Ancient Greek comedy took shape as a genre somewhat later than the tragedy genre. Comedy flourished in the 5th-4th centuries. BC It is customary to call comedy of this period ancient Attic comedy (Attic in its existence in the area of Attica, ancient, in contrast to the comedy of the 4th century and the new Attic comedy of the 3rd century). Comedy, like tragedy, in its origin is associated with cult and ritual actions, festivities on the days of the Dionysians. Aristotle in his Poetics noted the origin of comedy from folk festivals in honor of the life-giving power of nature. Comedy - from the words komos and ode - song of komos, to make a procession. Komos is a cheerful procession of costumed choirs with dancing, comic songs, of an agonistic nature - i.e. controversial. It is no coincidence that comedy originated in Athens, since Athens was the center of democratic institutions. Criticism of both individual human shortcomings and various aspects of public administration was not only accepted in Athens, but was also welcomed as a healthy positive beginning. Therefore, Komos, in completely free forms, sharply and boldly ridicules an ordinary citizen, a prominent aristocrat, ancient rituals and even gods, and criticizes the foundations of state.
At its core, comedy comes from the ritual and festive processions of the komos with its comic-free songs, mimic games, scenes of a rude and mocking nature (Peloponnesian farce), and comic techniques of folk laughter culture (the theory of M. Bakhtin).
Structurally, comedy has different internal components than tragedy. There should have been 24 members of the comedy choir, not 12, as in the tragedy. In this case, the choir was divided into 2 half-choirs. 1. Prologue– more common than in tragedy. 2. Parod- the opening song of the choir, more dramatic than in tragedy. The choir behaved very actively, expressing its position in relation to the ongoing actions, could share the point of view of the hero, but in the course of unfolding events it also turned out to be an opponent of the actor himself, freely exchanging opinions with the choir members and with the acting actors. 3. Agon– beech. competition, struggle, agon - a product of the democratic structure of the Greek polis, in comedy it denotes an acute moment. Agon reflected controversial opinions about the problems of government in a satirical-comic form, which hid the seriousness of the issue being resolved. Aristophanes gives a striking example of agon in the comedy “Clouds” between the heroes Pravda and Krivda. The comedian criticizes the system of moral education of the sophists and attacks the teachings of Socrates.
4.Arabasa- a choral part, generally unrelated to the course of the stage action, this is a direct appeal of the choir to the audience on important issues modern life, art. 5. Episodes– acting scenes between choral parts. 6. Exod- departure of the choir.
The founder of ancient Attic comedy is usually called Aristophanes, although the names of other comedians remain in history, such as the Sicilian Epicharmus, Cratinus, Eupolis. Aristophanes' artistic talent and active social and political position contributed to the emergence of comedy as a genre equal to tragedy. In his comedies, Aristophanes focused attention on the political, philosophical, pedagogical and literary problems of his time - the turn of the last quarter of the 5th and the first two decades of the 4th centuries. BC, when Athenian democracy was in crisis (the Peloponnesian War) and the classical period was nearing its end.
Three periods in the development of Aristophanes' creativity can be outlined.
1.427-421 BC, the main theme of comedies is political - the problem of war and peace. Aristophanes advocates an end to the war, advocates the return of warriors - workers to the vineyards and fields. This is the first stage of the Peloponnesian War (the war of the Athenian Naval League and the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta), before the Peace of Nicias. Nicias - Athens. political activist the military leader, after the death of Pericles, led the Athenian democracy, fought to end the war and achieved peace with Sparta on terms acceptable to Athens in 421, and was later, against his will, appointed commander of the expedition to Sicily. During the siege of Syracuse he was captured and died along with his soldiers). The comedies “Acharnians” belong to this period. “Riders”, “Clouds”, “Wasps”, “World”.
2.414-405 BC less politically expressed, although it touches on certain problems of government. The satire is aimed at the social way of life, theater, criticizes poets, in particular, Euripides is repeatedly ridiculed. The comedies “Birds”, “Lysistrata”, “Women at the Thesmophoria”, “Frogs” (a competition between Aeschylus and Euripides, a malicious mockery of the latter) belong to this period.
3.392-388 BC Aristophanes' departure from former views. The comedy is not agricultural-political; its incipient features gravitate toward a comedy of manners. Aristophanes discusses the possibility of translating utopian ideals into reality and the essence of human life. In its genre design, the comedy undergoes some changes: the role of dialogue is strengthened, the effective significance of the chorus is correspondingly reduced, and the parabass is removed. The comedies “Women in the National Assembly”, “Wealth” or “Plutos” belong to this period.
Parody, grotesque, lively folk speech with comic bickering and philosophical generalizations, lively songs and dances make up the wealth of Aristophanes' comedic techniques. Important topical problems take on a comic-satirical character in Aristophanes, and everything that causes laughter turns out to be far from its nature and actually requires serious attention and comprehension. That's why the plot of comedies creates unusual picture, where reality and a fantastically imagined world represent one whole. Such a world turns out to be the celestial bird state as the only calm space for humans (“Birds”), and the underground “theater” (“Frogs”), and the strange scientific institution “Thoughthouse” in the comedy “Clouds,” etc. The action of the comedies unfolds dynamically. Depending on the artistic task, comedy, unlike tragedy, does not have individual images or psychological characters; the heroes of comedy are, first of all, ready-made masks, typically generalized, acting in accordance with their ideological views. A. Bonnard singles out the pedant, the stingy, the doctor, the fighter, the braggart, Socrates, Aeschylus. Euripides: “Aristophanes rejuvenates these traditional types, adapting the masks that characterize them to the historical characters of Athens of his time, to one or another of his contemporaries...” In order to achieve an ideological and artistic goal, Aristophanes makes heroes of completely abstract concepts such as: Horror, War, Truth, Falsehood, Poverty, happy, etc. Let's consider Aristophanes' artistic techniques using the example of one comedy.
"World". Comedy belongs to the first period of Aristophanes' work, as it is politically charged. The main topic is the question of peace, ending the war.
The plot of the comedy is fantastically bizarre: The main character Trigaeus, a farmer and winegrower, forces his slaves to fatten a huge beetle to the size of a horse - the mythical Pegasus, in order to fly up into the sky and ask Zeus a question about the fate of all the “inhabitants of Greece”. The comedy opens with a prologue and consists of several scenes with the participation of 4 characters: two slaves, Trigaeus, and his daughters.
Scene 1. A conversation between two slaves about the madness of their master, Trigaeus. The slaves grumble and scold the owner, which forces them to “give food to the dung beetle” so that it grows to the size of a huge horse.
Scene 2. Trigaeus screams and the second slave reports:
“Here it comes, attack! This is what I'm talking about!
Here is an example of insanity.
As soon as his madness began,
He asked himself a question, listen:
“How can I climb directly into the sky with Zeus?”
here he made an ice-cold staircase,
To climb up it, and plopped down.
And he broke a hole in the back of his head.
Yesterday, out of nowhere, I dragged him home
From a horse the size of an Etnean beetle
And he assigned me as a groom to the beetle. Myself
She strokes him like a foal:
“My pegasus! My feathered beauty!
Take off, take me to the throne of Zeus!” The scene ends with the slave's cries about his master's rise.
Scene 3. Dialogue of the floating Trigaeus between slaves and daughter. The slaves try to reason with the owner, asking where he is flying. Trigaeus replies: “To the throne of Zeus, to heaven... To ask what he is planning to do With all of us, the inhabitants of Greece.” The features of the comedy genre immediately appear: caricature, comedy, parody, brought to the point of caricature. Trigaeus was about to fly to Zeus on Pegasus, the “winged horse.” It would seem that this is the sublimity, the heroism of the image (as in a tragedy), it is not for nothing that Trigaeus says: “For the benefit of all Greece, I began a flight, I planned to accomplish an unprecedented feat”). However, Pegasus turns out to be a huge dung beetle, which is impossible to stand next to: “But don’t breathe in my face. I pray to you: if you douse me with a stink. Then it’s better to stay in the barn!” All this reduces the sublimity of the depicted, creating a satirical-comic situation (for example, the hero’s words: “... with what I feed myself, I then feed the beetle with Good”). Moreover, the mention of the name of Euripides in the prologue denotes a new genre - comedy, not tragedy: “Take care that you don’t fall down and break any bones! Otherwise you will become lame - Euripides will pick you up and cook up a tragedy.” The words “He will cook up”, “Our dear father, father!” the daughter’s appeal to Trigaeus expresses Aristophanes’ disdainful attitude towards the tragedies of Euripides (then in the comedy the words “rhymes of Euripides”, “Poet of litigators, singer of judicial slander” will be found, which also confirm Aristophanes’ rejection of the tragedies of Euripides and himself as a person).
In the prologue, the themes of comedy are indicated for the first time - the theme of peace, denial of war, irreverent appeal to the gods. They are manifested in the words of the slave about the owner: “Hey, Zeus,” he shouts, “how will this end? Leave the broom! Otherwise you will sweep away Hellas”; Trigaeus himself: “O Zeus! What are you doing to our people? You, like pods, have husked all the cities,” “... there is not a half, not a crumb, not a penny of money in the house,” “... the Chios people will pay five talents for my death” - a clear allusion to the impoverishment of the people during the war and constant military extortions ; in the mention of the name Cleon (influential statesman, called for the continuation of the war of the Hellenes against the Hellenes - Athens with Sparta): “I understand that they are hinting at Cleon here: the dung in Hades, they say, he eats ...”, etc. Aristophanes’ hostile attitude towards the war, the people who started it, in in particular, to Cleon, criticism of the gods, who had forgotten about the patronage of the people. As the action unfolds, this theme strengthens, becoming the main idea of the comedy.
