Three Plays by Aristophanes: Staging Women

268 Pages·2010·0.94 MB·English

by  Jeffrey Henderson

T H R E E P L A Y S b y
A R I S T O P H A N E S
These three plays by the great comic playwright Aristophanes (c. 446–386 ),
the well-known Lysistrata and the less familiar Women at the Thesmophoria and
Assemblywomen, are the earliest surviving portrayals of contemporary women in
the European literary tradition. These plays provide a unique glimpse of women
not only in their familiar domestic roles but also in relation to household and
city, religion and government, war and peace, theater and festival, and, of
course, to men.
This freshly revised edition presents, for the first time in a single volume, all
three plays in faithful modern translations that preserve intact Aristophanes’
blunt and often obscene language, sparkling satire, political provocation, and
beguiling fantasy. Alongside the translations are ample introductions and
notes covering the politically engaged genre of Aristophanic comedy in general
and issues of sex and gender in particular, fully updated since the first edition
in light of recent scholarship. An appendix contains fragments of lost plays
of Aristophanes that also featured women, and an up-to-date bibliography
provides guidance for further exploration.
In addition to their timeless humor and biting satire, the plays are unique and
invaluable documents in the history of Western sexuality and gender, and they
offer strikingly prescient speculations about the social and political future of the
female sex.
Jeffrey Henderson is the William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of Greek at Bos-
ton University and General Editor of the Loeb Classical Library. He is known for
his pioneering work on Greek drama and for his editions and translations of the
comic playwright Aristophanes.
THE NEW CLASSICAL CANON
A Routledge book series edited by
David M. Halperin
T H R E E P L A Y S b y
A R I S T O P H A N E S
Staging Women
Second Edition
Translated and Edited
by
Jeffrey Henderson
First published in 1996
This second edition published in 2010
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.
To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
© 1996 Routledge, 2010 Jeffrey Henderson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-49199-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0-415-87132-8 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-415-87131-X (pbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-86134-35 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-87132-7 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-87131-0 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-86134-9 (ebk)
For William E. McCulloh
caro magistro

Contents
Preface to the Revised Edition ix
Preface to the First Edition xi

I 1
I. Aristophanes 3
II. Old Comedy: Production and Competition 4
III. Performance 15
IV. Women in Aristophanic Comedy 20
V. Notes on the Translation 30

L 33
Introduction 35
1. The Historical Context 35
2. The Play 36
   
W T 91
Introduction 93
1. The Play 93
2. Gender Transgression and Thesmophoria 96
3. Genre Transgression and the Theater 99

A 145
Introduction 147
1. The Historical Context 147
2. The Women Take Power 149
3. The Women’s New Regime 152
A: S F  L P 197
Notes 211
Bibliography 245
vii

Preface to the Revised Edition
Since this volume was first published, scholarship on Aristophanes and Old
Comedy has advanced on all fronts, not least as regards our three plays. I have
accordingly revised the translations in light of the more recent critical editions
of Women at the Thesmophoria by Austin and Olson (2004), of Lysistrata by
Mastromarco (2006), of Assemblywomen by Sommerstein (1998), and of all
the plays by Wilson (2007), as well as my own Loeb Classical Library edition of
the plays and fragments (1998–2007); brought the introductions and notes
current with recent scholarship; and updated the bibliography. I hope that in
its freshened form this volume will continue to amuse, inform, and provoke its
readers.
JJH
June 2009
ix