Tzanetou (2002) Something To Do With Demeter

Something to Do with Demeter: Ritual and Performance in Aristophanes' Women at the
Thesmophoria
Author(s): Angeliki Tzanetou
Source: The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 123, No. 3, Special Issue: Performing/
Transforming Aristophanes' "Thesmophoriazousai" (Autumn, 2002), pp. 329-367
Published by: Johns Hopkins University Press
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SOMETHING TO DO WITH DEMETER:
RITUAL AND PERFORMANCE IN ARISTOPHANES'
WOMEN AT THE THESMOPHORIA
Angeliki Tzanetou
Like his character the Kinsman, Aristophanes invades Athenian

women's religious space. He puts onstage for the whole city a religious
festival restricted to women. He suggests that women use this occasion to
drink and plot against men, and he portrays them as carrying on adulter-
ous affairs and duping their husbands. As a result of this negative por?
trayal of women, scholars have concluded that the play undermines
women's position in the festival and in the city. Elizabeth Bobrick (1997),
for example, argues that the play misrepresents women's experience in
ritual. Lauren Taaffe (1993) insists the play shows that women are only
men in disguise, that it is not really about women at all but rather uses
them to highlight male concerns. And Angus Bowie (1993, 227) con-
cludes that in this play Aristophanes demonstrates that comedy, not
tragedy, has the right to "give an accurate and fulsome picture of female
villainy."
On the face of it, Women at the Thesmophoria satirizes women's
real ritual experience and does not respectfully depict the Thesmophoria?
a very important festival celebrated throughout Greece, which promoted
agricultural and human fertility. And yet, despite the Kinsman's invasion
and his mockery of women, the role of women in ritual is not really
undercut in this play. The female characters who inhabit the comic stage
and protest their portrayal in drama do not aim to redefine their social
roles as wives and mothers. Instead, they use the authority of their roles
to mount a successful attack against Euripides because he undermines
these functions. In fact, the play acknowledges and validates women's
contribution to the fertility of the polis in two different ways.
After the Kinsman is unmasked and taken captive by the women,
four different strategies for rescuing him are staged. After all these
strategies, derived from plays by Euripides, fail, a fifth strategy succeeds.
As scholars have noted, the Kinsman's captivity and rescue parallel the
founding myth of the Thesmophoria festival, the story of Persephone's
American
Journal
ofPhilology
123(2002)329-367? 2002byTheJohnsHopkins Press
University
330 ANGELIKITZANETOU
abduction and imprisonment by Hades and her rescue by her mother

Demeter.1 My reading of Women at the Thesmophoria builds on this
analysis by demonstrating how each of the Euripidean parodies moves
closer to the myth of Demeter and Persephone. Moreover, with each of
the parodies the actors become increasingly feminized. In the final scene
of the play every character onstage but one is wearing female dress.
Ironically, structurally and
theatrically, Aristophanes' play celebrates
women's power, as it is demonstrated in Demeter's rescue of her daugh?
ter and the rebirth of human and agricultural fertility.
Moreover, the play affirms the centrality of women to the fertility
of Athenian drama. Earlier studies have seen Women at the Thesmophoria
as a competition between Euripides and Aristophanes and between trag?
edy and comedy (e.g., Hubbard 1991, Henderson 1996, Zeitlin 1996b,
Gibert 1999-2000). The play's movement from male to female, especially
in the arrangement of the parodies, is also a move from Dionysus to
Demeter. The captivity/rescue plot is associated with not only Demeter
and Persephone but also Dionysus, the presiding
deity of Athenian the?
ater. The stories of Dionysus' captivity and rescue
are different, however;
in these the god rescues himself and punishes his captors (e.g., Pentheus
and Lycurgus). As the rescue strategies in Women at the Thesmophoria
1Zeitlin offers a masterful

analysis of the play and the Euripidean parodies (1996b,
375-416). She points out the parallelisms between Persephone's myth and the plot of the
parodies as a starting point for her analysis of mimesis and its association with the femi-
nine. This discussion is also based on the same premise but focuses instead on the internal
theatrical competition between tragedy and comedy and the topic of composing dramas
about women. Moreover, in tracing the relationship between narrative patterns of religious
experience?the captivity/rescue pattern, which is related to Dionysus and Demeter and
underlies plots of drama?and by seeking their theatrical equivalents, my approach is
closer to Lada-Richards 1998, 1999, and to a certain extent to Bierl 2001. Bierl draws
heavily upon J. L. Austin's and J. R. Searle's theory of speech-acts (51-61) in analyzing
performance. His analysis offers a complex and novel treatment of the relationship be?
tween ritual and theater by examining the following interrelated aspects (although it is not
limited to them): a) the initiatory function of the chorus of comedy, whose choral perform?
ance retains its autonomy and remains distinct from the action of the play; b) the chorus's
civic performative function as choreuts and their dramatic role as female participants at the
Thesmophoria; c) the metatheatrical aspect (males disguised as females) in connection
with initiatory patterns in the Kinsman's performance of his role as female initiand. More
specifically, the Kinsman's liminality as female performer, namely, as female participant of
the Thesmophoria and as Helen and Andromeda is also examined in reference to male
initiatory transitions. My own analysis focuses upon the common mythical and dramatic
motifs in order to illustrate how spectators may have decoded Aristophanes' play, based
on their knowledge of the myth of Persephone and Demeter. Text and translation from
Henderson 2000b.
RITUAL AND PERFORMANCE 331
unfold, they move from the Dionysian pattern of self-liberation and

punishment of opponents to a Demetrian one of cooperation and recon-
ciliation. This is also a movement from tragedy to comedy, in which
tragedy fails to liberate while comedy succeeds. The four parodies and
the final scenario move from explicitly tragic situations, including the
threat of human sacrifice, to love/marriage plots and finally to men
dressing as women to deceive a parodically hypermasculine male, thereby
achieving a return to normality. By the end of the play, male cross-
dressing does not show how easy it is to become female, but how essen-
tial women are to comedy?not only to creating laughter but also to the
basic function of comedy: affirming and celebrating the continuity of
human life.
THE THESMOPHORIA
The Thesmophoria, one of the major festivals in honor of Demeter and