The comedy is connected by six episodies, no less important than the prologue, skit, parabasa or other parts of the comedy. The first two episodes before the start of the parody unfold the action in heaven, in the courtyard of Zeus, where Trigaeus flew. The episodes are filled with a comic aspect. The first episode opens with Hermes. He comes out to meet Trigaeus. God is devoid of signs of high heavenly origin, he is a real servant of the gods: “May God guard the junk: Pots, spoons, bowls, frying pans!” He is pompous with excessive pride, arrogant towards an ordinary person and at the same time extremely obsequious in anticipation of his own benefit. So he twice calls Trigaeus “Bastard” (a word from colloquial speech belongs to the comedy genre) and immediately addresses Trigaeus with the word “beggar”, as soon as he heard about receiving a gift from the hero - beef (in fact, it is a fattened dung beetle). The satirical nature of the image is emphasized by the words of Trigaeus: “You see, dainty, Now I’m not a slob for you! Go, call Zeus to me” (the hero’s commanding tone is not accidental - before a person there is not a god, but just a gatekeeper, a servant). The episode is important because it reveals the reason for the internecine war of the Hellenes: Polemos (War) settled on Olympus, “He wants to grind all the cities into powder,” threw the goddess of Peace into a cave and covered her with stones. The second episode, in terms of artistic design and the actions of images composed of abstract concepts - Polemos and his servant Horror, comes close to tragedy, revealing to the viewer a destructive picture of the war. Comedy traits are embodied in the hero, in his behavior, internal changes. Trigaeus was not invented by Aristophanes, but was taken by the author, in some way borrowed from the ordinary environment of people in the real world. When Trigaeus sees how Polemos, with the help of Terror, crushes other cities without affecting his native Athens, he rejoices and remains indifferent: “And we, friends, don’t care about Sparta at all! Let the Laconians cry. Misfortune is theirs." Indifferent to the misfortune of others, Trigaeus is an ordinary Athenian during the war. As soon as the hero sees the attempt by Polemos on his native Athens, he rejoices at the news of the death of Cleon (mentioned here as the Tanner “who turned up all of Hellas,” the viewer is presented with the embodiment of an artistic image. Aristophanes shows how a person’s self-awareness grows in the hero - from overcoming narrow-minded views to comprehension universal problems (in this case, with the awareness of the universal disaster that war brings) When the hero, addressing the audience, says: “Now the time has come, brothers of the Hellenes, leaving strife, forgetting strife, to bring the goddess of Peace to our will, Until the pusher interferes.” new to us,” and calls on the people to release the Goddess of Peace from captivity together - this is a hero in whom there is no hint of a comedic beginning.
Parod. Exit of the choir. Its participants are Athenian villagers, under the leadership of Corypheus, ready for action. Several Spartans, Boeotians, Argives and Megarians come out with the choir. Their presence is necessary for Aristophanes to resolve the artistic problems of comedy. The choir has been active since its appearance on stage: it ardently shares the opinion of Trigaeus to free the goddess of Peace (Irina): “Let us give up angry strife and bloody enmity! The spring holiday is shining on us..."; and at the same time, he is independent in his actions - he dances noisily, fervently, ignoring Trigaeus’ requests to stop dancing, so as not to wake up Kerberus, who is guarding Cleon. The choir, divided into two half-choirs, adds its voice in defense of peace, expresses its opinion about the hardships of wartime, about that historical cycle, from which it is impossible to dodge without being drawn in against the will of a person: “I was poor for a long time, I kept lying on straw, like iron Phormion” (the name of the Athenian commander of the Peloponnesian War is mentioned), “How long have we been tormented by all the campaigns and battles. They drive us here and there. From the Lyceum and to the Lyceum. With a shield and a spear in hand." The choir, with sincere songs, forces the hero to take an oath not to be indifferent to the troubles of all people from now on: “no, I will not be, as before, a boring, strict cracker!”
This part of the comedy marks the climax. The origin of the climactic beginning lies in the appearance of Hermes. Trigaeus and the choir were almost stopped by him in his intention to free Irina. Here, to enhance the comic effect, Aristophanes chooses for the hero the role of a cunning simpleton, who pretends to be truly frightened by Hermes and God's punishment, but in fact is disingenuous with him. However, feeling the exhaustion of arguments in defense of his intention, Trygaeus forces the Chorus to begin their duties of singing songs of praise in honor of Hermes. The comedy is also manifested in the hero’s promise to dedicate all existing holidays: Panathenaea - a holiday in honor of the goddess of Athens, the Mysteries - the Eleusinian Mysteries in honor of Demeter, Dipoli - or Buffonia in honor of Zeus the Thunderer, Adonia - a festival in honor of Aphrodite only to Hermes. Aristophanes resorts to a caricature of the gods using the example of Hermes, in the scene of receiving a gift (golden jug) from Trigaeus, when the touched god utters the words: “How pitiful my heart goes out to golden things" The comedy of Aristophanes lies in the fact that the meaning of the same image, object or concept takes on a double meaning. Thus, the caricature of the depiction of the gods using the example of Hermes turns into an expression of the author’s own philosophical understanding of the problem of war and peace. This is manifested in the episode when Hermes, pouring a libation to the gods, at the prompting of Trigaeus, calls on Phoebus to descend to the people (Apollo. Trigaeus: “Don’t talk about the onion! Call Phoebus alone!) - the god sunlight, harmony, spiritual activity and the arts, a god who protects crops and herds; Harit is the deity of beauty and joy, Or is the goddess of the seasons, clear weather, harvest, youth, beauty. Also at that moment when in response to Hermes’ question: “Ares is not needed? And Enialiy? (Ares' epithet is warlike)" Trigaeus furiously replies: "No!" The climax builds up in an ascending line. Aristophanes draws attention to the scene when all the members of the crowd take up the rope to roll away the stone from the cave where the Goddess of Peace is hidden. In this episode, the author’s intention to present representatives of various cities in the skit along with the choir participants becomes clear. Spartans, Boeotians, Argives, Megarians: Tr. “These pull forward, while others pull back!” This is a clear hint from Aristophanes about the political strife that established itself in Greece during this period. Trigaeus and Horus disperse the Cities and, left alone, finally get down to business together. In the words of Corypheus: “Let’s get to work alone! Hey, fellow farmers!”, Trigea: “Only farmers will be able to return the world to us” are the views of the author himself: 1. sharp criticism of urban democracy, which supported the war for the sake of enrichment (“they laugh at our labors. They suck two queens, eat bread two gentlemen"). 2. hope for an alliance of Athenian landowners capable of changing the socio-political situation in Greece.
In the final part of the Parod, the author's attitude towards the war is strengthened. Aristophanes uses the form of dialogue to express his own attitude towards the complex problems of his time. Replicas and speeches of the heroes addressed to each other express the onset of peaceful silence, prosperity and general well-being expected for years by Aristophanes himself and the people. (Hermes: “The cities are talking to each other, They are laughing joyfully, reconciled...”, Trigaeus: “Although in terrible bruises, in scratches. With crushed heads, in abrasions”, Corypheus: A happy day, a day desired by the host villagers! You have come I’m full of fun, I send my greetings to the vines. I see the figs that I once planted as a boy. I’m happy to hug them again, after many, many years!”). The ideological center of the final part of the Parod becomes the story of Hermes about the beginning and course of the war, the fate of Athens (which is ruled after the death of Cleon by the democratic politician Hyperbole, who became a target in the comedies of famous famous playwrights) and the questions of the goddess of Peace about the former - pre-war life of Athens, when in the theater the tragedian Sophocles, the poet Simonides, and the predecessor of Aristophanes, the comedian Cratinus, shone. Among the culprits of the war, God names the sculptor Phidias, who, according to legend, stole the gold of Athens, created her beautiful statue and depicted himself and Pericles on the goddess’s shield, named Pericles himself, the warmonger, Cleon the tanner (Cleon was the owner of a tannery), as well as the City ( "the profit of the rich has become an evil for the peasants"). The Parod ends with the return of the hero with the Goddess of Peace and her companions Harvest and Fair to earth.
Parabasa. Parabasa divides the comedy into two parts - in heaven and on earth. It does not touch upon the action itself, but focuses attention on the declaration of Aristophanes’ ideas, pointing, first of all, to the author’s speech against the war and its initiators. Consisting of the song of Corypheus, ode (song of the first half-choir), antoda (response song of the second half-choir), Parabas emphasizes the significance of Aristophanes’ work, the comedian’s introduction of dramatic innovations that contributed to the emergence of a genre no less worthy than tragedy: “Our poet has eliminated this coarse language , this is buffoonery. And he created great art for us and built a high tower From sublime thoughts, from important speeches. Of the subtlest, non-market jokes" Through Parabas, Aristophanes expresses his own opinion about the direction of comedy: to serve not as a fun pastime, but as a solution to important national problems.
