The Comic Affixation to Myth: a survey of the Poetae Comici Graeci

The comic affixation to mythology: a survey of the Poetae Comici GraeciThe comic poet Philemon (4th c. BC, New Comic) writes about Niobe as follows (K-A 102):ἐγὼ λίθον μὲν τὴν Νιόβην, μὰ τοὺς θeούς,οὐδέποτ’ ἐπeίσθην, οὐδὲ νῦν πeισθήσομαιὡς τοῦτ’ ἐγένeτ’ ἄνθρωπος• ὑπὸ δὲ τῶν κακῶντῶν συμπeσόντων τοῦ τe συμβάντος πάθουςοὐδὲν λαλῆσαι δυναμένη πρὸς οὐδένα, προσηγορeύθη διὰ τὸ μὴ φωνeῖν λίθος. "I have never been convinced, by the gods, that the rock is Niobe and not now will I be convinced that a human turned into this thing. But by the evils that happened and the affliction that occurred she was not able to say anything to anyone, she was called a rock because she wouldn’t speak."His rationalizing of the myth stands out; the approach and language are borrowed from the mythographer Palaephatus (4th c. BC) who de-mythologizes the same story. As H. G. Nesselrath (1990, 217, 231) notes, myth rationalization (der Mythenrationalisierung) was a popular device of Middle Comedy and he cites two additional mythographers – Euhemerus and Hecataeus – whose approach comics picked up for themselves. For example in a fragment (K-A 31) of Anaxandrides (4th c. BC, Middle Comedy) the poet portrays the god Nereus as the inventor of expensive seafood delicacies which may be compared to some of the Euhemerus narrations found in Diodorus Siculus. It is possible that ancient comics borrowed some of their material from historians and mythographers, since they parodied every other genre including epic and tragedy. Old Comedy does not shy from fixing myths either as this fragment of Aristophanes (5th c., Old Comedy) shows with its false/unexpected etymology (K-A 373): ἐνταῦθα δ’ ἐτυράννeυeν Ὑψιπύλης πατὴρ Θόας, βραδύτατος ὢν ἐν ἀνθρώποις δραμeῖν. (And here the father of Hypsipyle ruled Thoas, who was the slowest to run amongst men.) And even earlier comedy from Sicily like Epicharmus (5th c., Sicilian Comedy) shows a comic rationalizing of myth (K-A 100): ἁ δ’ Ἁσυχία χαρίeσσα γυνά, καὶ Σωφροσύνας πλατίον οἰκeῖ. (And Hesychia is a beautiful woman and she lives near Sophrosyne.) Ancient comedy tends to omit the marvelous side of the myth and instead replaces it with some humanized form, but unlike their models, these de-mythologies have a comic spin. Regardless of period (5th c. Sicilian, Old, Middle, or New) and treatment, gods/goddesses and mythological narrative make up a large portion of all Greek comedies – either in part or full. The following talk will elucidate comic fragments that have a mythological bent and attempt to categorize them based on the assumed comic mechanism of each. Bowie (2000, 322) warns against reading too much into comic titles and categorizing each poem’s approach to mythology just as Rosen (1995, 120) warns against categorizing poets by period. Yet there is much to gain in categorizing each fragment’s approach to mythology whether it’s a rationalization of a story, a first invention of something attributed to a god, or a comic etymology. I will show that ancient comedy had a myriad of different approaches to myth, all of which constitute some comic inversion of models and narrations found in other genres.Select BibliographyBowie, A. “Myth and Ritual and the Rivals of Aristophanes,” in The Rivals of Aristophanes, ed. D. Harvey & J. Wilkens. London, UK: Gerald Duckworth & Co., 2000.Kassel, R. & Austin, C. Poetae Comici Graeca (PCG) [vol. i-viii]. Berlin, Germany: Walter deGruyter & Co., 1983-2001.Nesselrath, H-G. Die attsche Mittlere Komodie. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter, 1990.Rosen, R. “Plato Comicus and the Evolution of Greek Comedy,” in Beyond Aristophanes (APAACS #38) , ed. G. W. Dobrov. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1995.Stern, J. Palaephatus: On Unbelievable Tales. Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1996.