Kore/Persephone, was widely celebrated by women in Greece, Sicily, and
Asia Minor.2 In Athens it took place on 11 to 13 of Pyanopsion, accord?
ing to the Attic calendar,3 the time for fall sowing in late October.4 The
evidence suggests that only citizen-wives were allowed to participate,5
while men, who were strictly excluded (1150-51), undertook the financial
costs of the festival on behalf of their wives.6 The festival lasted three
days; its calendar followed a prescribed ritual program and was intended
to recall "women's ancient way of life" (Diod. Sic. 5.4.7), as illustrated in
Table 1.
2 On the
Thesmophoria festival, see Farnell 1907, vol. 3, 75-112, 326-28; Deubner
1932,50-60; Dahl 1976 with comprehensive list of testimonia (104-47); Brumfield 1981,71-
103; Simon 1983,17-22; Burkert 1985,242-46; Detienne 1989,129-47; Dillon 2002,110-20;
Sfameni Gasparro 1986,223-83; Versnel 1992,31-55; Zeitlin 1982,129-57. On the sanctu-
aries of Demeter and the cults of Demeter and Kore, see also Clinton 1992; 1993,110-24;
Cole 1994,199-216; Kron 1992,611-50; Nixon 1995,75-96. On the name ofthe festival, see
Brumfield 1981, 70-79.
3 As attested in IG II2 674
(Brumfield 1981, 96 n. 2 and 99 n. 41).
4 Kron
(1992,616 n. 22) notes that in Delos and Thebes, for example, the Thesmophoria
took place during the summer and was associated with the harvest.
5 For the exclusion of unmarried women
(Callim. fr. 63 Pfeiffer), slaves (Ar. Thesm.
294), and prostitutes (Isae. 6.49-50), see Brumfield 1981,86-87; Burkert 1985,242 and 442,
nn. 6, 7, who discounts the evidence in Lucian Dial. meret. 2.1.
6 Ar. Thesm. 1150-51. Athenian
men, however, undertook the costs of the festival
(Men. Epit. 749-50, Isae. 3.80). On the Thesmophoric liturgy, the only one supporting an
exclusively female activity, see Wilson 2000,40-41.
332 ANGELIKI TZANETOU
Table 1. The Thesmophoria
Festival calendar Program Ritual myth
Anodos (Ascent) Election of Demeter's

archousai, setting up withdrawal
of makeshift tents
and festival
preparations
Nesteia (Fasting) Fasting, sitting on Demeter's

the ground on mourning
anaphrodisiac plants,
ritual obscenity
Celebration, sacrifice,
Kalligeneia feasting, prayers for Reunion of Demeter
(Fair Offspring) offspring and Persephone
The Thesmophoria may have commemorated the mourning of

Demeter over the loss of her daughter, Kore (Persephone/Pherrephatta;
Clinton 1993, 113-16). The myth itself was recounted in the Homeric
Hymn to Demeter and was also known to Athenian audiences from the
Eleusinian Mysteries.7 The first day was called Anodos (Ascent); women
7 It is
necessary to state at the outset that we do not know the exact details of the
ritual myth of the Thesmophoria. In Women at the Thesmophoria, the myth of Persephone
is re-enacted as a captivity/rescue plot and takes the place of the ritual myth, which the
women performed in the context of the actual festival. Ignorant of the specific rituals of the
Thesmophoria, Aristophanes adapts the myth of Persephone's descent and ascent into a
captivity/rescue story, which his male audience could understand. The myth of Persephone's
abduction and descent into the Underworld was recounted in the Homeric Hymn to
Demeter. The narrative motifs of Persephone's story in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter most
relevant to the interpretation of the play and the dramatic parodies embedded within it are
as follows: a) Persephone's violent abduction by Hades (Aidoneus/Pluto), the god of the
Underworld [Horn. Hymn Dem. 1-3); b) Demeter's disguise and quest for Persephone
(ibid. 93-94); c) Iambe's jesting (ibid. 200-5), which the mythographer Apollodorus as?
sumes as the explanation for the ritual jesting at the festival of the Thesmophoria (1.5.1);
d) the mother-daughter reunion (Hom. Hymn Dem. 384-89); e) Persephone's captivity; f)
the mythical association between Persephone's death and rescue and agricultural renewal
(Hom. Hymn Dem. 470-73).
on that day ascended to the Thesmophorion8 and made preparations for

the festival. Two women, who were elected as the official magistrates
(archousai) presided over the festival as officials (Isae. 8.19). Women set
up makeshift tents in which they spent the next couple of nights away
from their homes, a unique experience in women's religious life.9 On the
second day, Nesteia (Fasting), women imitated the mourning of Demeter,
by sitting on the ground on seats made of anaphrodisiac plants, fasting;
they also practiced ritual obscenity.10 All these elements are found both
in fertility and funereal contexts. The presence of anaphrodisiac plants
symbolized women's chastity during the festival, because women re-
verted symbolically to their prior status as virgins (Versnel 1992,31-55),
while ritual obscenity was associated with the promotion of fertility. On
the third day, Kalligeneia (Fair Offspring), the women offered sacrifices
(see n. 16 below), feasted and celebrated the return of Persephone as a
symbolic renewal of their own fertility. The last day celebrated Demeter's
role as promoter of human and agricultural fertility.11
Neither the specific religious rituals and procedures associated with
the festival nor their precise order can be accurately reconstructed based
on the existing evidence. The most detailed account of the rituals pertain-
ing to the Thesmophoria survives in a scholiast's account of the festival
(Schol. Lucian Dial meret. 2.1. [275. 23-76.28 Rabe]).12 According to the
scholion, when Persephone was abducted by Pluto, a swineherd named
Eubouleus and his pigs also disappeared under the earth. The central
ritual act, which apparently recalls Eubouleus' story, is described as follows:
at some previous time, sacrificed piglets are thrown into underground
8We do not have sufficient evidence to determine exactly where in Athens the
Thesmophorion was located. On the representation of the community of citizen-wives
according to the model of the male assembly and its location on the Pnyx, see Henderson
1996, 92-94. Clinton (1996, 111-25) offers the most up-to-date survey of the evidence; he
argues, moreover, that the Thesmophoria in Attica was probably held in the demes on the
basis of inscriptions from demes (Peiraeus, IG II2 1177 [= SEG XXXVII 101]; Cholargos,
IG II21184 [SEG XXXV 239], and Melite [see Broneer 1942, 250-64]).
9 At 795-96 we hear that women
occasionally spent the night at a friend's house.
10Plut. Mor. 378 d-e, Diod. Sie. 5.4, 5-7, Plin. HN 24.59. On sexual abstinence, see
Parker 1983, 81-83; Versnel 1992, 39-41. On ritual obscenity, see Fluck 1931; Brumfield
1996, 69-73; McClure 1999, 47-52.
11Schol. Lucian Dial. meret. 2.1.:
TcepixfjqxcovKaprccov
yeveaecoqKai xfjqtcovdvGpcorccov
arcopat;.
12See further Brumfield 1981,73-79. The source is late
(2d century a.d.), and Lowe
(1998, 149-73) raises a number of objections concerning its accuracy.
passages (megara).13 During the festival, women known as "bailers"

