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The Wasps
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The Wasps (Greek: / Sphekes) is the fourth in chronological order of the eleven surviving plays by Aristophanes, the master of an ancient genre of drama called 'Old Comedy'. It was produced at the Lenaia festival in 422 BC, a time when Athens was enjoying a brief respite from The Peloponnesian War following a one year truce with Sparta. As in his other early plays, Aristophanes pokes satirical fun at the demagogue Cleon but in The Wasps he also ridicules one of the Athenian institutions that provided Cleon with his power-base: the law courts.
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Encyclopedia
The Wasps (Greek: / Sphekes) is the fourth in chronological order of the eleven surviving plays by Aristophanes, the master of an ancient genre of drama called 'Old Comedy'. It was produced at the Lenaia festival in 422 BC, a time when Athens was enjoying a brief respite from The Peloponnesian War following a one year truce with Sparta. As in his other early plays, Aristophanes pokes satirical fun at the demagogue Cleon but in The Wasps he also ridicules one of the Athenian institutions that provided Cleon with his power-base: the law courts. The play has been thought to exemplify the conventions of Old Comedy better than any other play and it has been considered to be one of the world's greatest comedies.
Plot
The play begins with a strange scene - a large net has been spread over a house, the entry is barricaded and two slaves are sleeping in the street outside. A third man is positioned at the top of an exterior wall with a view into the inner courtyard but he too is asleep. The two slaves wake and we learn from their banter that they are keeping guard over a 'monster'. The man asleep above them is their master and the monster is his father - he has an unusual disease. The two slaves challenge the audience to guess the nature of the disease. Addictions to gambling, drink and good times are suggested but they are all wrong - the father is addicted to the law court: he is a philheliastes. We are then told that his name is Philocleon (which suggests that he might be addicted to Cleon) and his son's name is the very opposite of this - Bdelycleon. The symptoms of the old man's addiction are described for us and they include irregular sleep, obsessional thinking, paranoia, poor hygiene and hoarding. We are told that counselling, medical treatment and travel have all failed to solve the problem and now his son has turned the house into a prison to keep the old man away from the law courts. Bdelycleon wakes and he shouts to the two slaves to be on their guard - his father is moving about. He tells them to watch the drains, for the old man can move like a mouse, but Philocleon surprises them all by emerging instead from the chimney disguized as smoke. Bdelycleon is luckily on hand to push him back inside. Other attempts at escape are also barely defeated. The household settles down for some more sleep and then the Chorus arrives - old jurors who move warily (the roads are muddy), they are escorted by boys with lamps (it is still dark). Learning of their old comrade's imprisonment, they leap to his defense and swarm around Bdelycleon and his slaves like wasps. At the end of this fray, Philocleon is still barely in his son's custody and both sides are willing to settle the issue peacefully through debate.
The debate is between the father and the son and it focuses on the advantages that the old man personally derives from voluntary jury service. Philocleon says he enjoys the flattering attentions of rich and powerful men who appeal to him for a favourable verdict, he enjoys the freedom to interpret the law as he pleases since his decisions are not subject to review, and his juror's pay gives him independence and authority within his own household. Bdelycleon responds to these points with the argument that jurors are in fact subject to the demands of petty officials and they get payed less than they deserve - revenues from the empire go mostly into the private treasuries of men like Cleon. These arguments have a paralysing affect on Philocleon. The Chorus is won over. Philocleon however is still not able to give up his old ways just yet so Bdelycleon offers to turn the house into a courtroom and to pay him a juror's fee to judge domestic disputes. Philocleon agrees and a case is soon brought before him - a dispute between the household dogs. One dog (who looks like Cleon) accuses the other dog (who looks like Laches) of stealing a Sicilian cheese and not sharing it. Witnesses for the defense include a bowl, a pestle, a cheese-grater, a brazier and a pot. As these are unable to speak, Bdelycleon says a few words for them on behalf of the accused and then some puppies (the children of the accused) are ushered in to soften the heart of the old juror with their plaintive cries. Philocleon is not softened but his son easily fools him into putting his vote into the urn for acquittal. The old juror is deeply shocked by the outcome of the trial - he is used to convictions - but his son promises him a good time and they exit the stage to prepare for some entertainment.
