The+Knights+-++Aristophanes

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 * The Dionysian festival was a once-a-year theater contest in Athens. To win it was the greatest of honors. Learn more about it.
 * Aristophanes was a phenom in the world of Greek play writes. He won his first Dionysian festival when he was about seventeen.
 * //The Knights// was entered when he was twenty and it won first place too. Learn more about Aristophanes.

INTRODUCTION

This was the fourth play in order of time produced by Aristophanes on the Athenian stage; it was brought out at the Lenaean Festival, in January, 424 B.C. Of the author's previous efforts, two, 'The Revellers' and 'The Babylonians,' were apparently youthful essays, and are both lost. The other, 'The Acharnians,' forms the first of the three Comedies dealing directly with the War and its disastrous effects and urging the conclusion of Peace; for this reason it is better ranged along with its sequels, the 'Peace' and the 'Lysistrata,' and considered in conjunction with them.

In many respects 'The Knights' may be reckoned the great Comedian's masterpiece, the direct personal attack on the then all-powerful Cleon, with its scathing satire and tremendous invective, being one of the most vigorous and startling things in literature. Already in 'The Acharnians' he had threatened to "cut up Cleon the Tanner into shoe-leather for the Knights," and he now proceeds to carry his menace into execution, "concentrating the whole force of his wit in the most unscrupulous and merciless fashion against his personal enemy." In the first-mentioned play Aristophanes had attacked and satirized the whole general policy of the democratic party--and incidentally Cleon, its leading spirit and mouthpiece since the death of Pericles; he had painted the miseries of war and invasion arising from this mistaken and mischievous line of action, as he regarded it, and had dwelt on the urgent necessity of peace in the interests of an exhausted country and ruined agriculture. Now he turns upon Cleon personally, and pays him back a hundredfold for the attacks the demagogue had made in the Public Assembly on the daring critic, and the abortive charge which the same unscrupulous enemy had brought against him in the Courts of having "slandered the city in the presence of foreigners." "In this bitterness of spirit the play stands in strong contrast with the good-humoured burlesque of 'The Acharnians' and the 'Peace,' or, indeed, with any other of the author's productions which has reached us." The characters are five only. First and foremost comes Demos, 'The People,' typifying the Athenian democracy, a rich householder--a self-indulgent, superstitious, weak creature. He has had several overseers or factors in succession, to look after his estate and manage his slaves. The present one is known as 'the Paphlagonian,' or sometimes as 'the Tanner,' an unprincipled, lying, cheating, pilfering scoundrel, fawning and obsequious to his master, insolent towards his subordinates. Two of these are Nicias and Demosthenes. Here we have real names. Nicias was High Admiral of the Athenian navy at the time, and Demosthenes one of his Vice-Admirals; both held still more important commands later in connection with the Sicilian Expedition of 415-413 B.C. Fear of consequences apparently prevented the poet from doing the same in the case of Cleon, who is, of course, intended under the names of 'the Paphlagonian' and 'the Tanner.' Indeed, so great was the terror inspired by the great man that no artist was found bold enough to risk his powerful vengeance by caricaturing his features, and no actor dared to represent him on the stage. Aristophanes is said to have played the part himself, with his face, in the absence of a mask, smeared with wine-lees, roughly mimicking the purple and bloated visage of the demagogue. The remaining character is 'the Sausage-seller,' who is egged on by Nicias and Demosthenes to oust 'the Paphlagonian' from Demos' favour by outvying him in his own arts of impudent flattery, noisy boasting and unscrupulous allurement. After a fierce and stubbornly contested trial of wits and interchange of 'Billingsgate,' 'the Sausage-seller' beats his rival at his own weapons and gains his object; he supplants the disgraced favourite, who is driven out of the house with ignominy.

The Comedy takes its title, as was often the case, from the Chorus, which is composed of Knights--the order of citizens next to the highest at Athens, and embodying many of the old aristocratic preferences and prejudices.