(antletriai), having observed ritual purity for three days, undertake the
mission of descending in these passages to recover the piglets' remains.14
Once they retrieve them, they place them upon the altars of Demeter and
Persephone along with cakes in the mold of snakes and male genitalia,
also symbols of fertility. These remains, mixed with seeds, were thought to
guarantee a good crop (Price 1999,99-100). Finally, the scholiast describes
the bailers' journey to and from the underground shrines as imitating
ritually the story of Persephone's mythical descent and ascent.
The Thesmophoria contains a number of important features that
set it apart from both the norms of women's daily lives and the require-
ments for women's other religious rituals. In Athens, women stayed at
home and had no say in political matters, while men dominated public
space and carried out the important business of the city at the assembly.
In the Thesmophoria women left men behind at home during their three-
day sojourn. The exclusive admission of citizen-wives15 at the festival and
the election of official magistrates offered a rare opportunity to envision
women?who otherwise lacked a political share in the city?as members
of a religio-political association. In addition, ritual obscenity marks a
complete reversal of the model of the modesty and silence expected of
Athenian wives. Moreover, the requirement for chastity and the use of
anaphrodisiac plants suggest a symbolic reversal of women's social status
from wives to virgins for the sake of promoting fertility.
The meaning of the festival has been interpreted variously. Struc-
turalist interpretations emphasize the marked inversion of gender roles:
Froma Zeitlin concentrates on the representation of women's empower-
ment within the Thesmophoria, while Marcel Detienne concentrates on
women's uncommon involvement in sacrifices.16 Feminist and gender
criticism has focused on the role of ritual obscenity (aischrologia) as
13Burkert 1985, 242-43.

14Simon
(1983,19-20) argues that the remains of the pigs and cakes (thesmoi) were
laid down during the Stenia and recovered on the second night of the festival, namely,
before the Kalligeneia. On the association between piglets, Demeter, and human and
animal fertility, see Foley 1994,73.
15But see also Winkler's
(1990,193-202) critique of Detienne 1989.
16Zeitlin
(1982,129-57) argues that the Thesmophoria, despite its importance to the
prosperity of the city, nevertheless did not rank as high as other Athenian women's civic
rituals such as the arrhephoria, which were associated with the celebration of the city's
origins. On women's exclusion from sacrifices, see Detienne 1989,129-47. He is countered
by Osborne's arguments that women were not strictly excluded from sacrifices (1993,392-
405).
evidence for a distinctly female voice. For example, Winkler (1990,188?

209) formulated a daring thesis, that the women may have celebrated
their sexual and procreative superiority to men through mockery of male
genitalia as inferior to those of women. In her analysis of aporrheta,
Allaire Brumfield (1996,67-73) points out that women's ritual license is
a function of the normative gender roles associated with a shame-culture
and that there is no contradiction between
the modesty of citizen wives
and the practice of ritual Her point of view functions
obscenity. in an
important counterpoint to any interpretation that presents women's au-
tonomy in the context of the Thesmophoria as problematic or uses the
festival primarily as evidence for women's actual social power. Also,
Lucia Nixon (1995, 75-96) suggests the possibility of a dichotomy be?
tween men's and women's perception of the festival. For men, the em?
phasis was on the production of citizens. For women, on the other hand,
the presence of anaphrodisiac plants may have suggested the power to
control their own fertility with reference to a mythical model of Demeter
and Persephone that commemorated the strong relationship between
mother and daughter even after marriage.
ARISTOPHANES' THESMOPHORIA
Women and the Festival
Parody of sacred elements of the festival is limited. For all its mockery of
women, the play does not undermine the rituals of the Thesmophoria,
from which men were excluded. The Kinsman imitates the women's
ascent (Anodos) (279-81) and offers mock-prayers to Demeter and
Persephone. He also uses ritual obscenity, when he asks that his daughter
Khoirion (literally, "piglet"?appropriate sacrifice for Demeter?but also
Xoipoq: "female sexual organ") find a rich husband (289-90) and that his
son Posthaliskos (diminutive of nooQr\: male sexual organ) have good
sense (291).17
Women in this play are east as participants in the assembly and at
first appear to be acting out male roles. In fact, some have argued that, by
staging the festival as a political assembly, Aristophanes presents women
as men in disguise. Angus Bowie notes some of the salient elements:
speakers address the demos of women (e.g., 335, 353); there is a parody
17The Kinsman's
undressing by the women may recall the women's handling of
phallic objects (636-48) (Bowie 1993, 212).
of the arai (curses) that were part of the opening of the Boule proceed-
ings (331-51) and a parody of the minutes of the Boule (372-79).18 The
citizen-women (293-94, 329-30) are indeed represented as an assembly
(84, 277): they camp near the Pnyx (623, 658; see note 8 above), where
the Athenian assembly met regularly, on the middle day of the Thesmo?
phoria, the day of Nesteia, a time when regular assembly meetings and
court proceedings were suspended (78-80, 376-77).
The play's characterization of the women's gathering as a political
association, however, comes directly from the structure of the festival.
Critylla, who leads the prayers, fulfills the function of the priestess of the
two goddesses (759; Sommerstein 1994 on 295). Unlike Aristophanes'
Women at the Assembly where women take over men's roles, the partici-
pation of citizen wives at the Thesmophoria in this play under the lead-
ership of Critylla is rooted in the reality of the festival. These women's
goal is not to intervene in men's business of running the polis, but rather
to stop men from meddling in their own business of running the oikos.
Elizabeth Bobrick, who argues that
the representation of women as
citizen-wives at the Thesmophoria
is restrictive, emphasizes that the play
does not afford women the possibility of redefining their social roles
beyond those of wives or mothers (a characterization that she considers
to be negative). The women in Women at the Thesmophoria, however, do
not set out to emancipate themselves from these roles. Even in Lysistrata
and Women at the Assembly, where female characters take the lead,
women's social redefinition is short-lived; each play ends with an affirma-
tion of women's traditional roles. Their position in the oikos and the polis
is thus depicted positively; for women's contributions as wives and moth?
ers are represented as valuable within the theatrical performance of the
very festival that celebrated their fertility and civic presence.
The women in Aristophanes' play construct a reality that is well-
suited to the comic stage. They put Euripides on trial because his tragic
portraits of women's illicit affairs arouse suspicion in their husbands,
disrupting the smooth functioning of the oikos. In the comic universe
Athenian women do not want to be tragic heroines like Phaedra and
Melanippe (544-48) nor to share in their grand passions. They want to
silence Euripides, because his plays threaten to upset their domestic
arrangements; namely, running their households as wives, even if they
indulge themselves in a bit of drinking and a little hanky-panky on the
side. The latter is affirmed in Critylla's parody of the curses at the begin-
JSee Bowie 1993, 205-12,

