ROSEN, RALPH M., The Ionian at Aristophanes "Peace" 46 , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 25:4 (1984) p.389 The Ionian at Aristophanes Peace 46 Ralph M Rosen I N THE OPENING SCENE of the Peace, the servant of Trygaeus in­ troduces an Ionian to explain to an Athenian why a dung beetle is on stage (43-48): OVKOVV av 11871 TWV (JEaTwv TIS Af:yOL I 0;:, '...I..~" 1<;:, " I VEavta~ oOK71CT«T0'P'-'~' TOoE 7Tpayf.UX n; • I (J ~, '" '" 't, ,,.... " , o Kav ap0(j oE 7TpO(j n; K~T aVT~ y aV71P '!WVLKO(j T(S 4>71CTL 7TapaKa(JT,J,LEvo(j· "~ , I 'K\' ,...." , oOKEW /J.-EV, E(j ",Ewva TOVT aLVLUCTETaL, ~ ,.... , ~ " !\' (J I " ~ KELVO~ avaLoEW(j T71V CT7TaT""'71v ECT LEL. Scholars have often wondered why an Ionian in particular should be brought on for this purpose. Of the various solutions offered, none has appeared to be adequate. Platnauer, in his edition of the play, concludes in aporia: "The Peace was produced at the City Dionysia, on which occasion foreigners were admitted into the theatre; other­ wise there seems to be no particular reason for making this inter­ locutor an Ionian." 1 As Platnauer no doubt realized, the mere fact that foreigners were admitted to the City Dionysia hardly explains why an Ionian is specified at this point. Sharpley, in his edition, offers what at first glance seems a plausible explanation: "sitting cheek by jowl ... with the Athenian exquisite is an oracular philosopher from over the sea."2 Although he elaborates no further, he evidently felt that the passage played on the contrast between an Athenian 8oK71CTiQr;) and an Ionian 4>LAoCTo4>or;. Cassio shares this view and explains that in the passage "e adombrato un collegamento popolare tra intellettualita (0 pretese d'intellettualita) e presenza di Ioni ad Atene." 3 On this in­ terpretation, the servant implies that it takes an Ionian- i.e. a philos­ opher 'by nature' - to appreciate the symbolism of the dung beetle. 44-47, then, would function as a parody of philosophical explanation, since (1) the Ionian's rationalization degenerates into a scatological 1 M. Platnauer, Aristophanes' Peace (Oxford 1964) 71 ad 46-48; on this point he echoes F. Blaydes, Aristophanis Pax (Halle 1883) ad 46. 2 H. Sharpley, The Peace of Aristophanes (Edinburgh 1905) 62 ad 46. 3 A. C. Cassio, "Attico 'volgare' e Ioni in Atene," Aion 3 (1981) 91. 389 ROSEN, RALPH M., The Ionian at Aristophanes "Peace" 46 , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 25:4 (1984) p.389 390 THE IONIAN AT PEACE 46 joke, and (2) the explanation is incorrect, for the dung beetle, as Ar­ istophanes makes clear later on, is not on stage primarily to ridicule Cleon (I27ff, on which see infra) . Yet this approach seems only par­ tially to explain the passage. It may be that the Ionian is meant to represent a typical intellectual,4 but the details of his remarks at 46f seem intended to reveal a more specific characterization than this. Van Leeuwen's comment that the Ionian represents a "provincialis aliqui homo,"5 though surely mistaken, nevertheless points to a better understanding of the passage. Van Leeuwen apparently felt that the Ionian's scatological joke «(],,1TaTl.A1}V E(]"(JLE") could only come from a crude and ill-bred individual. Although this contradicts the stereotypes of Ionians at the time, the premise that the obscenity is meant to seem appropriate to the Ionian's character is sound.6 If we then ask what the connection is between scatological obscenity and Ionia, the answer is clear: the Ionian iambos.7 Because the prologue as a whole is designed to exploit the comic potential of the dung beetle's scatophagous habits, it seems likely that an Ionian is intro­ duced at 46 precisely because of his presumed familiarity with this kind of humor. If Aristophanes associated (and expected his audience to