The drama was adjudged the first prize--the 'Satyrs' of Cratinus being placed second--by acclamation, as such a masterpiece of wit and intrepidity certainly deserved to be; but, as usual, the political result was nil. The piece was applauded in the most enthusiastic manner, the satire on the sovereign multitude was forgiven, and--Cleon remained in as much favour as ever.[4]

[4] Mitchell's "Aristophanes." Preface to "The Knights." http://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/aristophanes/knights.asp

Places and people mentioned in //The Knights//
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Knights

Old Comedy is a highly topical form of comic drama and its meanings are often obscured by multiple references to contemporary news, gossip and literature. Centuries of scholarship have unriddled many of these references and they are explained in commentaries in various editions of the plays. The following lists are compiled from two such sources.[|[][|13][|]][|[][|14][|]] //Note: Paphlagonian is here referred to by his real name, Cleon//.
 * Places**
 * [|Pylos]: A bay in the Peloponnese, shut in by the island of [|Sphacteria], it is associated with Cleon's famous victory and there are many references to it in the play: as a cake that Cleon pinched from Demosthenes (lines 57, 355, 1167); as a place where Cleon like a colossus has got one foot (76); as an oath by which Cleon swears (702); as the place where Cleon snatched victory from the Athenian generals (742); as the origin of captured Spartan shields (846); as an epithet of the goddess Athena (1172); and as an equivalent of the hare that Agoracritus stole from Cleon (1201). Pylos is mentioned again in three later plays.[|[][|15][|]]
 * [|Paphlagonia]: A region in modern Turkey, it is imputed to be the birthplace of Cleon since he is named after it. There is a pun on the word //paphlazo// (I bubble, splutter, fret) which is made explicit in reference to Cleon in line 919.
 * [|Chaonia]: A region in the northwestern Greece, it is where Cleon the colossus dangles his arse (line 78) and it is also mentioned in //The Acharnians//.[|[][|16][|]] One of his hands is in [|Aetolia] (79).
 * //Cycloborus//: A mountain torrent in Attica, it is the image of Cleon's voice here (line 137) and also in //The Acharnians//.[|[][|17][|]]
 * [|Carthage] or Carchedon: A Phoenician city, it marks a western limit of Athenian influence (line 174) and it is somewhere that the ships don't want to go (1303); an eastern limit is marked by [|Caria] (173).
 * [|Chalcidice]: A region in the northern Aegean that was under Athenian control but where the cities were increasingly rebellious. The wine bowl that the two slaves steal from the house is Chalcidian in design and Cleon subsequently accuses them of stealing it to provoke a Chalcidian revolt (line 237). //Ironically, Cleon later perished in a military campaign to quell the revolt there//.
 * [|Chersonesos]: The Gallipoli Peninsula, it is mentioned by the Chorus as the sort of place where Cleon fishes for people he can put on trial in Athens (line 262)
 * [|Prytaneion]: The ancient equivalent of a town hall, it is where Cleon obtains free meals (lines 281, 535, 766) and where Agoracritus is destined to obtain free sex (167).
 * [|Pergase]: A deme of the //Erechthides// tribe, not far outside Athens, it was as far as Demosthenes got when a pair of leather shoes that Cleon had sold him began to dissolve (line 321)
 * [|Miletus]: One of the principal cities of Ionia, it is famous for its fish (line 361). Cleon is imagined choking on a fried cuttlefish while contemplating a bribe from Miletus (932).
 * [|Potidaea]: A rebellious city in Chalcidice, it was recaptured by the Athenians in 429 BC. Cleon offers Agoracritus a bribe of one talent not to mention the bribe of ten talents he is said to have taken from there (line 438).
 * [|Boeotia]: A northern neighbour of the Athenians but an ally of Sparta, it was famous for its cheeses. Cleon accuses Agoracritus of making cheese with the Boeotians (line 479). Boeotia is mentioned extensively in //The Acharnians// and receives other mentions in two other plays.[|[][|18][|]]
 * [|Argos]: A Peloponnesian state, it had remained neutral throughout the war. Agoracritus claims that Cleon used negotiations with Argos as an opportunity to negotiate a bribe from the Spartans (line 465) and he murders a quote from Euripides in which the ancient state is apostrophized (813). Argos is mentioned in four other plays.[|[][|19][|]]
