Old Comedy was a social phenom enon whose primary was aim to delight its public, but that is not to say that it does not deal w ith issues w hich its audience m et on a daily basis. Thus, Old Com edy had a
secondary and incidental m oral function of which A ristophanes was
aware, as is suggested by the chorus in the Frogs :
Tov lepov xopov ôiKaïov e g ti xPB^iTa rr) ttoXei
ÇupTrapaiveîv xdi ÔiÔdaKeiv.7i6
Well it suits the holy Chorus evermore with counsel wise to exhort and teach the city.
Further, in the Acharnians, Dikaiopolis likewise dem onstrates that he is
also conscious of the possible didactic function of theatre, both tragedy
and trugedy:737
jLiTl poi (|)0ovtiar)T', dvôpeç oi 0ec6pevoi, si 7TTC0XOÇ (By STTEif sv ’A 0r|vaioiç Xéysiv péXXcO TTSpt Tf\Ç, TTOXECûÇ, Tpuytpbtocv 7T01CÛV.
TO Y dp ÔiKaïov oiÔE x d i TpuYtoÔia.733
Bear me no grudge, spectators, if, a beggar, I dare to speak
before the A thenian people about the city in a comic play. For w hat is [right]7i9 even comedy can tell.
Dikaiopolis realises that the audience may not believe that Aristophanic comedy w ith its ridicule. Tow' hum our and heavy caricature, could
686-687. 217Taplin (1983), 333.
Acharnians 497f.
provide an educational message. In all good caricature there is an element of truth that has been amplified many times. It is this exaggeration that makes it hum orous. The audience laughs because it recognises the truth,
and because it realises that the truth has been distorted.
One would do well to remember that Aristophanes does not attack men just because he has a personal dislike towards them; his invective may stem "from a profound affection and concern for [the people's] welfare" as Ehrenberg argues,770 but it is probably more general than this. It is not the individuals b u t the social problem s them selves that
Aristophanes is mocking. Dodds argues that after the fifth century, Greece shifted from being a shame culture to a guilt culture,77i but Lloyd-Jones found this simplistic and propounded instead that the elements of shame
and guilt culture were present both before and after this period.722 Old Com edy seems to be a product of a shame culture since, if there was a
social vice that offended against society, it would be ridiculed before all the citizens. Old Comedy thus contained at least the threat of notoriety
and shame by his peers for any person—public or otherw ise—who was deemed to have committed the offence,
ii. NEW COMEDY
New Comedy inherited Old Com edy's social function, but on a different scale. It was not the public personality, but the private individual who was ridiculed and then only indirectly. By working in generalities
and displaying characteristics w ith which its whole audience was familiar. New C om edy was m uch m ore im m ediate to a larger section of its spectators. Since there was no direct personal invective, the audience 720Ehrenberg (1951), 31.
72lD odds, E.R. (1971), 28 ff. 722Lloyd-Jones (1983), 26.
could not deny the social criticisms by saying, "it is him, not me"; in New Comedy, the ways and customs of everyone is offered up for scrutiny. III. MENANDER IN EDUCATION
After M enander's death, his comedies became school texts, and children were being taught ethics from his comedies just as they had been from H om er's epics. In the first century A.D. w hen only revivals of his com edy w ere being perform ed, Plutarch notes in the Moralia how the teacher could take advantage of the amusing plays of M enander and other w riters of N ew C om edy to dissem inate philosophical ideas at the symposium:
TTspi ÔÈ Tfjç v é a ç KcojLicpÔiaç Ti [d v ] dvT iX éyoi n ç ; ouTü) Y d p eYKEKparai t o î ç a u p T ro a io iç, côç pdcXXov d v o ïv o u X63piç îj M e v d v b p o u ÔiaKüTTspvfîaai tôv
TTOTOV. ...YVcùjioXoYiai ts XPTGTOÙ KOI à(|)eXEÎç
UTTOppéouaat k o i r d axX rip oT aT a Twv pGwv waTrep
èv TTÜpX TCp 0ÏV(x3 jUCCXoCTTOUai KOl KOCpTTTOUai TTpOÇ TO ETTieiKéOTepOV* îf TE TfjÇ aTTGOÔflç TTpÔÇ Tf|V TratÔ idv d tv d K p a a iç ett' oùÔèv d v TTETroifjaOai ÔoÇeIEV dXX' fj TTETTCOKOTCÛV KOI ôiaKEXUpévCOV f|ÔOvf|V o p o b KOI C04>£XEiaV.723
W hat objection, how ever, could anyone make to N ew Com edy? It has becom e so com pletely a p art of the sym posium that we could chart our course m ore easily w ithout wine than w ithout Menander. ...excellent unaffected sentiments are an undercurrent that can melt the hardest ear and w ith w ine to supply the heat, like the sm ith's fire, reshape and improve the character. The blend of serious and
hum orous w ould seem to have no other poetic end in view
than to combine pleasure w ith profit for men relaxing over their wine.
Poetry, with its m ixture of philosophy with fables, makes education m ore enjoyable. A pparently M enander's w ritings w ere especially '^^^Quaestiones conviviales, VII.8.712 (= Moralia 712b ff.). Trans, by Minar, E.L. Volume IX. Loeb.
b en eficial for Plutarch o ften q u otes them , w h en w ritin g on th e role of p o etry in a ch ild ’s education.724 Plutarch n otes that the teacher sh o u ld m ak e clear the teach in gs in M en an d er so that the p u p il m a y take h is exam p les from the w orks. N o t everyth in g in M enander is m orally upright, h ow ever; and w h en the com ed y seem s to d isp lay an inappropriate action or statem ent, Plutarch exp lain s that this too can be u sefu l if th e teacher illustrates h o w the p layw righ t m akes it seem sham eful.
Kdi raura 5f| toîç véoiç UTroÔeiKvuovTSç oùk èdaojuev (j)opàv Tipôç rà (|)aCXa vWveaOai tcSv q0o3v
àXkà TcSv PeXtiovcûv ÇfjXov xdi TrpoaipEoiv, EU0i)ç
TOÎÇ PEV TÔ l|fÉYElV TOÎÇ ÔÈ TO ETTaiVEÎV
à7TOÔlÔ6vTEÇ.775
By indicating these things to the young, we shall not allow them to acquire any learning towards such characters as are mean, but rather as emulation of the better, and a preference for them, if we unhesitatingly aw ard censure to the one class
and commendation to the other.
Plutarch then goes on to show that once the child has been properly taught how to interpret comedy correctly, he can extract the 'message' from it himself. In this way. New Comedy is seen to lead both by good
and bad example.