The "Master" of Athens
Cléon, son of an upstart tanner
Son of a wealthy tannery owner, Cleon occupied the political scene after the death of Pericles and encouraged the war against Sparta. This warmongering politician, an excellent orator who knows how to manipulate his fellow citizens, is one of Aristophanes' favorite targets. The attacks begin in The Babylonians (426 BC), a missing piece for which the author must apologize. In The Acharnians (425 BC), he continued his attacks on the "tanner", as he disdainfully called him, and on his sympathetic supporters of war. The greatest diatribe against Cleon is in The Horsemen (424 BC). The politician appears there in the guise of a slave who manipulates his old master Demos (the People). Aristophanes calls him a thief and corrupt, who "draws with both hands large spoonfuls from the public treasury". Eventually, Cleon loses his privileges to Agoracritus, a butcher who has even less shame than him.
Socrates is not spared
U do not rant against philosophy
Socrates is a real Athenian public figure:he only left the city to serve it during the war, and all Athenians are used to seeing him in the streets calling out to his neighbors to develop his thoughts. However, in The Clouds (423 BC), Aristophanes depicts him as the embodiment of the sophists, these paid professional philosophers. Aristophanes maintains that the sophist teachings develop in young people an ideological relativism that undermines the foundations of the state:“These people teach you, for money, to make all causes, just and unjust, triumph by word. Aristophanes himself considered The Clouds as the best of his comedies, even if it presented a distorted view of Socrates. Indeed, this philosopher, who spoke freely and did not claim to be a professor, is portrayed in the play as the impious corrupter of a young Athenian nihilist. This caricature will weigh heavily in the death sentence of Socrates in 399 BC. AD
The Sex War
L Lysistrata's fiery fight
Lysistrate is played for the first time in 411 BC. BC, a few months after an oligarchic coup in Athens. The resolute character of Lysistrata ("she who defeats the army" in ancient Greek) is inspired by that of the noble Lysimachus, priestess of Athena Polias. The comedy, which approaches the war through the eyes of a housewife, compares this oligarchic project of social renewal to a household task:Athens is the wool that must be carded to remove imperfections (demagogues, sycophants), before to make a ball to weave a new garment, a new society. "Isn't it shameful that women who take no part in the fatigues of war want to work all this for you like wool? asks a magistrate of Lysistrate, who replies:“But, O wretch, we bear more than half the burden of war, we who have brought our children to light with difficulty and have seen them leave loaded with arms. […] Moreover, […] we have to sleep alone, because of the war. »
Against corruption
C anales and haves in power
Ploutos , the last surviving work of Aristophanes, is represented for the first time around 388 BC. This comedy denounces social inequalities in Athens and corruption:“Think about politics and see the speakers. As long as they are penniless, they keep the measure. Here they are, opulent, they are nothing more than rubbish and soon plot against our regime. It is a time of disillusionment, where everyone seems to care only about themselves. “Great gods! How wise there is no one! Everyone lets himself be conquered by the love of gain,” comments Blepsidemus, an Athenian citizen, cynically. The description of the life of honest workers, like Chrémyle, the main character, becomes a hopeful eulogy of the simple life in the countryside:“That is how it is pleasant to get rich. The hutch is filled with very white flour, and the amphoras with a red and fragrant wine […]. The cistern is full of oil, the vials of essences, the attic of figs. […]”