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IAN OLIVER

University of Colorado Boulder

Aristophanes was an Athenian comic playwright of the late‐fifth and early‐fourth century BCE. Eleven of his plays survive, of which Acharnians (425 BCE), Knights (424), Clouds (423, revised 418–416), Wasps (422), Birds (414), Lysistrata (411), and Thesmophoriazusae (411) all appear to allude to Herodotus’ Histories in some way. These allusions have often been taken to provide a terminus ante quem for the “publication” of the Histories. The evidence, however, remains circumstantial and inconclusive: without an explicit mention of Herodotus, Aristophanic resemblances may simply reflect common sources, common subjects, or a common historical context between the two authors.

Acharnians. Like Herodotus’ “learned Persians” for the PERSIAN WARS (1.1–5), the protagonist of Aristophanes’ Acharnians (Dikaiopolis) blames the PELOPONNESIAN WAR on a reciprocal series of abductions of women (523–28). Fornara (1971) argues that this passage contains no substantial allusion to Herodotus but merely a circumstantial resemblance. Cobet (1977) and Sansone (1985) reassert the case for an allusion: Cobet argues that Aristophanes’ tauta men dē smikra… (Ach. 523–24) mimics Herodotus’ tauta men dē isa… (1.2.1); Sansone believes that the presence of the characteristically historiographical men dē alone constitutes a secure reference. For more possible references, see Wells (1923, 169–82).

Other plays from the mid‐420s. Knights [1] echoes the DREAM of AGARISTE (II) wherein the unborn PERICLES is likened to a LION (Hdt. 6.131.2) at line 1037, [2] recalls the phrase “wooden wall” (teichos xulinon, 7.141.3) at 1040, and [3] refers to ECBATANA as a seat of power (1.98) at 1089. Clouds evokes Herodotus’ description of the NILE (2.25) at 272, and the chorus’ appeal to ATHENS (576–94) resembles that of PAN at 6.105.2. Finally, Wasps (1084) vaguely recalls the Spartan DIENECES’ witticism (7.226.1). No single element convinces by itself, but their combined weight is remarkable. (For thematic resemblances, see Davie 1979 and von Möllendorff 2003.)

Plays from the 410s. Fornara (1971) rejected all early references in favor of a later terminus ante quem, pointing to a second concentration of Herodotean references in the 410s, especially in the Birds. For Fornara, the critical passage is Birds 1124–38, which resembles Herodotus’ description of the Wall of BABYLON (1.179.1) and of the PYRAMIDS (2.127.1). Birds also refers to the Wall of Babylon (552) and to oracles of Bacis (961–62, cf. Hdt. 8.77). Finally, two of Aristophanes’ plays performed in 411 BCE refer to the Halicarnassian queen, ARTEMISIA (cf. Hdt. 8.87–88): Lysistrata (675) and Thesmophoriazusae (1200).

SEE ALSO: Athens and Herodotus; Date of Composition; Rape; Reception of Herodotus, Ancient Greece and Rome