 * [|Sunium] and //Geraestus//: The sites of two temples of Poseidon (southern tips of Attica and [|Euboea]), they are mentioned in an invocation to the god as a defender of the polis (lines 560-1). Sunium is mentioned again in //The Clouds//.[|[][|20][|]]
 * [|Corinth]: A Peloponnesian state, it had recently been attacked by marines under the command of Nicias. The cavalry had played a decisive role in the expedition. The horses had even rowed the ships and their attitude had been meritorious throughout the campaign (line 604). Corinth is mentioned again in two later plays.[|[][|21][|]]
 * [|Pnyx]: The hill where Athenian citizens assembled to debate state issues, it is said by Agoracritus to have a bad effect on Demos - ordinarily the cleverest chap in the world, he often gapes at the speaker's platform like someone tying wild figs to a cultivar (line 749-55).
 * [|Cerameicon]: The potter's quarter and town cemetery - Agoracritus offers to be dragged through it by a meathook in his balls as an assurance of his love for Demos (line 772)
 * [|Marathon]: Here as elsewhere,[|[][|22][|]] it is a name that conjures up patriotic pride and respect for the old ways (lines 781, 1334).
 * [|Salamis]: Another name to conjure with, Demos acquired a sore bum there while rowing in the [|Battle of Salamis] (which means he must be very old), in gratitude for which Agoracritus thoughtfully provides him with a cushion (line 785). The island is mentioned again in //Lysistrata//.[|[][|23][|]]
 * [|Arcadia]: Ordinarily a wild backwoods in the very heart of enemy territory, it is where Demos will sit in judgement for five obols a day, according to one of Cleon's oracles (line 798).
 * [|Peiraeus]: The main Athenian port, it was plastered onto the Athenian pie by [|Themistocles] (line 815), and it has become his epithet (885). It is mentioned again in //Peace//.[|[][|24][|]]
 * [|Copros] or //Kopros//: A deme of the tribe //Hippothoontides//, it also means //feces//. A man from there told Demos about Cleon's plot to murder jurors en masse by inducing flatulence (line 899).
 * [|Cyllene]: A Peloponnesian harbour, it is also a pun for //kylle// (beggar's hand). Apollo warns Demos in an oracle to avoid it and it is suggested that the hand belongs to a religious fanatic and oracle monger, //Diopeithes// (lines 1081-85).
 * [|Ecbatana]: The seat of the Persian kings, it is foretold in an oracle to be another place where Demos will someday sit in judgement (line 1089). Ecbatana is mentioned again in two other plays.[|[][|25][|]]
 * [|Theseion]: A temple and a safe refuge for fugitives, it is where the ships of the Athenian fleet consider fleeing to escape Hyperbolus (even though it is inland). A shrine of the [|Eumenides] is considered in the same light (line 1312).
 * Athenian politicians and generals**
 * [|Cleon], [|Nicias] and [|Demosthenes]: See [|Discussion]
 * [|Themistocles]: The visionary leader of Athens during the Persian wars, he is mentioned as a role-model for suicide (line 84), as a laughable benchmark for Cleon's own greatness (812-19) and as somebody who never gave Demos a cloak (884).
 * //Simon// and //Panaetius//: Cavalry officers, they are imagined to be part of the Chorus. Demosthenes directs them in the knights' manoeuvres against Cleon during the parodos - a further clue that he represents the general (lines 242-43).
 * //Eucrates//: A hemp-seller, he is one of a series of populist leaders mentioned in Cleon's oracles (line 129), he is said to have hidden in a pile of bran (254).
 * [|Pericles]: Among the most famous of Athenian leaders, he was blamed in [|The Acharnians] for starting the Peloponnesian War[|[][|26][|]] but he receives some faint praise here as somebody who never stole food from the prytaneion - unlike Cleon (line283). He is mentioned again in two more plays.[|[][|27][|]]
 * //Archeptolemus// (son of Hippodamus): An influential figure among Cleon's opponents, he is said to weep at Cleon's shamelessness (line 327) and he is said to have participated in peace negotiation that were subsequently frustrated by Cleon (794). //Thirteen years after this play, he became an influential figure in the [|oligarchic revolt of 411 BC]//.
 * [|Alcmaeonids]: A powerful aristocratic clan, it was believed to be under a curse for sacrilegious murders committed in the 7th century. Cleon alludes to it as the sinful race from which Agoracritus sprang (line 445).
 * [|Phormio]: An admiral who had secured Athenian control of the sea early in the war, he probably died just before //The Knights// was produced and he is mentioned here in a hymn to Poseidon (line 562). He is mentioned in two other plays.[|[][|28][|]]