While the actors are offstage, the Chorus addresses the audience in a conventional parabasis. It praises the author for standing up to monsters like Cleon and it chastises the audience for its failure to appreciate the merits of the author's previous play (The Clouds). It praises the older generation, evokes memories of the victory at Marathon and it bitterly deplores the gobbling up of imperial revenues by unworthy men. Father and son then return to the stage, now arguing with each other over the old man's choice of attire. He is addicted to his old juryman's cloak and his old shoes and he is suspicious of the fancy woollen garment and the fashionable Spartan footwear that Bdelycleon wants him to wear that evening to a sophisticated dinner party. The fancy clothes are forced upon him and then he is instructed in the kind of manners and conversation that the other guests will expect of him. Philocleon declares his disapproval of wine - it causes trouble, he says - but Bdelycleon assures him that sophisticated men of the world can easily talk their way out of trouble and so they depart optimistically for the evening's entertainment. There is then a second parabasis (see Note at end of this section), in which the Chorus touches briefly on a conflict between Cleon and the author, after which a household slave arrives with news for the audience about the old man's appalling behaviour at the dinner party: Philocleon has got himself abusively drunk, he has insulted all his son's fashionable friends and now he is assaulting anyone he meets on the way home. The slave departs as Philocleon arrives, now with aggrieved victims on his heels and a pretty flute girl on his arm. Bdelycleon appears moments later and angrily remonstrates with his father for kidnapping the flute girl from the party. Philocleon pretends that she is in fact a torch. His son isn't fooled and he tries to take the girl back to the party by force but his father knocks him down. Other people with grievances against Philocleon continue to arrive, demanding compensation and threatening legal action. He makes an ironic attempt to talk his way out of trouble like a sophisticated man of the world but it enflames the situation further and finally his alarmed son drags him indoors. The Chorus sings briefly about how difficult it is for men to change their habits and it commends the son for filial devotion, after which the entire cast returns to the stage for some spirited dancing by Philocleon in a contest with the sons of Carcinnus.
Note: Some editors (such as Barrett) exchange the second parabasis (lines 1265-91) with the song (lines 1450-73) in which Bdelycleon is commended for filial devotion.
Historical background
Some events that influenced The Wasps
- 426 BC: Aristophanes won first prize at the City Dionysia with his second play,
The Babylonians (now lost), and he was subsequently prosecuted by Cleon for being the author of slanders against the polis.425 BC: Athens obtained a significant victory against Sparta with the capture of a Spartan garrison on the island of Sphacteria and Cleon successfully claimed responsibility for it.424 BC: Aristophanes wins first prize at the Lenaia with The Knights in which he lampoons Cleon mercilessly.423 BC: Athens and Sparta agree to a one year truce. Aristophanes' play The Clouds came third (i.e. last).
Places and people mentioned in The Wasps
Old Comedy was a highly topical form of drama written specifically for a fifth century Athenian audience and this can make it difficult for other audiences to understand. According to a character in Plutarch's Dinner-table Discussion, (written some 500 years after The Wasps was produced), Old Comedy needs commentators to explain its abstruse references in the same way that a banquet needs wine-waiters. Here is the wine list for 'The Wasps' as supplied by modern scholars.
- Places
- Megara: a neighbour and historically a rival to Athens, it is mentioned here as the reputed origin of comic drama
- Law Courts: Athens had ten law courts in 422BC, of which these three are mentioned here by name - The New Court, The Court at Lykos and The Odeion
- Asclepieia: Temples dedicated to the god of healing, the one mentioned here was located near Athens on the island of Aegina.
- Delphi: One of the most sacred sites in Greece, it is said by Philocleon to be the source of a fearful prophecy concerning himself.
- Scione: A city on the promontory of Chalcidice, it revolted from Athenian rule two days after the Athenian truce with Sparta and it was now under siege - the only fighting Athenians were engaged in at this time. Bdelucleon thinks Scione would be easier to guard than his father is.
- Byzantium: Originally captured from Persian forces by the Greeks in 478 BC, and subsequently taken from the control of Pausanias by the Athenians in 476, a garison had been stationed there ever since its revolt from Athenian rule in 440-439 BC. The Chorus of old jurors reminisce about their time as soldiers there.