especially 209.
ning of the assembly against state enemies, by listing as an enemy of the

demos of women whoever might reveal their private misdemeanors such
as adultery, drinking, and even baby-swapping (335-51).
The parabasis most strongly exemplifies women in this play claim-
ing a share in the city's fortunes. In the parabasis (785-845) women
praise the "female race" (786) and refute men's criticisms of women as
the "evil" in their house (785-99)19 by praising instead the women of
Athens for their civic contributions (799-845). Despite its parodic as?
pects, the parabasis makes a number of valid points. Women first parody
male-speak by referring to themselves as to kakon (787, 789, 791, 794,
796,797, 799). They then counter this characterization and expose male
misogyny: "Come on now, if we're a bane, why do you marry us, if we
truly are a bane, why do you forbid us to leave
the house or even get
caught peeking out of the window?" (788-90). As a result, they reveal
men's obsessive need to control women as well as the hypocrisy inherent
within this repressive context. For men, on the one hand, keep their
women inside (792-94) and, on the other, break their own rules by fixing
their eyes on any other man's woman as soon as she appears in public
(797-99). As a result, men, and perhaps the system that they seek to keep
in place, appear far more ridiculous than the "errant" wives.
Further, the women augment their critique of men by offering
evidence of the women's civic excellence: they cite women's names that
recall Athenian victories?Aristomache, for example, evokes the victory
at Marathon (806). And they argue, just as Lysistrata does (Lys. 488-500),
that they would manage public spending much better than men do, just
as they do at home (810-29). They protest strongly against a system that
does not recognize their civic contributions adequately. Men earn titles
in their field of action: "taxiarchs" and "generals" are recognized by rank.
No such distinctions, however, are in place for the mothers who give their
sons to the city; such honors, they suggest, ought to be instituted at the
women's festivals, the Stenia and the Skira (832-35). Women here speak
as citizen-wives within a religious context that validated and promoted
their contributions as wives and mothers.20
19Gardner 1989,51-62.
20Blok 2001,109-16. For a fuller discussion of women's
representation in the play
and of women in Aristophanes' play, see Henderson 1996b, 20-29,90-97; my remarks are
based on his discussion. On the use of negative comic stereotypes, see Loraux 1991,203-44.
On the topic of male impersonation of female characters, see Sai'd 1987, 217-48; Taaffe
1993, 74-102.
Ritual and Theater
Ancient audiences could discern correspondences between mythical and

ritual patterns, because they related theatrical and ritual performance to
each other. As David Wiles has noted, "there is no dividing line between
ritual and theater," because tragedy and comedy were viewed as "com?
petitive rituals" in honor of Dionysus.21 Religious rituals, on the other
hand, often included events of a theatrical or paratheatrical nature. Athe?
nians, who were versed both in the conventions of the theater and in the
religious culture of their city, were more attuned to the affinities between
ritual and theatrical performances than we are today. The audience par-
ticipated as spectators or actors not only in the annual dramatic compe-
titions but also in the religious rituals of the city, many of which shared
important elements with theatrical performances (choral dancing, use of
masks, various disguises and role-playing).22 The traits that religious and
theatrical practice share enabled the audience to recognize potential
connections between religious rituals and their dramatic representation.
Bobrick, on the other hand, subjects the myth of Demeter and Per?
sephone in this play to an analysis of gender roles and downplays the
impact of ritual in shaping drama. She has argued categorically that the
parodies adapt the female myth to male concerns, because "Mnesilochus
and Euripides gradually supplant the women" and distort the represen?
tation of the myth of Demeter and Persephone23 by submerging the
mother-daughter relationship in favor of a male-female partnership that
leads to marriage (e.g., Andromeda-Perseus). However, Women at the
Thesmophoria does not end in marriage, as do the female rescue dramas
of Euripides, and this renders the deployment of Demeter's and Per-
sephone's story more complex than Bobrick allows.
More specifically, in Women at the Thesmophoria there are signifi?
cant correspondences between the structure of the Thesmophoria and
the theatrical program embedded in the Thesmophoria in Aristophanes'
21Wiles 2000, 29. For

important recent work on the interaction between ritual and
dramatic patterns, see Segal 1982; Bowie 1993; Seaford 1994; Zeitlin 1996a, 285-340, 375-
416; Lada-Richards 1998,1-19,1999; and Foley 2001.
22This is not to
say that there are no differences between theatrical and ritual
performance. See Lada-Richards 1998,15-17 with relevant anthropological bibliography.
The bear mask from the sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia (Simon 1983, p. 25) and the masks
from the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia (Carter 1988,88-98) exemplify masks used in a ritual
setting.
23Bobrick 1997, 182 and 182-89. On women's definition in drama
through rituals,
see further McClure 1999; Wiles 2000,76-77; Foley 2001.
play. The performance of tragedy corresponds to the re-enactment of