In episodes 3, 4, 5, 6 the author puts forward the priority of peaceful life, human labor, quoting Homer: “Cursed, reproached and driven away, let him be forever accursed, Who loved deadly internecine strife.” The ideological center is the episodes of the sacrifice to the Goddess of Peace, the appearance of the soothsayer Hierocles, the enemy of peace, the arrival of angry suppliers of military equipment, and boys who do not know peaceful songs. The depicted action creates a picture of a general holiday, the rejoicing of people tired of war and extortion. The episodes are full of witty laughter at the internal disproportion and ugliness of human nature (the scene with Hierocles), the grotesque play of the characters and the cheerful wit of the chorus leads to a sublime tone of the comedic content. In the lines we find true solemnity of speech (the hero’s address to the Goddess of the World is filled with a high feeling of prayer and incantation: “We, the beautiful Hellas happy people, pour cheerful meekness into our hearts! The market is filled to the brim with good things for us! Early apples, Megarian onions, tops. With cucumbers, pomegranates, evil garlic, With little shirts for slaves, let us see again, With partridges, with mallards, With a goose, with a sheep, Let them bring copai eels in baskets, And around us we crowd, shout, shout, tear from our hands. we’re bargaining…”, as well as a caricature of a lofty presentation of thoughts (Hierocles: “Mortals, madness has seized you,” “Your mind is dark, you do not sense the will of the sovereign gods,” etc.).
Exod. The exode ends with a feast, a wedding procession of actors and choir and their departure. The main ideological expression of the author himself is the songs of the choir, Trigeus in honor of Hymen, and the harvest.
Thus, the comedy is thematically consistent, touches on important state issues (ending the war, developing agriculture), and criticizes prominent citizens. Aristophanes proceeds from the civil ideals of the Greek polis, deciding the rights of the Athenian conservative peasantry. The action of the comedy develops dynamically. The heroes are active, their actions and behavior are filled with cunning resourcefulness, wit, slyness, and ironic mockery of human stupidity and short-sightedness. The author, creating a caricature of the vicious traits of man, remains an adherent of the healthy principle in human nature. Aristophanes’ style is based on the depiction of the “abstract-typical in an individual-plastic form” (A.F. Losev), is distinguished by a living folk language with countless puns, tongue twisters, comic phrases and tongue twisters, unexpected comparisons, quotations from literary works (tragedies of Euripides, roll call with Archilochus in the song of the son of Cleonymus: “The Salian warrior is proud of my shield. I had to throw away my famous armor from the field, under a bush... But I kept my breath...” The speech of the heroes sometimes sounds pompously solemn (like the speech of a tragic hero), and sometimes and quite simply to moments of complete obscenity, one word can have great power in contrast to the whole speech, for example, when the heroes present a sacrifice to the goddess from a heifer: heifer,“...When in the meeting the assessors propose to start a war, then everyone will mutter in fear: no, no, no, no.” Aristophanes' laughter in comedy is satirical laughter and cheerful laughter.
ATTIC PROSE V-IV CENTURIES. BC
In the V-IV centuries. BC in literature Dr. In Greece, along with the genres of tragedy and comedy, prose was established, named after its place of existence. Attic. Prose also reveals a syncretic vision of the world, when the boundaries of science and art do not have clearly defined boundaries and represent an organic process of mastering and understanding the world.
Early Attic prose, influenced by Ionian prose, gradually becomes more clear, precise in the presentation of thoughts, and is based on the achievements of Attic poetry and the tradition of oral speech.
Attic prose developed in three directions: 1) eloquence - oratory (Demosthenes), 2) historiography (Herodotus - the father of history, Thucydides, Xenophon; 3) philosophy (Plato, Aristotle).
The eloquence and oratory art of the ancient Greeks is connected with the way of life, with the historical and cultural basis of society. The ancient Greeks knew how to listen and deliver skillfully composed speeches. For example, in the “Iliad” and “Odyssey” of the great Homer, the heroes do not make convincing, solemn, long speeches in front of each other, full of weighty arguments. In Homer, oratory was ranked among military valor.
The flourishing of oratory, or rhetoric, is associated with the creation and strengthening of democratic institutions and the establishment of sophistry - a philosophical trend. Sophists - teachers of wisdom, taught the art of eloquence. It was the sophists who first streamlined the basic laws of rhetoric, grammar, and logic.
A great contribution to the development of the theory of oratorical prose was made by Gorgias, one of the representatives of Greek sophistry, orator, teacher of rhetoric, creator of lush solemn speeches, writer of exemplary declamations (“Praise to Helen.” “Palamed”, treatise “On the Non-Existent”, where he proved his thesis: “Something does not exist; if something existed, it would be unknowable; if something were knowable, then it would be known inexpressible"). Gorgias was the creator of those rhetorical techniques that later came to be called Gorgian figures or psychological techniques of oratory. Gorgias highlighted important elements oratorical speech rhythm,intonation, as well as numerous metaphors, sound repetitions, phrases contrasted in antithesis, when the number of words and their arrangement in both parts were the same, rhythmically organized clauses (line endings). Gorgias' theoretical views extended to all types of oratorical prose: judicial eloquence, solemn, political.
In the 5th-4th centuries, a system of judicial legislation developed in Athens. The courts resolved numerous numerous disputes and litigation, both intra-family and state. The main role in the trial was played by a masterfully presented judicial speech. The judicial speech consisted of the following elements: 1. introduction; 2. story; 3. evidentiary part; 4. conclusion. Specially trained people appeared - compilers (logographers), who, with knowledge of the intricacies of legal proceedings, could compose an indictment speech or a defense speech. Lysias was such a logographer. In his speeches he adhered to clear argumentation, life truth, correct characterization of the people under his protection, and did not allow pomp, ardor, or pretentiousness in his speech. He was extremely short and clear. Lysias's speech allows us to learn about the life of the Greeks in detailed detail (for example, about the duties of citizens to build ships, theater stages).
Lysias’s bright speech “in defense of an unknown person accused of destroying the sacred olive tree” is well known. Olives, olives, grapes, figs were considered sacred in Greece fruit trees. According to legend, olives grew from the blow of the spear of the goddess Athena. To cut down such a tree meant committing a crime against religion. During the Peloponnesian War, many trees were destroyed, like the olive trees that grew on the property of Lysias’s client. Lysias prepared a speech with arguments on behalf of the defendant: “Wouldn’t I be the most unfortunate person in the world if my servants, as witnesses to such a crime, became for the rest of my life not my slaves, but my masters?” There was a law depriving citizens of their rights for violations committed by denunciations of slaves, and freedom served as their reward.
History also preserves the name of another logographer, Isocrates, a student of Gorgias. It is known about him that he opened a school of rhetoricians in Athens with a philosophical bias, since it taught not so much eloquence, but as a means of knowledge and dissemination of truth. But unlike Lysias, Isocrates’ speeches are distinguished by their emphatically expressive pomp. He owns the right of the compiler period- a complex syntactic whole, rhythmic from beginning to end and a rule that had to be avoided gaping – a combination of vowels within a word or at the junction of words. Isocrates' most famous speech is the Panegery, where he calls on all Greek communities to unite under the political influence of Sparta and Athens. However, he was not a politically minded person, although fragments of his speech, or rather a letter (“Letter to Philip”), addressed to the monarch Philip of Macedon, have been preserved, in which he asked the Macedonian king to unite the Greek cities into one strong state.
A true fighter and political speaker must be called Demosthenes, whom during his lifetime his contemporaries called frantic and iron. How did Demosthenes identify himself this way, if after his death some time later his noble contemporaries erected a monument to him? A. Bonnard describes him this way (“see A. Bonnard. Greek civilization. M., 1995, chapter 5): “... thin face, sunken cheeks, narrow chest, stooped shoulders; this is a patient, and this is the greatest orator of Athens, one of the greatest figures that this city has ever produced, the last figure who tried to return Athens to its former prowess.”
Demosthenes lived in the 4th century. BC was a crisis for the democratic polis, this was a time of gradual political decline of both Athens and the entire Greek polis system, when distant Macedonia gradually gained political strength in the north of Greece, first under the leadership of Philip, then the future great Alexander the Great. Philip took advantage of the weakening of the polis system and the internecine litigation of parties. Where with weapons (Philip himself was brave, despite the conflicting information of historians about his frailty, weakness of spirit, the first Macedonian king lost one eye in battles and was repeatedly wounded), and where with money (one of Philip’s sayings has been preserved: “All fortresses can be taken if a donkey loaded with gold is able to enter them”) Philip contributed to the collapse of the Greek polis and gradually seized power. The time of Philip and the years of the life of Demosthenes and his political oratory are interconnected.
Demosthenes was forced to become a logographer. As a child, left an orphan, he was robbed by his guardians and in order to return the inheritance of his father, the owner of an armory and furniture workshop, Demosthenes had to learn the basics of legal proceedings and learn to compose judicial speeches. Repeatedly he had to appear in court against the guardians, proving his claims, but he received only a consoling reward - little remained of his father's inheritance. But at the same time, he acquired invaluable practical experience in drafting a judicial speech and the ability to defend his claims. The fact is that Demosthenes had to overcome his own physical disabilities: from birth he was weak, prone to stuttering, choked when speaking, and suffered from shoulder twitching. In order to overcome painful ailments, he began to exercise: he put pebbles in his mouth and tried to pronounce clear sounds, whole phrases, went to the seashore and spoke to the sound of the surf, climbed the mountains in order to learn how to correctly distribute his breathing when pronouncing a speech, in order to overcome nervous tic of his shoulders, he suspended the sword above himself. In addition, he had to take lessons from teachers of eloquence, the most famous at that time being Isocrates. But he taught for money, which Demosthenes did not have. Then lawyer Isey helped him. Such exercises and the eventual winning of the inheritance case made Demosthenes a famous logographer.
