Abstract

The present paper poses the question of the different ways in which madness is laughed at—or with—in Attic Tragedy and in Old Comedy. What is the significance of each kind of “mad laughter”? I shall identify fundamental differences, related to the different kinds of character, mental aberration and dramatic conflict presented in each genre, and more broadly to the dramatic structure and function of each. A first distinction can be made between laughter at madness, which we see especially in tragedy, and laughter with, or embracing of, madness, which we experience in comedy. The second distinction is between two profoundly different understandings of and approaches to mental aberration: as intensely individual, “medical,” affliction (in tragedy) on the one hand or as essentially a social problem (or sometimes blessing), with social consequences and, in some cases, social solutions (in comedy) on the other. In the process, we shall also consider the significance—and some of the complexities—of the “curse versus blessing” analysis; questions as to who directs the “mad laughter” and who are its audience(s) (the original audience of the play; onstage characters, mortal and divine; the modern reader); and some relevant features of the visual and physical depiction of madness—in particular the use of mask—in both genres.

The text of this article is only available as a PDF.

Works Cited

Beta, S. 1999. “Madness on the Comic Stage: Aristophanes’ Wasps and Euripides’ Heracles.” GRBS 40: 135–57.
Bethe, E., ed. 1900. Pollucis Onomasticon, Leipzig: Teubner.
Csapo, E. 2010. Actors and Icons of the Ancient Theater. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
Csapo, E., and Slater, W. J. 1994. The Context of Ancient Drama. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
de Lacy, P., ed. and trans. 1978-84, rev. edn. 2005. Galeni De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis, 3 vols. Corpus Medicorum Graecorum V 4, 1, 2. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.
Diggle, J., ed. 1981-94. Euripidis Fabulae, vols. 1–3. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dodds, E. R. 1951. The Greeks and the Irrational. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Foley, H. 2000. “The Comic Body in Greek Art and Drama.” In B. Cohen, ed., Not the Comic Ideal. Athens and the Construction of the Other in Greek Art, 275–311. Leiden: Brill.
Gill, C. 1983. “Did Chrysippus Understand Medea?” Phronesis 28.2: 136–49.
Gill, C. 1996. Personality in Greek Epic, Tragedy, and Philosophy: The Self In Dialogue. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Green, J. R. 1994. Theatre in Ancient Greek Society. London: Routledge.
Halliwell, S. 2008. Greek Laughter: A Study of Cultural Psychology from Homer to Early Christianity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Harris, W., ed. 2013. Mental Disorders in the Classical World. Leiden: Brill.
Henderson, J., ed. and trans. 1998-2002. Aristophanes, vols. 1–4. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Jones, W. H. S., ed. and trans. Hippocrates, vol. 2. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1923.
Jouan, F. 1983. “Réflexions sur le rôle du protagoniste tragique.” In H. Zehnacker, ed., Théâtre et spectacles dans l’antiquité: Actes du Colloque de Strasbourg, 5–7 Novembre 1981, 63–80. Leiden: Brill.
Kyriakou, P. and Rengakos, A., eds. 2016. Wisdom and Folly in Euripides. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Lloyd-Jones, H. and Wilson, N., eds. 1992. Oxford Classical Texts: Sophoclis Fabulae. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mayhew, R., ed. and trans. Aristotle: Problems, vol. II, Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2011.
McCart, G. 2007. “Masks in Greek and Roman Theatre.” In M. McDonald and J. M. Walton, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Roman Theatre, 247–67. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Most, G. W. 2013. “The Madness of Tragedy.” In Harris 2013: 395–410.
Padel, R. 1995. Whom Gods Destroy. Elements of Greek and Tragic Madness. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Page, D. L., ed. 1972. Aeschyli: Septem Quae Supersunt Tragoedias. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pavlovskis, Z. 1977. “The Voice of the Actor in Greek Tragedy.” CW 71: 113–23.
Revermann, M. 2006. Comic Business: Theatricality, Dramatic Technique, and Performance Contexts of Aristophanic Comedy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rosen, R. M. 2010. “Aristophanes.” In G. W. Dobrov, ed., Brill’s Companion to the Study of Greek Comedy, 227–78. Leiden: Brill.
Ruffell, I. A. 2011. Politics and Anti-Realism in Athenian Old Comedy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Saïd, S. 2013. “From Homeric Ate to Tragic Madness.” In Harris 2013: 363–93.
Sassi, M. M. 2013. “Mental Error, Moral Responsibility, and Error in Late Plato.” In Harris 2013: 413–26.
Segal, C. 1982. Dionysiac Poetics and Euripides’ Bacchae. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Seidensticker, B. 2016. “The Figure of Teiresias in Euripides’ Bacchae.” In Kyriakou and Rengakos 2016: 275–83.
Sidwell, K. 1990. “Was Philokleon Cured? The NOΣOΣ Theme in Aristophanes’ Wasps.” C&M 41: 9–31.
Sutton, D. F. 1984. “Pollux on Special Masks.” AC 53: 174–83.
Taplin, O. 1993. Comic Angels and Other Approaches to Greek Drama through Vase Paintings. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Thumiger, C. 2013. “The Early Greek Medical Vocabulary of Insanity: Semantics and Distribution.” In Harris 2013: 61–95.
Thumiger, C. 2017. A History of the Mind and Mental Health in Classical Greek Medical Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vaio, J. 1971. “Aristophanes’ Wasps: The Relevance of the Final Scenes.” GRBS 12: 335–51.
Vogt, K. M. 2013. “Plato on Madness and the Good Life.” In Harris 2013: 177–92.
Webster, T. B. L. 1951. Greek Theatre Production. London: Methuen.
Wiles, D. 2007. Mask and Performance in Greek Tragedy. From Ancient Festival to Modern Experimentation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Copyright 2019 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
2019
This content is made freely available by the publisher. It may not be redistributed or altered. All rights reserved.