Demeter's mourning. The four parodies of Euripides' tragedies are ap-
propriately placed during Nesteia (Fasting).24 These parodies re-enact
Persephone's captivity. On the other hand, the comic performance, which
results in the Kinsman's liberation, suggests the transition to the third
and final day (Kalligeneia), the return of Persephone. The end of mourn?
ing is signaled by the increasing comic obscenity in the parody of An-
dromeda, which marks the shift from tragedy to comedy as well as the
transition from Nesteia to Kalligeneia. Tht parallelism between the ritual
and dramatic plot may be seen in Table 2.
As the schema in Table 2 indicates, the conclusion of the ritual and
comic plot also highlights male and female partnership through the
reconciliation between Euripides and the women (1160-71). Just as the
reconciliation of Demeter and Zeus suggests the return of fertility to
nature {Hom. Hymn Dem. 320-41), so does the reconciliation between
Euripides and the women at the end of the play ensure dramatic fertility.
Euripides succeeds in liberating the Kinsman by assuming the role of the
female rescuer through a successful comic adaptation of the myth of
Persephone's rescue. In the end, fertility returns, Euripides succeeds, and
tragedy must be abandoned in favor of comedy. By re-enacting the myth
of Demeter and Persephone, the comic finale offers a special tribute to
women's religious service at the Thesmophoria by integrating the myth
of the festival into the comic plot.
THE DRAMATIC PROGRAM
When the women that the Kinsman is an intruder, they strip

discover
him of his female costume
and imprison him. The Kinsman's plight now
recalls the myths about men who spied on women: Battus of Cyrene is
said to have been nearly castrated for attempting to violate women's
religious secrets.25 The Kinsman's female disguise and infiltration also
resembles that of Pentheus in Euripides' Bacchae, who is caught and
subsequently dismembered by the maenads.26 But in Women at the
Thesmophoria, even though the Kinsman infiltrates the festival and is
24On Nesteia, see also Bierl 2001,117-18 with n. 19,161,177, 247 n. 390.
25The sources are collected
by Bowie 1993, 212-13 (Hdt. 6.16. 2, 6.75. 3, 6.134-36,
Aen. Tact. 4.8-11; Plut. Sol. 8; Paus. 4.17.1; Ael. fr. 44 [Hercher]).
26While Bacchae is a later
play (406 b.c), there are earlier dramatizations of myths
pertaining to Dionysus and his opponents. The Proboulos scene in Aristophanes' Lysistrata
Table 2. Aristophanes' Women at the Thesmophoria

and the Myth of Demeter/Persephone
condemned to death, he does not die.27 Instead, he pursues four strate?

gies to liberate himself. When these fail, Euripides devises a fifth and
rescues him. The first four stratagems are parodies of Euripides' plays,
while the fifth is a comedy. The performance of the tragic parodies plus
the comic finale in this sequence represents a tetralogy followed by a
comedy. The tetralogy is composed of two plays whose central character
is male (Telephus, Palamedes), followed by two parodies based on
Euripides' female rescue dramas (Helen and Andromeda). Tragedy is
gradually transformed in accordance with the underlying rescue pattern
of Demeter and Persephone. This is signaled by the Kinsman's changes
of costume?he performs Telephus and Palamedes as a male actor in
"naked" costume, but puts on his female costume for the female paro?
dies. Tragedy's repeated attempts at performing the female story fail;
success is reserved for comedy. In other words, a competition between
tragedy and comedy appears to be based on the adaptation of the female
rescue pattern: comedy wins because it re-enacts Persephone's rescue via
the Kinsman's liberation by Euripides.28 Tragedy, on tfye other hand,
offers only partial adaptation of the ritual plot of captivity/rescue, be-
also evokes the scenario of the maenads and Pentheus in Euripides' Bacchae. An excerpt
from Aeschylus' Edonians, for example, in which Lycurgus corresponds to a Pentheus-like
figure, is quoted earlier in the play (130-45). See also Bierl 2001,209-13.
27Zeitlin 1996b, 402-3.
28One
may of course object that the audience would not be able to discern the quick
changes in genre in the course of the parodies. Two general points are relevant in this regard.
First, the audience of comedy was probably particularly attuned to differences between
comedy and tragedy (e.g., dramatic technique, staging, language). Second, the repeated
performance of the specific pattern of Persephone's story would most likely alert the audi?
ence to the generic variations of the successive dramatic versions placed before them.
cause all four parodies end in failed rescues.29 Table 3 schematizes the
relationship between the rescue attempts and the ritual myth. The ar-
rangement of the parodies also creates the impression that comedy is the
end product of a linear progression from tragedy to comedy. Even though
tragedy and comedy share different plot and staging conventions,
Aristophanes arranges the plays so as to create the impression that some
types of tragedy, particularly rescue dramas, and comedy are on a par
because they both evoke the ritual motifs associated with the female
myth performed at the Thesmophoria.
Telephus and Palamedes
In the first two parodies, the Kinsman acts the part of a male character in
captivity. He first attempts unsuccessfully to bring about his own libera-
tion by impersonating the hostage-scene of Telephus and then devises a
trick, borrowed from Palamedes, hoping to effect the arrival of Euripides.
Telephus featured a near-sacrifice and presumably had a happy ending.
Palamedes, on the other hand, was probably more somber, because it
dealt with the death of Palamedes at the hands of the Greeks and Oiax's
attempts to avenge his brother's murder. Both plays are recast along the
lines of a captivity/rescue plot, as the schema in Table 3 indicates. The
parody of Telephus evokes Dionysus' captivity and self-liberation since
the Kinsman is impersonating a male character and attempts to bring
about his own rescue by acting in this case against female antagonists.
The self-liberation and punishment motif, which we find time and again
in Dionysiac myths (cf. Pentheus and Lycurgus), was enacted in tragedy
and is also well known from the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus (11-14), in
which Dionysus prevails over the Tyrrhenian pirates, his captors, by
miraculously breaking his bonds. Vines and ivy spread and entangle the
ship, while the pirates dive in the sea and are transformed into dolphins.
More specifically, in Euripides' Telephus, Telephus, the Mysian king,
goes to the court of Agamemnon.30 In the parody of the scene that we
witness, Telephus infiltrates Agamemnon's court disguised as a beggar.
Upon the revelation of his disguise by Achilles, he snatches and threat-
ens to kill the infant Orestes at the altar, should his demands not be met.
29On the use of dramatic