The listeners were amazed by his speeches. Demosthenes, taking into account his own characteristics, constructed speeches in an extremely multiple, concrete, rhythmically organized way; to overcome the difficulties of speech pronunciation, he uses meaningful rhetorical questions (they simultaneously served him to catch his breath), numerous metaphors, allegories, comparisons, constructs speech in the form of antithesis, uses default figure.
Soon ordinary advocacy and prosecutorial activities cease to satisfy Demosthenes. He became bored with court cases. A future strong political figure was already beginning to emerge in him. As a personal pain, he begins to accept all the political power of Athens, which is heading towards decline. As an eyewitness, as a person who knows about bribery, he saw that the main culprit in political changes is the direct activity, or rather the inactivity of citizens. And Demosthenes completely switches to open public political speeches.
Demosthenes' most famous speeches are directed against the growing political influence of King Philip of Macedonia, who seeks to subjugate all of Greece to his power. They are called “Philippics”. In them, Demosthenes calls on his fellow citizens for unity, for a common action against the Macedonians. One of his main arguments in them is the fact that if you do not oppose the Macedonians on their territory, then you will have to fight them on your own land. It was Demosthenes who, through his speeches, contributed to the establishment of an alliance treaty between the Athenians and Thebans, which was later joined by other Greek city-states. Demosthenes, with his perspicacious gaze, saw the threat to Athenian democracy, to Athenian freedom in general, emanating from the autocracy of Philip, and tried to prevent the establishment of this political power both through his own speeches and with weapons in hand. For example, he was in the ranks of the Greek army that fought in open battle against the Macedonians at Chaeronea in the summer of 338 BC. The Greeks fought bravely in this battle, but political fragmentation also affected the battle; the Theban allies began to retreat under pressure from Alexander (A. the Great), and the Athenians, where Demosthenes fought, on the contrary, pushed back the enemies. The imbalance of the allied forces allowed Philip to win.
The emphasis of Demosthenes' speeches points to the defense of democratic freedom. So in one of his speeches he says about Philip: “But he does not fight with anyone as fiercely as with the free state system... first of all, this is what needs to be done: admit that he is an enemy of the free state system and democracy, and an irreconcilable enemy ; If you are not deeply imbued with this conviction, you will not have the desire to pay full attention to these things. Secondly, we must imagine more clearly that he is decisively directing all his current actions and all his plans precisely against our state, and wherever anyone fights against him, everywhere this fight serves to benefit us” (from the speech “About affairs in Chersonesus ").
During his lifetime, the people began to call Demosthenes a defender of independence. He, Demosthenes, remained such a brilliant orator until the end. An irreconcilable, fierce fighter for justice and freedom, even in his death he remained faithful to his chosen position in life. There is information that at the time of his arrest, he did not allow himself to be captured, but, saying that he had to write a few words to his relatives, bit through a reed pen, as he usually did when composing his speeches, but this time this pen was stuffed with poison. This is how the brightest speaker passed away, in whose honor a few years later grateful fellow citizens erected a copper monument.
Historical prose. In other Greece, before the names of the first historiographers Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon began to be heard, the works of logographers with a historical bias were known. However, they cannot be fully called historical, since they were dominated by a large share of the mythical aspect from a fantastic perspective. Real history and, accordingly, genre features of historical information and chronicles appear with the name of Herodotus. Herodotus takes precedence in the story of a united land. He wonders why contemporaries divide the single land into three equal parts: “However, I don’t understand why the single land is given three different names. ...neither the Hellenes nor the Ionians themselves know how to count if they claim that the whole earth is divided into three parts: Europe, Asia, Libya...”
The historical works of Herodotus are associated primarily with the era of the Greco-Persian wars. His work “History” (later called “Muses” and was divided into 9 parts according to the number of goddesses of muses). Herodotus should rightly also be called the father of geography. Since the first professional historian had the opportunity to make numerous trips to Babylon, Egypt, Scythia, Colchis, learn the endless borders of Hellas, end up in Asia Minor, Southern Italy. Therefore, his work is not only a historical chronicle, but also a geographical, ethnographic narrative in the novelistic genre about the confrontation between Europe and Asia, the barbarian peoples who encroached on the freedom and lands of the Hellenes. Herodotus’s “History” is divided into two parts: in the first, from books 1 to 4, he talks about the gradual political advancement of the Persian state, talks about the 4 campaigns of King Darius against Scythia; in the second part from books 5-9 he testifies to the Greco-Persian wars. He highlights the battle at Thermopylae Gorge, comparing it with a feat when part of the Greek army led by Leonidas withstood the onslaught of superior Persian forces for several days (examples in history: the battle in the Ronselvan Gorge - the French heroic epic “The Song of Roland”; o the battle of Marathon, when the Athenian army under the command of Miltiades won a strategic victory over the Persians (you are better known from the history of the origin of marathon running in the Olympic Games - the messenger sent by Miltiades to Athens ran in one spirit in all weapons - with a sword, shield 42 km. 192 m. reported good news and fell dead).
With ardent patriotism, Herodotus talks about the courageous struggle of the Greeks, defending their independence and freedom from numerous barbarians, whom the historian presents not as wild Asians, but as peoples whose civilization is more ancient than the Greek (for example, Babylonian, Egyptian). This is an expression of Herodotus’s great degree of respect for those peoples who sought to conquer Greece.
Herodotus, like Aeschylus and Sophocles, believes in the power of the gods, in the fact that the fate of man is predetermined from above. So he uses the legend about the defeat of the Lydian king Croesus from the Persians. Croesus was known for his piety and for constantly turning to the Delphic oracle, making large offerings. Before the battle with the Persians, he turned to the oracle to predict further events, the answer was very ambiguous: “By crossing the river Halys, you will destroy a great kingdom,” which happened - this kingdom turned out to be the kingdom of Croesus himself. Or a short story about Polycrates and his ring. Polycrates, the Samian tyrant and patron of people of art and science, decided to appease the gods by presenting them with a ring. The ring was thrown into the sea as a gift to the gods, but there it was swallowed by a fish that caught the tyrant’s fishermen’s net; they retrieved the ring and joyfully told Polycrates about it. He understood this as a divine thought. The tyrant was eventually killed by a Persian mercenary. The legend set forth by Herodotus later formed the basis of Schiller’s ballad “Polycrates’ Ring,” which Zhukovsky translated into Russian.
Historical chronicles, geographical information, wonderful stories of people, inserted short stories, prophecies of priests, myths and simply fantastic pictures - everything enriches and ennobles Herodotus’ “History”, making it colorful, truly filled with life. The work of Herodotus is not only historical, but also literary and folklore. Many of Herodotus’ narrative techniques will find their continuation in subsequent world literature (this includes Petronius “Satyricon”, Apuleius “The Golden Ass”, Cervantes “Don Quixote”, etc.).
If Herodotus was known to modern times already from the 16th century, then the name of another researcher, an objectivist researcher, whose distinctive feature was a strict historical chronicle, namely Thucydides, became known only in the 19th century.
Thucydides recounted the history of the Peloponnesian War. The war between democratic Athens (a sea power) and oligarchic Sparta (a land power) for the spheres of economic space in Greece became, under the pen of Thucydides, a historical and literary drama, the actions of which cover eight books. Thucydides, unlike Herodotus, is strict in his presentation; he relies on accurate information, events in which he himself was a participant. Thucydides commanded the Athenians at the Battle of Amphipolis. The city fought bravely, the commander of the troops asked for help from Thucydides, who was nearby with the troops, but he was late: the city was surrendered to the superior forces of the Spartan commander Brasidas. For some reason, the Athenians accused Thucydides of surrendering the city, charging him with treason, and expelled him from Athens for life. For more than 20 years, Thucydides had to be away from his homeland, which, however, did not prevent him from giving offense and impartially the history of the war, about its main events: this is a chronicle of the Spartan invasion of Attica, the plague epidemic in Athens, the uprising on the island of Lesbos, the failure at Amphioples, Nikiyev world, etc.
In the work of Thucydides, the scale of the historical depiction of events is combined with a fairly selected selection of characters. There are only a few of them: these are prominent Athenian figures Nicias, Cleon, Pericles, Alcibiades and Brasidas and a number of other, but already insignificant persons. One of the main techniques of Thucydides, which is essentially more literary than historical, is the ordinary speech of the heroes. Of course, Thucydides follows strict historicity, but as soon as he presents the heroes with their speech, here it is the literary work that comes to the fore, presenting complex images famous people. Thus, from Nicias’s speech, first emerges the image of an indecisive, extremely cautious military leader, who is burdened by the responsibility entrusted to him and is more concerned about being known as an honest, well-known, skillful figure, rather than being one. Thucydides presented him to history as a very passive strategist, but at the same time, the author does not deprive his hero of piety, features of which include Nicias’ peace with the Spartans on more acceptable terms, as well as Nicias’s honorably accepted death in captivity among the Syracusans. The image of Pericles is also distinguished by its artistic features. The image of the hero Pericles appears as a strong politician with the gift of foresight. However, Thucydides is faithful to his chosen manner, speaking about Pericles and his reign as follows: “Democracy in name - but in reality the rule of the first man.”
