''The Wasps'' () is the fourth in chronological order of the eleven surviving plays by

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 ...

. It was produced at the

Lenaia The Lenaia () was an annual Athenian festival with a dramatic competition. It was one of the lesser festivals of Athens and Ionia in ancient Greece. The Lenaia took place in Athens in Gamelion, roughly corresponding to January. The festival was in ...

festival in 422 BC, during

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

' short-lived respite from the

Peloponnesian War The Second Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), often called simply the Peloponnesian War (), was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek war fought between Classical Athens, Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Ancien ...

and shortly before the death of

Cleon Cleon (; ''Kleon'' ; died 422 BCE) was an Athenian politician and general (''strategos'') during the Peloponnesian War. The son of Cleaenetus, a wealthy tanner, Cleon was among the first prominent Athenian politicians of the 5th century BCE to ...

. ''The Wasps'' follows a son's attempt to stop his father from constantly serving jury duties as it is detrimental to his father's health. It also serves as a parody of Cleon; a figure Aristophanes was publicly critical of. He also ridicules the law courts, one of the institutions that provided Cleon his power. The play has been thought to exemplify the dramatic style of 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 ...

Historical Background

The Peloponnesian War

* 431: The Peloponnesian War commenced. Many of Aristophanes' plays respond to the war, such as ''

The Acharnians ''The Acharnians'' or ''Acharnians'' (Ancient Greek: ''Akharneîs''; Attic: ) is the third play — and the earliest of the eleven surviving plays — by the Athenian playwright Aristophanes. It was produced in 425 BC on behalf of the young dram ...

Peace Peace is a state of harmony in the absence of hostility and violence, and everything that discusses achieving human welfare through justice and peaceful conditions. In a societal sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (suc ...

,'' and '' Lysistrata.'' * 425: Athens obtained a significant victory against Sparta in the

Battle of Sphacteria The Battle of Sphacteria was a land battle of the Peloponnesian War, fought in 425 BC between Athens and Sparta. Following the Battle of Pylos and subsequent peace negotiations, which failed, a number of Spartans were stranded on the island of ...

and Cleon claimed responsibility for it. * 423: Athens and Sparta agreed to a one-year truce. It was during this truce that Aristophanes wrote ''Peace'', while the Peace of Niceas was being debated. * 422: ''The Wasps'' is first performed at the Lenaia festival during the pause in hostilities.

The Athenian Jury System

Constitutionally, supreme power lay with the people as voters in the assembly and as jurors in the

courts A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and administer justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law. Courts gene ...

, but they could be manipulated by demagogues skilled in oratory and supported by networks of satellites and informers. Jurors had to be citizens over the age of thirty and a corps of 6,000 was enrolled at the beginning of each year. The work was voluntary but time-consuming and they were paid a small fee: three obols per day at the time of ''The Wasps''. For many jurors, this was their major source of income and it was virtually an old-age pension. There were no judges to provide juries with legal guidance, and there was no legal appeal against a jury's verdict. Jurors came under the sway of litigious politicians like Cleon who provided them with cases to try and who were influential in persuading the Assembly to keep up their pay.

Cleon

During Aristophanes' life, Cleon was the

demagogue A demagogue (; ; ), or rabble-rouser, is a political leader in a democracy who gains popularity by arousing the common people against elites, especially through oratory that whips up the passions of crowds, Appeal to emotion, appealing to emo ...

of Athens. Aristophanes often criticized powerful figures in his plays, and Cleon was no exception, most notably in ''The Wasps.'' Two years before ''The Wasps'' was first performed, Athens had obtained a significant victory against its rival,

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

, in the

. Most Athenians credited Cleon with the victory. Cleon had succeeded

Pericles Pericles (; ; –429 BC) was a Greek statesman and general during the Golden Age of Athens. He was prominent and influential in Ancient Athenian politics, particularly between the Greco-Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War, and was acclaimed ...

as the dominant speaker in the assembly, and increasingly he could manipulate the courts for political and personal ends, especially in the prosecution of public officials for mismanagement of their duties. ''The Wasps'' is not the first time Aristophanes criticized Cleon through the theatre. Aristophanes' plays promote conservative values and support an honorable peace with Sparta, whereas Cleon was a radical democrat and a leader of the pro-war faction. Cleon had previously attempted to prosecute Aristophanes for slandering the ''polis'' with his second play ''The Babylonians'', and though the legal result of these efforts is unknown, they appear to have sharpened the poet's satirical edge, as evidenced later in the unrelenting attack on Cleon in ''The Knights''. The second parabasis in ''The Wasps'' implies that Cleon retaliated for his drubbing in ''The Knights'' with yet further efforts to intimidate or prosecute Aristophanes, and the poet may have publicly yielded to this pressure for a short time.