- Samos: An island that had revolted from Athenian rule in 440 BC, it is mentioned in reference to a Samian (possibly Carystion) who had betrayed his own polis out of his reputed love for Athens and who had recently been acquitted of some charge. The Chorus wonders if this acquittal has made Philoycleon ill.
- Thrace: A region that had strategic significance in the Peloponnesian War, the Chorus mentions it in relation to the impending trial of one of the 'traitors' there (possibly a reference to Thucydides, who had been prosecuted by Cleon the previous year after the Athenian defeat at Amphipolis).
- Naxos: Subjugated by the Athenians around 470 BC, the Chorus remembers it in relation to a soldier's prank perpetrated there by Philocleon.
- Pontus and Sardinia: Mentioned by Bdelycleon as the eastern and western limits of the Athenian empire.
- Marathon: The site of the celebrated Athenian victory against Persia, it is mentioned by Bdelycleon in reference to what is owed to Athenians by other Greeks.
- Euboia: Settled by Athenians through a cleruchy, it was a key source of grain and it is mentioned by Bdelycleon as a synonym for vote-buying.
- Sicily: The island was famous for its cheeses and its mention in the play helps to identity the cheese-stealing dog Labes as a comic representation of the Athenian general Laches, who led an Athenian force there in 427 BC.
- Thymaitadoi: A village near the Piraeus, it was a source of rough cloaks that the unsophisticated Philocleon is unable to distinguish from the expensive cloaks worn in Sardis and woven in Ecbatana (common destinations for Athenian diplomats).
- Paros: The island was a place that Philocleon once visited for two obols a day (i.e. as a rower in the Athenian navy) and that was as close to becoming a diplomat as he ever got.
- Poets and other artists
- Euripides: Frequently a target of Aristophanes' plays, the tragic poet is mentioned here as the butt of tired, old jokes by other comic poets. There are also three mock-heroic references to his plays 'Bellerophon, 'Cretan Women' and 'Ino'
- Ecphantides: A comic poet of a previous generation, he is referred to here by his nickname Capnias (Smokey).
- Phrynichus: A celebrated tragic poet of an earlier generation, he is mentioned favourably several times by Philocleon and the jurors. The first mention is in a comic, compound word which includes a reference to a popular song about Sidon written by Phrynichus. The tragic poet is mentioned in three other plays.
- Pindar: The great lyrical poet of Boeotia is not mentioned here by name but one of his famous verses is absurdly quoted out of context.
- Philocles: A tragic poet (good enough to win first prize when Sophocles competed with Oedipus Rex), yet satirized by comic poets for a harsh style, he is said here to have an embittering influence on old men. He is mentioned again in Thesmophoriazusae and The Birds.
- Aesop: Then as now, a source of instructive fables, he receives four mentions in this play and he is later mentioned in two other plays.
- Oiagros: A tragic actor, he is said here to have been acquitted in a trial after reciting verses from a play titled 'Niobe'. 'Niobe' was possibly a play by Sophocles that was performed shortly before Wasps. Alternatively 'Niobe' was a play written by Aeschylus, mentioned again later in The Frogs.
- Acestor: A tragic poet of foreign birth and a frequent target of comic poets, he is mentioned here only as the father of one of Cleon's circle.
- Alcaeus: The great lyric poet of Mytilene, he is the author of some verses that Philocleon adapts to a scolion directed against Cleon.
- Ariphrades: Possibly a comic dramatist and a student of Anaxagoras, he is mocked in this play and in other plays for sexual eccentricities. His musician brother, Arignotus, is mentioned with him but not by name in The Wasps.
- Sthenelus: A tragic poet, whose verse was later considered by Aristotle to be lucid but undignified, he is mentioned here as the epitome of a man who is lacking something.
- Lasus: A poet from Hermion who lived in the latter half of the 6th Century, associated with the establishment of dithyrambic contests in Athens and credited with writing the first book on music, he is quoted here as the author of a banal statement: "It means little to me".
- Simonides: The famous lyric poet from Ceos, he is said by Philocles to have been the man to whom the above statement was addressed. He is mentioned in three other plays.