patterns as a basis for genre definition, see Mastronarde
1999-2000,23-39.
30On the reconstruction of
Euripides' Telephus, see Collard, Cropp, and Lee 1995,
17-52; Preiser 2000.
Table 3. Dramatic Program and Ritual Myth
In the parody of the hostage-scene (688-764),31 the baby is not a boy, but
a girl, and, even though it is slain, the presumed human victim is safely
substituted by a wineskin, dressed in Persian booties, as illustrated on the
well-known Wtirzburg krater (Taplin 1993,36-41, plate 11.4).32 Sacrifice
is a hallmark of tragedy, and as a result the Kinsman's rescue-plot begins
in a setting that distinctly evokes the Dionysian realm of tragedy.33 The
avoidance of death demonstrates affinities with rescue-drama plots that
revolve around violence threatened and averted as in the case of Orestes'
near-sacrifice in Euripides' Iphigeneia in Tauris. The plot unfolds along
the lines of abduction/near-sacrifice/survival, and yet the parody per-
forms a more "tragic" and thereby more Dionysian version because the
"sacrifice" is not thwarted?the victim is slain and presumably even
consumed. At this particular moment in the performance, the Kinsman,
wineskin in hand, a naked male attempting to escape the women who
have surrounded him, may have appeared to the audience as more
appropriate for the part of a satyr. After the women and Cleisthenes
undress him (635-48), the Kinsman is left naked, that is, with padded
leotards and hanging phallus.34 It is true that his costume is not satyric in
any strict sense of the word?his limp phallus and lack of a loin cloth
perhaps disqualify him for the part of satyr. And yet, earlier in the play at
Agathon's house, the Kinsman picks the role of actor in satyr-play for
himself, implying that Agathon would not fit the part:
oxocv caxbpovq xofvov Tcoifiq,Koctaiv eui,

ivoc cruuTtoicbGovmcdev earuKcbqeycb (157-58)
Well, let me know when you're writing about satyrs;

Fll get behind you with my hard-on and show you how.
31The
play is more broadly parodied in Women at the Thesmophoria (see Rau 1967,
42-50); it is also parodied in Aristophanes' Acharnians (Rau 1967,19-42).Jn Women at the
Thesmophoria the adaptation of the hostage-scene lies closer to the dramatic plot of the
original than in Acharnians.
32
Iphigeneia in Euripides' IT is not sacrificed but replaced by a deer.
33On the
Dionysiac patterns of Greek tragedy, see Seaford 1994.
34Stone 1984, 407-10: "The
disguise leaves Mnesilochus in ruddy, bearded mask,
padding, and phallus, over which are worn feminine headgear, clothing, and shoes; we
suggested earlier (p. 119 n. 68) on the basis of a phlyax painting, that the hanging phallus is
visible through the thin krokotos. It should be stressed that Mnesilochus is not an effemi-
nate, and that the humor of these scenes depends on the incongruity of his masculine
person (mask and phallus) with his feminine garments."
Furthermore, Mica's answer regarding the age of the baby girl/wineskin,

which is estimated as three to four pitchers old plus the time since the
last Dionysia (745-47), connects the City Dionysia, the setting of the
competition, with the Anthesteria, a time of Dionysian celebration of
wine. This makes perfect sense in the context of comedy, but the refer?
ence to a time of Dionysian celebration such as the Anthesteria also
strongly evokes the participation of satyrs, who were imagined as being
among the god's procession, as the iconographic evidence on the choes
indicates.35
Following the performance ofthe parody of Telephus, the Kinsman's
attempts to escape explicitly remind the audience that he is performing,
as he self-consciously turns to Euripidean dramatic devices in search of
rescue (jirixocvfi Gcoxripiac; 765). His first improvisational act is drawn
from Palamedes, which was part of Euripides' Trojan trilogy, produced in
415, and the Kinsman introduces his performance by referring to the title
of Euripides' play (ek iov naA,ocjif|S(n)(;, 770). Like Oiax, who inscribed a
message on the oars of the departing ships to inform his father, Nauplius,
of Palamedes' murder at the hands of the Greeks, the Kinsman carves a
message for Euripides on the wooden votive tablets near the altar on
which he has taken refuge (775-80). The situation of the Kinsman's
captivity and his attempt at rescue does not conform to the plot of the
original, which centered on the murder of Palamedes by the Greeks and
Oiax's plan to avenge his brother's death.36 The Kinsman's performance
35Simon
(1983, 92-96) discusses the presence of satyrs in the iconography of the
Choes-jugs associated with the Anthesteria and rightly remarks that it is difficult to sepa?
rate myth from ritual practice in connection with the Anthesteria, because the myth and
ritual form an entity when it comes to Dionysiac art. The presence of Satyrs, however, on
the choes that depicted Dionysian subjects is well-attested (p. 96). On the latter, see
Seaford 1994, 266-67: "At the Attic Anthesteria it seems that people dressed up as satyrs
. .. In the depictions of Dionysos in the ship-cart he is closely escorted by satyrs playing
pipes. This is a public procession, and so the painters were probably inspired by men
dressed as satyrs?rather than merely imagining satyrs, as they did when depicting female
rituals they had not seen." This is controversial; Burkert (1985, 166) speaks of masked
mummers based on Plato Laws 815b. But Hamilton (1992, 52) views this as stretching the
evidence too far.
36On the reconstruction of the
plot of Euripides' Palamedes, see Scodel 1980,43-63.
Oiax is the author of the message according to the scholion on Ar. Thesm. 771 and Scodel
1980, 58-59. I do not think, however, that it is necessary to infer on the basis of the
Kinsman's captivity in Women at the Thesmophoria, as Scodel suggests, that Oiax also was
held captive and that he resorted to the trick of writing on oars, because he was unable to
send a messenger to his father (p. 58). Sommerstein (1994 on lines 776-84) notes that "the
passage should be regarded as a Euripidean pastiche with comic elements incorporated."
of Oiax's trick is designed to alert Euripides that he needs rescue, not