The next distinctive method of Thucydides’ presentation is the absence of anything miraculous or fantastic. Unlike Herodotus, he can be said to be scientific, since he relies only on human experience, on what is accessible to human knowledge of the world. In his presentation, he took a lot from his contemporaries - philosophers - Anaxagoras, Leucippus, Democritus, Hippocrates. Thucydides does not rely on divine predestination; he, following the philosophers, believes that nothing random or unforeseen can happen in human life, everything happens according to human understanding, from the position of a rationalistic perception of the world.
The views of Thucydides will be subsequently developed by Lucretius in the poem “On the Nature of Things”, the description of the plague and the victory of common sense will be echoed in Boccaccio’s “Decameron”, in Russian literature with the work of A. Pushkin “A Feast during the Plague”.
From the first historiographers we also know about Xenophon. But about him, a historian, so much historical information has survived to this day, although he managed to create a lot in historical and literary talent. These are the main works “Kyropedia” - the story about King Cyrus, “Anabasis” - about the campaign of 10 tons of Greek troops into the interior Persian power and the return journey to the Black Sea, in which Xenophon himself took part, is " Greek history" - a story about final stage Peloponnesian War, he wrote a lot on political topics, defending the monarchical power and influence of Sparta, and economic topics. The main advantage of Xenophon is his creation of the genre of literary portrait, in which the historian strictly, specifically, and extremely historically presents the images of living people, his contemporaries.
Thus, the historical chronicle of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon contributed to the development literary direction in this period.
The Rise of Attic Prose, literature in general in the V-IV centuries. falls on the philosophical works of Plato and Aristotle (however, today we will talk about Plato, since Aristotle’s creative heritage is more of a theoretical nature, in addition, you already know about the role of Aristotle in the development of theoretical principles in literature from A.K.’s lecture)
Pre-Platonic literature largely reflects the mythological, miraculous perception of the world. Even despite the literary achievements of the great tragedians Sophocles and Euripides, literature is still less artistic. With the name of Plato and after him, literature develops in the direction of a harmonious compatibility of the concepts of abstract philosophy with the established artistic techniques and methods.
In Plato's biography it is no longer possible to distinguish between truth and fiction, history and legendary stories. It is known that at birth he was named Aristocles, and Plato was a later nickname for the width of his shoulders. He was born into a noble Athenian family, thanks to which he received an excellent education for that time, which was reflected in the fact that Plato did not become a prominent political figure, but remained for centuries as a famous philosopher-writer. What contributed to this: the fall of Athenian democracy during the long Peloponnesian War, the cult of materialistic philosophy led by representatives of the Ionian school of natural philosophers (Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes), the establishment of atomism in the works of Leucippus, Democritus, the philosophy of Socrates, his life and death? And this, and another, and a third.
In the debate about Plato, whether he is a philosopher or an artist of words, it’s the same as in the saying: “Ob avo!” - the whole point is in the root, literally - in the egg. Since Plato's works combine philosophical and artistic principles. In the eternal dispute about the primacy of being or idea, in contrast to natural philosophers, Plato puts forward a theory of the idea, which finds its embodiment in the form of the eternal soul. From the point of view of A.F. Losev, this is the philosophy of objective idealism. In one of his works, Plato says: “From beautiful images we will move on to beautiful thoughts, from beautiful thoughts we will move on to absolute beauty.” What is this if not an expression of pure idealism?!
Plato's philosophy is born as a result of the denial of Athenian democracy, essentially absolutist, which sent his beloved teacher Socrates to execution. Therefore, in many works one of the main characters is image favorite teacher Socrates. And this is where Plato’s skill is reflected: before us is precisely an image, not an abstractly designated outline or description of a person, but a truly artistic depiction. Plato's vivid artistic images contribute to a vivid perception of philosophical thought.
In his philosophical reflections, Plato proceeds from the fact that a different state, a different political system, than the Athenian rule is needed. This is how Plato came to create the philosophical work “The State,” which was not accidentally written in the form of a dialogue. Plato's dialogues indicate that philosophy and spiritual communication were natural in the everyday life of the Greeks. Artistically dialogue Plato will be the form that will lay the foundation literary genre - the genre of philosophical dialogue, which would subsequently develop in the works of Plutarch and Lucian, and later, during the Renaissance, would form the basis of the utopia genre. And among the utopian writers, the first to mention is the name of the real father of the utopian genre, Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of the English Kingdom, then the Italian Tomaso Campanella, Francis Bacon, Cyrano de Bergerac, Denis Veras, etc. All of them will use Plato's literary form - dialogue in narrative.
Narration in the form of dialogue as a dispute is necessary for Plato: for him, as a philosopher, it is important to identify questions on the urgent problems of our time and it is extremely necessary to find answers to them. His dialogues in the works “The Republic”, “Laws”, “Protagoras”, “Ion”, “Phaedrus”, “Symposium”, “Phaedo”, and others are filled with internal tension, struggle, and, one might note, drama. These are ideological disputes about the principles of justice, true legality, equality, denial of any manifestation of tyranny, expressed artistically. In a continuous dialogue, Plato sets out his ideal scheme of government, for example, in the work “The State”: “Until in the cities ... either philosophers reign, or the current kings-rulers philosophize sincerely and satisfactorily, until state power and philosophy coincide into one ... until now, neither the city, nor even, I think, the human race, expects the end of evil...” Plato's philosophy is in the orderliness of government, strict distribution: human society into classes - rulers, guards, peasants, artisans, traders. Everyone does what he is trained to do: philosopher rulers rule, guards protect the state, artisans work for the glory of the state. Everyone obeys one moral law, where wisdom and obedience are called the main ones, everyone is virtuous. Even the essence of the human soul according to Plato corresponds to three components– reasonable, lustful, vegetative. In order to avoid greed, selfishness, others negative traits of human nature, the philosopher proposes to socialize children and wives; however, from Plato’s point of view, it is necessary to raise children regardless of class origin, and only then, according to their inclination to a certain type of occupation, distribute them into classes.
Could Plato have imagined that his system of views, generated by the time of crisis of Athenian democracy, suffered by himself, would be continued in literature and in the denial of the most utopian idea of an ideal state - in the genre of dystopia, in a number of many literary works of world literature. An example is the work of A. Solzhenitsyn “In the First Circle”, the film adaptation of which took place quite recently, where the heroes in the dispute about the ideal state remembered Grandfather More, who, following Plato, “provided”, in the words of one of Solzhenitsyn’s heroes, about the class of slaves obliged to fulfill difficult menial work. The question of the socialization of Plato's wives and children will also cause various artistic resolutions in literature and numerous discussions from approving to grotesquely ironic. Although Plato comes from the most virtuous motives, and his philosophical reflections are far from unambiguous. Thus, in the treatise on love “The Symposium”, then in the dialogue “Phaedrus”, Plato consistently sets out his philosophical attitude towards Eros, where he designates two principles: one – a feeling of love in accordance with the natural principle of man, which often takes over the mind; the other is the same loving feeling, but helping a person to reach spiritual heights, that feeling that allows a person in his creative quest to become equal to divine creations.
In addition, the great utopians, following Plato, tried to for real bring utopia to life. For this, both Thomas More himself and T. Campanella were executed. Why do we follow Plato? Because in life Plato tried to realize his philosophical views regarding government at the court of King Dion in Syracuse, Sicily. Dion, inspired by Plato, decided to carry out constitutional reforms; he sought to avoid tyranny, but misunderstood and unaccepted by his people, he was expelled from his homeland and subsequently killed. The king of Syracuse shared with Plato his idealistic plans, in particular, similar provisions in the work “State”:
Would you call a state with a tyrannical system free or slave?
Couldn't be more slavish...
Is a tyrannically ruled state rich or poor by necessity?
This means that a tyrannically controlled soul must inevitably always be poor and dissatisfied.
Yes it is.
So what? Isn't such a state and such a person inevitably filled with fear?
And even very much so.
Where else, in what state do you think, is there more grief, groans, crying, suffering?
Looking at all this and the like, I think you have decided that such a state is the most pitiful of states?
Even very true."
The idea of fair government is inseparably linked in the works of Plato with the idea of division of labor: each person should do only the work that he knows exactly. This topic, or the idea is already visible in Plato’s early work - in “Ion”, the time of creation of which is not precisely established - either before the death of Socrates, or after his death. In his usual manner of presentation - in the form of a dialogue, Plato narrates the meeting of Socrates with the rhapsode Ion, who returns after a rhapsodist competition in honor of the healer Asclepius, which surprised Plato’s teacher. Socrates began to ask the rhapsode what art is, assuming by this the concept of professionalism. From the point of view of Socrates, the hero of the work, art is a field of creativity, perfectly performed by a person and that every task (art) is “knowledge of other things” and here we are talking not only about art as such, but also about art - the profession of a “charioteer” , fisherman, soothsayer, spinning woman, hair slave,” etc. (N.V. Motroshilova). Socrates, in his dialogue with Ion, invokes the name of Homer, who mastered the art he possessed to the subtleties.
