Chorus: (singing; tragically)
"How, will you kill this coal-basket, my beloved comrade?"

Satirical, absurd, self-referential, low-brow comedy, circa 5th century BC.

rip dikaiopolis, you would have loved to dramatically recline on a diwan and call someone a bitch

o critică amuzantă a războiului peloponesiac și nevoia de pace, chiar una privată :)
și o traducere foarte bună de liviu franga.

La commedia di Aristofane in tutta la sua potenza fantascientifica, in tutta la sua volgarità becera, in tutta la sua utopia folle. La trama è semplice: Diceopoli (nome parlante per “cittadino giusto”), stufo della continua guerra tra Atene, la sua patria, e Sparta (guerra reale che si combatteva negli anni del teatro aristofaneo) e del fatto che gli ambasciatori inviati a trattare i termini della pace avessero pensato solo ad arricchirsi, decide di stipulare una tregua valida solo per sé e la sua famiglia (la Pace è concepita come un qualsiasi liquido capace di essere imbottigliato, venduto e versato a discrezione del proprietario in favore di questa o quest’altra persona che più avanti gli chiederanno qualche anno di tregua). Gli Acarnesi, vecchi combattenti di Maratona, però, non ci stanno e vogliono lapidarlo per il suo gesto da traditore: ma quando Diceopoli minaccia di “uccidere” dei pezzi di carbone, da loro scavati, quelli si placano e acconsentono a udire le sue motivazioni. Allora Diceopoli va da Euripide (eterno nemico di Aristofane, che lo sbeffeggia e lo prende in giro non solo per le sue tragedie ma anche per la sua alleanza con i sofisti, che usano la parola per ottenere la vittoria negli agoni e non per perseguire il bene, come sarebbe giusto) per chiedergli in prestito gli stracci dei suoi eroi più malandati in modo da poter impietosire gli Acarnesi, e anche un po' della sua eloquenza per poterli convincere che la sua decisione è stata giusta. Convinti i vecchi, inizia la festa: Diceopoli invita tutti gli stranieri a commerciare con lui (un uomo gli vende le sue figlie spacciandole per porcelle) e mentre lui beve e festeggia e concede un po' di pace a chi gli va (come a una ragazza che vuole che il “coso” del suo novello sposo stia a casa e non in guerra), arriva Lamaco, il prototipo del miles gloriosus (il soldato vanaglorioso e fanfarone che si vanta di imprese mai compiute, che millanta coraggio ed eroismo mentre sotto sotto è solo un vigliacco) torna dalla battaglia con delle ferite di guerra (non inflitte dai nemici, no: si è semplicemente slogato una caviglia saltando un fosso). Il sipario si chiude sulla diversa condizione di chi, in pace, si gode la vita e di chi la rischia in una guerra insensata. La trama è semplice ma nonsense, le scene sono strane, i riferimenti a personaggi politici (come Cleone, nemico di Aristofane in quanto demagogo, lo aveva anche denunciato perché in una sua precedente tragedia aveva parlato male di lui) e non politici dell’epoca sono oscuri (bisognerebbe leggere tutte le note per capire a chi si riferiscono), ci sono tanti doppi sensi che in italiano risultano di difficile comprensione, mentre in greco erano certamente più immediati. Nel complesso, apprezzo di più le tragedie greche che non le commedie.

The first 20 pages of Aristophanes's "The Acharnians" could've been written by Larry David. An Athenian citizen in the times of the Peloponnesian War decides he doesn't have beef with Sparta and seeks a separate peace for himself only. The premise makes for some terrific satire—that said, the play coasts on that premise alone and devolves quickly. Whenever a Megarian or a Boeotian speaks, the text renders their accent in broken English (similar to Scots, in my version). I'm sure this would be funny if I knew any Megarians or Boeotians. Worth reading the first half and reading a summary of the second elsewhere.

“LÁMACO.
Cogedme ya, cogedme por la pierna. ¡Ay!
Cogedme, mis amigos.
Siento vahídos, herido en la cabeza por la piedra
y giro en las tinieblas.
DICEÓPOLIS.
Y yo quiero dormir, la tengo tiesa
y tengo ganas de joder”.

Yes, it has information I might find interesting if I was obsessed with the Peloponnesian War. Yes, it may be a ruthless satire on democracy. Yes, the references may interest those with more historical knowledge than myself. Yes, the wordplay might be more interesting in the original.

But it is a "comedy" and I didn't find it funny.

