and in Sicily in celebration of Demeterâs laughter;21 there were insults too at the sacrifices for Heracles in Lindos.22 In Argos, it is not stated explicitly that ribaldry was involved alongside change of clothes, but the name âHybristicaâ might suggest as much.23 In Attica, there were also the phallic processions and songs for Dionysus,24 including mockery âfrom wagonsâ,25 and the aischrologia employed by women at the Thesmophoria,26 Stenia,27 and Haloa.28
2 Epithalamia and Dionysiac Songs
Unfortunately, since the only lengthy descriptions of such rites are those of the Thesmophoria and Haloa, we have very sketchy evidence for Greece concerning what verbal forms mockery took, whether it was simply spontaneous utterances or involved trained performers with special poetic skills. However, Halliwell detects âa strong tendency towards the dynamics of quasi-theatrical performance, i.e. the provision of a âstagedâ spectacle for an audience (sometimes literally a theatre audience)â.29 Two areas where we do have very sketchy evidence for ritual humour are wedding-songs and Dionysiac cult.
Two fragments of Sappho give us a flavour of epithalamia.30 In one we find mockery of the paranymphos who manned the door when the couple retired:31
Î¸Ï Ïá½½Ïῳ Ïá½¹Î´ÎµÏ á¼ÏÏοÏá½¹Î³Ï Î¹Î¿Î¹ ,Ïá½° δὲ Ïάμβαλα ÏεμÏεβόεια ,Ïá½·ÏÏÏ Î³Î³Î¿Î¹ δὲ δέκ᾽ á¼Î¾ÎµÏόνηÏαν
The door-keeperâs feet are seven fathoms long, his sandals made of five ox-hides, and ten cobblers worked on them.
Sappho fr. 110
Here, the ribaldry and the more banausic
Sappho fr. 1111 á¼´Ïοι δὴ Ïὸ μέλαθÏον ,á½Î¼á½µÎ½Î±Î¿Î½ ,á¼á½³ÏÏεÏε ÏέκÏÎ¿Î½ÎµÏ á¼Î½Î´ÏÎµÏ Î á½Î¼á½µÎ½Î±Î¿Î½ .5 γάμβÏÎ¿Ï Îµá¼¶Ïá¾½ á¼´Ïá¾½ á¼ÏÎµÏ Î¹ ,â¨á½Î¼á½µÎ½Î±Î¿Î½ ,â©á¼Î½Î´ÏÎ¿Ï Î¼ÎµÎ³á½±Î»Ï Ïá½¹Î»Ï Î¼á½³ÏδÏν .â¨á½Î¼á½µÎ½Î±Î¿Î½ .â©
Raise high the roofâhymenaion! Raise it carpentersâhymenaion! The bride-groom enters like Ares,âhymenaion!,âmuch bigger than a big manâhymenaion!
We can see something similar in the hymn to Hymen celebrating the wedding of Opora and Trygaeus at the end of Peace. The chorus look forward to the benefits of peace in terms of the goddessâs body:34
Pax 1351â1352âÏá½· δÏá½±Ïομεν αá½Ïήν ;âÏá½· δÏá½±Ïομεν αá½Ïήν ;âÏÏÏ Î³á½µÏομεν αá½Ïήν ,âÏÏÏ Î³á½µÏομεν αá½Ïήν .
âWhat shall we do to her?âWhat shall we do to her?âWe shall harvest her!âWe shall harvest her!
Explicitly sexual vocabulary is avoided: âharvestâ is clear, though rare in this metaphorical sexual sense.35 Similarly, later in the hymn, they sing
Pax 1351â1352Ïοῦ μὲν μέγα καὶ ÏαÏá½» ,Ïá¿Ï δ᾽ ἡδὺ Ïὸ Ïῦκον .
His is big and fat; her fig is sweet.
Again, innuendo is used rather than explicit vocabulary:
á¼Î½á½±Î³ÎµÏá¾½ ,εá½ÏÏ ÏÏÏίαν Ïá¿· θεῷ Ïοιεá¿ÏεΠθέλει Î³á½°Ï á½ Î¸Îµá½¸Ï á½ÏÎ¸á½¸Ï á¼ÏÏÏ Î´ÏÎ¼á½³Î½Î¿Ï Î´Î¹á½° μέÏÎ¿Ï Î²Î±Î´á½·Î¶ÎµÎ¹Î½ .
Give way, make a broad path for the god, for he wants to march amongst you erect and bursting.
This scanty evidence can be compared with Dicaeopolisâ phallic hymn at his Rural Dionysia:42
Î¦á½±Î»Î·Ï ,á¼Ïαá¿Ïε ÎακÏá½·Î¿Ï ,265 ξύγκÏμε ,Î½Ï ÎºÏοÏεÏιÏλάνηÏε ,μοιÏá½³ ,ÏαιδεÏαÏÏá½± ,á¼ÎºÏῳ Ïá¾½ á¼Ïει ÏÏοÏεá¿Ïον Îµá¼°Ï Ïὸν δá¿Î¼Î¿Î½ á¼Î»Î¸á½¼Î½ á¼ÏÎ¼ÎµÎ½Î¿Ï ,ÏÏÎ¿Î½Î´á½°Ï ÏοιηÏá½±Î¼ÎµÎ½Î¿Ï á¼Î¼Î±Ï Ïá¿· ,ÏÏαγμάÏÏν Ïε καὶ μαÏῶν 270 καὶ ÎαμάÏÏν á¼ÏÎ±Î»Î»Î±Î³Îµá½·Ï .