Plato consistently pursues in his writings the idea of the division of labor as the beginning of a fair state structure. So in the Protagoras, he, appealing to the Athenian democracy, accuses it of unprofessional conduct of state affairs: “When it is necessary to consult about something related to the management of the city, then everyone stands up and gives advice, be it a carpenter, a coppersmith, a shoemaker, a merchant , shipowner, rich, poor, noble, rootless. And no one blames him for the fact that, without receiving any knowledge, without having a teacher, such a person still decides to speak out with his advice ... "
Plato’s idea is that people are masters of their craft, if they live according to the “law of the civilized agora” (agoras are not just a market square, but a social space for the exchange of values), then harmony will be achieved in the state structure.
The philosopher-writer did not complete one of his works “Laws” - and there is a philosophical explanation for this (according to Plato): there are no absolute truths, everything in the world is relative, a thought once stated is not an axiom.
Thus, the significance of Plato, his influence as a philosopher and writer on the subsequent development of literature is undeniable. His work successfully combined clearly stated philosophical ideas with emerging artistic techniques and methods. Plato's works turn out to be the artistic pinnacle of Attic prose.
A follower of Plato, Aristotle dealt with issues of politics, philosophy, poetics, rhetoric, logic, psychology, and ethics. Aristotle overcame the idealistic ideas of his teacher, reflecting on the materialistic origin of the world. However, the scientist did not give priority to either one or the other. The philosopher believed that every thing in the world is material and idealistically significant.
Aristotle's reasoning concerned primarily man. The philosopher believed that man is unique creation nature, the only one capable of higher beings to make their life happy, beautiful, useful. The scientist’s philosophical views are presented in the works “Politics”, “Metaphysics”, “Ethics”, “Rhetoric”, “Physics”, “On the Soul”, “On Animals”. “About the sky”, “Meteorology”. Aristotle made special demands on art, set out in his works “Rhetoric” and “Poetics”.
"Poetics". The treatise sets out Aristotle's aesthetic principles on the nature of art. First of all, Aristotle considers the concept of beauty. The philosopher reconsiders the essence of beauty. In the works of Plato and Socrates, the ethical-aesthetic principle is considered as the concept of good, denoted by the term “kalokagathia” (perfection of the spiritual, moral and physical in man). Plato considered the main function of art to be mechanical copying of the world, denying creativity in art. Aristotle puts forward the theory of mimesis - artistic imitation of nature by “objects of imitation”, “means of imitation” and “ways of imitation”. The principles of generalization and artistic invention distinguish artistic imitation of nature from simple copying.
Aristotle creates the foundations of the genre-genre classification of art, distinguishing three types of literature - lyric poetry, epic and drama, putting tragedy in first place among the genres. Tragedy combines the properties of epic and lyric poetry, but unlike these genres, it has a “visual image”. Aristotle emphasizes the following parameters of tragedy: 1. the subject of imitation - “an action that is important and complete, having a certain volume”; 2. means of imitation – “speech, variously decorated”; 3. the method of imitation is “action, not storytelling.”
Aristotle assigns the main role in “imitation of an important and complete action” to the plot, which must be “ideologically complete and integral.” In the plot, Aristotle identifies important compositional stages - peripeteia and recognition. Peripeteia is “a reversal of events.” In tragedy this is a transition from happiness to unhappiness, in comedy it is the opposite. Aristotle demanded a natural transition, vital, easily recognizable, and therefore especially appreciated the twists and turns in Sophocles’ tragedy “Oedipus the King.” Aristotle also places demands on naturalness and vitality for recognition. Recognition must have a logical ending, and a natural one, not an artificial one. Peripeteia and recognition must come from the very structure of the plot.
Aristotle calls characters another important factor in a tragic action. In building character, Aristotle identifies four points: 1. nobility; 2. correspondence of character to the character; 3. believability of character; 4. consistency of the hero in thoughts and actions.
Next factor tragedy is speech, the verbal form of an effective image. Speech should be both sublime and simple, skillfully “decorated”, filled with expressive means of speech, primarily metaphor. Dramatic
Aristotle introduces the term “catharsis” as a spiritual, moral cleansing of the soul under the influence of fear and compassion, caused by the vicissitudes of the tragedy itself.
Composition
Ancient Attic comedy, like tragedy, was born from the ritual games of the holidays of Dionysus. Analyzing the issue of the origin and development of comedy, students need to understand the original meaning of the word “comedy”, highlight it, as suggested in the textbook ed. A.A. Taho-Godi (P.164), the constituent elements from which comedy arises, consider the elements of the structure of comedy, special attention paying attention to those parts of it that differ from the structure of the tragedy (agon, parabas, anapests, ode, antoda, epirrema, antiepyrrema). Characteristics ancient Attic comedy as a genre are political ridicule aimed at certain people and dealing with current contemporary issues, fabulousness and fantasticness.
Aristophanes, the largest representative of ancient Attic comedy, “the father of comedy” in the words of F. Engels. The work of Aristophanes is usually divided into three stages:
Stage I (covers 427-421): “Acharnians” – 425, “Horsemen” – 424, “Clouds” – 423, “Wasps”, “World” – 421 BC. e.;
Stage II (414 – 405 BC): “Birds” – 414, “Women at the Thesmophoria” and “Lysistrata” were written in 411, “Frogs” – 405 BC. e.
The final III period includes only two works: “Women in the National Assembly” - 392 and “Plutos” - 388 BC.
The comedies of Aristophanes reflected the varied and complex political life Athens, second half of the 5th century. BC Aristophanes in his work appears to be an admirer of the state order of the time of the growth of Athenian democracy.
In 411, the aristocrats staged a coup, but the oligarchy did not last long. Although democratic order was restored, the strength of Athenian democracy was broken.
Aristophanes' comedies are sensitive to the political events of modern life. The most politically acute is Aristophanes’ comedy “The Riders,” directed against the influential leader of the radical party, Cleon. Students must show, using specific examples from the text of the comedy, why Aristophanes criticizes the policies of the radical democratic party, what satirical techniques the author uses when criticizing the activities of the highest bodies of Athenian democracy, the interests of which group he represents, and finally, what is the structure and compositional structure of this comedy. In a number of works, Aristophanes touches on issues of philosophy, literature and public education; this reflects Aristophanes’ negative attitude towards the sophists. Aristophanes' misunderstanding of the philosophy of the Sophists led him to attack the work of Euripides. The comedies “Clouds”, “Women at the Festival of Thesmophoria” (this was the name of the great Attic festival celebrated only by free-born women in honor of Thesmophoria, i.e. legislators Demeter and her daughter Persephone), “Frogs” are devoted to these issues. One of these comedies must be read in its entirety, but this topic should also be kept in mind when analyzing other works.
The question of typing real historical figures in the comedies of Aristophanes (Cleon, Socrates, Nicias, Demosthenes) remains unresolved; it is noteworthy that they have little in common with historical prototypes. It is also worth highlighting comedies in which a parody of a political utopia is presented in a fairy-tale or other form (“Birds”, “Women in the National Assembly”, “Plutos”). In addition to educational literature (I.M. Tronsky. P. 156-165, S. I. Radzig. P. 318-348, A. A. Taho-Godi. P. 168-177, V. G. Borukhovich. S. 219-234), students need to get acquainted with the book by V.V. Golovnya (V.V. Golovnya. Aristophanes. M.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1955) and the special course manual by V.N. Yarho and K.P. Polonskaya (Yarho V.N., Polonskaya K.P. Ancient Comedy. M.: Moscow State University Publishing House, 1979.)
It is necessary to conclude a general overview of Aristophanes’ work with a conclusion about his role in the world literary process and an analysis of excerpts from those comedies that are not included in the mandatory minimum, but are presented in anthologies.
The ancient Attic comedy originated in Attica and was staged at the Great Dionysia only in 488 BC. According to Aristotle, comedy originated from phallic processions in honor of the fertility gods, especially Dionysus. Translated from Greek, the word “comedy” means “song of komos.” Komos was the name given to processions of mummers praising God in humorous songs, interspersed with songs of accusatory content. Komos songs contained an element of social struggle, which turned into comedy.
In Athens, comedies began to be staged in the theater later than tragedies. Usually three comedians performed at the festival, each with one comedy. The actors played in masks depicting laughing or ugly faces. The actors wore short mantles and sometimes trousers for added comedy. The choir of 24 people was divided into two semi-choirs, opposed to each other - the choral agon. Often the chorus represented fantastic creatures, after which the name of the comedy was given.
For comedy, it is necessary to have an agon and parabass. Agon is a competition, a dispute between heroes, with the first being the defeated one in the dispute. Parabas - an episode in which a choir with a luminary addressed the audience on behalf of the author, often with sharp political language. direction. Such comedy ended with the Athenian democracy, in the middle of the 4th century. About 50 comedians were known, but he got there:
Aristophanes
(445-387) Representative of the middle peasantry. The activity falls during the period of the Peloponnesian War and the crisis of the Athenian state. Comedies are distinguished by their social and pacifist orientation.
