Literature of antiquity and the Middle Ages - Summary - 2019

Hippes
Aristophanes (approx. 445-386 BC e)

The riders are not just horse riders: the so-called Athens estate was called the one who had enough money to keep the horse in combat. These were wealthy people, had small estates outside the city, lived on their income from them, and wanted Athens to be a peaceful, closed agricultural state.

Poet Aristophanes wanted the world; that's why he made the riders a chorus of his comedy. They acted as two half-gods and, to be funny, rode on toy wooden horses. And before them, the actors played a Shuttle parody of Athenian political life. The host of the state is an old man, a dull, lazy and survivor of the mind, and his cunning politicians-demagogues are cursing and drowning: who is more agreeable, he is stronger. On the stage there are four of them: the two are the real names, Nicky and Demosthenes, the third name is Kozhevnik (his real name is Kleon), and the fourth is called Sweatshirt (this main character Aristophanes invented himself).

Time for peaceful agitation was difficult. Nick and Demosthenes (not the comedians, but the real Athenian generals; do not confuse this Demosthenes with the famous speaker of the same name who lived a hundred years later) just surrounded the city of Pylos captured a large Spartan army, but could not break and capture him. They offered to take advantage of this to make a profitable world. And their opponent, Cleon (he was indeed a craftsman-tanner), demanded to kill the enemy and continue the war until victory. Then the enemies of Cleon offered him to take command himself - in the hope that he, who had never fought, would defeat and descend from the scene. But there was a surprise: Cleon won a victory for Pylos, led the Spartan prisoners to Athens, and after that he was completely out of politics in politics: whoever tried to argue with Cleon and to account for him, They immediately reminded: "And Pylos? and Pylos? "- and had to be silent. And Aristophanes assumed an unthinkable task: to rebuke this "Pylos", so that at any mention of this word, the Athenians remembered not the victory of Kleonov, but Aristophany jokes would not be proud, but laughed.

So, on the stage, the house of the host of the people, and in front of the house sit and grieve two of his servant servants, Nick and Demosthenes: they were at the master's mercy, and now they were thrown off by a new slave, a scarlet tanner. They two brewed a nice porridge in Pylos, and he snatched her from under her nose and brought them to the people. The one is flourishing, and the tanner throws all the tidbits. What to do Let's see in ancient predictions! War is a disturbing, superstitious time; people in a lot remembered (or invented) the ancient dark prophecies and interpreted them in accordance with the present circumstances. As long as the tanner sleeps, we steal from him the most important prophecy from under the pillow! Stole It says: "The worst defeats only the worst: there will be a canal in Athens, but his cattle breeder is worse, and his tanner is worse, and worse than his sausage". The politician-channeler and pastoralist have already been in power; now there is a leatherette;

Here is a sausage with a meat tray. "Are you a scientist?" - "Only the shreds". - "What did I study?" - "To steal and to unlock". - "What do you live?" - "And before, and behind, and sausages". - "Oh, our savior! Do you see this people in the theater? Do you want to be ruler over them all? Rid the Council, pluck in the meeting, drink and err on the rationale? One leg to stand in Asia, the other in Africa? "-" Yes, I'm a low-caliber! "-" It's better! "-" Yes, I'm almost illiterate! "-" That's good! "-" And what should I do? " - "The same as with sausages: stir more steadily, satiety stronger, sweetie sweetish, loudly call." - "And who will help?" - "Riders!" On wooden horses, riders come on stage, chasing Kleon-Tanner. "Here is your enemy: surpass his bravery, and your fatherland is yours!"

The contest begins in a boom, alternated with fights. "You are a tanner, you are a scammer, all your pillars are rotten!" - "But I swallowed a whole Pylos with one sip!" - "But first, he filled the womb with all the treasury of Athens!" - "The sausage himself himself, the piston himself himself stole!" The choir comments, podzhuzhivat, remembers the good manners of the fathers and praises the citizens of the best intentions of the poet Aristophanes: they were good composers of comedy, but one old, another drunk, but this is worth it. to listen So it was supposed in all the old comedies.

But this is a tale, the main thing ahead. An old folk goes out to the noise of the house with a wailing gait: which of the contenders loves him more? "If I do not love you, let me open on the straps!" Shrinks the tanner. "And let me put them to the stuff!" Shakes the sausage. "I want your Athens to rule over the whole of Greece!" - "So that you, the people, suffered in campaigns, and he got profit from every prey!" - "Remember, the people, how many conspiracies I saved you!" - "Do not believe him, this he himself has mutilated the water to catch the fish! "-" Here's my sheepskin to warm old bones! "-" And here's a pad under the ass, which you rub, while you are drinking with Salamin! "-" I have a whole chest of good prophecy for you. " ! "-" And I have a whole barn! "One after another they read these prophecies - a great pair of meaningless words - 'and one after another they interpret the most fantastic in an organic way: each for the benefit of yourself and evil opponent. Of course, at the sausage, it turns out to be much more interesting. When the prophecies are over, the commonly known proverbs go along with the most unexpected interpretations of the day's wickedness. Finally, it comes to the saying: "There are, besides Pilos, Pylos, but there is also Pylos and the third!" (In Greece there were indeed three cities under this name), there should be a bunch of untranslatable puns for the word "Pylos". And it's ready - the goal of Aristophanes is reached, not one of the audience will remember this Cleon "Pylos" without merry laughter. "Here is the people, the people, I'm a slave!" - "But I'm a porridge!" - "And here's a pie!" - "And I'm the wine!" - "And I'm hot!" - "Oh, a tanner, look "Yes, they carry money, you can get a profit!" - "Where? where? "The leatherman rushes to look for money, the sausage grabs his roast and delivers himself. "Ah, you are a scoundrel, Do you bring someone else from yourself! "-" And have not you and Pylos have been appropriated by himself after Nicky and Demosthenes? "-" It does not matter who fried - the honor of the bearer! "- proclaims the People. Tanneries are thrown in the neck, the sausage is proclaimed the main adviser of the People. The choir sings all these couples for the glory of the people and in the abomination of such a devil, and such a coward, and such an embezzlement, of all - under their own names.

The isolation is fabulous. There was a myth about the witch Medea, who threw the old man in a pot with potions, and the old man came out of there with a young man. That's the way the catwalk throws the old people in a boiling pot for the stage and the cat leaves the young and blooming. They walk along the stage, and the People majestically announce how good people will now live well and how bad will they pay off (and such, such, etc.), and the choir rejoices that old good times come back when everyone lived precious, peaceful and full.