Acharnenses 264â275Ïολλῷ Î³á½±Ï á¼Ïθ᾽ ἥδιον ,ὦ Î¦á½±Î»Î·Ï Î¦á½±Î»Î·Ï ,κλέÏÏÎ¿Ï Ïαν εá½Ïόνθ᾽ ὡÏικὴν á½Î»Î·Ïá½¹Ïον ,Ïὴν ΣÏÏÏ Î¼Î¿Î´á½½ÏÎ¿Ï ÎÏá¾·ÏÏαν á¼Îº Ïοῦ ÏελλέÏÏ ,μέÏην λαβόνÏá¾½ ,á¼ÏανÏα ,καÏαβαλόνÏα καÏαγιγαÏÏá½·Ïαι .
Phales, Bacchusâ companion, fellow-comast, night-wanderer, adulterer, pederast, I address you after five years, coming gladly to my deme, having made a treaty for myself, freed from trouble, battles and Lamachus. Itâs much nicer, Phales, Phales, to find Strymodorusâ pretty Thracian wood-collecting slave-girl stealing in the fallow land and to pick her up, throw her down and depip her.
The epithets
This restraint in ribaldry is seen in extenso in the long scene with the Eleusinian Mystae in Frogs,45 which also illustrates how humour is found least in lyric passages. The two initial hymns to Iacchus (324â352, interrupted briefly by Xanthias)46 eschew humour, but the chorus hint at the suitability of it in such a religious contest:
Ranae 330â335330 θÏαÏεῠδ᾽ á¼Î³ÎºÎ±ÏακÏούÏν Ïοδὶ Ïὴν á¼Îºá½¹Î»Î±ÏÏον ÏιλοÏαίγμονα Ïιμήν ,ÏαÏá½·ÏÏν Ïλεá¿ÏÏον á¼ÏÎ¿Ï Ïαν μέÏÎ¿Ï ,á¼Î³Î½á½µÎ½ ,335 ἱεÏὰν á½Ïá½·Î¿Î¹Ï Î¼á½»ÏÏÎ±Î¹Ï ÏοÏείαν .
Boldly stamping out with your foot the rhythm of the unbridled and playful honour due to the god, very full of grace, the dance sacred to the holy initiates.
The song is to be âsacredâ, âholyâ and âgracefulâ but also âunbridledâ.
The importance of the appropriateness of the humour recurs, when they encourage each other,
καί μ᾽ á¼ÏÏÎ±Î»á¿¶Ï ÏανήμεÏον Ïαá¿Ïαί Ïε καὶ ÏοÏεῦÏαι Î
Ranae 387â393καὶ Ïολλὰ μὲν γελοá¿á½± μ᾽ εἰ -390 Ïεá¿Î½ ,Ïολλὰ δὲ ÏÏÎ¿Ï Î´Î±á¿Î± ,καὶ Ïá¿Ï Ïá¿Ï á¼Î¿ÏÏá¿Ï á¼Î¾á½·ÏÏ ÏαίÏανÏα καὶ ÏκώÏανÏα νι -κήÏανÏα ÏαινιοῦÏθαι .
that I play, sing and dance all day safely, and say many humorous things and many serious and that, playing and jesting as befits your festival, I am victorious and wear the victorâs ribbons.
This three-fold emphasis on the importance of appropriate jesting thus provides a reassurance that when they do use humour they do not want it to be offensive. This then accommodates the subsequent ribald passage concerning the torn clothing traditionally worn, in which Xanthias and Dionysus enthusiastically join:
Ranae 404â416Χο .Ïὺ Î³á½°Ï ÎºÎ±ÏεÏÏá½·ÏÏ Î¼á½²Î½ á¼Ïὶ γέλÏÏι 405 κá¼Ïá¾½ εá½Ïελείᾳ Ïόδε Ïὸ ÏανδαλίÏκον καὶ Ïὸ á¿¥á½±ÎºÎ¿Ï ,κá¼Î¾Î·á¿¦ÏÎµÏ á½¥ÏÏá¾½ á¼Î¶Î·Î¼á½·Î¿Ï Ï Ïαίζειν Ïε καὶ ÏοÏεύειν .ἼακÏε ÏιλοÏοÏÎµÏ Ïá½± ,ÏÏ Î¼ÏÏá½¹ÏεμÏá½³ με .καὶ Î³á½°Ï ÏαÏαβλέÏÎ±Ï Ïι μειÏακίÏÎºÎ·Ï 410 νῦν δὴ καÏεá¿Î´Î¿Î½ καὶ μάλ᾽ εá½ÏÏοÏá½½ÏÎ¿Ï ,ÏÏ Î¼ÏαιÏÏÏá½·Î±Ï ,ÏιÏÏÎ½á½·Î¿Ï ÏαÏαÏÏαγένÏÎ¿Ï ÏιÏθίον ÏÏοκύÏαν .ἼακÏε ÏιλοÏοÏÎµÏ Ïá½± ,ÏÏ Î¼ÏÏá½¹ÏεμÏá½³ με .Îι .á¼Î³á½¼ δ᾽ á¼Îµá½· ÏÏÏ ÏÎ¹Î»Î±Îºá½¹Î»Î¿Ï Î¸á½¹Ï Îµá¼°Î¼Î¹ καὶ μεÏá¾½ αá½Ïá¿Ï 415 ÏαίζÏν ÏοÏεύειν βούλομαι .Îα .κá¼Î³Ïγε ÏÏá½¹Ï .
