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3

ACHARNIANS

1


Aristophanes, the coryphaeus

In chapter 1, the Lenaion was indicated as the site on which comedies were performed for the contests of the Lenaia alone. A passage was also quoted which polemically emphasizes the fact that the audience of Acharnians was composed exclusively of Athenians, and that ‘the contest takes place in the Lenaion’: further evidence is provided in section 1 of chapter 4 on Knights.

Argument I.37-40 reads:

. The victory of Acharnians was apparently Aristophanes’ first success, at the beginning of the third year of his career: if the considerations made in section 5 of the preceding chapter are indeed correct, then the Dionysian first place mentioned in the victors’ list would not have been consigned in 426, but rather in 425, two months after the first place with Acharnians.

Acharnians is the only extant comedy from the period of Aristophanes’ apprenticeship, during which—as remarked previously—he did not present his comedies personally, but preferred to appear in the chorus. In this, the fourth comedy of the apprenticeship, ‘our

who is at the head of the chorus’ lets the audience know for the first time how skilled he is:
(628-9). This professional and extremely ambiguous expression, although it is intended to refer to the secret author, characterizes him none the less as the leader of the chorus, or rather as the coryphaeus, soon to become the mouthpiece of the
(633, 644,
, 654).

The Acharnian coryphaeus speaks like Aristophanes once more when he begins a dialogue with the first actor-Dikaiopolis: ‘I hate you even more than I hate Kleon, whose hide I’ll have to make shoes for the Knights’ (299-302). Hence, it is the coryphaeus who sets the key for the well-known theme of personal ambiguity discussed in the preceding chapter. 1

-33-

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Publication Information: Book Title: Aristophanes, an Author for the Stage. Contributors: Carlo Ferdinando Russo - author. Publisher: Routledge. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1997. Page Number: 33.
    
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