Page:Comedies of Aristophanes (Hickie 1853) vol2.djvu/74

THE ARGUMENT.

"The Thesmophoriazusm was acted 01. 92, 1, in the archonship of Callias. Scholiast on vs. S-ll, tTtaivtl tov Aafxaxov vvv' ijSt] yap tTiOriiKti tv SiKfXi^ TtrdpTtf) trti Trporepov. Lamachus died in the beginning of 01. 91, 2. See Thuc. vi. 101. Scholiast on vs. 190, ■ytpuiv yap tots EvpnriSijQ ijV iKTq) youj' tret varepov Ti(vr^. Eu- ripides died about the close of 01. 93, 2, or the beginning of 93, 3. Scholiast on Ran. 53, »"; yap 'Ai'dpojxESa oySoiii Irii 7Tposi<Ti)KTai, i. e. 01. 91, 4. Now Aristophanes himself (Thesm. vs. 1060) testifies that the Andromeda was acted the year before the Thesmophoriaztis(e." Knger. Dindorf and Wachsmuth also refer it to this year ; on the contrary, Dobree and Fritzsche refer it to 01. 92, 2.

The ThesmophoriazusdR has a proper intrigue, a knot which is not loosed till the conclusion, and in this therefore possesses a great advantage. Euripides, on account of the well-known hatred of women displayed in his tragedies, is accused and condemned at the Thesmophoria, at which festival women only were admitted. After a fruitless attempt to induce the effeminate poet Agathon to under- take the hazardous experiment, Euripides prevails on his father-in- law, Mnesilochus, who was somewhat advanced in years, to disguise himself as a woman, that xnider this assumed appearance he may plead his cause. The manner in which he does this gives rise *to suspicions, and he is discovered to be a man ; he flies to the altar for refuge, and to secure himself still more from the impending danger, he snatches a child from the arms of one of the women, and threatens to kill it if they do not let him alone. Upon examin- ation, however, it turns out to be a wine-skin, wrapped up like a child. Euripides now appears in a number of different shapes to save his friend : at one time he is Menelaus, who finds Helen again in Egypt ; at another time he is Echo, helping the chained Andro- meda to pour out her lamentations, and immediately after he ap- pears as Perseus, about to release her from the rock. At length he succeeds in rescuing Mnesilochus, who is fastened to a sort of pil- lory, by assuming the character of a procuress, and enticing away the officer of justice who has charge of him, a simple barbarian, by the charms of a dancing-girl. These parodied scenes, composed almost entirely in the very words of Euripides' tragedies, are in- imitable. Whenever Euripides is introduced, we may always, ge- nerally speaking, lay our account with having the most ingenious and apposite ridicule : it seems as if the mind of Aristophanes pos- sessed!^ a peculiar and specific power of giving a comic turn to the poetry of this tragedian. Whatever be the faults of the present play, it will be very generally admitted to be the drollest and most facetious of all the writings of Aristophanes.