associate) Ionia with the sexual and scatological aischr%gia of the iambos, then the scatological joke in the mouth of an Ionian at 46 becomes eminently appropriate.8 4 The popular conception of lonians at Athens was that they were emasculated by their luxurious lifestyle. The references in comedy are almost unanimous on this; cf for example Callias fr.5 K., Ar. Pax 929-36. While I can find no passage in extant fifth-century literature referring explicitly to lonians as philosophers, Cassio (supra n.3) rightly points out that Ionian intellectualism was seen in Athens to be a consequence of their proverbial 'softness'. See especially Ar. Eq. 1375-80, where a sophistic discussion is imagined taking place in a perfume shop. 5 J. van Leeuwen, Aristophanis Pax (Leiden 1906) 16 ad 46. 6 The fact that the servant quotes the Ionian in dialect suggests that he is concerned with verisimilitude of character. H. van Herwerden, Aristophanous Eirene II (Leiden 1897) 8 ad 45ff, compares the Ionian's function to that of the Megarians and Boeotians in Acharnians who also speak in dialect, but concludes that in each instance the joke is simply that "plebeculae Atticae iocularis videbatur sermo hominum paullo aliter quam ipsi loquentium." 7 By iambos I mean the entire literary genre, not merely poems composed in iambs. True iamboi could be composed (e.g.) in trochaic tetrameters or epodic meters as well. Cf M. L. West, Studies in Greek Elegy and Iambus (Berlin/New York 1974) 22f. 8 Cf £eel. 883, where the old woman, in a hymnic parody, invokes the Muses for her "Ionian song" (p,EAvBpwv ... TWV 'Iwvu EKKVI\.WuwJJ KaJJTt- TtJ.LWPOl)J.L€JJO~. Since, as this passage makes clear, the animal fable was represented in the fifth century most coherently by the distinctly Ionian Aesopic tradition,13 it is especially appropriate at Peace 46 for an Ionian to see a fable allegory in the dung beetle. That the ainos could be incorporated into the iambos as a vehicle for invective Gust as the Ionian of Peace views the dung beetle-an ainos "against Cleon") is shown by the fragments of the iambogra­ pher Archilochus. Thus fr.174 W. begins:14 l' / , (J' .,~ aLJJO~ Tt~ aJJ pW7TWJJ OuE, • 1',,\ / l: ' 'I:.. ' W~ ap al\.w7T71.., Kat€TO~ ..,vJJWJJL'Y1JJ EJJ..H~aJJ, meaning of 'saying one thing by means of another' seems to be derived from an orig­ inal association with the Ionian ainos. Often the verb takes on an almost technical meaning involving the riddling of oracles (cf Hdt. 5.56; Ar. Eq. 196, Av. 970; PI. Ap. 21 B3). It is curious that all but the last of these passages involve animals in some way, perhaps preserving the original connection between aiviU'u"Of.'/'(u and alvo" as animal fable. On the interconnection of alvo<;/aivLYf.UX/aivimJ"Of../,(u see Nagy 240. 12 See Ben E. Perry, Aesopica I (Urbana 1952) 322 no. 3: <> Ko:v8apo<; ... K(J7rpOV m/xxtpav 1ToLTwa<; eXVE1TTYJ Kat YEVO/-LEVO<; KaTel TOV<; TOV 41.0" KOA1TOV<; Evmv8a Ka8- -ryKEV. <> S~ ZEV" eX1ToU'EwaU'8m T~V K01TPOV {3ovAO/-LEVO<;, W<; SWVEU'T'Tj. EAa8EV Tel wa eX1Toppi.pa". Dung beetles also appear in no. 84 ("The Two Dung Beetles") and no. 112 ("The Ant and the Dung Beetle"). 13 On the animal fable as an originally Ionian genre cf Hausrath, RE 6 (1909) 1704- 07 s. v. "Fabel." On the Oriental origins of the fable tradition see B. E. Perry's Loeb edition of Babrius and Phaedrus (Cambridge [Mass.] 1965) xix-xxxiv. Aesop came (ac­ cording to the most reliable accounts) from the Ionian island of Samos, where he would no doubt have come into contact with Eastern fable traditions; on Aesop's life cf Perry xxxv if. 14 For the fragments associated with ainoi see M. L. West, lambi et Elegi Graeci 1 (Oxford 1972) frr.172-81, 185-87, with p.64 for ancient testimony about Archilochus' use of the animal fable. See also A. P. Burnett, Three Archaic Poets (Cambridge [Mass.] 1983) 60-66. ROSEN, RALPH M., The Ionian at Aristophanes "Peace" 46 , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 25:4 (1984) p.389 RALPH M. ROSEN 393 and if editors are right to place it among the Lycambes poems (172- 81 W.), this fragment helps to fulfill the poet's promise of 172 W.: I A I f3 ~ 0;:,' 0;:,' 'l.' , ~ A. I , El 1T'a'TEp VKal-' a . .. VVV uE u71 1T'O",V~ aU'TouTt 'flat. VEaL 'YEAw~. se- where (185 W.) Archilochus employed in a similar fashion 15 the fable of the fox and the monkey: • I ,." l' l' K I~ epew TtV VJ.UV atvov, W 'Y/PVKto'Y/, , , ''l. aXVVI-'EVn UKV'Ta"'n, 'f} ,I f} I. f} \ 1T'L 71KO~ nEL 71PLWV a1T'OKpL EL~ r'I '" , I-'0VVO~ av Euxa'Tt,71V, 'T4) B' &.p' aAW1T'71~ KEpBaA-ry UVVr,V'TE'TO, "I , 1T'VKVOV Exovua voov. The numerous testimonia concerning this fragment collected by West indicate that this particular treatment of the fable was well known in antiquity. In one of Plato's few references to Archilochus, Adeiman­ tus alludes to the fable (Resp. 363c, 'TT,V BE ... 'APXLAOXOV aAW1T'EKa ... KEpBaAEav Kat 1T'OLKI.A71V), and it is likely that Pindar has it in the back of his mind at Pyth. 2.77f.16 This shows, therefore, that in the 15 As F. Lasserre points out (Les epodes d'Archiloque [Paris 1950] 131), the phrase ep£w + vocative implies that the fable is addressed to someone and that its lesson will be directed at that person. (His reconstruction of the details of the epode, however, is highly speculative.) 16 Pind. Pyth. 2.76-78: alUXxolI KaK()/I al_,qxJT£PO,,; Sux/30Aw'1I tJ1ToQXl:rW;, opyrus (hEllE., aAW1T£KwlI LKEAOL. K£pSEL SE Ti ,.wAa TOVTO KEpSaA£oll TEA£8EL; That these lines allude to the Archilochean fable is suggested by the fact that the iambographer is given programmatic status earlier in the ode: see A. Miller, "Pindar, Archilochus and Hieron," TAPA 111 (981) 140; Nagy (supra n.11) 250. At lines 52-56, that is, Pindar explicitly repudiated Archilochean psogoi and kakagoria as being antithetical to his own poetry of praise: e,.u SE XPEWII cPeVYELII SO:KO., aSLl/olI KaKayopw,lI. EisOIl yap EKa., eWII Ttl1T()U' Ell alUXxall~ .p0YEPOII 'ApxiAOXOII {3apvAOyO'., EX8Eatll 7TUXLl/0J.LE 110 II. In 76 the "insinuations of slander" (Sux/30Aw'1I IJ1TocfxXnE.,) seem to recall the earlier expressions {3apvAOYOL., EX8EU"t.II and OOKO., KaKayopuill, and alUXxolI may even be a pun on alUXxall~ of the earlier passage (54). In 76-78, then, it seems probable that Pindar is thinking of the fable of the fox and the monkey (where Archilochus may have identified with the fox-see Lasserre [supra n.15] 126-35). When Pindar con­ tinues with KEpSEL SE TI. ,.wAa KEpBaA£oll TEA£8EL, the true sarcasm of the play on K£P- 00., can only emerge if the audience has in mind the Archilochean aA~~ KEpSaAT,. For TOVTO in ,.wAa TOVTO KEpBaA£oll must refer to something; perhaps it is the epithet of Archilochus' fox (KEpSaAT,) which we are to understand from the allusion in the previous line. It is even possible that the monkey of 73 calls to Pindar's mind the Archilochean fable, although F. Mezger is right to say that the fox and the monkey are thematically unrelated here (Pindars Siegeslieder [Leipzig 1880] 59f). ROSEN, RALPH M., The Ionian at Aristophanes "Peace" 46 , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 25:4 (1984) p.389 394 THE IONIAN AT PEACE 46 fifth century the ainos had become closely associated with the most prominent iambographer, and it helps to explain more fully why an Ionian is introduced in the Peace passage: someone from Ionia who would be sensitive to both the iambos and the ainos (and their ap­ parent interaction) would quickly assume that the dung beetle on the stage, because of its scatophagous habits, must be intended as an allegorical attack on someone. Two passages in Aristophanes' Wasps in fact indicate