Plot

Synopsis

''The Wasps'' follows Bdelycleon's efforts to convince his father Philocleon to change his ways and stop spending all of his time as a juryman. When trapping Philocleon in the house with nets doesn't work, Bdelycleon debates his father, winning over the favor of the chorus. To make his father feel better, Bdelycleon holds a domestic complaint trial within the house. Philocleon is distressed by its outcome of acquittal, but his son tries to cheer him up by taking him to a party. While at the party, Philocleon becomes incredibly drunk and angers the community. The audience is warned of becoming too stuck in their ways, and what blind worship of Cleon leads to as the play concludes with Philocleon leading the cast in a spirited dance.

Summary

''The Wasps'' opens in front of a house covered with a large net. It is guarded by two slaves, Sosias and Xanthias (the latter of whom is asleep). Bdelycleon, their master, is positioned on the roof but he too is asleep. The two slaves wake and we learn from their banter that they are keeping guard over an "animal." Xanthias addresses the audience, explaining that their master is a very important man who has tasked them with guarding his father who has an unusual disease. Xanthias and Sosias challenge the audience to guess the nature of the disease. Addictions to gambling, drink and good times are suggested but they are all wrong—the father is addicted to the law court: he is a ''phileliastes'' () or a "trialophile." The symptoms of the old man's addiction include irregular sleep, obsessional thinking, paranoia, poor hygiene and hoarding. Counselling, medical treatment and travel have all failed to solve the problem, and now Bdelycleon has turned the house into a prison by covering it in nets to keep the old man away from the law courts. Bdelycleon wakes and he shouts to the two slaves to be on their guard—his father is moving about. He tells them to watch the drains, for the old man can move like a mouse, but Philocleon surprises them all by emerging instead from the chimney disguised as smoke. Bdelycleon is luckily on hand to push him back inside. Philocleon is desperate to escape, as he was once told by an Delphic oracle that if he ever let an accused man go free, he would die of consumption. He tries to get out by chewing through the nets and trickery, which fails. The household settles down for some more sleep after discussing how they can fend off the other jurors who may come and fetch Philocleon. Then the Chorus (costumed as wasps) arrives. They are the old jurors who move warily through the muddy roads and are escorted by boys with lamps through the dark. Philocleon appears and informs them of his imprisonment. The Chorus asks if there is a way he can escape from Bdelycleon, and after some discussion, he chews a hole through one of the nets and climbs down from his window. Despite his attempts to be quiet, this wakes Bdelycleon and Xanthias up. Philocleon calls for the defense of The Chorus who swarm around Bdelycleon and his slaves like wasps. The Chorus accuses Bdelycleon of tyranny for keeping his father away from the courts, Bdelycleon responds that tyranny is thrown around as an accusation too much. At the end of this fray, Philocleon is still barely in his son's custody and both sides are willing to settle the issue peacefully through debate. If Bdelycleon wins, The Chorus says that it will be over for all old men, who will be seen only as useless. Philocleon swears to fall on his own sword if he loses. The debate between the Philocleon and Bdelycleon focuses on the advantages that the old man personally derives from voluntary jury service. Philocleon says he enjoys the flattering attentions of rich and powerful men who appeal to him for a favourable verdict, he enjoys the freedom to interpret the law as he pleases since his decisions are not subject to review, and his juror's pay gives him independence and authority within his own household. Bdelycleon responds to these points with the argument that jurors are in fact subject to the demands of petty officials and they get paid less than they deserve—revenues from the empire go mostly into the private treasuries of men like Cleon. These arguments have a paralyzing effect on Philocleon. The chorus is won over to Bdelycleon's side. Philocleon refuses to give up his old ways, so Bdelycleon offers to turn the house into a courtroom and to pay him a juror's fee to judge domestic disputes. Philocleon agrees, and a case is soon brought before him—a dispute between the household dogs. One dog (who looks like Cleon) accuses the other dog (who looks like Laches) of stealing a Sicilian cheese and not sharing it. Witnesses for the defense include a bowl, a pestle, a cheese-grater, a brazier and a pot. As these are unable to speak, Bdelycleon says a few words for them on behalf of the accused. Philocleon is not softened, but his son easily fools him into putting his vote into the urn for acquittal by misdirecting his hand. Philocleon is shocked by the pronouncement that Labes is acquitted and faints. He worries what will become of him now that he no longer convicts those brought before him, but his son promises him food and drink and they exit the stage to prepare for some entertainment. While the actors are offstage, the Chorus addresses the audience in a conventional

parabasis In Greek comedy, the parabasis (plural parabases; , plural: ) is a point in the play when all of the actors leave the stage and the chorus is left to address the audience directly. The chorus partially or completely abandons its dramatic role, to ...

