file in progress - perennially

The study questions in this file will be updated throughout the semester from study questions used the last time this course was taught; that wasn't a Writing Intensive section, so it used a slightly different arrangement of material. If the days are off, it's because the questions haven't yet been checked against the current progress and interests of the class. Not that the old questions aren't still worth thinking about (most of them will probably continue to appear), just that you should double-check again later.

Study Questions

Monday 13 January

• On what occasions were Aristophanes' comedies originally performed at Athens?
  • Who performed?
  • Who watched? In what ways did the audience represent their community?
  • How were the performances set up: who participated, in what capacities? What was the process?
  • How did the nature and process of fifth-century Athenian performance of comedy affect the way the plays came across to the audience?
• How did the physical spaces in which Aristophanes' comedies were performed in fifth-century Athens relate to the rest of the city?

• What civic event is portrayed in the opening scene of the "Acharnians"? What rules govern the way it is conducted? What prospects are discussed?
• What constituency does Dicaeopolis claim to represent? Is he able to voice his concerns effectively? Why or why not?
• How does the Chorus feel about Dikaiopolis's arrangement with Amphitheus? Why: what constituency do they represent?
• How does Dicaeopolis manage to persuade the Chorus that he is right? What arguments, and what other devices, does he use to win them over?

Wednesday 15 January

• With what other forms of public discourse (speech in public about Athens' concerns as a city-state) does Aristophanes establish connections for his comedy? How does he do it? Dicaeopolis's speeches and actions make some important connections; what other ways can you think of?
• What interactions with Cleon, within his comedies' fictive world(s) and/or in real-life Athens, does Aristophanes refer to? What does the crossover between Aristophanes' comedies and Athenian politics imply, for comedy and for Athens as a state?

• Having gotten his peace and persuaded the Chorus of Acharnians that he is entitled to it, what does Dicaeopolis proceed to do with it? Does his peace answer his initial complaints with war?
• Who wants a piece of Dicaeopolis's peace? Why? What has war deprived them of? With whom is Dicaeopolis willing to share?
• How does the action of the second half of the "Acharnians" move the audience's sympathies? Think both about how you feel about the play and why, and to what extent and for what reasons a fifth-century Athenian might or might not agree with you.

Friday 17 January

• How does truth fare in public discourse, as Aristophanes portrays it within "Acharnians"? Consider what the play says both about speech in a purely political arena, such as the Pnyx, and speech on the Athenian stage of tragedy or comedy. Who speaks truth? Who deceives? Who listens? Why or why not? Explain your answers by analyzing specific pieces of text and showing how they support your interpretation.
• Where does humor arise in this play? Who laughs at whom, within the play or beyond it? Why do they laugh? What alliances does laughter create?
  • Note especially Lamachus. Why does he lose his argument with Dicaeopolis? What else does he lose, and why?
  • What other characters in "Acharnians", or in Athenian life as referred to by the play, does Lamachus most resemble? Why? Compare and contrast Lamachus's function to what Aristophanes says about these others.
• What does "Acharnians" suggest peace is for - both as Dicaeopolis yearns for it in the first part of the play, and as he enjoys it in the second? How does the play work as parable for the Athenian state?
• Be able to identify the formal "parts" of an Athenian "Old Comedy":

  prologue

  parodos

  scenes

  agon

  parabasis

  exodos

• What problems is Strepsiades worrying about when "Clouds" begins? What social concerns does he relate to his getting into his problems? How does he propose to solve his troubles?
• What sort of establishment is the Pondertorium? Who occupies it? What do they do? How does Strepsiades react to their concerns?
• What sort of character does Socrates appear to be in the "Clouds"? How does what he teaches Strepsiades seem capable of relating to Strepsiades' troubles?

Wednesday 22 January

• Compare and contrast Strepsiades in "Clouds" with Dikaiopolis in "Acharnians".
  • What techniques does Aristophanes use to establish the qualities of his principal characters?
  • What role, structurally, do Aristophanes' principal characters play in his comedies: how do their interests and actions generate the plot?
  • How does Aristophanes justify his principal characters, and align them with his audience's sympathies? When and how does he limit our sympathies and sense of justification?
• What could Aristophanes have known, in 423 BC, about his fellow-citizen Socrates? What resonances does he give his play that Socrates represents the "New Learning" in it?
• In what ways does Aristophanes play with and play off the "New Learning" of fifth-century Athens in his comedy of ideas in "Clouds"? Is he sympathetic or unsympathetic? How can you tell?

