The Political Theory of Aristophanes: Explorations in Poetic Wisdom

372 Pages·2014·5.47 MB·English

by  Aristophanes

The Political Theory of Aristophanes

The Political Theory of Aristophanes
Explorations in Poetic Wisdom
Edited by
Jeremy J. Mhire and Bryan-Paul Frost
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2014 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The political theory of Aristophanes : explorations in poetic wisdom / edited by
Jeremy J. Mhire and Bryan-Paul Frost.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-5003-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Aristophanes—Criticism and interpretation. I. Mhire, Jeremy J., 1977–
II. Frost, Bryan-Paul, 1961–
PA3879.P58 2014
882'.01—dc23 2013012778
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Introduction 1
Bryan-Paul Frost
PART I
Chapter 1
Seeing Democracy in the Clouds 13
John Lombardini
Chapter 2
The Meaning of Socrates’ Asceticism in Aristophanes’ Clouds 29
Khalil M. Habib
Chapter 3
Rethinking the Quarrel Anew: Politics and Boasting in
Aristophanes’ Clouds 47
Jeremy J. Mhire
PART II
Chapter 4
Persuasion in Comedy and Comic Persuasion: Aristophanes
and the Mysteries of Rhetoric 69
John Zumbrunnen
Chapter 5
Boundaries: The Comic Poet Confronts the “Who”
of Political Action 89
Arlene W. Saxonhouse
vi Contents
Chapter 6
Aristophanes and the Polis 109
Stephanie Nelson
Chapter 7
On the Anabasis of Trygaeus: An Introduction to
Aristophanes’ Peace 137
Wayne Ambler
Chapter 8
Aristophanes’ Herodotean Inquiry: The Meaning of
Athenian Imperialism in the Birds 161
Kenneth DeLuca
Chapter 9
Learning the Lesson of Dionysus: Aristophanes’
Tragicomic Wisdom and Poetic Politics in the Frogs 183
Christopher Baldwin
Chapter 10
Wealth and the Theology of Charity 201
Paul W. Ludwig
PART III
Chapter 11
Anger in Thucydides and Aristophanes: The Case of Cleon 229
Timothy W. Burns
Chapter 12
The Comedy of the Just City: Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen
and Plato’s Republic 259
Peter Nichols
Chapter 13
Peisetairos of Aristophanes’ Birds and the Erotic Tyrant of
Republic IX 275
Matthew Meyer
Contents vii
Chapter 14
Aristophanes’ Feminine Comedies and Socratic Political Science 303
Amy L. Bonnette
PART IV
Chapter 15
Leo Strauss’s UnSocratic Aristophanes? 331
Devin Stauffer
About the Authors 353
Index 357

Introduction
Bryan-Paul Frost
The purpose of this edited volume is to make available to students, the
learned public, and academics alike a series of chapters that documents and
describes the political wisdom of Aristophanes. For those individuals who are
unfamiliar with Aristophanes—or who are uneasy with regarding this Athe-
nian comic poet as a political thinker of the highest caliber—these chapters
will hopefully make manifest his capacious range of vision, his trenchant
insights, and his unique role as a civic educator; and for those who are more
familiar with Aristophanes—or who are quite comfortable with regarding
him as a towering thinker both in his own right and with respect to his
appreciation and criticism of other such political thinkers and figures—then
we hope that these chapters will reinforce and even deepen one’s under-
standing of his philosophical thought, open up new avenues for scholarly
investigation, and perhaps challenge in fruitful ways prevailing opinions
and assumptions. All the chapters contained herein are original, and they
were all written explicitly for this volume. The contributors include a wide
assortment of individuals—from junior- to senior-level scholars, political
scientists to classicists, and those from inside and outside the academy—
and this diversity of background is often reflected in the various interpre-
tive strategies and conclusions employed throughout. Although the editors
themselves have assiduously avoided imposing any mandatory or uniform
orthodoxy on the authors, all of the contributors are united in their belief
that intertwined within Aristophanes’ madcap comedies lies a genuinely
philosophical engagement with issues of the utmost seriousness, complexity,
and fundamental importance: indeed, it is hard to name a single political
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