. It praises the author for standing up to monsters like Cleon and it chastises the audience for its failure to appreciate the merits of the author's previous play (''

The Clouds ''The Clouds'' (, ''Nephelai'') is a Greek comedy play written by the playwright Aristophanes. A lampooning of intellectual fashions in classical Athens, it was originally produced at the City Dionysia in 423BC and was not as well received as th ...

''). It encourages the audience to value poets more in the future and to treasure the wisdom they give. It praises the older generation, evokes memories of the victory at

Marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...

, and bitterly deplores the gobbling up of imperial revenues by unworthy men. Father and son then return to the stage, now arguing with each other over the old man's choice of attire. He is addicted to his old juryman's cloak and his old shoes, and he is suspicious of the Persian tunic and the Spartan footwear that Bdelycleon wants him to wear that evening to a sophisticated dinner party. The fancy clothes are forced upon him, and he is instructed in the kind of manners and conversation that the other guests will expect of him. At the party, Philocleon declares his reluctance to drink any wine—it causes trouble, he says—but Bdelycleon assures him that sophisticated men of the world can easily talk their way out of trouble, and so they depart optimistically for the evening's entertainment. There is then a second parabasis (see Note at end of this section), in which the Chorus touches briefly on a conflict between Cleon and the author. After which, Xanthias arrives with news for the audience about the old man's appalling behavior at the dinner party: Philocleon has got himself abusively drunk, he has insulted all his son's fashionable friends, and now he is assaulting anyone he meets on the way home. Xanthias departs as Philocleon arrives, now with aggrieved victims on his heels and a pretty flute girl on his arm. Bdelycleon appears moments later and angrily remonstrates with his father for kidnapping the flute girl from the party. Philocleon pretends that she is in fact a torch. His son isn't fooled, and he tries to take the girl back to the party by force, but his father knocks him down. Other people with grievances against Philocleon continue to arrive, demanding compensation and threatening legal action. The first is the Baker's Wife, who accuses Philocleon of knocking over 10 loaves of bread with his torch and threatens to summon him before the market instructors for what he has done. A badly bruised man approaches Philocleon next and accuses him of outrage. He makes an ironic attempt to talk his way out of trouble like a sophisticated man of the world, but it inflames the situation further. Finally, his alarmed son drags him indoors. The Chorus sings briefly about how difficult it is for men to change their habits, and it commends the son for filial devotion. Philocleon returns to the stage dressed as the

Polyphemus Polyphemus (; , ; ) is the one-eyed giant son of Poseidon and Thoosa in Greek mythology, one of the Cyclopes described in Homer's ''Odyssey''. His name means "abounding in songs and legends", "many-voiced" or "very famous". Polyphemus first ap ...

from Euripedes' ''Cyclops'' and begins dancing, which others comment on in a concerned manner. He competes in dancing against the sons of

Carcinus ''Carcinus'' ( '' Karkinos'') is a genus of crabs, which includes '' Carcinus maenas'', an important invasive species, and '' C. aestuarii'', a species endemic to the Mediterranean Sea. ''Carcinus maenas'' ''C. maenas'' is among the 100 "wor ...

dressed as crabs. The chorus declines to join, ending the play by allowing Philocleon and the sons of Carcinus to dance off the stage. (Note: Some editors (such as Barrett) exchange the second parabasis (lines 1265–91) with the song (lines 1450–73) in which Bdelycleon is commended for filial devotion.)

Scholarship

Some scholars regard ''The Wasps'' as one of the greatest comedies in literature. Various factors contribute to its appeal, as for example: * The central figure, Philocleon, is a 'triumph of characterization'; * The jurors have been considered the most vividly realized Chorus in Old Comedy; * The juror's son has been viewed as the most lifelike child in Greek drama.

Names

Philocleon's name means ''lover of Cleon'', reflective of his love for the jury system and status as a follower of Cleon. Bdelycleon means the opposite, or anti to lover of Cleon. Some scholars additionally interpret Bdelycleon's name to mean ''lover of the people'', as that, in Aristophanes' view was equivalent to ''hater of Cleon''. The dog accused of stealing Sicilian cheese's name is Labes, a parody of the name Laches. Laches was accused by Cleon of embezzling funds from Sicily, reflected in the accusation of the cheese theft.

