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He Loves You, He Loves You Not

He Loves You, He Loves You Not. Aristophanes’ Knights and the Politics of Passion. Journal Question. Where is on the political spectrum (democratic/oligarchic) do you locate the ideological perspective informing the satire in Aristophanes’ Knights ?. Through a Lens….

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He Loves You, He Loves You Not

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  1. He Loves You, He Loves You Not Aristophanes’ Knights and the Politics of Passion

  2. Journal Question Where is on the political spectrum (democratic/oligarchic) do you locate the ideological perspective informing the satire in Aristophanes’ Knights?

  3. Through a Lens… • Despotic/oligarchic democracy? (Michels) • “The preponderant elements of the movement, the men who lead and nourish it, end by undergoing a gradual detachment from the masses and are attracted within the orbit of the ‘political class’ ” (Political Parties) • Charismatic democracy? (Weber) • “… devotion to the exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual person, and of the normative patterns or order revealed or ordained by him” (Economy and Society) • Pragmatic democracy? (Finley) • “What counts is that the people expected results and at times, sometimes for long periods, felt satisfied with them” (Ancient History) Old Oligarch et al.

  4. Agenda • It Ain’t So • Epideictic and the Rhetoric of Response • Our epideixis.. • Rhetoric/Anti-Rhetoric • Hesk on Spin

  5. It Ain’t So Epideictic and the Rhetoric of Response http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddx8t6zGWxA

  6. Terms epideixis:“demonstration” epideictic:praise/censure displaying skill

  7. Epitaphic topoi The speaker’s challenge “May I find the power to say what I wish! May I find the wish to say what I must!” cf. Thuc. 2.35.1 Loss “. . . though they have died, the loss we feel has not.” cf. Pericles’ Samian Epitaphios The good death “their trophy of triumph, their gift to the god — the sacrifice of themselves.” cf. Thuc. 2.43.1

  8. Gorgianic Figures Basic concept • Colon • rhetorical unit Word repetition • Anaphora • colon beginning • Antistrophe • colon end • Anastrophe • end/beginning Other figures • Antithesis • contrast • Homoioteleuton • end rhyme • Isocolon/parisosis • same/similar-length successive cola • Paronomasia • word play

  9. Our epideixis..

  10. Aristophanes’ Knights Background, Context, Themes

  11. Aristophanes’ Knights When, where? Who, what? Political low-lifes Demosthenes Nicias “Sausage-Seller” Cleon/Paphlagon Thepeople (Dēmos) Chorus of Knights • Produced January 424 • 420s Athens… • Euripides’ Suppliant Women • “Old Oligarch”

  12. Cleon’s Career • 431/30 attacks Pericles • 420s (early) Jury-pay raise • 427 Mytilenian proposal • 426 attacks Aristophanes • 425 general • Pylos • 424 Aristophanes’ Knights • 422 general • killed at Amphipolis Cleon as Sphinx? (late 400s)

  13. Action, Representation • Crisis, planning, initial clash (36-60) • Agonistic courtship • council meeting (60-62) • assembly meeting (62-83) • Festive finale • reformation, rejuvenation (86-89)

  14. Demophilia as “Demerasty” Aristophanes SAUSAGE-SELLER: Well, for one thing, whenever anyone in the Assembly talked like this, yer know, ‘Thepeople, I love you (lit. “I am your erastēs”), I cherish (philō) you, I care for you, I am yer only protector’. . . . (Knights 87) Demosthenes Why in the world is it, men of Athens, that you . . . are generally no better off now than before. . .? Because, men of Athens, though they say they love you, it is not you they love, but themselves. (Exordia 53.3) Scholtz Concordia Discors 46-51.

  15. Policy as Seduction? • jury pay • free distributions • imperial windfalls = dēmos bribery? SAUSAGE-SELLER: Why, if there was two speakers, and it was a question of ’ow to spend some money, and A said we should use it to build warships and B said we should spend it on officials’ and jurymen’s pay, B would win every time by acclamation” (p. 87)

  16. Rhetoric/Anti-Rhetoric Hesk on Spin

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