The Acharnians, the first of Aristophanes’ available plays (many have been lost) demonstrates that satire has a noble tradition that dates back for thousands of years.

Of course the downside of satire having a noble tradition is that it is a reminder to us just how ineffective satire is. It might bring down corrupt individuals or cause some shifts in public opinion or government legislation, but the essential underlying subjects that afflict the human race remain the same now as then.

In different forms, we are still dealing with issues such as poverty, exploitation of women, child abuse, war, hunger, crime, corruption and the abuse of office. That is one reason why the plays of Aristophanes, though dated in many ways, continue to have relevance today.

The Acharnians has a satirical message about war, but Aristophanes is free-ranging in his humour. He finds time to mock the politician Cleon, a favourite target of the dramatist, to poke fun at Euripides as an obsessive aesthete (Euripides even appears in the play), and to discuss sexual matters.

I am not sure whether these elements add up to a coherent play, but we might perhaps view Aristophanes as having the anarchic quality of later comics such as the Marx Brothers. The story is not important. What matters to Aristophanes is the humour of individual scenes.

Aristophanes is not above a little surrealism as well. Dikaiopolis dresses as a tramp and spouts Euripides quotations to win over the local people. The Athenian protagonist is threatened by the Acharnians, but fends them off by threatening to destroy a hostage, which turns out to be a basket of charcoal, presumably something that sentimental meaning to the Acharnians.

In another scene, Dikaiopolis buys two young girls who are pretending to be piglets. As piglets also meant female genitalia, there is clearly a sex joke in here. Aristophanes is not especially enlightened on gender issues, and makes jokes about raping female slaves. An Athenian informer is sold to a Boeotian, and packed in straw like pottery.

Most of all Aristophanes is satirising war. This was a period when Athens was trying not to get into another damaging war with Sparta, but Sparta was trying to provoke Athens to do just that.

Dikaiopolis is an Athenian farmer whose irreverent manner suggests that he stands in for the playwright himself. Tired of the wars, he writes a personal peace treaty which ensures that he at least is at peace with Sparta, even if his people are not.

This absurd arrangement causes a fair amount of trouble, as Dikaiopolis falls foul of the Athenian assembly and the Acharnians. However it works out well for him in the end. While the militant (but cowardly) Lamarchus is preparing for war, his arrangements are mocked by those of Dikaiopolis who is performing equivalent gestures involving enjoying himself at home with two dancing girls.

Finally Lamarchus is injured and the self-pitying soldier is led off by two comrades. Meanwhile Dikaiopolis is led off by his two dancing girls who intend to satisfy his sexual lusts.

I am not sure that this is an anti-war play. In broad terms, Aristophanes was not a pacifist. He supported certain conflicts. However he did not support this particular war because he felt it was one that Athens could not win. In any case it is the job of the satirist to mock whatever policies the current government is following.

Many of the jokes here would probably require an understanding of the history of ancient Greece, and perhaps an understanding of the language too, since the text is heavy in puns that are hard to render into English.

For this reason it is a little hard to get too engaged with an Aristophanes play today if you are not a scholar. His works do not date as well as those of Aeschylus, Sophocles, or indeed Euripides. Still insofar as I do grasp The Acharnians, I enjoy its irreverent tone and its many weird little vignettes.

Jokes that need to be explained are not funny. It's quite natural that 2500 year old jokes need to be explained. So ancient Greek comedy is not too appealing anymore to the nowadays reader. This piece here has another flaw, a more inherent one: There seem to be some little flaws of coherence or character motivation. However, this drama deserves to be re-read and re-discovered. Because the principal idea is great and calls for updates (on stage or in other works of literature): Imagine two states at war with each other (in this case: Athens and Sparta). The mainstream opinion in Athens is: You've got to be a good patriot and support the fight of our country. Then comes one guy, the main character Dikaiopolos and says: I'm sick of it. Actually, Spartans are not all wrong, can't you see they have plausible reasons for feeling offended by us? I'm going to make peace with them. And thus he does: As an Athens citizen he makes a private peace with Sparta and opens a market square where Spartans and their allies are allowed to enter and trade with him.

Yigidin harman oldugu yer Acharnia.

Imagine John Lennon was born 2,500 years earlier and wrote bawdy plays instead of Happy Xmas (War Is Over). It’s easy if you try. You’d get something like this.

Unhinged- like all Greek comedies should be. Not my cup of tea, but I imagine it was funny at the time.