Empowerment for the Athenian Citizen: Philocleon as Actor and Spectator in Aristophanes’Wasps

Abstract

Early on in the Wasps , Sosias describes to his fellow slave the dream he has just awoken from, in which the Athenian people were represented as a flock of sheep. The image is typically Aristophanic, tapping into the various references elsewhere in his work which cast the demos in the role of blind and gullible spectators. These “Open — Mouthenians” ( “Kexhnaioi ” [ Knights 1263]) who fill the seats of the assembly, theatre and law courts — each valuable for the vote he represents or influences — share in all of the above three cases an identity which the playwright attacks as undiscerning, passive and easily manipulated. Through his performances, Aristophanes attempts to make this spectator a more active participant, offering him a more informed and at times radical vantage point from his position in the auditorium. My purpose here is, therefore, to read Aristophanes as a performance text, in an attempt to not only explore the meta-theatre at the core of his work but also uncover its aim. By following the development of the Wasps , and in particular its protagonist Philocleon, I hope to illustrate some of the ways in which Aristophanes sought to bring empowerment to the Athenian spectator, both inside and and out of the theatre. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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