Ch. Youâve torn this sandal and this cloak for our amusement and entertainment, and youâve found a way for us to play and sing and dance with no sanction. Iacchus, lover of dance and song, be my escort. Indeed, looking around, Iâve just caught sight of the tit peeping out of a torn dress of a very pretty young play-mate. Iacchus, lover of dance and song, be my escort.Di. I always like to join in the fun and I want to dance and sing with her.Xa. Me too!
The chorus thus claim divine sanction for their words. It is the god who is responsible for things (
Before moving to the very different situation with the Olympian deities, it is worth noting that Phales and Iacchus are âlesserâ deities and further proof that Aristophanes is happier to use ribald language with that class, perhaps because mortals felt a greater affinity with them,50 is provided by the aggregation of remarkable adjectives used in the songs to the Muse in Peace, which begin seriously enough with a recital of her activities, before turning to advising her what to do with various tragedians: Cratinusâ sons are
Pax 789â790á½ÏÏÏ Î³Î±Ï Î¿á¼°ÎºÎ¿Î³ÎµÎ½Îµá¿Ï ,Î³Ï Î»Î¹Î±á½»ÏÎµÎ½Î±Ï á½ÏÏηÏÏá½°Ï Î½Î±Î½Î¿ÏÏ Îµá¿Ï ,ÏÏÏ ÏάδÏν á¼ÏοκνίÏμαÏα ,μηÏανοδίÏÎ±Ï .
home-bred quails, scraggy-necked dancers of dwarfish size, snippets of dung balls, smart artificers.
Morsimus and Melanthius are
Pax 810â811ÎοÏÎ³á½¹Î½ÎµÏ á½ÏοÏάγοι ,βαÏιδοÏκόÏοι á¼ÏÏÏ Î¹Î±Î¹ ,γÏαοÏόβαι μιαÏοί ,ÏÏαγομάÏÏαλοι á¼°ÏÎ¸Ï Î¿Î»á¿¦Î¼Î±Î¹ .
Delicacy-munching Gorgons, Harpyes who search after skates, foul lovers of old women, demolishers of fish, with arm-pits like goats.
3 Olympian Deities
In prayers to Olympian deities, we again find humour, but this is more delicately handled than with lesser deities, and so does not disturb the reverence for the gods. This is not perhaps surprising when the prayer is addressed to the godâs face, as when the chorus beg Hermes for help, using the standard reference to earlier sacrifices in a somewhat familiar manner:51
Pax 386â388εἴ Ïι κεÏαÏιÏμένον ÏοιÏίδιον οἶÏθα ÏαÏá¾½ á¼ -μοῦ γε καÏÎµÎ´Î·Î´Î¿Îºá½½Ï ,ÏοῦÏο μὴ Ïαῦλον νόμιζ᾽ á¼Î½ ÏÎ¿Ï Ïῳὶ Ïá¿· ÏÏάγμαÏι .
If you remember eating a delicious little piglet from me, donât think it a small matter in these circumstances.
However, other hymns work in the same way. The hymn to Zeus, Poseidon, and Ether in the parabasis of Nubes is simply laudatory,52 but describes Poseidon as
The respect shown to the Olympians is also visible in the contrast with corresponding non-lyric passages. In the opening scene of the Thesmophoria festival in Thesmophoriazusae, there are two lyric choral hymns which are without comic or intrusive material,56 the first with a large number of purely laudatory epithets. These hymns surround the Curses, which begin seriously enough with a call for prayers to various deities but soon turn to comedy in their proscription of âanyone who makes overtures to Euripides or the Medes to the detriment of the women or plots tyranny, or the return of a tyrant, or informs on a woman passing off her child as anotherâsâ.57 Similarly, in Nubes, the trochaic epirrhema and antepirrhema voice comic complaints about the Atheniansâ neglect of the Cloudsâ warnings and their carefree way with the calendar, whereas the lyric ode and antode have hymns summoning eight Olympian deities, again in serious terms.58 In the hymns in Birds to Peisetaerus as successor to Zeus, there is no trace of comic subversion of the joy expressed, and the welcome to the new âtyrantâ is interestingly sincere.59 Even Agathonâs hymn to Apollo, Artemis, and Leto,60 on whose titillating quality Mnesilochus comments, is on its own terms a perfectly serious composition, with the gods treated in a highly poetic but respectful manner.
There is one example of notably ribald obscenity in a hymn which might seem to contradict this claim, in Cinesiasâ prayer about Myrrhine in Lysistrata:
Lysistrata 972â979ὦ Îεῦ ÎεῦΠεἴθ᾽ αá½Ïὴν á½¥ÏÏÎµÏ ÏÎ¿á½ºÏ Î¸ÏÎ¼Î¿á½ºÏ Î¼ÎµÎ³á½±Î»á¿³ ÏÏ Ïá¿· καὶ ÏÏηÏÏá¿Ïι 975 Î¾Ï ÏÏÏá½³ÏÎ±Ï ÎºÎ±á½¶ Î¾Ï Î³Î³Î¿Î³Î³á½»Î»Î±Ï Î¿á¼´Ïοιο Ïá½³ÏÏν ,εἶÏα Î¼ÎµÎ¸Îµá½·Î·Ï ,ἡ δὲ Ïá½³ÏοιÏá¾½ αὠÏάλιν Îµá¼°Ï Ïὴν γá¿Î½ ,κá¾Ïá¾½ á¼Î¾Î±á½·ÏÎ½Î·Ï ÏεÏὶ Ïὴν ÏÏλὴν ÏεÏιβαίη .