vengeance against the women. As such, the Kinsman's plight resembles
the bondage of satyrs in satyr-drama.37 Satyrs, as is well-known, were
often captives or slaves of an ogre (e.g., Isthmiastae, Ichneutae, Cyclops),
whose servitude they must often escape to return to Dionysus.38 For
example, in Euripides' Cyclops the satyrs' servitude ends when Odysseus
arrives, punishes Polyphemus and sets the satyrs free. The Kinsman's
parody of Palamedes lends itself to satyric treatment:39both captive (Kins?
man) and rescuer (Euripides) are male. Without seeing the parody per?
formed, it is difficult to judge whether the Kinsman's efforts and blun-
ders as composer and adapter were perceived as satyric by the audience.
At the very least, this interpretation suggests that the elements for a
satyric production were at the Kinsman's disposal. This Euripidean
mock-tetralogy consists of four tragedies and lacks a satyr-play40 This
was possible since Euripides had already written a tetralogy in 438 B.c.
that included the prosatyric^/cesf/s.The satyric ambience ofthe first two
parodies offers the closest approximation to a satyr-play in the "rescue"
tetralogy. The evocation of the satyric here serves a specific purpose: to
effect a gradual transition from Dionysian rescue plots to the female
rescue scenario of Persephone and Demeter.
On the fragments, see also Jouan and van Looy 2000, 487-507. On the parody, see Rau
1967,51-53.
37
Similarly, Dionysus is also envisioned as a liberator of women in the context of
Dionysian cults (e.g., the servant's description of women's miraculous liberation, Eur.
Bacch. 434-50).
38On
major themes in satyr-play (e.g., captivity and rescue, use of tricks, anodos), see
Seaford 1994, 33^4; Krumeich, Pechstein, and Seidensticker 1999, 28-32.
39For the transformation of
tragic myths in satyr-drama, consider the satyr-plays in
the thematically coherent Aeschylean tetralogies such as the Oresteia (Proteus) and the
Danaid tetralogy (Amymone). Amymone's rejection ofthe advances ofa satyr in Aeschylus'
Amymone recalls the Danaids' rejection of their Egyptian cousins in Suppliants, while
Amymone's marriage to Poseidon possibly parallels that of Hypermestra to her Egyptian
suitor in the lost part of the trilogy. But the themes of rape and courtship, which link the
trilogy with the satyr-drama that follows, are translated into satyric terms. The absence of
violent murder in Amymone is one of the major traits that differentiate the treatment of
the mythical material in satyr-play from its dramatization in tragedy (Winnington-Ingram
1961,147). A satyric Palamedes is known by title and attributed to Theudotus. We do not
know whether the satyric Palamedes dramatized the events at Troy as its tragic counterpart
did or whether it treated the events of Palamedes' visit to Ithaca to enlist Odysseus into the
Trojan War.
40Bowie
(1993,224-25) suggests that Andromeda takes up the place of a satyr-play,
but see Gibert's reservations (1999-2000, 88n. 50). We also know of a nonextant satyric
lambe that featured Persephone's descent to and ascent from the Underworld.
Helen and Andromeda
The tetralogy culminates in two tragedies with female victims. Now the
Kinsman acts the "new Helen" in his female costume (850-51). The
parodies of two female rescue dramas (Helen and Andromeda) bring the
dramatic pattern closer to the Demeter-Persephone story.41 By focusing
on the plight of a female captive heroine, these parodies strongly evoke
Persephone's story.42 The familiar sequence of Persephone's descent into
and ascent from the Underworld is adapted in an analogous sequence of
captivity/rescue, which parallels more clearly the Kinsman's imprison-
ment. Moreover, each of the parodies serves a different dramatic pur?
pose. Helen calls the audience's attention to the connections between the
dramatic plot and the ritual setting of the festival. The parody of An?
dromeda, on the other hand, includes more comic elements, which in
turn usher in comedy.
The shift from the Dionysian scenario of captivity/rescue to the
female rescue scenario is signaled through performance, when the Kins?
man decides to slip back into his female costume (851) and perform the
lead roles of Helen and Andromeda. Helen and Andromeda fall into the
category of plays that feature female heroines in danger in distant for?
eign lands. These plays, which end happily, are analogous to the story of
Persephone, whose descent-ascent pattern emphasizes ritual survival from
death.43 Moreover, the
two female parodies are introduced by the
parabasis (see above), which highlights women's civic role and is punctu-
ated by cult-songs fit for the occasion (947-1000,1136-59). This creates a
closer connection between the female parodies and the festival of the
Thesmophoria. Aristophanes cannot recreate authentic female ritual expe?
rience; and yet, the punctuation of the parodies by choral hymns commu-
nicates the solemn and religious aspects of the representation of the
Thesmophoria through choral performance.44
41On connections between female

myths and rituals and Euripidean drama, see
Guepin 1968,120-22 (Helen JT); Foley 1992,133-60 (Helen and Alcestis); Zweig 1999,158-
80 (Helen); Tzanetou 1999-2000, 199-216 (IT). Bierl (2001, 251-76) discusses these two
parodies in light of models of female initiation.
42The similarities between the
story-pattern of Helen and Andromeda with that of
Persephone are evident: the captivity and rescue sequence is adapted to dramatic plots,
which end in either marriage (Andromeda) or remarriage (Helen).
43Such
plays also looked back to the Odyssey and other tales of adventure, as
Mastronarde points out (1999-2000, 36-37).
44Zeitlin 1996b, 403. For the distinct nature and function of choral
performance
within the play, see Bierl (2001,105-50). For a different perspective on non-Thesmophoric
elements in the choral songs, see Habash 1997,19-40.
The parodies reduce the plots of their originals to the essentials by

