Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/197

 AKISTOPHANES. 179 tophanes or his parents were born there. His ^ginetan origin has been presumed from the passage in the Achaomtans, in which his actor Callistratus (Avho was the nominal author of the play) alludes to his being one of the KKr^pov^oL, to whom that island had been assigned^. We have positive evidence that he was one of them, and tlie fact that these /cXTjpov^oc w^ere generally poor^ would show that Callistratus is alluding to himself, and not to Aristophanes; and even if he were, this would be no proof that Aristophanes was not a citizen, for all the KKrjpovxoi continued to enjoy their civic rights^. The remains of Aristophanes are sufficient to show that he had received a first-rate education. There is no positive evidence for the opinion'', that he was a pupil of Prodicus. The three passages in his remaining Comedies^, in which he mentions that sophist, do not show the usual respect of a disciple for his master, and the coincidence in name, and probable similarity of subject, between the'^Xlpat of Aristophanes and The Choice of Her- cules by Prodicus, are perhaps a proof that the Comedian parodied and ridiculed, rather than admired and imitated, the latter^. The literary career of Aristophanes natarally divides itself into three periods, defined by the corresponding changes of social and political life at Athens. As Attic Comedy rose and fell with the democratic domination of the state, even the genius of its greatest representative could not control the outward influences to which he Avas exposed. The waning vigour of popular freedom necessarily affected the political character of Comedy, and deprived the para- hasis or address to the audience of its unconstrained liberty of speech. On the other hand, the fatal catastrophe of Syracuse, while it destroyed the flower of the citizens, so seriously diminished the resources of the state, that the di-amatic entertainments could no longer be exhibited with the same lavish expenditure. From both causes, the chorus of Comedy became insignificant, till, at ^ Thucyd. ii. 27 ; Diod. Xii. 44. Callistratus was one of them, Aristophanes not, Schol. Acharn. 654, p. 801, Dind. : ov^els larop-qKev lis ev Alyiuri K^KTrjTal tl 'Apia- TO(pdvT]S, dXV ^oi/ce ravra irepl KaWiaTpdrov Xeyeadou, 6s KeKXTjpovxv^^ ^f Alyiprj [xerh. rr)v dvdaTaaiv AlyLVTjTQv virb ^Ad7}valu}v. ^ Bockh, Econ. of Ath. Vol. 11, p. 172, note 521, Engl. Tr. 3 Bockh, Ec. II. p. 174. ■* Of Riickert on Plat. Symp. pp. 280 sqq. ^ Aves, 692; Ntibes, 360; fr. Ti'agonist. No. 418, Dindorf. ^ On the *fipai of Aristophanes and Prodicus, see Welcker in the Rkein. Mus. for 1833, p. 576. He thinks that the connexion between the "^flpai of these two authors is merely accidental, p. 592. 12—2