O Zeus, Zeus, I wish youâd sweep her up and spin her round like grain in a great tornado and lightning, bear her off, and then let her go, so that she was carried to the ground again and fell suddenly on my stiff prick.
However, this is not quite like the other prayers we have looked at. It is not part of a formal cultic occasion, but an ad hoc appeal of a rather colloquial kind.
4 Variations with Humour
The flexibility and complexity of Aristophanesâ use of ritual humour can be seen in a pair of extended passages, where the disruptive potential of obscenity is mitigated, either by linguistically integrating it or suiting it to the particular aspect of the ritual. In Trygaeusâ hymn to Peace,61 the immediate context is a ribald joke about chickpeas and insults to the chorus conducted in iambics, before Trygaeus begins his hymn seriously enough with an elevated tone that evokes cultic conventions:62
Pax 974â977ὦ ÏεμνοÏá½±Ïη βαÏίλεια θεά ,Ïá½¹Ïνι᾽ Îá¼°Ïήνη ,δέÏÏοινα ÏοÏῶν ,δέÏÏοινα γάμÏν ,δέξαι Î¸Ï Ïίαν Ïὴν ἡμεÏá½³Ïαν .
O most holy queen, goddess, lady Peace, mistress of choirs, mistress of marriage, receive this our sacrifice.
The chorus respond with a bomolochic remark:63
Pax 978â986δέξαι δá¿Ïá¾½ ,ὦ ÏÎ¿Î»Ï ÏιμήÏη ,νὴ Îία ,καὶ μὴ Ïοίει γ᾽ á¼ ÏÎµÏ Î±á¼± 980 μοιÏÎµÏ á½¹Î¼ÎµÎ½Î±Î¹ δÏῶÏι Î³Ï Î½Î±á¿ÎºÎµÏ .καὶ Î³á½°Ï á¼ÎºÎµá¿Î½Î±Î¹ ÏαÏακλίναÏαι Ïá¿Ï αá½Î»Îµá½·Î±Ï ÏαÏακύÏÏÎ¿Ï Ïιν ,κá¼Î½ ÏÎ¹Ï ÏÏοÏá½³Ïá¿ Ïὸν νοῦν αá½Ïαá¿Ï á¼Î½Î±ÏÏÏοῦÏιν ,985 κá¾Ïá¾½ ἢν á¼Ïá½·á¿ ÏαÏακύÏÏÎ¿Ï Ïá¾½ αὠ.ÏούÏÏν Ïὺ Ïοίει μηδὲν á¼Î¸á¾½ á¼¡Î¼á¾¶Ï .
Yes indeed by Zeus, receive it, most honoured one, and donât do what the women intent on adultery do. They open the courtyard door a bit and peep out, and when anyone takes notice they retreat; and then when he goes away they peep out again. Donât you do that to us anymore.
Pax 987â990μὰ Îá½·á¾½ ,á¼Î»Î»á¾½ á¼Ïá½¹Ïηνον ὠλην ÏÎ±Ï Ïήν γενναιοÏÏεÏá¿¶Ï Ïοá¿Ïιν á¼ÏαÏÏαá¿Ï ἡμá¿Î½ ,οἵ ÏÎ¿Ï ÏÏÏ Ïόμεθ᾽ ἤδη ÏÏία καὶ δέκ᾽ á¼Ïη .
No indeed, but reveal yourself fully and as befits a noble lady to your admirers, who have longed for you for thirteen years now.
The rest of the prayer proceeds without further ribald interruption. Trygaeus does introduce various forms of material that would normally be extraneous to a religious context, but these are integrated by the way the language charts a careful course between the serious and the comic. He continues:
Pax 991â995λῦÏον δὲ μάÏÎ±Ï ÎºÎ±á½¶ κοÏκοÏÏ Î³á½±Ï ,ἵνα ÎÏ ÏιμάÏην Ïε καλῶμενΠÏαῦÏον δ᾽ ἡμῶν Ïá½°Ï á½ÏÎ¿Î½Î¿á½·Î±Ï Ïá½°Ï ÏεÏικόμÏÎ¿Ï Ï ,Î±á¼·Ï ÏÏÏÎ¼Ï Î»Î»á½¹Î¼ÎµÎ¸á¾½ Îµá¼°Ï á¼Î»Î»á½µÎ»Î¿Ï Ï .
Break up our battles and turbulence, so we can call you Lysimache, stop our arrogant suspicions, with which we waste time nattering against each other.
