The Debate on the Democratic Judicial System and Dramatic Context

^7 In th e Acharnians, see p .l2 4 n .l, in tlie Knights, see E g.974-84 a n d in the Peace, see Pax 606-7, 635- 4 7 an d p.47n.74.

S e e p p .4 8 -5 1 . 59 S ee p.38. ^ S ee p p.49-50.

6: The Wasps and the Debate on the Democratic Judicial System 134

Although it is possible to identify arguments both for and against the democratic judicial system in the Aristophanic world, it is essential to locate these arguments within the dramatic momentum o f the play in order to assess the significance o f these a r g u m e n t s O n the basis of the agon’s function within the dramatic momentum o f the Wasps, I would like to suggest three reasons why the agon cannot be interpreted as a committed statement either for or against the democratic judicial system. Firstly, the dramatic momentum of the play demands that Bdelycleon should win the contest, as the agon is one of the two ‘cures’ that Bdelycleon uses to wean his father off jury-service. The dramatic momentum of the Wasps is provided by Bdelycleon’s attempts to heal his father from his jury service mania.^^ the opening scene of the play, the two slaves inform the audience about the p h ilelia stic ‘illness ( v ô a o ç ) ’ which has afflicted Philocleon.^ In the past, Bdelycleon has administered a variety of ‘purificatory rites (Te^eTQL)’ to Philocleon, including persuasion, Corybantic rituals and a trip to the sanctuary o f A sclepius, each o f which has been singularly unsuccessful.^^ Consequently he has resorted to force, incarcerating his recalcitrant father in the house, from which Philocleon launches a number of abortive escape attempts.^ As the agon starts, the dramatic momentum enters its critical phase: Bdelycleon applies two new ‘rites’ to his father. The first ‘rite’ is the agon, within which Bdelycleon destroys his father’s arguments in favour of the democratic judicial system.^'^ The second ‘rite’ is the creation of the domestic jury court, within which Philocleon can try cases in the comfort of his home. In this court, Bdelycleon tricks his father into the unimaginable activity of acquitting a defendant.^ At the beginning of this scene, Bdelycleon openly prays to Apollo that this new, purificatory rite (Te\eTn) will cure his father of his juror’s vicious temper, thus linking the teletai of the agon and the domestic jury court with his previous, unsuccessful teletai of persuasion, Corybantic rites, etc.^^ Although Philocleon laments at the end of the agon and the domestic jury court scene his impending loss of jury-service,'^^ these two ‘rites’ cure Philocleon of his ‘sickness’. The healed Philocleon spurns and scoffs at the pursuit of judicial activity, stating that such activity is more suited to his thirty-going-on-sixty son.'^^ Therefore it is primarily the

S ee C h a p te r 2 fo r a detailed discussion o f this m ethodology.

T h is p o in t is frequently m ade by com m entators, see M acD ow ell (1971a) 4 -7 , R eck fo rd (1987) 224-5, C a rtie d g e (1 9 9 0 a) 52. B o w ie (1993) 78-101 analyses th e p la y in ritu a l te rm s, c o m m e n tin g o n the tran sitio n rituals that P hilocleon undergoes in the course o f the play.

^ A r.V gjp.69-135 a n d see p. 131. O n the use o f yoaog, see 7 1 ,7 6 ,8 0 , 8 7 ,1 1 4 ,6 5 1 .

T h e se unsuccessful ‘c u re s’ are described as teletai by X anthias a t A r.V gjp.121. S ee B o w ie (1993) 88- 93, S idw ell (1989) an d (1990) on the teletai.

66 A r.V gjp. 136-511.

67 A r.V gjp.526-724 an d C hapter 6.1. 68 A r.V gjp.764-1008.

69 A r. V gjp.875-90. F o r th e text see p. 131.

70 A r.V g jp .7 5 0 -6 3 ,995-1002. See R eckford (1987) 2 4 9 -5 0 ,2 6 1 -2 fo r the tragic elem ents in P h ilo c le o n ’s capitulation.

dramatic momentum of the Wasps rather than the relative merits o f the arguments advanced for and against the democratic judicial system that determines the outcome of the agon. Consequently, it is difficult to place great significance on the fact that the viewpoint which is hostile to the democratic judicial system is victorious by the end of the agon.