 * //Theorus//: He is quoted quoting a Corinthian crab's complaint against Athenian horses (line 608). It is not known if this is the same Theorus that Aristophanes mocks elsewhere as an associate of Cleon.[|[][|29][|]]
 * [|Hyperbolus]: An associate of Cleon often ridiculed in other plays,[|[][|30][|]] he is alluded to here as one of the lampsellers who buy the affections of Demos (line 739) and he is despised by ships(1304, 1363).
 * //Lysicles//: A leading politician killed on active service at about the time that Pericles died, he is the sheep-seller mentioned in an oracle as one of a series of Athenian leaders (line 132) and he is a benchmark against which Cleon compares himself (765).
 * //Phanus//: Another associate of Cleon, he is mentioned here as his secretary in the law courts (line 1256). He receives another mention in [|The Wasps].[|[][|31][|]]
 * //Phaeax//: A rising star in the political firmament, his abilities are said by Demos to be admired by effete dandies (line 1377).
 * Poets and other artists**
 * [|Euripides]: One of the great tragic poets, he is the butt of jokes in many of Aristophanes plays and he even appears as a character in three of them (//The Acharnians//, //Thesmophoriazusae// and //The Frogs//). He is mentioned here as a model of linguistic artfulness (line 18) and there is an allusion to his mother as a reputed vegetable seller (19). There are quotes from his plays [|Hippolytus] (16),[|[][|32][|]] //Bellerophon// (1249) and [|Alcestis] (1252),[|[][|33][|]] as well as a pair of mismatched sayings taken from his works (813).
 * [|Cratinus]: A comic poet of the previous generation, he was still writing plays with some success. The Chorus would rather be his bedcover than be friends with Cleon (400) it laments his sad decline as an ageing poet with a drinking problem and it quotes from some of his old songs (526-36). //In the following year (423 BC) he won first prize with// The Bottle //- a satire on his drinking problem - which was the same year Aristophanes came third and last with [|The Clouds]//.
 * //Morsimus//: A tragic poet, he is mentioned with disgust by Aristophanes in other plays,.[|[][|34][|]] The Chorus would rather sing in one of his tragedies than be friends with Cleon (line 401).
 * [|Simonides]: An eminent lyrical poet, he is quoted from an ode celebrating a victory in a chariot race (line 406).
 * [|Magnes]: Another comic poet, his predicament as a has-been is lamented by the Chorus and there are allusions to five of his plays - //The Lute, The Lydians, The Birds, The Flies, The Frogs// (lines 520-25)
 * //Connas//: A prizewinning musician from yesteryear, he is said to go about still in his ancient victory chaplets, as thirsty as Cratinus (line 534).
 * [|Crates]: Another comic poet of the older generation, his predicament as a has-been is also lamented (line 537).
 * [|Aristophanes]: The author explains his cautious approach to his own career and he mentions his own baldness (lines 507-50).
 * //Ariphrades//: Possibly a comic poet, he is later mentioned in //The Wasps// as one of three sons of //Automenes//, the other two being a musician and possibly an actor.[|[][|35][|]][|[][|36][|]] According to the Chorus of knights, his lewdness is ingenious, his beard is foul with secretions licked up in brothels and he is as vile as //Oenichus// and //Polymnestus// (colleagues in smut if not in the arts), yet his musical brother //Arignotus// is a good man and a friend of the author (1276–89). Ariphrades is mentioned again in //Peace// and //Ecclesiazusae//.[|[][|37][|]]
 * [|Pindar]: A renowned lyrical poet, he is quoted in praise of Athens (lines 1323,1329).
 * Athenian personalities**
 * //Cleaenetus//: The father of Cleon, he is mentioned here as typical of a time when generals never demanded free meals at the prytaneion (line 574).
 * //Cunna// and //Salabaccho//: Two courtesans, they are considered by Cleon to be great examples of service to Athens (line 765). Cunna is mentioned in two more plays[|[][|38][|]] and Salabaccho is mentioned again in [|Thesmophoriazusae].[|[][|39][|]]
 * //Gryttus//: A notorious bugger, his citizenship was revoked by Cleon on moral grounds (line 877).
 * [|Cleonymus]: An associate of Cleon and a notorious glutton, he is a frequent target for Aristophanes' satire.[|[][|40][|]] Cleon was serving his interests rather than those of Demos (line 58), his appetite exhausts the stores of anyone who entertains him (1294) and he has abused the system to avoid military duties (1372).