Trygaeus now moves into culinary discourse:
Pax 996â998μεá¿Î¾Î¿Î½ δ᾽ á¼¡Î¼á¾¶Ï ÏÎ¿á½ºÏ á¼Î»Î»Î·Î½Î±Ï Ïάλιν á¼Î¾ á¼ÏÏá¿Ï ÏÎ¹Î»á½·Î±Ï ÏÏ Î»á¿· καὶ ÏÏ Î³Î³Î½á½½Î¼á¿ Ïινὶ ÏÏᾳοÏá½³Ïá¾³ κέÏαÏον Ïὸν νοῦν .
Make a new blend of us Greeks from scratch with an infusion of friendship, and mix our minds with a more gentle forgiveness.
The wittily deployed metaphors from the sympotic mixing of wine mark the point where food replaces sexual innuendo as the dominant topic, as desired foods in the markets are listed without any humour: food is one of the blessings of Peace.
Mockery of gluttonous tragedians reintroduces coarse language, but the coarseness is restricted to two words,
5 Frogs
The combination of irrelevant and irreverent material also informs Dionysusâ crossing of the Styx in Frogs.72 The Frogs encourage themselves to sing the song
Ranae 215â219ἣν á¼Î¼Ïὶ ÎÏ Ïήιον ÎÎ¹á½¸Ï ÎÎ¹á½½Î½Ï Ïον á¼Î½ ÎίμναιÏιν ἰαÏá½µÏαμεν ,ἡνίÏá¾½ ὠκÏαιÏαλόκÏÎ¼Î¿Ï Ïοá¿Ï ἱεÏοá¿Ïι ΧύÏÏοιÏι ÏÏ -ÏεῠκαÏá¾½ á¼Î¼á½¸Î½ Ïá½³Î¼ÎµÎ½Î¿Ï Î»Î±á¿¶Î½ á½ÏÎ»Î¿Ï .
which we sang in honour of Nysian Dionysus, son of Zeus, at the Marshes, when the hung-over crowd of people goes through my sanctuary at the sacred feast of the Pots.
The hymn is interrupted by Dionysus with coarse remarks, but the Frogs ignore him and like Trygaeus soon get the hymn back on track:
Ranae 221â233Îι .á¼Î³á½¼ δέ γ᾽ á¼Î»Î³Îµá¿Î½ á¼ÏÏομαι Ïὸν á½ÏÏον ,ὦ κοὰξ κοάξ .Îα .βÏεκεκεκὲξ κοὰξ κοάξ .Îι .á½Î¼á¿Î½ δ᾽ á¼´ÏÏÏ Î¿á½Î´á½²Î½ μέλει .225 Îα .βÏεκεκεκὲξ κοὰξ κοάξ .Îι .á¼Î»Î»á¾½ á¼Î¾á½¹Î»Î¿Î¹Ïθ᾽ αá½Ïá¿· κοάξ Ποá½Î´á½²Î½ Î³á½±Ï á¼ÏÏá¾½ á¼Î»Î»á¾½ á¼¢ κοάξ Î Îα .εἰκόÏÏÏ Î³á¾½ ,ὦ Ïολλὰ ÏÏá½±ÏÏÏν .á¼Î¼á½² Î³á½°Ï á¼ÏÏεÏξαν â¨Î¼á½²Î½ â©Îµá½Î»Ï Ïοί Ïε ÎοῦÏαι .230 καὶ κεÏοβάÏÎ±Ï Î á½±Î½ ,ὠκαλαμόÏθογγα ÏαίζÏν Î ÏÏοÏεÏιÏá½³ÏÏεÏαι δ᾽ á½ ÏοÏμικÏá½°Ï á¼ÏόλλÏν ,á¼Î½ÎµÎºÎ± Î´á½¹Î½Î±ÎºÎ¿Ï ,á½Î½ á½ÏολύÏιον á¼Î½Ï δÏον á¼Î½ Î»á½·Î¼Î½Î±Î¹Ï ÏÏá½³ÏÏ .
Di. Iâm beginning to get a pain in my anus, o koax, koax.Fr. Brekekekex koax, koax.Di. You couldnât care less, I suppose.Fr. Brekekekex koax, koax.Di. Damn you and your âkoaxâ: thereâs nothing but âkoaxâ.Fr. And quite right too, you busy-body. For the Muses with their lovely lyres are fond of me, and Pan the hoofed god who performs tunes on his reeds, and Apollo too the lyre-player because of the reed for the lower bridge of his lyre which I look after in the water.
