Michael J. Vickers Livres

The conventional view of Aristophanes bristles with problems. Important testimony for Alcibiades’ paramount role in comedy is consistently disregarded, and the tradition that “masks were made to look like the komodoumenoi, so that before an actor spoke a word, the audience would recognize who was being attacked” is hardly ever invoked. If these testimonia are taken into account, a fascinating picture emerges, where the komodoumenoi are based on the Periclean household: older characters on Pericles himself, younger on Alcibiades. Aspasia, Pericles’ mistress, and Hipparete, Alcibiades’ wife, lie behind many female characters, and Alcibiades’ ambiguous sexuality also allows him to be shown on the stage as a woman, notably as Lysistrata. There is a substantial overlap between the anecdotal tradition relating to the historical figures and the plotting of Aristophanes’ plays. This extends to speech patterns, where Alcibiades’ speech defect is lampooned. Aristophanes is consistently critical of Alcibiades’ mercurial politics, and his works can also be seen to have served as an aide-mémoire for Thucydides and Xenophon. If the argument presented here is correct, then much current scholarship on Aristophanes can be set aside.

This little book deals with an issue that is central to the study of the classical past, Namely, what were the driving forces behind the artistic activity that occurred in fifth century Athens - artistic activity of which we have many physical vestiges, and which inspired a classical tradition that has spanned more than two millennia? By examining metaphors of weaving (especially in Euripides' Ion) and descriptions of ancient textiles, and comparing them with what can be gleaned from the scanty archaeological record, it has been possible to show that the competitive creation of pictorial cloths may have provided one of the dynamos that generated such creativity. Tapestry workshops also contributed to the progressive enrichment of the household environment that took place between the early fifth century and the mid-fourth. Wall-hangings were employed in the dining rooms of the rich, and also in the temporary structures erected at festivals.

Der Band vermittelt ein umfassendes Bild von der Entwicklung des Alten Rom, von seinen Anfängen am Tiberufer um 800 v. Chr. bis zur Herrschaft über den Mittelmeerraum