• Why does Pheidippides become Socrates' pupil? How enthusiastic is he at the prospect? Why: what set of assumptions about the "New Learning" does he initially represent?
• What does the Superior Argument offer students? What ideals and principles does he uphold?
• What does the Inferior Argument offer students? What ideals and principles does he uphold? Why does he win the agon?
• Who wins and who loses as a result of Pheidippides' education? Why? How does the outcome relate to Strepsiades' initial goals?

Friday 24 January

• Compare and contrast the agon between Superior and Inferior Arguments to the fifth-century debate at Athens about learning and why it matters.
  • What position does the Superior Argument represent? Why does he fail to defend himself adequately?
  • What position does the Inferior Argument represent? What strengths is he able to exploit against the Superior Argument's weaknesses (see also the areas of the Pondertorium's curriculum on view in other scenes)? What weaknesses remain in the Inferior Argument's position, even if the Superior Argument fails to capitalize on them?
• Compare and contrast Pheidippides' argument with Strepsiades to the agon of the two Arguments, in substance and in form. Has Pheidippides become a true product of the Pondertorium, as Aristophanes presents it? In what ways does he meet Strepsiades' aspirations for him? What problems arise, and what do they reflect on the Pondertorium and its curriculum?
• Whose side are the Clouds on, really? Do they play a consistent role in the drama throughout the whole play? What is it, and how do they operate?
• What overall position on the New Learning does Aristophanes' "Clouds" present?

• How does the opening scene of the "Wasps" set up the problem that this play will address? How do the characters in the prologue interact with the audience? How do they relate to the action that follows?
• What is Procleon's problem? Compare and contrast his attitudes and capacity for action to the Chorus.
• How do Contracleon's goals relate to Procleon and his actions? What family concerns, and what broader social concerns, show up as motivating Contracleon?
• How does Contracleon win the agon?

Monday 27 January

• How does the prologue of the "Wasps" set up audience sympathies for the contest of characters that plays out through the agon? Compare and contrast to the dynamics of Aristophanes' other prologues.
• What social concerns are at issue in the "Wasps"? How did the Athenian jury system fit within the fabric of Athenian life and politics?
• Start working on Writing Assignment 1 for this Friday!

• What is at issue in the domestic trial of the "Wasps"? How does the parodic scene relate to Athenian politics of 422?
• Where and in what ways does the "Wasps" refer to Cleon? Does it draw a consistent picture of how he relates to Athenian public life? How does Cleon's significance in public life relate to other aspects of Contracleon's and Procleon's concerns?
• What forces change Procleon's resolves for action, or his behavior, in any way? How much does he change over the course of the "Wasps"?
• Start working on Writing Assignment 1 for this Friday!

Wednesday 29 January

• Compare and contrast the action of "Wasps" after the agon to the action of "Acharnians" and "Clouds" after their agons.

  Does the action of "Wasps"	structurally	or	thematically
  	follow	or	diverge from patterns you had expected,
  based on	the first part of the "Wasps"	or	the plot-trajectories of "Acharnians" or "Clouds"?

• How does Procleon's will to power, over the course of "Wasps", progress through democratic, despotic, and oligarchic systems of justice?
  • What considerations divide the action into these phases?
  • What problems does the actions suggest each of these phases might entail for the larger community that used them as a system of administering justice?
• How do elements of theatrical performance and audience figure in each of the phases in which the problems of administering justice are considered in "Wasps"? How does Aristophanes portray watching a performance as intertwined with other communal activities of the Athenian state?
• Compare and contrast Procleon to the Chorus
  • as a juror;
  • as an Athenian; and
  • as an embodiment of theatrical spirit.
  What does his ending in "Wasps" imply?

• Remember the Writing Assigment: your first best efforts are due as of first thing next class meeting, for collaborative Peer Review.

Friday 31 January

Continue to think about your paper and about the papers you have helped peer-review.