44 comedies were written, 11 were completed. Peacemaking: Peace, Lysistrata, Arachnians. Political: Horsemen, Wasps. Cultural and educational: Clouds, Frogs, Women at the Thesmophoria. Utopian: Women in the People's Assembly, Birds, Wealth.
"Clouds" (425) The old man Strepsidides speaks of debts due to the aristocratic habits (horse racing) of his son Pheidipides. He comes up with a plan: to go to Socrates’s thinking room to learn to speak well and get rid of creditors. Socrates accepts Strepsidides into the “thought room” and performs the rite of “initiation” on him. Entering the school premises, Strepsidides sees Socrates swinging in a hammock. The student explains that the sage “floats in space, thinks about the fate of the stars,” for “it is impossible to penetrate the secrets of the air while standing on the ground.” .The natural science theories of philosophers and new sophistic disciplines, such as grammar, are parodied, high matters are compared with low ones. But Strepsidid is already old and stupid, incapable of learning, so he forces his son to study instead of himself. Before Pheidippides, Pravda (“true word”) and Krivda (“false word”) compete in the “agon”. Truth praises the old strict upbringing, and Krivda ridicules Truth with false subterfuges. Wins. Pheidippides quickly masters all the necessary tricks, and the old man sends his creditors away. After the victory, the son's art turns against his father. A lover of the old poets Simonides and Aeschylus, Strepsidides did not agree in literary tastes with his son, an admirer of Euripides. Pheidippides beat the old man and proved to him that a son has the right to beat his father. Strepsidides is ready to admit the strength of this argument, but when Pheidippides promises to prove that it is legal to beat mothers, the enraged old man sets fire to the thinking room.
Directed against the sophists, to whom Arn mistakenly attributed Socrates. He denounces them as charlatans and atheists, sees in them the reason for the decline of morality, the weakening of faith in the gods and the weakening of citizens. consciousness. A choir dressed as clouds is the hazy wisdom of the sophists. Condemns new principles of youth education. The comedy presents ideas about hypotheses, rhetoric, philosophy and philology in caricature form.
"Frogs" (405) Dionysus and Xanthius, his slave, come to the house of Hercules. Dionysus says that he is going to the kingdom of Hades for Euripides (died in 406) because. wants to return him to the stage, and asks for the lion skin of Hercules, so that in the kingdom of the dead he will be accepted as a hero. The wanderers set off on their journey. Charon transports them across the Styx, on his boat, frogs croak. Dionysus is a coward, often gives the skin to a servant and goes behind his back, sometimes even posing as a servant of Xanthius. A gatekeeper appears in front of Hades' house and, in order to find out which of them is the real God, beats everyone with a stick. Having learned nothing, he leads them to Hades, where the truth will be revealed. In the second part - the agon of Aeschylus and Euripides - first lit. criticism in buffoonery. D is invited to be a judge of the competition. E jokes that E's tragedies died with him. E accuses E of boring his prologues, says that in all of them the phrase “lost the bottle” could be inserted. The author himself remains objective - he does not forget about the shortcomings of E's poetry (the scales of which are outweighed by the ponderous Aeschylean style). The final challenge is to give advice to the city. E believes that the government needs to change. E – stop the Peloponnesian War. E turns out to be the winner, and D takes him with him to earth, contrary to his original intention to take E. E attacks him, saying that he promised him to take him. Then D answers E with a phrase from his tragedy: “The tongue swore, but the soul did not swear.”
"Lysistrata"(411) Based on a fantastic plot. The name literally means “disbanding the army.” Lysistrata, determined to stop the senseless war, gathers the women of Athens and Sparta. She suggests they boycott men sexually. With difficulty and after much debate and bickering, the women agree. They take refuge in the Acropolis and do not allow anyone to approach them. The entire civilian population is divided into two camps: women and the elderly. Women quarrel with old men, throw water on them, fights happen between them, but the women are relentless. They believe that they will unravel any state matter, like yarn in a spinning wheel. After some time, however, some women try to escape from the Acropolis under a variety of pretexts, but Lysistrata stops everyone. The men decide to reconcile. The ambassadors meet and negotiations begin. Lysistrata appears at the negotiations. Men admire her intelligence and beauty. They all miss their wives and quickly come to an agreement: they share everything captured during the war with each other. Peace is concluded, happy husbands take their wives and go home.
This is an antique comedy A cult drama dedicated to Dionysus, performed by a choir and actors. All types of ancient comedy (folk and literary) had a poetic form and were performed accompanied by music; actors and choreographers wore masks. There were two historically and typologically independent forms of literary comedy: Sicilian and Attic. The nature of Attic comedy changed significantly over time, so already in antiquity three successive stages were distinguished: ancient, middle and new Attic comedy. Southern Italian folk comedy developed under the predominant influence of Attic literary comedy. Roman comedy was created and developed according to the model of exclusively new Attic comedy. From different types of comedy in the strict sense, one should distinguish other dramatic genres, which were “comic” in spirit, but were not considered comedy in Greece, since they were not genetically associated with strictly defined forms of the cult of Dionysus. These include satyr drama (a type of tragedy) and various small dialogical forms, devoid of genre unity, which were called mimes. Only in Rome, where Greek cult and theatrical formalities lost their meaning, did Latin mime begin to be viewed as a type of comedy.
Sicilian comedy
Sicilian comedy is already known in its developed form from the work of the poet Epicharmus(c. 550-460 BC) from Syracuse. Fragments of 40 of his comedies have been preserved, which show that the original and main theme of Sicilian comedy was travesty depictions of myths (“The Wedding of Hebe”, “Pyrrha and Prometheus”, “Philoctetes”, etc.). However, as Aristotle points out (Poetics, V), Epicharmus and (virtually unknown to us) Formius began to use “fictional”, i.e. not mythological stories. An example of the development of a purely everyday theme is given by the image of a parasite in a lengthy passage from the comedy “Hope, or Wealth,” but here, judging by the name, personified deities could have participated. Some passages touch on philosophical issues. The comedies of Epicharmus are written in the Dorian dialect in iambic.
Ancient Attic comedy
From 487 BC. Official competitions of comic choirs begin in Athens. The first poet of comedy known by name was Chionides. Ancient comedy is known from the work of its latest representative, Aristophanes, from whom 11 comedies, staged in 425-388 BC, have survived. From other poets 5th century BC (Kratin, Kratet, Eupolis) fragments have reached. The ancient comedy opens with a prologue, which, as in a developed classical tragedy, develops into an expanded dialogic scene; Next comes the parod, i.e. a song accompanying the choir's entrance to the orchestra. Behind the people, the agon begins, a competition between the two main characters; The central part of the comedy is occupied by the parabaza, a lengthy performance by the choir (while performing the parabaza, the choruses took off their masks). The parabaza is surrounded by a series of loosely connected small scenes presented by actors, and the comedy ends with an exodus, a song that accompanies the departure of the choir from the orchestra. Parabase is a complex melic composition, built mainly on the antistrophic principle; it is not directly related to the plot of the comedy and contains declarations by the author dedicated to various topical issues. A consistently developing plot was not important for ancient comedy. According to Aristotle (Poetics, V), a coherent comic "myth" (i.e. fabula) was first introduced by Crates (after 450 BC) following the example of Sicilian comedy. The content of the comedy was largely determined by its cult origin: scenes of gluttony, fights, erotic jokes characteristic of rituals associated with the cult of fertility were required, along with abuse (invective) directed against specific individuals. Since Aristotle's Poetics, this personal invective has been seen as a necessary element of ancient comedy. Gods were often depicted either traditionally or personified. There are known comedies whose plot was purely mythological, for example: “Dionysoalexander” by Cratin (after 430 BC), in which the myth of the court of Paris was presented; mythological (albeit outside traditional mythology) are the comedies “The World” (421 BC) and “The Birds” (414 BC) by Aristophanes. Ancient comedy is characterized by an allegorical (mainly political) interpretation of myths, which indicates its important ideological role in a society whose consciousness was still based mainly on mythology. Comedies on “fictional” plots were political pamphlets, not everyday dramas, but not only politicians, but also philosophers (“Clouds” of Aristophanes, 423 BC), musicians and poets became victims of comedians: attacks on tragedians and rivals -comedians are often found in Aristophanes. A favorite motif was a parody of tragedy. Thus, comedy became one of the first forms of literary and artistic criticism. The characters of ancient comedy are caricatures; if these are real persons, then their characters are narrowed and reduced to one feature, chosen by the poet for ridicule; ethical issues in general, comedians are not interested. Like other genres of Greek poetry, comedy had its own metrical rules. The main dialogical meters of Greek drama - iambic trimeter and trochaic tetrameter - are interpreted in comedy in many ways differently than in tragedy, and the metrical development of choral parts is also unique; the language of comedy was close to colloquial. The comic choir consisted of 24 people, the number of actors could reach up to five. The masks of ancient comedy were grotesque and ugly; the masks of real faces bore a portrait resemblance.
Middle Attic comedy
The Middle Attic Comedy is tentatively dated to 404-336 BC., represented by the names Platonomics, Antiphanes, Aristophon, Alexis; the preservation of the texts is very poor, but an idea of this period can be formed from the late dramas of Aristophanes - “Frogs” (405), “Women in the National Assembly” (389), “Wealth” (388). There are no significant structural changes, but choral interludes appear to separate comedy scenes; and in the future this becomes the norm. Political topics lose relevance and disappear; in their place comes a political utopia; everyday life is depicted more realistically. Aristophanes is interested in myth either as an allegory or as a pretext for a parody of tragedy, but Plato and other poets use mythological names. Ridicule of philosophers becomes a favorite topic.
