Notes on w11c1 lecture
Athenian Litigation

Housekeeping:
Thursdays, Lysias Murder of Eratosthenes.  Tuesday: Cohen
Friday: last extra credit lecture

Presentation
- Theatre of Dionysus at Lenaea festival (January 422): winter relief
- in honour of Dionysus (sacrifice by presiding priest) who appears in Frogs
- democratic seating in theatre: adult men in general seating; front rows of bigwigs mocked; communal feelings highlighted
- contests: democratic judges and voting each day (so need broad appeal); agon in plays:dog trial in Wasps
- Aristophanes is well-known; had won 1st prize several times already; had attacked Cleon (who was at the hight of his power) several times

Plot
- seek good for city, not individual: how to deal with excessive litigation (Wasps); how to save city at end of Peloponnesian War.
- solutions communal: defend democracy vs. tyranny, but show restraint vs. popularist politicians (Cleon); all work for city (even
Dionysus rows!), with reconciliation of oligarchs and Alcibiades (who last organised Eleusinian procession in 410).
- in Wasps, ends with general revelry (slave-girl and dancing) - cf. procession of chorus
- in Frogs, literary agon. Reflects drama contest and Dionysus as patron of festival. Pit old values (Aeschylus) vs. new ways
(Euripides). Aeschylus "heavy", Euripides too modern (music, repetitive style), too clever. E. good to parody: melodramatic,
intellectual (cf. Socrates) and conservative; A. old-style democrat. Nostalgia wins (but Euripides cheated!). N.B. Sophocles left out.
 

Questions
1) Does Aristophanes attack Cleon as much as power/role of juries?
2) What doesn’t he like about the jury system
Gives jurors arbitrary power to ignore law [recall what Allen says about nullification]
e.g: Philocleon ­ we ignore the father’s instructions re heiress if the man seeking to marry her wins our favor.
Is there a solution? ­ cf Augustus refusing to obey Virgil’s will
Issue is moral corruption possible in jury system as sttructured
Subject to rumor
3) Why do we like Philocleon?
He gives voice to sentiments we’re constrained socially from acting on [he gives the bird]
Risk is he’s an example of a social situation that emphasizes worst in people
Cf debate of Philocleon and Bdelykleon:
If Philocleon is the problem, what’s the answer?
4) Why don’t we like Anticleon?
Aristocratic ­ can we trust this critique of the jury system
Note ambivalence of presentation of chorus
a) old men of Marathon ­ the greatest generation
b) wasps -> energetic; morally stern
c) poor, dependent on and like children -> power of Cleon
d) dilution of political meaning ­ because of sophists: everything’s tyranny
e) is Anticleon’s argument that Cleon is stealing money from the demos logical?
5) How does the dog trial work as a parody of an Athenian trial
6) How satisfying is Anticleon’s solution to the problem of the jury?
a) alternative to democratic juror is aristocratic thug
b) but poor don’t have that option;
i. litigation among poor rather than among rich w/ poor as jurors -> destruction of social unit.
ii. poor victims of sykophants
c) Aristophanes -> alternative to moral corruption of demos as jurors is moral corruption of aristocrats who are estranged from city and refuse to contribute to it.
d) Nb: considered a ‘dark’ play by Aristophanes