I’m taking a break from writing about theory today, because in addition to reading Bourdieu, I’ve also been reviewing my Menander as I start to write a paper on slaves in New Comedy for the upcoming Classical Association of the Mid West and South.
Menander was a Greek comedian who was quite influential in the ancient world. Indeed, some scholars argue that the top three most read poets among the Greeks were Homer, Euripides and Menander. Unfortunately, his plays only survive in fragments. Luckily for us, the Epitrepontes survives in many long fragments and lucky for me, contains many different slaves in it.
Indeed, one of the longer scenes to survive intact is that of the dispute between the slaves Daos and Syros. Menander utilizes this dispute in order to create a ridiculous situation: rather than going to their masters in order to settle this dispute, Daos and Syros go to another slave, a certain Smirkrines. What made this scene particularly amusing to the Greeks is that this idea apes the practice of non-judicial arbitration among the Athenians. In other words, Menander is having the slaves act like slave-owners.
This scene is also a throwback to older forms of Greek comedy. Menander wrote in the style of New Comedy, which developed in the later third of the fourth century. Old Comedy developed in the fifth century, and as a genre, it had a number of conventions that dictated how the plot needed to progress. One of those conventions was that of the agon, a scene in which two characters have an extended argument and in which one of those characters is judged the winner. Famous examples include the agon between Euripides and Aeschylus in Frogs and that between the Better and Worse Argument in the Clouds. New Comedy for the most part abandoned this convention, but Menander makes use of it here.
Back to Daos and Syros. Daos had found an abandoned baby in the woods. He initially plans on raising the child. But ultimately he decides that to do so would be beyond his means and so he agree to let his friend Syros raise the child. The dispute that comes up between them is what to do with the necklace and other jewelry that Daos had discovered with the child. Daos argues that he should have it because he found the child.
Syros quickly proves himself the wiser slave, indeed, he appears to be aware that he is taking part in an agon. He not only makes the wise decision to go second (another of the conventions of the agon is that whoever argues second wins), he also cites examples of why babies should be kept together with their jewelry from a Greek tragedy:
Τεθέασαι τραγῳδούς, οἶδ᾽ὅτι,
Καὶ ταῦτα κατέχεις πάντα. Νηλέα τινὰ
Πελίαν τ᾽ἐκείνους εὗρε πρεσβύτης ἀνὴρ
Αἰπόλος, ἔχων οἵαν ἐγὼ νῦν διφθέραν.
ὡς δ᾽ᾔσθετ᾽αὐτοὺς ὄντας αὑτοῦ κρείττονας,
λέγει τὸ πρᾶγμ᾽, ὠς εὗρεν, ὡς ἀνείλετο.
ἔδωκε δ᾽αὐτοῖς πηρίδιον γνωρισμάτων,
ἐξ οὗ μαθόντες πάντα τὰ καθ᾽αὑτοὺς σαφῶς
ἐγένοντο βασιλεῖς οἱ τότ᾽ὄντες αἰπόλοι. (325-333)
You have seen tragedies, so you know all these things.
An old goatherd found those Neleus and Pleias,
An old goatherd, who wore a leather jerkin like I do.
And when he found they were of higher status than him,
He revealed this, how he found them and took them.
And he gave to them the purse of tokens,
From which they learned everything that had befallen them;
they who were goatherds became kings.
Arnott notes that while none of the extant tragedies fit the description of the one that Daos provides, Sophocles, Carcinus and Astydamas all wrote tragedies about Tyro, the mother of Pelias and Neleus.
Daos shows himself to be a very learned slave indeed, one who can cite examples from tragedy that support his arguments.
Menander was a Greek comedian who was quite influential in the ancient world. Indeed, some scholars argue that the top three most read poets among the Greeks were Homer, Euripides and Menander. Unfortunately, his plays only survive in fragments. Luckily for us, the Epitrepontes survives in many long fragments and lucky for me, contains many different slaves in it.
Indeed, one of the longer scenes to survive intact is that of the dispute between the slaves Daos and Syros. Menander utilizes this dispute in order to create a ridiculous situation: rather than going to their masters in order to settle this dispute, Daos and Syros go to another slave, a certain Smirkrines. What made this scene particularly amusing to the Greeks is that this idea apes the practice of non-judicial arbitration among the Athenians. In other words, Menander is having the slaves act like slave-owners.
This scene is also a throwback to older forms of Greek comedy. Menander wrote in the style of New Comedy, which developed in the later third of the fourth century. Old Comedy developed in the fifth century, and as a genre, it had a number of conventions that dictated how the plot needed to progress. One of those conventions was that of the agon, a scene in which two characters have an extended argument and in which one of those characters is judged the winner. Famous examples include the agon between Euripides and Aeschylus in Frogs and that between the Better and Worse Argument in the Clouds. New Comedy for the most part abandoned this convention, but Menander makes use of it here.
Back to Daos and Syros. Daos had found an abandoned baby in the woods. He initially plans on raising the child. But ultimately he decides that to do so would be beyond his means and so he agree to let his friend Syros raise the child. The dispute that comes up between them is what to do with the necklace and other jewelry that Daos had discovered with the child. Daos argues that he should have it because he found the child.
Syros quickly proves himself the wiser slave, indeed, he appears to be aware that he is taking part in an agon. He not only makes the wise decision to go second (another of the conventions of the agon is that whoever argues second wins), he also cites examples of why babies should be kept together with their jewelry from a Greek tragedy:
Τεθέασαι τραγῳδούς, οἶδ᾽ὅτι,
Καὶ ταῦτα κατέχεις πάντα. Νηλέα τινὰ
Πελίαν τ᾽ἐκείνους εὗρε πρεσβύτης ἀνὴρ
Αἰπόλος, ἔχων οἵαν ἐγὼ νῦν διφθέραν.
ὡς δ᾽ᾔσθετ᾽αὐτοὺς ὄντας αὑτοῦ κρείττονας,
λέγει τὸ πρᾶγμ᾽, ὠς εὗρεν, ὡς ἀνείλετο.
ἔδωκε δ᾽αὐτοῖς πηρίδιον γνωρισμάτων,
ἐξ οὗ μαθόντες πάντα τὰ καθ᾽αὑτοὺς σαφῶς
ἐγένοντο βασιλεῖς οἱ τότ᾽ὄντες αἰπόλοι. (325-333)
You have seen tragedies, so you know all these things.
An old goatherd found those Neleus and Pleias,
An old goatherd, who wore a leather jerkin like I do.
And when he found they were of higher status than him,
He revealed this, how he found them and took them.
And he gave to them the purse of tokens,
From which they learned everything that had befallen them;
they who were goatherds became kings.
Arnott notes that while none of the extant tragedies fit the description of the one that Daos provides, Sophocles, Carcinus and Astydamas all wrote tragedies about Tyro, the mother of Pelias and Neleus.
Daos shows himself to be a very learned slave indeed, one who can cite examples from tragedy that support his arguments.