Coarse though Dionysusâ opening remark is, the word he chooses for his rear is
The next exchange follows the same pattern of complaint and defiant response, but Dionysusâ language becomes coarser, with
Ranae 236â244Îι .á¼Î³á½¼ δὲ ÏÎ»Ï ÎºÏÎ±á½·Î½Î±Ï Î³á¾½ á¼ÏÏ ,Ïá½ ÏÏÏκÏá½¸Ï á¼°Î´á½·ÎµÎ¹ Ïάλαι ,κá¾Ïá¾½ αá½Ïίκ᾽ á¼ÎºÎºá½»ÏÎ±Ï á¼ÏεῠâÎα .βÏεκεκεκὲξ κοὰξ κοάξ .240 Îι .á¼Î»Î»á¾½ ,ὦ Ïιλῳδὸν Î³á½³Î½Î¿Ï ,ÏαύÏαÏθε .Îα .μᾶλλον μὲν οá½Î½ ÏθεγξόμεÏθ᾽ ,εἰ δή ÏοÏá¾½ εὠ-Î·Î»á½·Î¿Î¹Ï á¼Î½ á¼Î¼á½³ÏαιÏιν ἡλάμεÏθα διὰ ÎºÏ ÏείÏÎ¿Ï ÎºÎ±á½¶ ÏÎ»á½³Ï Â â¦
Di. And Iâve got blisters; my arse has been sweating for ages, and itâs about to peep out and say â¦Fr. Brekekekex koax, koax.Di. Stop, please, song-loving race.Fr. No way: weâre going to sing even more, if ever on sunny days we leapt through the lotus and reeds â¦
The more intimate details of his rearâs ailments and the suggestion of a fart in 238â239 seem to be taking the scene into very unreligious territory, but the religious aspect of the song is not affected, since it turns out that this finished at 239 after the climactic boast of the Frogsâ relationship with the major gods: now the subject has shifted away from divine matters to the Frogsâ daily lives in the marshes. Furthermore, mention of the fart is cleverly side-stepped by the Frogsâ âbrekekekexâ, which continues the joke of that refrain but is also an appropriate continuation of the sentence in an allusive manner. Finally, that the ribaldry in the song comes from the god Dionysus himself gives it some form of sanction. It is only from here on that Dionysusâ interventions become much more intrusive and eventually succeed in silencing the Frogs: when the rough-and-tumble starts, Aristophanes moves away from the sacred to the mundane.
6 A Contrary Case?
A final confirmation of Aristophanesâ preservation of the sacred aspect of religious utterances can be gained from Agathonâs servantâs announcement of his arrival in Thesmophoriazusae, where in a parody of divine epiphanies a hymn is brutally dismantled:74
ÎÎ .εá½ÏÎ·Î¼Î¿Ï Ïá¾¶Ï á¼ÏÏÏ Î»Î±á½¹Ï ,40 ÏÏόμα ÏÏ Î³ÎºÎ»á½µÍ ÏÎ±Ï Î á¼ÏÎ¹Î´Î·Î¼Îµá¿ Î³á½°Ï Î¸á½·Î±ÏÎ¿Ï ÎÎ¿Ï Ïῶν á¼Î½Î´Î¿Î½ μελάθÏÏν Ïῶν δεÏÏοÏύνÏν μελοÏοιῶν .á¼Ïá½³ÏÏ Î´á½² ÏÎ½Î¿á½°Ï Î½á½µÎ½ÎµÎ¼Î¿Ï Î±á¼°Î¸á½µÏ ,κῦμά Ïε ÏόνÏÎ¿Ï Î¼á½´ κελαδείÏÏ 45 Î³Î»Î±Ï Îºá½¹Î½ Î
Îη .βομβάξ .ÎÏ .Ïίγα .Ïá½· λέγει ;Îε .ÏÏηνῶν Ïε γένη καÏακοιμάÏÎ¸Ï ,θηÏῶν Ïá¾½ á¼Î³Ïá½·Ïν Ïá½¹Î´ÎµÏ á½Î»Î¿Î´ÏόμÏν μὴ Î»Ï á½³ÏθÏν .Îη .βομβαλοβομβάξ .Îε .μέλλει Î³á½°Ï á½ ÎºÎ±Î»Î»Î¹ÎµÏá½´Ï á¼Î³á½±Î¸Ïν 50 ÏÏá½¹Î¼Î¿Ï á¼¡Î¼á½³ÏεÏÎ¿Ï â
Thesmophoriazusae 39â53, 57â62Îη .μῶν βινεá¿Ïθαι ;Îε .Ïá½·Ï á½ ÏÏνήÏÎ±Ï ;Îη .Î½á½µÎ½ÎµÎ¼Î¿Ï Î±á¼°Î¸á½µÏ .Îε .δÏÏ á½¹ÏÎ¿Ï Ï Ïιθέναι δÏάμαÏÎ¿Ï á¼ÏÏá½±Ï .κάμÏÏει δὲ Î½á½³Î±Ï á¼Ïá¿Î´Î±Ï á¼Ïῶν  â¦57 καὶ Ïοανεύει .Îη .καὶ λαικάζει .Îε .Ïá½·Ï á¼Î³ÏοιώÏÎ±Ï Ïελάθει θÏιγκοá¿Ï ;Îη .á½Ï á¼ÏÎ¿Î¹Î¼Î¿Ï Ïοῦ Ïοῦ Ïε ÏοιηÏοῦ 60 Ïοῦ καλλιεÏÎ¿á¿¦Ï ÎºÎ±Ïá½° Ïοῦ θÏιγκοῦ ÏÏ Î³Î³Î¿Î³Î³á½»Î»Î±Ï ÎºÎ±á½¶ ÏÏ ÏÏÏá½³ÏÎ±Ï ÏÎ¿Ï Ïὶ Ïὸ Ïá½³Î¿Ï ÏοανεῦÏαι .
Se. Let all folk keep silent, shutting their mouths, for the thiasos of the Muses has come to stay in the halls of our poetic master. Let the windless air still its breezes, and the glaucous swell of the sea not roar.Mn. Bombast!Eu. Shut up. Whatâs he saying?Se. Let the races of winged ones be still, and the feet of the wild beasts not be loosed so they may roam the woods.Mn. Bombalobombast!Se. For the fair-voiced Agathon, our leader will soon â¦Mn. Surely not âbe buggeredâ?!Se. Who spoke?Mn. The windless aether.Se. ⦠lay down the oaken foundations of his play ⦠He bends the new felloes of his words ⦠and moulds it.Mn. And sucks.Se. What peasant comes near these coping-stones?Mn. One who is ready, once heâs twisted round and rolled up you and your poet with his pretty words, under your coping-stone to round you out with this cock.