 * //Smicythes//: An androgynous name like 'Kim', it identifies a man whose interests are represented by a legal guardian (as if he were a woman) and who is therefore a tempting target for prosecution by Cleon (line 969).
 * //Philostratus//: An infamous brothelkeeper nicknamed 'Dogfox', he is thought by Demos to be the Dogfox that an oracle warns him to avoid - in fact the oracle warns him to avoid Cleon (1069). Philostratus is mentioned again in [|Lysistrata].[|[][|41][|]]
 * //Lysistratus//: A notorious practical-joker and a high-society figure, he is mentioned as somebody who shouldn't be mentioned in a song about horses, on account of his mysterious poverty (1266). He is mentioned in three more plays.[|[][|42][|]]
 * //Thumantis//: Another poor man who shouldn't be mentioned in a song about horses (line 1267).
 * [|Cleisthenes]: A conspicuously effete Athenian, he is an inexhaustible butt of jokes featuring in many plays,[|[][|43][|]] including a silent role in [|The Acharnians] and a short speaking role in //Thesmophoriazusae//. He is mentioned here as the sort of dandy who is effusive in praise of rhetorical skill and who will be forced to practise more manly pursuits in future (line 1374). A companion, //Straton// is mentioned in the same capacity. Straton was also a companion of Cleisthenes in //The Acharnians// and he is mentioned later in //The Birds//.[|[][|44][|]]
 * Religious, cultural, historic and foreign identities**
 * [|Sybil]: A mythical prophetess whose oracles were widely circulated in Athens, she is said to be one of Demos' idiotic obsessions (line 61). She is mentioned again in //Peace//.[|[][|45][|]]
 * [|Bakis]: Another widely read prophet, his oracles are treasured by Cleon, stolen by Nicias, perused by Demosthenes between gulps of wine (line 123) and later they are read to Demos by Cleon in opposition to the sausage-seller's reading of the oracles of his brother //Glanis// (104). Bakis is mentioned again in two other plays.[|[][|46][|]]
 * [|Pythia]: The famous Delphic oracle, she foretells the triumph of the sausage-seller early in the play (line 220) and her words confirm Cleon's defeat at the end of the play (1229, 1273). There is an allusion to her famous saying that Athens would ride the sea like a wine skin and never sink but the receptacle is misrepresented by Cleon as a pan - //molgos// (963).The oracle and her sanctuary are mentioned in a variety of contexts in other plays.[|[][|47][|]]
 * [|Hippias]: The tyrant of Athens, whose wife //Myrsina// is here pronounced //Byrsina// ('made of leather') because one of their foreign mercenaries is said to be Cleon's father (line 449), who made his fortune trading in leather. Hippias is mentioned again in //Lysistrata//.[|[][|48][|]]
 * [|Medes]: An Asiatic people associated with the Persians, they are said by Cleon to be involved in the sausage-seller's cospiratorial comings and goings in the city at night (line 478). They were vanquished by Demos in the good old days (line 781). The Athenian horses recently ate crabs instead of prized Median grass while roughing it as marines in the assault on Corinth (line 606).
 * [|Peplos]: Athena's robe, the sacred centrepiece of the festival of the [|Panathenaea], Athenian men are said by the Chorus to have been worthy of it once (line 566).
 * [|Harmodius] A famous tyrannicide and an Athenian hero, he is mentioned here as the sausage-seller's putative ancestor (line 786) and he also receives a mention in three other plays.[|[][|49][|]]
 * [|Erechtheus]: The mythical king of prehistoric Athens, his name is used as an epithet of Demos during the reading of an oracle (line 1022). [|Cecrops], another legendary king of Athens, is mentioned in the same vein (1055) and he is named again in three other plays.[|[][|50][|]]
 * [|Cerberus]: The watchdog of Hades, it is an oracular metaphor for Cleon (line 1030) and it receives a mention in two other plays.[|[][|51][|]]
 * //Antileon//: An early tyrant of Chalcis, his name only pops up because Demos, being hard of hearing (line 43), misinterprets an oracle (1044).
 * //Diopeithes//: A notorious religious fanatic and an oracle-monger, he is mentioned in an oracle as a beggar to be avoided (line 1085). His name pops up again two more plays.[|[][|52][|]]
 * [|Aristeides]: A national hero, he founded the confederacy that became the Athenian empire and he is mentioned with [|Miltiades], the victorious general at the [|Battle of Marathon], as examples of Demos' glorious past (line 1325).