Secondly, Bdelycleon’s success in the agon is not sustained to the end of the play but is undercut by subsequent developments in the plot. Having persuaded his father to abandon his devotion to the court room through these two ‘rites’, Bdelycleon educates his father in symposium etiquette and leads him off to dine at Philoctemon’s.^^ But Philocleon’s introduction to high culture ends in disaster as he overthrows the elegant culture of the symposium with base coarseness and abuse.^^ The play ends with Philocleon rejuvenated, enjoying a celebration of food, wine and sex, while he violently insults his detractors with impunity and leaves the stage in an exuberant dance Although Bdelycleon succeeds in weaning Philocleon o ff jury service, it is a questionable victory, as the old man rebels against his education in gentrification to revel in a classically comic indulgence of the senses. Reckford and Hubbard have commented on the connections that are established in the play between Bdelycleon’s attempts to cure o f his father and the comic poet’s attempts to cure the city o f its judicial m a n i a . A s Bdelycleon begins his speech in the agon, through which he hopes to cure Philocleon of his illness (vôaoç), he observes that this illness (vôaoç) is a polis- wide problem: ‘it is a hard task, calling for formidable intelligence above the level found in comedians, to cure a long-standing malady (vôaoç) that is innate in this city.’^^ However if Bdelycleon’s attempt to cure his father is subsequently exposed as flawed, this undermines the comic playwright’s claims that his play will have a healing effect on his fellow-citizens’ judicial mania.

Thirdly, the arguments advanced by both Philocleon and Bdelycleon within the agon itself are never fully developed or sustained. They either escape into the exuberant atmosphere o f Aristophanic fantasy or hide behind democratic platitudes if they come close to directly criticising the democratic judicial system. Philocleon’s vigorous picture o f juristic power carries the jurors’ self-assertion to fantastical limits: it grants them the thrill of looking at young men’s genitals at their dokimasia, it entitles them to

72 A r.y ^ jp . 1122-1294. 73 Ar.Ve^/?. 1299-1325.

74 R ejuvenation: Ax.Vesp.\333, 1351-63; food: 304-5; wine: 1322, 1476; v io le n t insults: 1381-6, 1388- 1441; dance: 1474-1537. F o r further details, see R eckford (1987) 275-81, H u b b ard (1991) 135.

75 S ee R e ck fo rd (1987) 247, 272-81 and H u bbard (1991) 114, 132-3, 135-7 fo r an e x p lo ra tio n o f the relationship b etw een A ristophanes and B delycleon.

76 ‘xaXenov pey Kai 8eLi/fiç yi/wmiç kqI uei^ovoç ii 'm Tpuycpôoîç laaaaOai voaov apxaiav kv rij

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recitations on demand from tragedians and flautists and allows them to completely disregard the terms of a will7^ Bdelycleon’s alternative balance sheet o f the Athenian Empire contemplates the culinary consumption if the Empire was run for the benefit of the poor citizens: ‘twenty thousand of the common folk would be living in abundance of hare’s meat, o f crowns of all kinds, o f beestings fresh and boiled, enjoying a life worthy o f this land and the trophy at M a r a t h o n . I t is a typically Aristophanic fantasy of food, reminiscent of Dicaeopolis’ preparation for the Priest o f Dionysus’ party or Trygaeus’ description of the cuisine of p e a c e . I n his sustained attack on the democratic judicial system, Bdelycleon never attacks either the system itself or the dem os, the blame is laid at the door o f the politicians. This is in line with democratic rhetoric, which often attributed miscarriages of justice to the litigant who advised the jurors, rather than to the jurors themselves.^® Given that Aristophanes is performing at a festival sponsored by the dem os for the dem os, this is hardly surprising. Although arguments against the democratic judicial system triumph in the agon, the location of the agon within the dramatic momentum of the play makes it difficult read the Wasps as a sustained polemic against the democratic judicial system.

