left: Zeus brandishes his thunderbolt on a Boeotian vase from the 6th-5th century BCE.
Read:
Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae (411 BCE). In Three Plays by Aristophanes.
Wiles, chapters 3 and 4
recommended: Sue-Ellen Case, "Classic Drag: The Greek Creation of Female Parts" Theatre Journal, Vol. 37, No. 3, Staging Gender (Oct., 1985), pp. 317-327. (OCRA)
Reading response choices:
1. In what ways can (or in what ways can't) Thesmophoriazusae be seen as an example of free speech (where every citizen can have a say)?
2. What is Sue-Ellen Case's main point? Do you agree or disagree and why?
3. What is funny here and why? Use Wiles as well as Aristophanes in your answer. It's OK to lift out one thing that is funny to discuss (rather than trying to speak to the play as a whole).
Below: The pigskin flask scene from Thesmophoriazusae on a Greek vase.
Recommended reading: Stephen Halliwell, "Comic Satire and Freedom of Speech in Classical Athens," Journal of Hellenic Studies 111, 1991, 48-70.
Additional links on the Thesmophoria and Greek Comedy:
*Comic phallus logistics
*Production of Lysistrata clip
*Lysistrata clip minus prosthetics
*About acoustics: Epidaurus
*About the Thesmophoria ritual
*More on Thesmophoria
*Listen to a fragment
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