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Information about The Wasps

The Wasps

Sketch of Aristophanes
Written byAristophanes
Choruswasps (old men)
CharactersPhilocleon (Procleon)
Bdelycleon (Anticleon)
Sosias
Xanthias
boys
dogs
Chaerephon
Dardanis (flute girl)
witnesses (cooking utensils)
puppies
guest
baker's wife
accuser
Settingbefore house of Philocleon


The Wasps (Greek: Σφήκες Sphékes) is a comedy by Aristophanes. (422BC)

Plot

The play revolves around Philocleon ("Friend of Cleon") and his son Bdelycleon ("Hater of Cleon"). Philocleon is addicted to the proceedings of the Athenian court; he spends all his time as a juror, judging others.

Bdelycleon wants to help his father; he locks him in the house, but Philocleon is determined to get out and go to the court. He attempts a few comical and unsuccessful escape attempts, including a play on one used by Odysseus on the Cyclops in the Odyssey. Philocleon's fellow jurors, a chorus dressed as wasps, come to his rescue. Bdelycleon and his servants brawl with the wasps, who, despite having actual stings, are soon outmatched. Afterwards, Bdelycleon engages his father in a debate, and soon proves to him and the chorus that by serving as jurors, they achieve nothing more than to serve the demagogues. The chorus defeated, Philocleon resigns to staying home.

To help his father with his addiction, Bdelycleon sets up a court in his own home for his father to preside over. For lack of anyone else to judge, Philocleon puts the family dog on trial; it ate a tasty piece of Sicilian cheese (apparently a reference to a recent trial in which Cleon accused the Athenian general Laches of accepting bribes from Sicilian enemies of Athens. Possibly also a mockery of Cleon's trial of Aristophanes himself, mocking Cleon, also known as 'the dog', for charging Aristophanes with what he saw as ridiculous charges).

In a farcical trial, Bdelycleon defends the dog and, when all else fails, a group of children dressed as the dog's puppies come on stage. Philocleon is unmoved, but Bdelycleon switches the ballot boxes on him, and he is tricked into voting "not guilty". When "all the votes" are counted, and the dog is acquitted, Philocleon faints; apparently he has never acquitted anyone before.

The two then go to a symposium (drinking-party). Furthering the theme of role-reversal, Bdelycleon teaches his father how to behave properly at the symposium; in this scene we see an (intentional) inconsistency of Bdelycleon as a character: he expresses disdain of Cleon's manipulation of the jurors, yet fawns over Cleon and his lackeys in this 'upper-class' gathering.

Only the aftermath of the party is shown: Philocleon has gotten drunk, insulted almost everyone at the party, abducted a flute-girl, and has knocked over a bread-stall. Some of those he has wronged in the course of the night come to inform him of the suits they'll bring against him, but the unworried Philocleon mocks them. More significantly, he is happy; the chorus comments that this is quite an improvement for him. The play ends suitably absurdly, when Philocleon challenges three crabs (the sons of Carcinus, representing the tragedian playwrights of Athens) to a dance-off.

Miscellaneous

  • The English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams created a popular setting of The Wasps in 1909.
  • In some translations, the two characters are named Procleon and Anticleon

Translations

  •  • [ e] Surviving plays by Aristophanes
The Acharnians | The Knights | The Clouds | The Wasps | Peace | The Birds | Lysistrata | Thesmophoriazusae | The Frogs | Ecclesiazusae | Plutus
Aristophanes, son of Philippus (Greek: Ἀριστοφάνης, IPA: [æ:ɹɪs:tɒf:æ:niːz], ca. 456 BC – ca.
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Ancient Greek refers to the second stage in the history of the Greek language[1] as it existed during the Archaic (9th–6th centuries BC) and Classical (5th–4th centuries BC) periods in Greece.
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Greek comedy is the name given to a wide genre of theatrical plays written, and performed, in Ancient Greece. Along with tragedy, it makes up the greater portion of ancient Greek theatre, and its descendant traditions.
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Aristophanes, son of Philippus (Greek: Ἀριστοφάνης, IPA: [æ:ɹɪs:tɒf:æ:niːz], ca. 456 BC – ca.
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Cleon (Greek: Κλέων) (d. 422 BC), Athenian Strategos during the Peloponnesian War, was the son of Cleaenetus, from whom he inherited a lucrative tanning business.
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Location