The image o f the Athenian juror-as-wasp is a consistent feature o f the Aristophanic world and carries with it a certain ‘comic logic’: the caustic nature o f the wasp-juror manifests itself in a readiness to condemn and to pass harsh s e n t e n c e . B u t even within the on-stage world, it is difficult to read this image as a sustained critique of democratic juries. In the parabasis of the Wasps, the connections between a caustic nature, military activity, jury-service, old age, youth, wasp-like and drone-like identities are controlled by the verbal and visual inventiveness which the coupling o f these associations offers rather than by a serious critique of the democratic judicial s y s t e m . ^ ^

For example, the chorus are presented as wasp-like both in youth and old age. In the days of their youth, when the Mede invaded, their ‘sharp anger (9u|jiôç stirred them up to attack the invading Persians, stinging them through their baggy t r o u s e r s . ^ ^

In their old age, the same caustic nature is now expressed in the jury courts, where ‘we

77 A r.V ejp.578-86.

7 8 ‘5{io l i u p i a S ' a v to o u S d u o t i k c o v ’e^coi/ ev n a a i K ay cp o ïc kqI a T e cp a i/o ia ii/ n a i / T o 8 a r r o T a i i / k q I ttucp

Km n u p ia iT ], a ^ ia in g yriç ànoX auovT eç kqI to G 'v Mapadcoi/L ip o n a io x j’ (A r.V e j;? .7 0 9 -Il (tr. Som m erstein)).

79 AiAch. 1085-1142, Pax 999-1007.

80 See D o v er (1974) 23-5, O b er (1989) 165-77. 81 S ee pp. 131-3..

82 O n the m ultip le identities o f the chorus, see R eckford (1987) 236, H ubbard (1991) 121-3.

83 A r.y g fp . 1071-1101. S ee A u stin (1973) 134 fo r th e b le n d in g o f d iffe re n t m ilita ry c a m p a ig n s, p articu la rly M arath o n , in to this one accoim t o f the co nflict betw een th e A th en ian w asps a n d the M ede. D u rin g the p erio d o f th eir m artial youth, it is m ad e clea r th at th e chorus d isp lay e d n o in te re st in ju ry service (1094-6).

Sting all men, and so provide for ourselves a livelihood’.^ The chorus are consistently presented as possessing a wasp-like nature in the parabasis, stinging Persians in their youth and defendants in their old age. These comic associations are not developed into a reasoned model, where old age and enfeeblement generates an embittered, wasp-like nature, which then kindles a passion for the jury-service.^^ Upon the jury benches are to be found not only aged, wasp-like veterans who fought the Mede and built the empire, but young, sting-less ‘drones

(K n c p n v e ç )’,

From the position of the agon within the dramatic momentum o f the play and the nature of wasp-juror image, I do not think it is possible to interpret the Wasps as a sustained critique o f the democratic judicial system. Aristophanes deftly serves up before his audience one comic image after another, where the content of these images is primarily controlled by their comic potential, rather than by the development of a reasoned analysis o f the democratic judicial system. As I have suggested before, Aristophanes is committed to the entertainment rather than the education o f his audience. On the other hand, the playwright’s repeated focusing on these images may reflect something of his audience’s preoccupations and concerns. Reckford has noted that the formalised structure of the agon facilitated the discussion of serious issues in a safe and contained manner.^ In the agons of other plays, although the treatment of the

^ ‘n a v i a yap K€i/ioGuev ai/Spa KaKnopiCouev piov’ (Ar.Vgip. 1113 and generally 1102-13).

D o v e r (1 9 7 2 ) 130 en v isag es this k in d o f rea so n ed m odel; ‘the fero city o f th e o ld m e n a n d th eir u n w illin g n ess to fo rg o the pleasure o f convicting a defendant are th e nasty k in d o f co m p en sa tio n fo r the in f e rio r sta tu s th a t n e c e ssa rily follow s p h y sic al e n fe e b le m e n t.’ O n th e p ro b le m s o f a c c e p tin g the A risto p h an ic im age o f all ju ro rs as old, see C richton (1991-3).

A r.V ^sp.l 14-21. T hey are young because they are described as gulping dow n p ay , the characteristic o f th e y o u n g a t 1100-1. R eck fo rd (1991) 125 sim ilarly draw s a co n n e ctio n b e tw e e n th e y o u n g a n d the drones.

I h av e m ade som e suggestions in answer to this question in C hapter 6.3. 88 R e ck fo rd (1987) 239-40.

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subject matter may be primarily comic, the topics themselves are some of the most important issues in the age of Aristophanes.*^ This suggests that the debate about the democratic judicial system may have been of more than comic interest in the late fifth century. Secondly, although some elements of the agon are fictitious, others are factual. For example, we have several other references to litigants supplicating jurors as they enter court and the ploy of introducing the defendant’s blubbering children into the courtroom is so commonplace that it is mocked.^® On the basis o f evidence from beyond the theatre, it is my contention that the contradictory arguments on-stage reflect and are informed by an off-stage debate about the democratic judicial system.