- Thespis: According to Athenian tradition, he was the first dramatist to write for an actor separate from the Chorus. He is mentioned here as typical of Philocleon's old-fashioned tastes.
- Carcinus: An Athenian general in 431, he was also a dramatist and a dancer. He is mentioned with his sons here and in other plays. His sons danced in the exodos in this play in competition with Philocleon. Their performance is mocked by Philocleon and it is even mocked by the Chorus of a later play (Peace lines 781-6). One son, Xenocles, was a tragedian who later defeated Euripides at the City Dionysia in 415 but his abilities as a dramatist are ridiculed by Aristophanes in Thesmophoriazusae and The Frogs.
- Athenian politicians and generals
- Cleon: The populist leader of the pro-war faction in Athens, he is the arch-villain in all of Aristophanes' early plays. We are assured early in The Wasps that Aristophanes won't make mincemeat of him again but promises mean nothing in a comedy and he receives five other direct mentions in the play, as well as numerous indirect mentions, notably as an untrustworthy dog.
- Theorus: An associate of Cleon, he is presented in the play as an ignoble flatterer. He is a target also in earlier plays.
- Alcibiades: Later known as a dashing general and a winning aristocrat, he was not yet a major public figure and here he is mentioned only for his lisp. He was mentioned earlier in The Acharnians as the son of Cleinias and he is mentioned later in The Frogs.
- Amynias: A general this year (423/2), he was satirized by comic dramatists as effeminate and pretentious. Here he is mocked for gambling habits, long hair and a diplomatic mission to Thessaly. He is mentioned also in The Clouds.
- Nicostratus: Possibly the son of Dieitrephes and a skilful general mentioned by Thucydides, he is said here to call out from the audience about Philocleon's disease, identifying it as 'hospitality'.
- Laches: A general who had led a small Athenian force to Sicily in 427 and who had proposed the one year truce in 423, he is represented here as a man awaiting trial and as the good watchdog accused of stealing a Sicilian cheese, suggesting that Cleon was in fact intending to prosecute him for corruption.
- Thucydides: The political rival of Pericles, he is mentioned here and earlier in The Acharnians in relation to a trial in which slick lawyers took full advantage of his old age.
- Hyperbolus: A populist and eventually Cleon's successor, he is named as an example of someone who cynically manipulates juries. He receives numerous mentions in other plays.
- Theogenes: A prominent politician often satirized by comic poets as a fat, greedy braggart, he is quoted here as somebody who abuses dung-collectors. He is also mentioned in later plays.
- Androcles: Another populist, often satirized in Old Comedy as poor and immoral, he was later influential in exiling Alcibiades. He is mentioned here ironically as an example of the kind of man who represents Athens in sacred, diplomatic missions.
- Antiphon: An orator and later a leader of the oligarchic government in 411 BC, he is named as a hungry kind of man and as one of the sophisticated dinner guests abused by Philocleon.
- Phrynichus: A politician and later a leader of the oligarchy of The Four Hundred, he is a central figure at the sophisticated dinner party attended by Antiphon, Theophrastos Lykon, Lysistratus, Bdelycleon, Philocleon et al..
- Lycon: A little-known politician who later assisted in the prosecution of Socrates and whose wife Rhodia was often a target of comic poets (as for example in Lysistrata), he is named here merely as another associate of Phrynichus.
- Athenian personalities
- Cleonymus: An associate of Cleon and frequently a target in other plays, he is mentioned here as the figment of a slave's dream, a flattering patron of jurors and as the image of the image of the image of the hero Lycus, each time in relation to a notorious incident in which he threw away his shield.
- Sosias: Unknown otherwise, he is mentioned here as a well-known tippler (possibly this is the name of a character in the play accidently transposed into the dialogue by an ancient scribe).
- Philoxenus: A notoriously effete catamite, he becomes the source of a misunderstanding because his name is a pun for 'hospitable'.
- Pyrilampes: Plato's stepfather and a prominent personality in Periclean Athens, he is mentioned merely as the father of Demus, a handsome young man whose name appears around Athens in amorous graffiti.
- Dracontides: He is named here as somebody awaiting trial and because his name is a pun for 'serpent'. Modern scholars have various theories about his identity and speculation has even been used to date the treaty between Athens and Chalcis.