His call for euphemia regularly precedes significant rites,75 and the reference to the arrival of the Muses suggests an epiphany by them, an idea supported by the call for quiet in the natural world which also precedes numinous moments.76 However, in other religious contexts, the speaker largely sings without interruption, but here he is six times heckled by Mnesilochus. The mixture of registers, normally avoided in religious songs, here undermines any seriousness. High-style
7 Conclusion: Chorusesâ Ritual Acts?
Aristophanes is thus generally careful not to let obscenity or irreverently irrelevant material have a major effect on formal cultic song. With the Olympians the restraint is especially noticeable: comedy is happy to make fun of them,79 but not in lyric hymns. Even in genres such as phallika and wedding-songs where colourful language is expected, the more ribald material is never of an extreme kind, and the language often metaphorical rather than explicit. In other cases, comic expressions can mitigate the obscene material, and careful control of linguistic register helps to integrate it into the context. Only in a hymn that is not truly cultic does he allow a demolition to take place.
It may perhaps be no surprise that Aristophanes essentially reproduces Greek, or at least Athenian, religious practice with regard to scurrility and the gods.80 It does, however, raise the thorny question of whether the rituals performed on stage can thus be thought to be ârealâ rituals: is it true that âthe comic chorus is ⦠not only derived and descended from ritual, but is to a large extent ritual as wellâ?81 It is not difficult to conceive of a tragedy or comedy as a whole as a âritualâ, in the sense of an agalma or source of delight to the gods, just as the Olympic games were.82 However, though speech-act and performance theories provide modes of conceiving comic rituals as actually effective, the complexities and wit we have seen in Aristophanes make one wonder whether an audience would have been thinking they were involved in a ârealâ ritual.
A test case is one of our most complete descriptions of a sacrifice, Trygaeusâ to Peace.83 Unlike in most other comic sacrifices, at both the start (962â967) and end (1115) of the sacrificial scene the audience is explicitly included in the proceedings. Pax was performed at the Dionysia, and so in the presence of Greeks from a wide variety of cities, which makes credible a sense that this is a real as well as a fictional religious celebration of a Greece-wide peace.
However, one has also to take account of the considerable amount of comic business: it is notable that from the moment the sacrifice begins, we have not solemn ritual but sexual jokes. The throwing of the barley-grains to the audience brings punning on
The rite proceeds in an unusual way with anomalous treatment of the animal. Ordered to slaughter the sheep, the Slave wittily says Peace does not like blood-sacrifice, so the sheep is taken inside and the thigh-bones brought out, Trygaeus joking that this will save the Choregos the cost of the (scrawny) beast. The arrival of the chresmologus Hierocles then leads to the rite being conducted, not with solemn process, but with constant interruption, ridiculous oracular pronouncements, insults, literary parody, and violence. An enormous amount is done to distract the audience, so it would have been hard for the most devout to feel that he or she was at an actual rite. We ought to give both the sacrifice, which has many features of a standard one, and the humour, which works hard to subvert it, equal weight: the audience is initially invited to take part in the rite as if it were âreal,â but is then side-lined as fictionality takes over: they have a complex negotiation to make.
In addition to those on Spetses, I would like to thank the members of the audience at the INDA Conference in Syracuse, Sicily in February 2019; the comments of the anonymous referee were also especially helpful.
Lys. 181â239. There is similar travesty of ritual in the later depiction of the woman celebrating Adonis as a drunkard, but her cries, which appeared inappropriate during an Assembly debate, fatally had no effect on Democratesâ rabid promotion of the campaign in Sicily (Lys. 387â398). See Markantonatos (2020) 172â176.
Vesp. 389â394.
Thesm. 282â293.
On Aristophanesâ lyrics generally, see Silk (1981); Kugelmeier (1996). For commentary on selected comic hymns see Furley and Bremer (2001) 2.331â371, and Furley (2007) on hymns and prayers more generally.
On the problem of what âseriousâ means in Aristophanes and the varieties of seriousness which can be distinguished, see Silk (2000) 301â349, also the essays in Swallow and Hall (2020). In this article, âseriousâ is used in a very general sense.
On parody in Aristophanic lyrics, see generally Kleinknecht (1937a) 20â122; Horn (1970) 1â122.
For an overview on Greek attitudes, see for instance Dover (1974) 205â216. On âcarnivalesqueâ comedy, see Bakhtin (1984) and Goldhill (1991) 176â188. The bibliography on obscenity in Aristophanes is considerable and usefully listed in Willi (2002) 10â11: see e.g. Henderson (1991); von Möllendorff (1995); Rosen (1988); Degani (1993); Robson (2006) 70â92; Kamen (2020) 36â59.
On aischrologia see Rosen (2015).
The bibliography is vast. For a full account of ritual humour, specifically among the peoples of Chiapas in Mexico but also demonstrating the remarkable variety of possible types, see Bricker (2010), with 167â218 on other parts of SW America and Mid America and on Spanish aspects transported there. See also on Africa e.g. Evans-Pritchard (1929); Gluckman (1935); Van der Berghe (1963).
