In the

theatre of ancient Greece A Theatre, theatrical culture flourished in ancient Greece from 700 BC. At its centre was the Polis, city-state of Classical Athens, Athens, which became a significant cultural, political, and religious place during this period, and the theatre ...

, the ''eirōn'' (, “dissembler”) was one of various stock characters in

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

.Carlson (1993, 23) and Janko (1987, 45, 170). The usually succeeded by bringing down his braggart opponent (the "boaster") by understating his own abilities.Frye (1957, 172). The eiron lends his name to the related concept of

irony Irony, in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what, on the surface, appears to be the case with what is actually or expected to be the case. Originally a rhetorical device and literary technique, in modernity, modern times irony has a ...

History

The developed in Greek

Old Comedy Old Comedy is the first period of the ancient Greek comedy, according to the canonical division by the Alexandrian grammarians.Mastromarco (1994) p.12 The most important Old Comic playwright is Aristophanes – whose works, with their daring pol ...

and can be found in many of

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Ancient Greek comedy, comic playwright from Classical Athens, Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. The majority of his surviving play ...

' plays. For example, in '' The Frogs'', after the God

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ...

claims to have sunk 12 or 13 enemy ships with Cleisthenes (son of Sibyrtius), his slave Xanthias says "Then I woke up." The

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

mentions the in his ''

Nicomachean Ethics The ''Nicomachean Ethics'' (; , ) is Aristotle's best-known work on ethics: the science of the good for human life, that which is the goal or end at which all our actions aim. () It consists of ten sections, referred to as books, and is closely ...

'', where he says: "in the form of understatement, self-deprecation, and its possessor the self-deprecator" (1108a12).'ἡ δ' ἐπὶ τὸ ἔλαττον εἰρωνεία καὶ εἴρων (1108a12, emphasis added); Perseus Digital Library (2006)
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
In this passage, Aristotle establishes the ''eirōn'' as one of the main characters of comedy, along with the .

Irony

The modern term

is derived from the of the classical Greek theatre. Irony entails opposition (not mere difference) between the actual meaning and the apparent meaning of something.Dictionary.com (2006)
Irony
/ref>

References

Sources

* Abrams, M. H., ed. 1993. ''A Glossary of Literary Terms.'' 6th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College. * Carlson, Marvin. 1993. ''Theories of the Theatre: A Historical and Critical Survey from the Greeks to the Present.'' Expanded ed. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. . * Frye, Northrop. 1957. ''Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays''. London: Penguin, 1990. . * Janko, Richard, trans. 1987. ''Poetics with Tractatus Coislinianus, Reconstruction of Poetics II and the Fragments of the On Poets.'' By

. Cambridge: Hackett. {{ISBN, 0-87220-033-7.

External links

Character Functions
according to Northrop Frye Ancient Greek theatre Male characters in theatre Stock characters in ancient Greek comedy

History

Irony

See also

References

Sources

External links