- Proxenides: Philocleon would rather be Proxenides or smoke or the victim of a thunderbolt than be imprisoned at home any longer. He is mentioned as a braggart in The Birds.
- Gorgias: The famous teacher of rhetoric, he is named as the father or teacher of a recent victim of irate jurors by the name of Phillipus.
- Aischines: He is mentioned as an associate of Cleon, a synonym for smoke and a braggart. He is mentioned also in The Birds.
- Euathlus: An associate of Cleon and a prosecutor of the aged Thucydides (for which he was mentioned in The Acharnians), he is said by Philocleon to be a patron of jurors. Other less well-known prosecutors named in the play are Smicythion, Teisiades, Chremon ('Needy'), Pheredeipnus ('Waiter') and the son of Chaireas.
- Euxaris: A well-known greengrocer.
- Lysistratus: A high-society man-about-town who participated in the mutilation of the hermai in 415, he is here a practical joker who passes off fish scales as coins and who also happens to be a sophisticated dinner guest. He receives mentions also in other plays.
- Cynna: A prostitute, her flashing eyes are evocative of Cleon.
- Morychus: A notorious gourmand who was possibly also a tragic poet, he is emblematic of a pampered life and his soldier's kit resembles a luxurious Persian gown.. He is mentioned also in two other plays.
- Cleisthenes: A byword for effeminacy, he is frequently a target for jokes in other plays and appears as a character in Thesmophoriazusae. Here he is mentioned ironically along with Androcles as a dignitary sent by Athens on a sacred diplomatic mission.
- Leogoras: The father of the orator Andocides, he was lampooned by comic poets for his wealth and his luxurious lifestyle. Here his dinners are held up as the benchmark of culinary opulence.
- Chaerephon: The loyal friend and disciple of Socrates, he appears here as the summons witness for a female bread vendor and is likened by Philocleon to a sallow Ino clinging to the feet of Euripides. He receives mentions also in two other surviving plays.
- Pittalus: A doctor who is mentioned also in Acharnians, he is recommended by Philocleon to one of the victims of his own drunken outrages.
- Religious and historical identities
- Korybantes: Associated with ecstatic dancing in the worship of the Phrygian goddessCybele, they are twice referred to here as a byword for manic behaviour. They are mentioned also in later plays.
- Sabazius: Another Phrygian divinity associated with manic behaviour, mentioned here and in later plays.
- Heracles: A hero in myth, he is a stock joke for gluttony in comedy. He is mentioned in that capacity here and he even appears as a gluttonous buffoon in two later plays, The Birds and The Frogs.
- Odysseus: A hero in myth, he is a proverb for cunning subterfuge.
- Dictynna: Originally a Cretan goddess of hunting, associated with Mount Dicte, she is evoked by Philocleon as he chews on a net (dictuon), possibly as a pun though she was in fact identified with Artemis as the goddess of nets.
- Diopeithes: A religious zealot who once proposed a decree for the impeachment of atheists and astronomers, his name appears here as an ironic synonym for Zeus. He receives mentions also in two other plays.
- Lycus: An Athenian hero, possibly the son of Pandion, he is mentioned here because his shrine is adjacent to the court named after him.
- Cecrops: The mythical first king of Athens, he is invoked by Philocleon as his defender against his son's slaves because they are foreigners. He is mentioned also in two other surviving plays.
- Hippias: A byword in Athens for tyranny, he is mentioned in that capacity here and in other plays.
- Eurycles: A prophet with abilities as a ventriloquist, he is emblematic of the comic poet whose plays are produced in somebody else's name.
- Harmodius: A famous tyrannicide, he was a favourite theme for scolia. He is named also in three other surviving plays.
- Admetus: A legendary Thessalian king and the husband of Alcestis, he was the subject of a popular scolion.
Foreign identities
Miscellaneous
Translations
- William James Hickie, 1853 - prose,
- Benjamin B. Rogers, 1924 - verse
- Arthur S. Way, 1934 - verse
- Douglass Parker, 1962 - verse
- Alan H. Sommerstein - prose and verse
- unknown translator - prose:
- George Theodoridis 2007 prose full text
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