New Attic Comedy
In the 330s BC. Attic comedy was radically reformed, and already by 324 BC. refers to the first comedy of Menander, who was later recognized as the best representative of the new comedy. Thanks to the discovery of ancient papyrus manuscripts already in the 20th century, lengthy excerpts from the seven comedies of Menander became known; the text of “The Grouch” (316 BC) has been preserved in full. Other significant poets of the new comedy active in the second half of the 4th century BC. (Diphilus, Philemon, Apollodorus), are known from fragments and from free imitations in the Roman palliata. There is very little information about the later representatives of the genre. The new Attic comedy, neither in form nor in content, is a continuation of the ancient one and is an ethical “comedy of characters”, the model for which was the tragedies of Euripides. The structure of the new comedy is also generally oriented towards the tragedy of the late 5th century BC. The comedy consists of a prologue and exodus, followed by several acts corresponding to the episodes of the tragedy and separated by choir parts. The choir does not take part in the action; in many cases the poet did not write a text for the choir, but only “left room” for it. Already in Menander the division into five acts is presented; Roman theorists, starting with Horace (“Science of Poetry”), consider such a division as a necessary structural requirement of comedy. The plot must be complex, but carefully and consistently built, while in the famous neo-Attic comedies (as well as in the Roman palliata), the principles of plot construction formulated in Aristotle’s “Poetics” are quite accurately observed. As in late tragedy, a summary of the comedy is presented in the prologue. Fantastic and mythological plots are not allowed in the new comedy; gods are possible only as characters in the prologue. Topics - from everyday life ordinary people; and the social status of the characters is also a paramount genre requirement. However, the main task and artistic goal of the new comedy was not a naturalistic depiction of everyday life, but a poetic study of ethical types, which in the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle were called ethos (ethos - “character”). The familiar meaning of the word “character” appeared precisely in the new comedy (Menander, fragment 72). Action was seen as the outward manifestation of ethos; each comic character was associated with a limited set of plot moves and situations; appearance and the speech of the characters had to be strictly consistent with their character. The artistic method of the new comedy becomes clear in many ways thanks to the collection of ethical essays “Characters”, compiled by Aristotle’s student Theophrastus. Rigid schematism and stereotyping were perceived in ancient times as a virtue, but the poet had to apply plot and ethical schemes with subtlety, without transgressing the boundaries of life-like verisimilitude. An important (for ancient theorists, the main) difference between the new comedy and the ancient one was the complete rejection of personal invective. A comedy should, while entertaining, instruct the audience, therefore necessary element comedies were maxims. The stage representation of the character was a mask with sharp, easily recognizable features. Descriptions of the masks of the new comedy, which are given by a lexicographer of the 2nd century AD, have been preserved. Julius Pollux (Polydeuces).
Southern Italian comedy
In the Greek cities of Southern Italy, performances by wandering Phlias actors, considered servants of Dionysus, were popular. Fliaks represented travesty mythological comedies or parodies of tragedies. A literary adaptation of the drama of the fliacs was made by Rinton from Tarentum (3rd century BC), who reworked the plots of the tragedy in the spirit of neo-Attic comedy. Such a drama was called hilarotragedy (from hilaros - “cheerful”), Roman theorists identified the genre of rhinton drama (rinthonica). The only completely preserved text is the Latin comedy of Plautus (3rd-2nd century BC) “Amphitryon”, which the author himself defines as a tragicomedy. The participation in the action of gods and kings, the necessary characters of the tragedy, was considered as an important genre-forming feature that distinguishes Rinton drama from ordinary comedy, but otherwise “Amphitryon” is a typical New Attic comedy. From the indigenous peoples of Italy, the Osci created a comedy called Atellana. In the 2nd century BC. Atellana appeared on Latin.
Roman comedy
Performances of comedies in Latin in Rome began in the mid-3rd century BC. By the end of the 1st century, an extensive system of comic genres had been created, including togata, palliata, literary atellana and mime.
The word comedy comes from Greek komoidia - “comic song” from komos “bacchanalian procession” and oide, which means “song”
The “ancient” Attic comedy is something extremely unique. Archaic and crude games of fertility festivals are intricately intertwined in it with the formulation of the most complex social and cultural problems facing Greek society. Athenian democracy raised carnival license to the level of serious social criticism, while maintaining the external forms of ritual play intact. You must first get acquainted with this folklore side of “ancient” comedy in order to understand the specifics of the genre.
Aristotle (Poetics, ch. 4) traces the beginning of comedy to “the originators of phallic songs, which to this day remain in custom in many communities.” “Phallic songs” are songs performed in processions in honor of the gods of fertility, especially in honor of Dionysus, while carrying the phallus as a symbol of fertility. During such processions, mocking mimic scenes were played out, jokes and swear words were made at the address of individual citizens (p. 20); these are the very songs from which the satirical and accusatory literary iambic style once developed (p. 75). Aristotle's indication of the connection between comedy and phallic songs is fully confirmed by consideration of the constituent elements of “ancient” Attic comedy.
The term "comedy" (Komoidia) means "song of the komos". Komos is a “gang of revelers” who make a procession after a feast and sing songs of mocking or laudatory, and sometimes even love, content. Komos took place both in religious rituals and in everyday life. In ancient Greek life, komos sometimes served as a means of popular protest against any oppression and turned into a kind of demonstration. In comedy, the element of komos is represented by a chorus of mummers, sometimes dressed in very fantastic costumes. Often, for example, animal masquerade occurs. “Goats”, “Wasps”, “Birds”, “Frogs” - all these titles of ancient comedies were given to them based on the costume of the choir. The chorus glorifies, but most often denounces, and its ridicule, directed against individuals, usually has no connection with the comedic action. The songs of Komos were firmly established in Attic folklore, regardless of the religion of Dionysus, but they were also part of the ritual of Dionysus festivals.
Thus, both the chorus and the comedy actors go back to the songs and games of fertility festivals. The ritualism of these celebrations is also reflected in the plots of the comedy. In the structure of “ancient” comedy, the moment of “competition” is obligatory. Plots are most often constructed in such a way that the hero, having won a victory over the enemy in a “competition”, establishes a certain new order, “turning” (in the ancient expression) upside down some aspect of the usual social relations, and then a blissful kingdom of abundance with wide space for food and love pleasures. Such a play ends with a wedding or love scene and a komos procession. Of the “ancient” comedies known to us, only a few, and moreover, the most serious in their content, deviate from this scheme, but they, in addition to the obligatory “competition”, always contain in one form or another a moment of “feast”
* Ancient Attic comedy
Attic comedy uses typical masks (“boastful warrior”, “scientific charlatan”, “clown”, “drunken old woman”, etc.), Its object is not the mythological past, but living modernity, current, sometimes even topical, issues of political and cultural life. “Ancient” comedy is primarily a political and accusatory comedy, transforming folklore “mocking” songs and games into a weapon of political satire and ideological criticism.
Other distinguishing feature“ancient” comedy, this is complete freedom of personal mockery of individual citizens with open naming of their names. The ridiculed person was either directly brought onto the stage as a comic character, or became the subject of caustic, sometimes very rude, jokes and hints made by the choir and comedy actors. For example, in the comedies of Aristophanes, such persons as the leader of radical democracy Cleon, Socrates, and Euripides are brought onto the stage. More than once attempts were made to limit this comedic license, but throughout the 5th century. they remained unsuccessful.
using also typical masks of folklore and Sicilian comedy. even when the characters are living contemporaries; Thus, the image of Socrates in Aristophanes to a very small extent recreates the personality of Socrates, but is mainly a parodic sketch of a philosopher (“sophist”) in general with the addition of typical features of the mask of a “scientific charlatan.”
The plot of the comedy is mostly fantastic in nature.
The comic choir consisted of 24 people, i.e. twice as large as the tragedy choir of pre-Sophocles times. It split into two semi-choirs, sometimes warring with each other. The most important part of the choir is the so-called parabass, performed in the middle of the comedy. It usually has no connection with the action of the play; the choir bids farewell to the actors and addresses the audience directly. Parabasa consists
of two main parts. The first, pronounced by the leader of the entire choir, is an appeal to the audience on behalf of the poet, who here settles scores with his rivals and asks for favorable attention to the play. The second part, the choir song, is strophic in nature and consists of four parts
and the race, in which the ideological side of the play is often concentrated. Agon in most cases has a strictly canonical construction. Two characters “compete” with each other, and their dispute consists of two parts; in the first, the leading role belongs to the side that will be defeated in the competition, in the second - to the winner; The following structure can be considered typical for “ancient” comedy. The prologue sets out the hero's fantastic project. This is followed by a parod (introduction) by the choir, a live stage where the actors also participate. After the agon, the goal is usually achieved. Then the parabasa is given. The second half of the comedy is characterized by farce-type scenes. The play ends with a procession of komos. The development of coherent action and the strengthening of the actor's parts led to the creation of a prologue spoken by the actors and the relegation of the parabass to the middle of the play. BOOK PAGE 157-161