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Wasps (Clarendon Paperbacks) (1988)

by Aristophanes(Favorite Author)

3.56 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0198144652 (ISBN13: 9780198144656)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

review 1: Not as good as Racine's revision (Les Plaideurs). Much simpler in plot than the Racine, but much less simple in dialogue.The Plot: The Wasps can be divided into 2 parts; it is something like two different one-act plays stapled together. The first part details Bdelycleon ("enemy of Cleon," the democrat demagogue)'s attempts to keep his insane father Philocleon ("friend of Cleon") locked in his house, and his attempts to cure him of his obsession with courts. Philocleon is a professional juror or dicast, and all he talks about, thinks about, dreams about is executing judgement on the guilty. Moreover, he tells Bdelycleon that an oracle once warned him of destruction from on high if he should ever let a guilty man go free. He "does not know how" to acquit anyone. He tries var... moreious hare-brained schemes to escape from the house, until finally his fellow dicasts (the chorus of "Wasps," so named and so dressed because of their irritable and relentlessly hostile character) come to rescue him. They bid him to climb down from his window, and go to the Ήλιαία (The Heliaea, the court of the Sun) with them to convict some more defendants. Bdelycleon shows up just in time to prevent this, and confronts his would-be rescuers. They debate Philocleon's obsession with trials, which turns into a kind of trial. Philocleon makes an opening statement about the thrill of power, the steady paycheck (in contrast to farmers and people in the private sector subject to the ebbs and flows of the free market) of the dicast, the pathos and drama of certain cases; Bdelycleon responds with a rather fallacious speech about how much better paid the democrat politicians are than the dicastoi, and how much power they have over the dicastoi, concluding therefore that, actually, the Ήλιασταί are, relatively speaking, neither well-paid nor powerful. Philocleon is so superficial and selfish that he becomes enraged at the prosecutors, Cleon and the democrats, but he still wishes he could exercise judgement. Just in the nick of time, Xanthius their slave beats their dog Labes for stealing a Sicilian cheese (likely a reference to the infamous Sicilian Expedition, right?). A mock trial is ordered. One slave prosecutes the dog; one defends. As always, Philocleon votes with the prosecution, but Bdelycleon had switched the urns in which to place one's pebble, such that he accidentally votes to acquit the dog. Philocleon then panics that evil is about to befall him from the gods.There is then the usual parabasis intermission, wherein the Chorus of Wasps praises Aristophanes and chastises his critics.Then comes part 2. Philocleon is by now cured of his addiction to the courts, and Bdelycleon tries to train him to mingle with the upper classes at a dinner party. It is to no avail. Philocleon is so vulgar (the democrats in Athens were the party of the unwashed masses, the stupid constituency) that he can't make conversation without obscene jokes, stories about stealing wine, etc. He ends up getting belligerently drunk, propositioning one of the flute girls, knocking over some loaves of bread at a bakery, insulting and trying to fight people. The φιληλιαστής has become a defendant! Now he is the object of those litigious Athenians. Poor Bdelycleon agrees to pay all damages, and drags him back into the house, where perhaps he is to be locked again.The connection, it seems, of part 2 to part 1 is that this latter event must be the divine punishment which he had feared, and he winds up back where he started in a quite amusing way. The Racine version is very different, and only in a tangential way related to the Wasps. Racine has the crazy old man as a judge, and the mock trial as something of a quixotic delusion (and not about cheese). Most of the play is a well-made plot about the son's love for an ambulance-chaser's daughter. The Wasps is far more narrow in subject, mocking Athens, but saying little about anything universal. And there is no part 2 in Racine; everything moves together. Read the Racine instead.
review 2: The Wasps is a comedy written by the Greek playwright Aristophanes and translated into English by Benjamin Rogers. The Wasps like most of Aristophanes's work finds its humor by showing the ridiculousness of leading Athenian politicians of the 5th century BC. This particular play focuses on the relationship between the dicasts who formed the judicial community of Athens and the demagogues who were its chief politicians. The story begins at the home of Philocleon, a dicast who has been held captive in his home by Bdelycleon his son who wishes to cure him of his addiction to judging. While in English these two names appear strange to the original audience they have more meaning. Philocleon means friend of Cleon, who was the premier demagogue of Athens at the time while Bdelycleon means hater of Cleon. The beginning of the play reads like an indictment of trial lawyers, those parasites which still fester in our criminal and civil justice system today, but overall the focus of the play is about the lack of power of the dicasts which they have given away to the demagogues. While this seems less talked about today it still is an issue in a world where who you know matters more than what you know. Over the course of this play Bdelycleon is able to show his father the unfair chains which he has wrapped around himself and convinces him to retire from the dicasts. In our own lives we must always look at what our actions and addictions are costing us. While the purely financial side may be minimal often there are hidden costs in time and our feelings of self worth. I know this is true in my own life and in this area I do not believe that I am unique. However once we decide one thing needs changing we must find something worthwhile to change it into. It does no good to do as Philocleon and change from a man too focused on work to one who is an alcoholic. I would argue we should better put our plans before God and ask his help transforming us to be like him. less

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