Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/12

2 contains a subtle, recondite allegory, which the poet maintains from the beginning to the end, and works into the minutest details.

I will first state as fairly as I can the main points of this theory, and then endeavour to shew that it is inconsistent with the whole tenor of the play and the facts of history, that it is unsupported by evidence, contrary to analogy, and alien to the nature of Ancient Comedy.

I beg, however, to premise that when I arraign this statement as untrue, or that argument as unfair, I do not impute any intention to mislead: I merely assert that the parent of the theory by his passionate affection for his offspring is blinded to its faults.

Süvern’s main points are briefly these (given as far as possible in his own words): Over and above the avowed and patent purpose of "exhibiting to the public eye a view of the extreme corruption, perversity, and vanity of the Athenian life and manners in general, particularly the licentiousness of the demagogues, &c.," Aristophanes had a special and less obvious design of exposing the Sicilian expedition "as essentially a chimerical phantom, which none but a vain ambitious population, of inflammable, giddy and volatile men, could have been induced to pursue; and besides several serious admonitions which are scattered about here and there, he clearly shews the selfish views in which it was conceived, and in the accomplishment of which it is likely to end" (p. 26); that is to say, that Alcibiades had conceived the expedition with a view to make himself Despot of Athens, and through Athens, of Greece.

The Birds represent the Athenian people; the Gods, the Spartans as their principal allies; the men, the smaller dependent Greek states, collectively; Peisthetærus combines the chief characteristics of Alcibiades and Gorgias, Euelpides represents the credulous populace of Athens in conjunction with Polus of Agrigentum, and the Epops is meant for Lamachus.

"In pursuance of the poet’s ironical fiction, the strangers who have wandered so far from Athens that they can no longer find their way back to their country, are really only conducted into the Pnyx; thus the action is carried on in the very seat and centre of the life of the Athenian people." (p. 31.)

It was impossible that the author of theory could over-