• Did other papers point to evidence you hadn't thought about, or suggest reasoning you hadn't considered? Think about them now. Has reading these papers changed the way you think about your own arguments - either by persuading you of things you hadn't believed before, or by challenging you to develop your arguments about why what you believe understands better what Aristophanes is doing? Make notes of ways you can strengthen your evidence, arguments, and conclusions when you revise your paper.
• Did other papers suggest ways you can improve the way you express your arguments - either by demonstrating good techniques of writing, or by challenging you to think of improvements you can also make on your own writing? Make notes of ways you can strengthen and polish your expression when you revise your paper, so that it will work more effectively.

• What objective is Trygaios pursuing in "Peace"?
• What obstacles must Trygaios overcome?
• What means does Trygaios use to overcome obstacles? What considerations govern his methods?
• How do the traditional Olympian gods figure in "Peace"? What role do supernatural personifications play?

Monday 3 February

• How did the circumstances in which Aristophanes wrote "Acharnians" in 425, and "Peace" in 421, affect the way he treats peace in these plays?
  • What good things do the two plays suggest peace represents?
  • What parties are predisposed for peace?
  • What kinds of resistance must the supporters of peace overcome in order to attain peace?
• Looking past superficial irreverences, what understanding of the traditional Olympian gods does the action of "Peace" presuppose? What moral authority do the gods add to Aristophanes' arguments about peace and about pleasure? Compare and contrast also to other plays.
• Why a dung-beetle?

• How do sex and food relate to peace or war, in Aristophanes' "Peace"?
• Who is entitled to share the good things of peace, in Aristophanes' "Peace"? On what grounds?

Wednesday 5 February

• Consider how well the mechanism of scapegoating works as a model to describe how some humor operates. Identify specific examples in Aristophanes' plays where it works well; does it work perfectly, or how should the model be adjusted to make it describe the humor better? Identify specific examples where it doesn't work well: how does their humor operate?
• How does Aristophanes use bodily pleasure as an argument, in "Peace" and other plays? Where does it rank on a scale of goods? Does it have down-sides? Compare and contrast in terms of specific examples.
• What does Aristophanes do to the dynamics of "Peace", and to its argument, by not having the same kind of formal agon as his other earlier comedies? What does the absence of an agon in this play suggest about the function of an agon in other Old Comedies?
• Why a dung-beetle?

• What references to Athens and Athenians do Pisthetaerus/Makemedo and Euelpides/Goodhope (depending which translation you're using) make: what sort of place do they portray Athens as being?
  • What aspects of Athenian life do they claim they want to get away from?
  • What elements of Athenian life do they hang on to, deliberately or not: what Athenian-style assumptions do they continue to make, and what Athenian practices do they encourage the Birds to adopt?
• Besides getting away from the disadvantages they perceive in Athenian life, what goals do Pisthetaerus/Makedo and Euelpides/Goodhope want to realize?
  • How well does the Birds' life in its natural state conform to Pisthetaerus/Makedo's and Euelpides/Goodhope's goals?
  • How would Pisthetaerus/Makedo's plan modify the Birds' life? What goals would his plan achieve? How would the Birds' life, on this plan, be able to satisfy Pisthetaerus/Makedo's and Euelpides/Goodhope's desires?

Friday 7 February

• What recent events helped make Athens' relations with allied and subject states -or states Athens looked to enroll as allies or to subjugate- a focus of civic attention at the time "Birds" was performed? How does "Birds" respond to recent events?
• What patterns of thought change the way Pisthetaerus/Makemedo, Euelpides/Goodhope, and the Birds think about what ideals are worth pursuing? How do they shift from looking for uncomplicated gratification to looking for empire: how does imperialism justify itself?
  • Typical fifth-century Athenians would describe extreme disengagement from communal life as apragmosyne, excessive engagement in others' affairs as polypragmosyne: what norm lies between these extremes? What sort of commitment to one's fellows does apragmosyne, the Athenian norm, or polypragmosyne imply, at the levels of family, neighbors, city-state, Greeks, humanity, and, in Aristophanes' comic fantasy, living beings?

• How do Pisthetaerus/Makemedo's goals change over the course of "Birds"? What does he want, when? When and why does he change course? What figures in Aristophanes' other plays does he resemble? Compare and contrast.
• How does the Bird-Chorus's self-image change as the plot of "Birds" progresses? Why?
• How does the text of "Birds" invite the audience to connect with the play? What kinds of connections claim to be possible?