a fifth-cen­ tury awareness of the use of the fable for invective. Having been advised by his son that quoting Aesop is a mark of social refinement (1259), Philocleon tries his hand at it with the baking woman. In a humorous misinterpretation of Bdelycleon's original advice-to tell something amusing from Aesop (AinW7TI.K(W yb •. owv) - Philocleon begins to tell a story about Aesop. Nevertheless, he makes his story reflect the fact that Aesop was a fabulist, and it becomes a kind of fable in itself (1401-05): AtUW7TOV a1T0 BEi1TVOV f3aBi(,ovfJ' EU1TEpa~ fJpaUEta Kat. I-'EfJVU'T1 n~ VAaK'TEI. KVWV, " ,,,,.... l' ,,1" I , Ka1TEt'T EKEtVO~ EI.7TEV· W KVOV KVOV, Ei VT, ill.' aV'Tt 'T7j~ KaK7j~ yA.W'T'T'T1~ 1T0fJev 7TVpOV<; 7TpiaW, UwcPPOVELV av 1-'01, BOKE'i~." It is clear that the story here is meant to refer to Philocleon and the baking woman, where Philocleon is Aesop and the baking woman is the barking dog. The baking woman realizes too that this' Aesopic' story is directed against her, as her reply demonstrates: Kat. Ka'Ta­ YEAq.~ I-'Ov; At 1446, Philocleon, still determined to take Bdelycleon's advice, begins another story about Aesop: PH. AtUW7TOV 0;' ilEAc/xJi 7T0'T'- BD. OALYOV 1-'01, ~AEt. PH. - c/>uXA. 7) v E117I'TudV'TO KA.e.pat 'TOV fJEOV. <> B' eA.EgEv atho'i~ W<; <> KavfJapo~ 7TO'TE- The story, preserved in the biographical tradition, was that Aesop was unjustly accused by the Delphians of stealing a sacred bowl and condemned to death; 17 before his death, he told an ainos to the Delphians as a way of illustrating their folly. Some versions18 say that he told the fable of the Eagle and the Dung Beetle. Philocleon here makes Aesop use this fable as a pointed attack on the Delphians, 17 See A. Wiechers, Aesop in Delphi (Meisenheim am Glan 1960. 18 E.g. Vitae G/W 134-39: Perry (supra n.12) 76f, 106f. ROSEN, RALPH M., The Ionian at Aristophanes "Peace" 46 , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 25:4 (1984) p.389 RALPH M. ROSEN 395 which reveals his awareness that the fable is an appropriate vehicle for such a purpose.19 His use of the dung beetle, moreover, implies that the fifth-century Athenian would naturally associate this creature with Aesop, and it thus affirms further the Aesopic background of the dung beetle in the Peace. If we can show next that Aristophanes himself was aware that the scatological humor of the entire Peace prologue was akin to, if not derived from, the conventions of the Ionian iambos, then our ex­ planation of the Ionian's function at 46 becomes even more probable. To this end we may turn to a peculiar fragment of Hipponax:2o Ti T€ Kpa871 /-tE TOVTEpW()[EV avw()Ev E/-t1Ti1TTova-a, K[ 1TapatjJt8a~wv {3oA{3iTC~ [ "'y ~\ \' , () ~\ • y' W",EV uE l\.avp71° Kav apOLt uE POt",EOVTEe; '" \() , , ~ \ \ ' " , 711\. OV KaT ou/-t71V 1TI\.EOVLEe; 71 1TEVT71KovTao TWV oi /-tEv E/-t1Ti1TTOVTEk KaTE{3aAov ... Henderson has remarked that the detail of "fifty dung beetles ... swarming in a squadron over the latrines .. . distinctly foreshadows the prologue to Peace." 21 In particular, Trygaeus' paratragic speech at 149ft' does seem to be a deliberate development of the comic ramifi­ cations of the Hipponactean scene. In Hipponax, the swarm of beetles apparently attacks the speaker, attracted to the smell of the {3oA{3tTOe; (~A()OV KaT' o8WrW)' At 151ft'Trygaeus, riding on the back of one of these creatures, imagines a similar situation and pleads with the men at Athens: /-t,ry {38EtTE /-t718e XE~E()' YJ/-tEpwv TPuVVo we; Ei /-tETEwpoe; o~Toe; WV OU¢p-quETat, KaTwKapa piljJa" /-tE {30VKoA -q UE Tat. When the beetle begins to veer towards earth, Trygaeus says (I 57[): 1TOt 1TapaKAivEt" TOV" /-tvKTTJpa" 1Tpoe; Ta" Aavpa,,; We may compare line 10 of the Hipponax fragment, ~~EV Tae; Aavpae;. It is true, as noted above, that Aristophanes claims to have derived the dung beetle from Aesop (127ft), and he certainly makes no mention of Hipponax in the prologue. Yet his use of the fable owes 19 For the Aesopic ainos as a vehicle for blame, see Nagy (supra n.11) 281-83. 