The Character of Philocleon

Philocleon is a complex character whose actions have comic significance, psychological significance and allegorical significance. When, for example, he strikes his son for taking the dancing girl away, the violence is comic because it is unexpected of an old man yet it is psychologically appropriate because he is struggling to overcome an addiction and it represents in allegorical form the theme expressed by the Chorus in the parabasis: the old customs are better and more manly than the new fashions. The debilitating effects of old age and the dehumanizing effects of an addiction (Philocleon is said to resemble a jackdaw, a mouse, a limpet, smoke, a donkey's foal, a cut of meat, Odysseus and Nobody) are somber themes that lift the action beyond the scope of a mere farce. The scholar Robert Cowan argues that Philocleon's journey and arc throughout the play are meant to be reflections of stages of life for an Athenian man. His strength and vigor at the beginning are representative of a young man. Philocleon's involvement in debate with his adult son place him as simply a man. His declining state as he dances to close ''The Wasps'' is indicative of the effects of aging.

Interactions with ''
The Oresteia The ''Oresteia'' () is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus in the 5th century BC, concerning the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra, the murder of Clytemnestra by Orestes, the trial of Orestes, the end of the curse on the House of ...
''

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; ; /524 – /455 BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek tragedy, tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is large ...

' ''The Oresteia'' was first performed 36 years before Aristophanes' ''The Wasps'', and some classicists believe that Aristophanes was parodying the trilogy in his play due to several parallels in their structure and imagery. Both ''The Wasps'' and ''

Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (; ''Agamémnōn'') was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans during the Trojan War. He was the son (or grandson) of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of C ...

'' begin with two side characters taking a night watch and explaining to the audience the circumstances with which the play begins. The trial between the two household dogs in the second half of the play follows a similar structure to the trial in Eumenides, the third play in ''The Oresteia.'' The cloak scene after the trial in ''The Wasps'' draws the closest connection to what Aristophanes' was trying to say by parodying ''Eumenides'' and ''The Oresteia'' as a whole. Bdelycleon forcing his father to change his cloak mirrors Erinyes' costume change after the trial at the center of ''Euminedes''. Both of these costume changes are meant to signal a transformation of character in the eyes of the audience. Unlike in ''Euminedes'', Philocleon's transformation doesn't take hold, and his mishaps at the dinner party only reinforce his comic reputation in the play. By undercutting this audience expectation, Aristophanes is arguing against the cut and dry morals of Greek tragedy.

''The Wasps'' and Old Comedy

''The Wasps'' has been thought to exemplify all the conventions of Old Comedy at their best – structural elements that are common to most of Aristophanes' plays are all found in this play in a complete and readily identifiable form. The table below is based on one scholar's interpretation of the play's structural elements and the poetic meters associated with them.''Aristophanes: Wasps'' D. MacDowell (ed), Oxford University Press 1971, p. 6 and Commentary section

Adaptions and Other Work Inspired by ''The Wasps''

* In 1909, the English composer

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams ( ; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

created popular

incidental music Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as th ...

for the play – see

The Wasps (Vaughan Williams) ''The Wasps'' is incidental music composed by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1909. It was written for the Cambridge Greek Play production of Aristophanes' ''The Wasps'' at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was Vaughan Williams' firs ...

. * In 2025, an English language

film adaptation A film adaptation transfers the details or story of an existing source text, such as a novel, into a feature film. This transfer can involve adapting most details of the source text closely, including characters or plot points, or the original sou ...

was released.

Translations

* William James Hickie, 1853 – prose
full text
* Benjamin B. Rogers, 1924 – verse
full text
*

Arthur S. Way Arthur Sanders Way (13 February 1847 – 25 September 1930), was a classical scholar, translator and headmaster of Wesley College, Melbourne, Australia. Arthur Way, son of the Rev. William Way and his wife Matilda, ''née'' Francis, was b ...

, 1934 – verse *

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of Realism (theatre), realism, earlier associated with ...

, 1938 -- prose
full text
*

Douglass Parker Douglass Stott Parker, Sr. (May 27, 1927 – February 8, 2011) was an American classicist, academic, and translator. He was one of the first scholars to write favorably about J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings''. Early life Douglass ...

, 1962 – verse * Alan H. Sommerstein, 1983 – prose and verse * Unknown translator – prose
full text
* Peter Meineck, 1998 – prose * George Theodoridis, 2007 – prose
full text
* The Atticist, 2018 – prose and verse with commentary
full text
*

Moses Hadas Moses Hadas (June 25, 1900, Atlanta, Georgia – August 17, 1966) was an American teacher, a classical scholar, and a translator of numerous works from Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and German. Life Raised in Atlanta in a Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Je ...

available for digital loan

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wasps, The Plays by Aristophanes Plays about slavery Plays set in ancient Greece Plays set in Athens Fictional Hymenoptera