Coordinates Coordinates:
Time zone: EET/EEST (UTC+2/3)
Elevation (min-max): 70 - 338 m (0 - 0 ft)
Government
Country:
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court is a public forum used by a power base to adjudicate disputes and dispense civil, labour, administrative and criminal justice under its laws. In common law and civil law states, courts are the central means for dispute resolution, and it is generally understood that all
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Odysseus or Ulysses (Greek Ὀδυσσεύς Odysseus; Latin: Ulixes or, more commonly, Ulysses), pronounced
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Cyclops (pronounced IPA: /ˈsaɪklɒps/), or Kyklops (Greek Κύκλωψ
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The Odyssey (Greek Οδύσσεια (Odússeia)) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to the Ionian poet Homer. The poem is commonly dated circa 800 to circa 600 BC.
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Demagogy (Demagoguery) (Dema from Dímos, Greek δῆμος, "people"; and agogy from ägein, ἄγειν
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Regione Autonoma Siciliana


Map highlighting the location of Sicilia in Italy

Capital Palermo
President Salvatore Cuffaro
(UDC-CdL)
Provinces Agrigento
Caltanissetta
Catania
Enna
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For other uses, see Symposium (disambiguation).
Symposium originally referred to a drinking party (the Greek verb sympotein means "to drink together") but has since come to refer to any academic conference, whether or not drinking takes place.
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In psychodrama, role reversal is a technique where the protagonist is asked, by the psychodrama director, to exchange roles with another person (an auxiliary ego) on the psychodrama stage. The former assumes as many of the roles of the other as possible and vice versa.
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Carcinus was an Ancient Greek tragedian, and was a member of a family including Xenocles (a father or uncle) and his grandfather Carcinus of Agrigentum. He received a prize for only one out of his one hundred and sixty plays, many of them composed at the court of Dionysius II of
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Ralph Vaughan Williams, OM (October 12, 1872 – August 26, 1958) was an influential English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also an important collector of English folk music and song.
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Benjamin Bickley Rogers (Shepton Montagu, Somerset, December 111828-Twickenham, September 221919) was an English classical scholar.

He was educated at Wadham College, Oxford. He was elected a Fellow of the college in 1852 and was called to the bar in 1856.
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Arthur S. Way (1847- ? ) was an English classical scholar and poet, born at Dorking. He was educated at Kingswood School, Bath, and at Queen's College, Melbourne (Australia), where he was afterward fellow.
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Aristophanes, son of Philippus (Greek: Ἀριστοφάνης, IPA: [æ:ɹɪs:tɒf:æ:niːz], ca. 456 BC – ca.
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The Acharnians

Sketch of Aristophanes
Written by Aristophanes
Chorus Acharnian charcoal burners
Characters Dicaeopolis
herald
Amphitheus
ambassadors
Pseudartabas
Theorus
daughter of Dicaeopolis
slave of Euripides
Euripides
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The Knights

Sketch of Aristophanes
Written by Aristophanes
Chorus knights
Characters Demosthenes
Nicias
Agoracritus (Sausage Seller)
Cleon
Demos

Setting Pnyx at Athens

Aristophanes' satirical play The Knights
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The Clouds

statue of Socrates
Written by Aristophanes
Chorus clouds
Characters Strepsiades
Phidippides
servant of Strepsiades
disciples of Socrates
Socrates
Just Discourse
Unjust Discourse
Pasias
Amynias
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Peace

Sketch of Aristophanes
Written by Aristophanes
Chorus husbandmen
Characters Trygaeus
servants of Trygaeus
daughters of Trygaeus
Hermes
War
Havoc
Hierocles
a sickle-maker
a crest-maker
a trumpet-maker
a helmet-maker
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The Birds

Sketch of Aristophanes
Written by Aristophanes
Chorus Birds
Characters Euelpides
Pisthetaerus
Epops
Trochilus
Phoenicopterus
Heralds
Priest
Poet
Prophet
Meton
Commissioner
Dealer in Decrees
Iris
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Lysistrata

Lysistrata illustration by Aubrey Beardsley
Written by Aristophanes
Chorus Women
Old men
Characters Lysistrata
Cleonice
Myrrhine
Lampito
Magistrates
Cinesias
Child of Cinesias
Spartan herald
Envoys
Athenians
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Thesmophoriazusae (Women Celebrating the Thesmophoria) is a comedy written by the Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was first produced in 411 BC, probably at the City Dionysia. How it fared in the competition is unknown.
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Frogs (Βάτραχοι (Bátrachoi)) is a comedy written by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed at the Lenaea, one of the Festivals of Dionysus, in 405 BC.
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Aristophanes' Assemblywomen (also known as Ecclesiazusae, the latinized spelling of the Greek title Ἐκκλησιάζουσαι Ekklesiazousai
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Plutus (Wealth) (in Greek: Πλοῦτος) is an Ancient Greek comedy by the playwright Aristophanes, first produced c. 380 BC.
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