Monday 10 February

• What satisfactions of imperialism does the "Birds" show Makemedo and the community of Birds achieving? Who gains what?
• What perils of imperialism does the "Birds" display? Who suffers?
• How does the "Birds" play with the conceptual boundaries between the fiction of the play, the real world, and simultaneously extradramatic and extraexperiential constructs like the beginning of the cosmos? Where do these levels intersect? How does the "Birds" leap from one to another?

• How does Lysistrata plan to stop war? What strengths and weaknesses do the women of the Greek city-states bring to achieving her plan?
• What do the two halves of the Chorus think of one another? What common ideas about men and women do they pick up on?
• How does Lysistrata develop traditional assumptions about gender roles in her argument with the Magistrate?

Wednesday 12 February

• What conventional assumptions about women do the male characters (or even some women) express in dissociating women from war? What basis for their assumptions do they rely on? (They may or may not adduce these reasons explicitly; if you infer them, think also about the bases you're using for your inferences.)
• Conversely, on what grounds and using what logic does Lysistrata argue that women are competent to be concerned with war? What stake(s) do she or other women assert that women, as women, have in the Athenian community?
• Compare and contrast Lysistrata with Aristophanes' male protagonists in other comedies we have read so far. What abilities and propensities does she share? In what respects does she differ? How much do the differences have to do with her being female rather than male?

• What stereotypes about Athens and Sparta are on view in Lysistrata? Consider the whole play.
• What ideas are illustrated by the scenes between Lysistrata and the women on the Acropolis, and between Myrrhine and Kinesias? What do men and women have in common?
• How does Lysistrata resolve the negotiations between the Spartan ambassador and the Athenian Magistrate?
• How does the exodos fit the particular themes and dynamics of this play?

Friday 14 February

• How does Lysistrata (the woman within the play) work to reinvigorate community values toward ending the war? How does Lysistrata (the play, as a whole)?
• How does a focus on women enable Aristophanes to look at the war and its consequences, in a way that focusing on men might not? How does he transpose "feminine" and "family" values to the state and to relationships between Greek city-states? What values does the transposition imply - about women, families, states, and being Greek?
• Compare and contrast what Aristophanes does with his Choruses in Lysistrata to how he uses his Choruses in other plays. What parts of society do they embody? What role do they take in the plot? How does the orientation of the Chorus toward the action change the way the play addresses the audience?

• Review our readings and your class notes in light of the study questions from individual days (this file, above) and the general Study Guide for this exam: what are some of the most important issues in Aristophanes’ comedy? What do the plays tell us about these issues? Do you still agree with the conclusions we drew in class meetings? Why or why not? What evidence supports your interpretations now?
• Be prepared to cite specific, concrete details from the individual plays in order to support the conclusions you now draw.
• Be prepared to explain logically and specifically how this evidence supports your arguments.
• Bring a couple of clear-writing pens or pencils, so you will have backup. I will supply blue books.
• Good luck!

Monday 17 February

• CONGRATULATIONS! You have completed the first examination.
• Keep thinking about the exam questions: in an even-more-perfect world, what more could you say about these topics?

• What problems do Praxagora and her friends perceive in Athenian society? What solution do they propose? What does their solution have to do with the problems?
• What do Praxagora and her friends feel they have to do to get their solution accepted by Athens? How do their methods relate to the civic structures and mental habits of Athens?
• In what ways do Praxagora and her friends embody Athenian stereotypes of women? In what ways do they diverge?

Wednesday 19 February

• Compare and contrast Praxagora to Aristophanes’ other master-planners, especially Dicaeopolis and Lysistrata.
  • What obstacles does Praxagora have to overcome in order to put her Grand Scheme into effect? How do the resources she deploys help meet those obstacles?
  • What use do Praxagora and her helpers make of costume?
  • What use does Praxagora make of political discourse?
  • As you compare Praxagora to Aristophanes' other comic heroes and the outcomes of their Grand Schemes, what expectations do her methods create? Does Aristophanes set up Praxagora's scheme as a Good Thing?
• How does Aristophanes use women's perspective to create political satire in "Women in Power"? Compare and contrast to the things he says about Athenian politics in other plays. What values and judgements does Aristophanes associate especially with women?
• How do conservativism and innovation relate to one another in "Women in Power"?

