Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/353

 INFLUENCE OF COMEDY. 331 and the retrograde spirit which induces them to exhibit moral turpitude as the natur.il consequence of the intellectual progress of the age, are circumstances going far to prove an unfavorable and degrading influence of comedy on the Athenian mind. In reference to individual men, and to Sokrates 1 especially, the Athenians seem to have been unfavorably biased by the misap- plied wit and genius of Aristophanes, in " The Clouds," aided by other comedies of Eupolis, and Ameipsias and Eupolis ; but on the general march of politics, philosophy, or letters, these com- posers had little influence. Nor were they ever regarded at Athena in the light in which they are presented to us by modern criticism ; as men of exalted morality, stern patriotism, and genuine discern- ment of the true interests of their country ; as animated by large and steady views of improving their fellow-citizens, but compelled, 'AvrayopEuetv rolf upxovaiv. Kairoi Tore y iiviiC lyu 'wi>, OVK i/TriaravT 1 u/,3,' $ /zufav Ka/.tcai nal frvKiraical elneiv. Td pwirairal seems to have been the peculiar cry or chorus of thfl seamen on shipboard, probably when some joint pull or effort of force was required : compare Vcspoc, 909. 1 Sec about the effect on the estimation of Sokratus, Ranke, Commentat dc Vitft Aristophanis, p. cdxli. Compare also the remarks of Cicero (De Kepub. iv, 11; vol. iv, p. 476, ed. Orell.) upon the old Athenian comedy and its unrestrained license. The laws of the Twelve Tables at Rome condemned to death any one who com posed and published libellous verses against the reputation of another citizen. Among the constant butts of Aristophanes and the other comic compos- er-, was the dithyrambic poet Kinesias, upon whom they discharged their wit and bitterness, not simply as an indifferent poet, but also on the ground of his alleged impiety, his thin and feeble bodily frame, and his wretched health. We see the effect of such denunciations in a speech of the orator Lysias ; composed on behalf of Phanias, against whom Kinesias had brought an indictment, or graphe paranomon. Phanias treats these abundant lam poons as if they were good evidence against the character of Kinesias : 9av- /iuu d' el fir] {lapsus tpTe on Ktvqaiat ianv u rot? vopoif j3oridt>(, bv t>/Kj Travrff imara KufiuiSodidaaKa^uv <5' UKOVETE KO$' ticaaTov iviavrov; see Lysias, Fragm. 31, cd. Bckker; Athenaeus, xii, p. 551. Dr. Thirlwall estimates more lightly than I do the effect of these abun- dant libels of the old comedy : see his review of the Attic tragedy and comedy, in a very excellent chapter of his History of Greece, ch. xviii col. Hi, p. 42