Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/427

405 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 405 CHAPTER XXVIII. § 1. Events of the life of Aristophanes ; the mode of his first appearance. § 2. His dramas: the Dcetaleis ; the Babylonians ; §3. the Achamians analyzed ; § 4. the Knights; §5. the Clouds; § 6. the Wasps ; §7. the Peace; §8. the Birds; §9. the Lysistrata ; Thcsmophoriazusa: ; § 10. the Frogs; 6 11. the Ecclcsia- zusce ; the second Phitus. Transition to the middle comedy. § 1. Aristophanes, the son of Philippus, was born at Athens about 01. 82. b. c. 452.* We should know more about the events of his life had the works of his rivals been preserved ; for it is natural to sup- pose that he was satirized in them, much in the same way as he has attacked Cratinus and Eupolis in his own comedies. As it is, Ave can only assert that he passed over to. yEgina with his family, together with other Attic citizens, as a Clervchus or colonist, when that island was cleared of its old inhabitants, and that he became possessed Of some landed property there. f The life of Aristophanes was so early devoted to the comic stage, that Ave cannot mistake a strong natural tendency on his part for this vocation. He brought out his first comedies at so early an age that he Avas pre- vented (if not by laAV, at all events by the conventions of society) from alloAving them to appear under his own name. It is to be observed that at Athens the state gave itself no trouble to inquire who was really the author of a drama : this Avas no subject for an official examination ; but the magistrate presiding over any Dionysian festival at Avhich the people were to be entertained withnew dramas,}: gave any chorus-teacher who offered to instruct the chorus and actors for a new drama the au- thority for so doing, whenever he had the necessary confidence in him. The comic poets, as Avell as the tragic, Avere professedly chorus-teachers, (X"P°c tca'(T(caXot, or, as they specially called themselves, KtofiwcocicdaKaXoi;') and in all official proceedings, such as assigning and bestoAving the prize, the state only inquired who had taught the chorus, and thereby tophanes it^eSov fx.npax.'iirKou »'■ c. about 18 years old, when he first came forward as a dramatist. If such were the case, he would have been at his prime in his 20th year, and would have ceased to compose at the age of 50. In the pieces of Aris- tophanes we discern indications of advanced age, and Ave therefore assume that he was at least 25 years old at the time of his first appearance as a comic poet, (b.c. 427.) f See Aristoph. Acharn. 652 ; Vita Aristoph. p. 14 ; Kiistcr, and Tbeagenes quoted by the Schol. on Plat. Apol. p. 93, 8, (p. 331, Bekk.) The Achamians was no doubt brought out 1> Callistratus ; but it is clear that the passage quoted above referred the public to the poet himself, who Avas already well known to hi3 audience. + At the great Dionysia, the first archon ; (» cla^m as he Avas emphatically called;) at the Lcnaea, the basileus, or king archon.
 * It is clearly an exaggeration when the Schol. on the Frogs, f)04, calls Aris-