The Knights - Discussion

Discussion

The play's dual significance as a satire/allegory leads to an ambivalence in its characters that isn't easily resolved.

Agoracritus - miracle-worker and/or sausage-seller: The protagonist is an ambiguous character. Within the satirical context, he is a sausage seller who must overcome self-doubts to challenge Cleon as a populist orator, yet he is a godlike, redemptive figure in the allegory. His appearance at the start of the play is not just a coincidence but a godsend (kata theon, line 147), the shameless pranks that enable him to defeat Paphlagonian were suggested to him by the goddess Athena (903), he attributes his victory to Zeus, god of the Greeks (1253), and he compares himself to a god at the end (1338). He demonstrates miraculous powers in his redemption of The people and yet it was done by boiling, a cure for meat practised by a common sausage seller.

Cleon and/or Paphlagonian: The antagonist is another ambiguous character - he represents a real person, Cleon, and a comic monstrosity, Paphlagonian. He is never called 'Cleon' and he doesn't look like Cleon since the maskmakers refused to caricature him. Cleon's father, Cleaenetus, is mentioned by name (line 574) but there is no mention of his relationship with Paphlagonian. The name 'Paphlagonian' implies that the antagonist is of foreign descent and he is said to be the grandson of a foreign mercenary employed by the tyrant, Hippias (line 449). However, an oracle refers to Paphlagonian as the watchdog of Athens (Kuon or Dog, line 1023) and Kuon was in fact Cleon's nickname (later exploited in the trial scene in The Wasps). The first half of the debate at the Pnyx (lines 756-835) features some serious accusations that are clearly aimed at Cleon. On the other hand, the second half of the debate (lines 836-940) features absurd accusations that are aimed at an entirely comic villain.

Nicias and Demosthenes and/or two slaves: The two slaves are listed as Demosthenes and Nicias in ancient manuscripts. The lists were probably based on the conjecture of ancient critics and yet there is little doubt that they reflect Aristophanes' intentions. Demosthenes summons the Chorus of knights as if he were a general in command of cavalry. Moreover he says he made a Spartan cake in Pylos that was later pilfered by Paphlagonian (lines 54-7) and this seems to be a reference to Cleon's success in taking the lion's share of the credit for the victory at Sphacteria. However, the identity slaves=generals is problematic. In the standard edition of the collected plays, the two slaves leave the stage early and they don't return. This is consistent with their role as minor characters and yet Nicias and Demosthenes were not minor figures in Athenian political life. One editor has Demosthenes deliver a short valedictory speech congratulating Agoracritus at the end of the play (lines 1254-56) - a speech that is otherwise assigned to the leader of the Chorus. However this is a token appearance after a long absence and it still leaves the audience in the dark about how Nicias feels at the end.

Imagery: It has been observed that imagery is the most important aspect of Aristophanes' comic poetry. In this play, the imagery provides a context in which the ambiguities mentioned above can be resolved. Paphlagonian is a monstrous giant (74-9), a snoring sorcerer (103), a mountain torrent (137), a hook-footed eagle (197), garlic pickle (199), a mud-stirrer (306), a fisherman watching for shoals of fish (313), a butchered pig (375-81), a bee browsing blooms of corruption (403), a dog-headed ape (416), a storm by sea and land (430-40), a giant hurling crags (626-29), a storm surge at sea (691-93), a thieving nurse (716-18), a fishermen hunting eels (864-67), a boiling pot (919-22), a lion fighting gnats (1037-8), a dogfox (1067), a beggar (182-3) and finally a sausage seller in the city gates (1397). These mixed metaphors present Paphlagonian as a versatile form of comic evil whose relevance transcends any particular place or time. Thus Cleon can be understood as one of Paphlagonian's many manifestations and the satire is subsumed in the larger allegory without contradiction.

Gluttony is one of the dominant themes that emerge from the imagery. The play's focus on food and drink is evident in the choice of a sausage seller as the protagonist. It is evident also in puns on the names of two characters. The name Paphlagonian bares a resemblance with Paphlazo (I splutter, boil, fret) and this pun is made explicit in lines 919-22, where Paphlagonian is imagined as a boiling pot that needs to be taken off the fire. In Greek Demos bares a resemblance to the Greek word for fat, a pun that is made explicit in lines 214-16, where Demosthenes compares the task of government to the task of preparing and cooking meat. The connection Demos=fat is consistent with the notion that Agoracritus can refine his master at the end of the play by boiling him (a notion that originates in the myth of Pelias, whose children boil him like an old ram in an attempt to rejuvenate him). Many of the grossest images in the play feature references to cannibalism: Paphlagonian swallows his victims like figs (258-63), Agoracritus is urged to eat Paphlagonian's crest and wattles (496-7), protagonist and antagonist threaten to devour each other (693, 698-701) and Demos devours his own officials (1131–40). Such images present the audience with a nightmarish vision of the world - it is a world where horses and ships talk and act more like human beings than human beings do. The darkness of this vision makes the final vision of a reformed Athens all the brighter by contrast.