20 92.7-13 W. (95 De.). For a discussion of the context of this fragment (probably a description of a ritual for retrieving someone's sexual virility) see K. Latte, "Hipponac­ teum," Hermes 64 (1929) 385-88 (Kleine Schriften [Munich 1968] 464-67), and O. Masson, Les fragments du poere Hipponax (Paris 1962) 150. 21 Henderson (supra n.8) 23. ROSEN, RALPH M., The Ionian at Aristophanes "Peace" 46 , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 25:4 (1984) p.389 396 THE IONIAN AT PEACE 46 much more, it seems, to the kind of scatological humor found in the Hipponax fragment (and other iambographic fragments) than to the original Aesopic version.22 It seems clear, therefore, that Aristoph­ anes was conscious of the Ionian literary provenance of the scatologi­ cal jokes concerned with the dung beetle,23 and consequently it is easy to understand why at 46 an Ionian is chosen to engage in this sort of humor. Finally, the expression (J"7TartA:rl" Eu8tH put into the mouth of the Ionian (47) also suggests that he is meant to be seen as drawing on his acquaintance with the iambos. For rather than a common word for excrement (such as UKWP, {3oA{3Lro~, or K07TpO~), 24 he chooses U7Ta­ riATJ ('diarrhea'), a rare Ionic word which, apart from its comic usage here, appears only as a medical term.25 Since it is readily apparent from the fragments that the iambographers were fond of this kind of technical or exotic vocabulary for comic purposes,26 the use of the word u7TariATJ at 47 would be appropriate for an Ionian trying to parade his familiarity with iambographic diction.27 THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA September, 1984 22 For other scatological references in the iambographers cJ Henderson (supra n.8) 22. In the Peace prologue note the details of 99-101 (Ko1Tpwve<;, AaVpClt, 1TPWKTOV<; E1TtKAeiew) and 162-65, which are more in the spirit of the Hipponax fragment than of Aesop. 23 I have treated the influence of the iambographers on Old Comedy in my Old Com­ edy and the lambographic Tradition (Diss.Harvard 1983). 24 See Henderson (supra n.8) 192-94. 25 As in the Hippocratic TIepi f>utiTTJ<; O{EWV 28. For other instances see Herwerden (supra n.6) 9. Used of C1eon the term is a particularly clever choice, since, as Hender­ son points out (supra n.8: 192), it is a play on the leather (U1T£XTO<;) associated with his tanning profession and TLAaV ('to excrete'). This does not, of course, alter the fact that it would have a distinctly Ionian ring to the Athenian audience. 26 In Hipponax 15lb W. (202 De.), for example, the word KO)(WVTJ ('buttocks'), al­ though common in the comic poets and occurring in Herodas (7.48), seems originally to have been a medical term. Similarly, the word TpaJ-U<; ('perineum') attributed to Archilochus (283 W.) and Hipponax (114a W., 133 De.) by the Hippocratic commenta­ tor Erotian, would seem to derive from specialized vocabularies. The only non-lexico­ graphic occurrence of TpaJ-U<; is in Ar. Thesm. 246, where it seems to mean simply 1TPWKT()<;; see E. Fraenkel, Beobachtungen zu Aristophanes (Rome 1962) 117. Hapax words such as YP0I-«Pt<; ('old sow') at Hipponax 103.11 W. (106 De.) may not be strictly technical, but surely reflect a love of the recherche. In his edition, Degani lists 87 hapax legomena in the fragments (see p. xxviii). On technical vocabulary in Aris­ tophanes see K. J. Dover, "Der Stil des Aristophanes," in Aristophanes und die Alte Komodie (Wege der Forschung [Darmstadt 1975]) 134f. 27 I wish to thank Professor David Konstan for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.