Apte (1985) 159; see 151â176 for a cross-cultural discussion of ritual humour.
See Freeman (1977).
Freeman (1977) 892.
E.g. Pl. Leg. 637a3
For the evidence for and detailed discussion of the various rituals, see in primis Halliwell (2008) 155â214 (table on 192), with 155â263 generally on laughter and ritual in ancient Greece, and 159â160 supporting the idea that the Greeks had a concept of âritual humourâ; also Fluck (1931), Rösler (1993), OâHiggins (2003) 15â36 (on female aischrologia).
Strabo 9.1.24, Hsch. s.vv.
Hom. Hymn Dem. 200â205.
Paus. 7.27.9.
Ap. Rhod. 4.1719â1730, Apollod. 1.26. This is the only example of such activity in honour of an Olympian apart from Dionysus and Demeter.
Hdt. 5.83.3.
Diod. Sic. 5.4.7.
Callim. Aet. 7.19â21 Pfeiffer = 9.19â21 Massimilla.
Plut. De mul. vir. 4, Paus. 2.20.7â8.
E.g. Ach. 237â279, Semos in Ath. 622bâc, and further below.
Paus. Att.
Schol. Lucian Dial. meret. 2.1. On aischrologia generally, see Rösler (1993), Halliwell (2008) 215â263, Rosen (2015).
See n. 14.
See especially Schol. Lucian Dial. meret. 7.4, and Apollod. 1.5.1, Hom. Hymn Dem. 203â205.
Halliwell (2008) 194.
On epithalamia see Contiades-Tsitsoni (1990), with 68â109 on Sappho.
Hsch. s.v.
For
The text for Aristophanes is Wilsonâs OCT; the translations are my own.
Cf. Anth. Pal. 12.256.1 (Meleager)
Ach. 787, Lys. 22â23, Eccl. 1048; cf. also Nub. 539.
E.g. Eccl. 707â709, Pherecr. fr. 103.
Though see Hsch.
Ath. 622c (= Semus of Delos FGrH 396 FÂ 24 = PMG 851b). See Bierl (2004) 267â325 for a very full discussion of and the scholarship on these songs.
Ibid. = PMG 851a. See Bierl (2004) 290â295.
On the lyric aspect of this passage see Kugelmeier 1996: 151â154.
E.g. Dioscorides 1.25, Andromachus ap. Gal. 13.23.
Ran. 316â459.
For a possible obscenity in 337â339 see Seager (1981) 250.
Ran. 370â371.
This is the more common meaning (LSJ, s.v. I 2): Sommersteinâs âout of pocketâ (1996: ad loc.) makes less sense of
On the comic portrayal of gods generally see Kleinknecht (1937b).
For hymns to the Olympians uninterrupted by irreverence see too that to Peace in Pax 581â600, and the hymns of the women in Thesm. 312â330 and 352â371.
Nub. 563â574.
Cf. 1397
Cf. Pind. Nem. 6.66
Eq. 551â564. The balancing hymn to Athena (581â594) is without obvious comic elements.
Thesm. 312â330, 352â371.
Thesm. 336â340.
Nub. 563â619.
Av. 1720â1743.
Thesm. 101â129.
On sacrifice in comedy, see Bowie (2011a); Redfield (2012); Chepel (2020) 157â186.
The argument is not affected whether the chorus, as Brunck suggested, or the Slave, as in MSS R and V, speaks these words.
E.g. Lys. 1.15, Pl. Resp. 360b1, Arist. Hist. an. 586a3, 619a10.
E.g. Ach. 143, Eq. 732, 1341.
For the sense âas befits a noble ladyâ, cf.
Trach. 109â110
Anth. Pal. 12.88, 143 (anonymous).
So
Pax 1007; cf. Xen. Cyr. 1.2.3, Isoc. Antid. 130; Polybius apologises for using it (1.67.3); see also Neil (1901) on Eq. 310.
Pax 1009; a comic word, found in Cratinus fr. 320, Cephisodorus ap. Euseb. Praep. evang. 15.2.
Ran. 209â267. See Halliwell (2008) 211â214.
Hipponax fr. 104.32; 47x in Old Comedy.
See also Horn (1970) 94â106, Kugelmeier (1996) 271â276.
E.g. Aesch. fr. 87, Soph. fr. 893, Ar. Ach. 237.
Av. 777â778, Eur. Ba. 1084â1085, Limenius fr. 1.7â10.
Eur. Hipp. 498
For its use of gods see Ar. fr. 407, Callim. Hymn 2.13, with schol.
See Bowie (2010) 148.
For the similarities between Aristophanesâ depiction of ritual and actual practice, see Chepel (2020) 33â87.
Bierl (2009) 267. His is the strongest statement of this theory; he is followed by Chepel (2020). On this, see Halliwell (2008) 206â214. A similar question is raised about tragedy: see e.g. Easterling (1989); Henrichs (1996a), (1996b); Krummen (1998); for a different view Scullion (2002). On choral activity and ritual, see also Stehle (2016).
Cf. Eq. 551â558 for Poseidonâs delight in chariot-racing.
Similar points could be made about the rite conducted by Peisetaerus in Av. 865â1057 which is in iambics. See also Furley (2007) 120â121.
Schol. RV on 968.