• What does Praxagora call for Athenian government to do, now that women are in charge?
  • How do these measures relate to the ideas about women that Aristophanes uses in his plays?
  • How do these measurers play out - what consequences do they produce in subsequent scenes?
• When is democracy invoked? What ideas does this play associate with that concept? It's not necessarily what modern Americans might expect: set aside all preconceptions, and gather the data as it comes.

Friday 21 February

• What is different about the way the action of "Women in Power" proceeds, from Aristophanes’ earlier plays?
• What experiments with the formal structures of prologue, parodos, agon, parabasis, episodic scenes, and exodos had Aristophanes made before? What did he gain for the particular arguments of individual plays by these experiments? How does "Women in Power" compare?
• Compare and contrast the role of the chorus in "Women in Power" to Aristophanes’ earlier choruses: how is their part of a comedy changing?
• What aspects of Athenian public life does "Women in Power" target, as a whole? What techniques does Aristophanes use for criticizing them? How does his technique compare with his earlier plays?
• In what ways are the schemes of shared property and shared women "democratic" (e.g., p. 48)?

• What does Pan’s prologue do to introduce Menander's The Malcontent?
• What are the central preoccupations of Sostratos? of Gorgias? of Knemon? How do what they themselves say and do, and what others say about them or do because of them, contribute to revealing these preoccupations?

Monday 24 February

• How does Menander handle exposition in The Malcontent? What types of background information are presented, and how are they presented? How does knowing the background (of prior events, of individual origins and characters - what else is relevant?) affect the way the audience can perceive unfolding action?
• What forces propel plot development? Compare and contrast to Aristophanes’ Old Comedy (earlier plays) and Middle Comedy ("Women in Power"): what dynamics of fifth- and earlier-fourth-century comedies still operate, and what new dynamics have been introduced?
• Compare and contrast the formal structure of "The Malcontent" to Aristophanes’ plays. How has the century between Menander and Aristophanes changed the ways Athenian comedy operated?

• What do visitors to Pan’s shrine expect from Knemon? How does he react? What happens in consequence?
• In what ways does Knemon change when he suffers a defeat? In what ways does he not change?
• How does Boy get Girl, in the end?
• What do Sikon and Getas do for Knemon in the final scene? Why?

Wednesday 26 February

• In what ways do family relationships serve as important themes in "The Malcontent"? What do characters care about, and why? What values are invested in families, institutionally? Compare and contrast to what Aristophanes does in his plays with ideas relating to family life.
• What other social connections are important within "The Malcontent"? What stakes do the individual and the community have in one another? How can they support their interest?
• In what ways does "The Malcontent" involve issues of social class and wealth? How does economic well-being or not-so-well-being affect characters' outlooks and actions?
• What sorts of festivity figure in Menander’s "The Malcontent"? What does the festivity do for its participants? Compare and contrast to what Aristophanes does in his plays with ideas relating to festivities.

• Remember the Writing Assigment: your first best efforts are due as of first thing next class meeting, for collaborative Peer Review.

Friday 28 February

Continue to think about your paper and about the papers you have helped peer-review.

• Did other papers point to evidence you hadn't thought about, or suggest reasoning you hadn't considered? Think about them now. Has reading these papers changed the way you think about your own arguments - either by persuading you of things you hadn't believed before, or by challenging you to develop your arguments about why what you believe understands better what Aristophanes is doing? Make notes of ways you can strengthen your evidence, arguments, and conclusions when you revise your paper.
• Did other papers suggest ways you can improve the way you express your arguments - either by demonstrating good techniques of writing, or by challenging you to think of improvements you can also make on your own writing? Make notes of ways you can strengthen and polish your expression when you revise your paper, so that it will work more effectively.

• Trace the family relationships within The Woman from Samos. Who has what reasons for caring what which one does to whom?
• What appears to be the goal(s) of the action of The Woman from Samos? What reasons does each character have for endorsing the goal(s) he or she does? What obstacles arise?

Have a great break!

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This file last updated 28 February 2003 by jlong1@orion.it.luc.edu.
http://www.luc.edu/depts/classics/