^

ARISTOPHANES' KNIGHTS AND THE ABORTIVE PEACE PROPOSALS OF 425 B.C.

That Aristophanes was against the Peloponnesian War and desired a general peace is beyond doubt : one need only read his plays (for example, Acharnians, Peace and Lysistrata) to verify this. Therefore, when the opportunity to make peace with Sparta in 425, and on favourable terms, was thwarted by Cleon, we should expect that Aristophanes' next play, the Knights (produced at the Lenaea of 424), would be full of condemnation for that action. Certainly, it is a vehicle for the author's personal invective against Cleon, the leading demagogue in Athens, as Dr. Sommerstein in the Introductory Note to his text of Knights remarks : "[The play] is a violent attack on Cleon, but also on the whole style of political leadership of which he was the foremost representative. Nine-tenths of the play is deeply pessimistic ·. the Athenian people, represented by the old man Demos, is shown as being so stupid and gullible that the only way for a Cleon to be overthrown is by a man who outdoes him in those very qualities that make Cleon such a menace" x. Generally it is thought that Aristophanes abuses Cleon, who is depicted as a Paphlagonian slave, a status of some disrepute 2, for all his policies, and that his opposition to the peace in 425 is no exception. Cleon, so it might seem from reading the play, blocked the peace proposals and thrust Athens back into the depths of war. However, the references to the peace in the Knights are surprisingly few and, in my opinion, only appear critical of Cleon at first sight. Does this mean that Aristophanes supported Cleon on this issue and, if so, was he against peace negotiations at that time ? The object of this paper is to examine the references to the peace in the play to see if Aristophanes did support Cleon and for what reasons.