reproducing the structure of imprisonment-liberation. The plot of Helen
follows the alternative tradition of Stesichorus and Herodotus, according
to which a ghost (eidolon) of Helen went to Troy instead of the "real"
Helen, who is transported to Egypt by Hermes. All references to the
eidolon are omitted in the original. The philosophical and tragic under-
pinnings in the original are not part of the comic adaptation. In the
parody, the captivity/rescue sequence focuses on the recognition scene
between Helen and Menelaus, probably the scene most familiar to the
audience from its performance the year before. Similarly, the parody of
Andromeda revolves around the pivotal point of its original, Perseus'
falling in love with Andromeda. Both parodies therefore draw upon the
romantic encounter/rescue scenes of their originals.
In his "Helen," Aristophanes draws on the setting of Euripides'
play: Helen's sojourn in Egypt and Menelaus' arrival after the end of the
Trojan war.45 The connections between Helen and the myth of Persephone
are clearly marked in Euripides' original play. For example, Egypt is
imagined as the Underworld; Helen explicitly draws attention to simi-
larities between herself and Demeter's daughter (175-76, 244-46) and
finally there is a long ode to the Great Mother's shift from mourning to
joy (Zeitlin 1996b, 404). The parody itself is a performance of the recog?
nition scene (Hel. 528-96) with the Kinsman as Helen and Euripides as
Menelaus (Rau 1967,53-65). The Kinsman emphasizes Helen's plight as
captive-suppliant attempting to shun the advances of Theoclymenus by
taking refuge at Proteus' tomb (877-80, 885-89) and directs the script by
asking Euripides to take "her" away, choosing the moment of recogni?
tion for the purpose of escape:
co xpovux; eAflwv orj<;daîapxoq eaxapaq,

A,aPe jae A,aPe jae rcoai, 7tep(paA,e 8e yzpaq.
cpepe, ae ktlkjcd.anaye ja' aKay, anaY arcaye [ie
A,apa)v xa%X)rcdvo. (912-16)
O timely come into your own wife's charms!
O hold me, hold me, husband, in your arms!
Come, let me kiss you! Take, oh take, oh take
me away posthaste!
45
Foley (1992,133-60) and Zeitlin (1996b, 403-4, 406-16) argue that the interrela-
tionship between the myth of Persephone and its dramatic representation in Helen, for
example, offers a useful framework for exploring issues of female reputation and marital
identity (Foley) or for exposing the affinities between imitation, illusion, and the feminine
in Greek literature (Zeitlin).
Critylla, who is guarding the Kinsman

and does not recognize the
parody being performed, repeatedly interrupts the performance. She
draws attention to the Kinsman's theatrical acting by accusing him of
"playing the woman" yet again (862-63). Critylla objects to the designa-
tion of the Thesmophorion as Egypt (877-90) and of the altar as the
tomb of Proteus, where Helen took refuge in the original play (886-88).
Men try to turn the Thesmophorion into the theatrical space of perform?
ance; Critylla's insistence sets in relief the reality of the women's festi?
val?serious business?against what men are doing: playing (880). As a
religious and theatrical space, the Thesmophorion links the performance
of the parody of Helen both to the performance of the festival and to the
underlying ritual pattern of Demeter's mourning and rescue of her daugh?
ter. When Critylla refuses to participate as actor in the parody, the
performance makes the connection between the parody and its ritual
underpinnings. This is one of the most important moments in the play;
for Critylla's interventions clarify for the audience the function of the
ritual setting of the Thesmophoria. The women's festival retains its integ-
rity, as a ritual space reserved for women, even though it is being used as
a theatrical space for male performance (Bierl 1991,172-76).
The tragic plot oi Andromeda dramatizes the story of Andromeda's
exposure by her father Cepheus, king of Ethiopia, to a sea-monster as an
expiatory victim for Poseidon, followed by the arrival of Perseus, his
failing in love with her, and Andromeda's rescue.46 The Kinsman/An?
dromeda is east in the role of the captive maiden and Euripides/Perseus
in the role of male rescuer. The economy of adaptation again follows the
captivity and rescue sequence. The parody offers yet another version of
the female rescue story. In addition to female captive (Andromeda) and
male rescuer (Perseus), a third character, however, is added: the Scythian
Archer plays the part of the blocking character, the sea-monster, and on
the level of the ritual myth he evokes Hades. The Kinsman receives his
cue from Euripides/Perseus to perform "Andromeda" using his chains to
evoke his/her captivity:
avfjp eoiKev o\) rcpoScoaeiv, 6Xka um

ar|U?iov i)7ie8riAxDaenepaetx; 8K8pa|Jxbv,
oxt 8ei jae YtyveaB' 'Av8po|ji8av. rcavxax; 8e jjxh
xa 8ea|i' vrcapxei. 8fjA,ov ow (xoux') ea0' oxt
?
fjêi jae acoacov ov yocp av 7tape7txexo. (1010-14)
5On
Euripides' Andromeda, see Klimek-Winter 1993, 55-315.
It seems the man won't give up on me:

he just popped up as Perseus,
meaning I'm supposed to be Andromeda. Fve certainly
got the requisite chains, and he's obviously
on his way to rescue me; otherwise he wouldn't have zipped by.
The Kinsman draws attention to his role as actor by referring to the

theatrical props (the chains) that he employs to play the part of the
captive Andromeda. Andromeda's plight, a maiden bound to a cliff at
the edges of the earth, evokes obvious similarities to the Kinsman, who is
shackled on a board against the wail of the skene (1001-7), and to
Persephone as a captive in the Underworld. Andromeda's lyric monody
and her lyric exchange with the chorus47 form part of the parody, when
the Kinsman as Andromeda performs a lament that emphasizes "her"
captivity and exclusion from the ritual choruses of her co-evals and from
wedding celebrations (ya|Lir|X{cp |Ltevoi) tpv namvx, 1034-35):
opaq, o\) xopoiaiv o\)8'

txp' tjAakcdvveavi5cov
Krjuov earr)K' e'xoixj',
dAA,'ev nvKvolq 8eauoiaiv eiinen'keyiie.vT]
icr|T8iPopa rA,ai>Kerr)rcpoKeium.48 (1029-33)
Behold, not now in dances

nor with girls my own age do I stand
wielding a votive funnel;
nay rather enchained in tight bondage
am I set out as fodder for the monster Glauketes!
These lines evoke what has been

aptly named the "girl's tragedy,"
which refers to a familiar
story pattern of a girl's violent death before her
marriage (Burkert 1979). The ritual overtones inherent in such stories
link Andromeda to Persephone, since the latter is the bride of Hades.
The Kinsman first plays the role of a married woman as Helen, but then
takes the role of a maiden as Andromeda, a transition that subtly evokes
47See Stehle in this volume on the

parallelism between Agathon's and the Kinsman's
performance.
48In the
passage quoted above, as Sommerstein (1994 on line 1031) points out, the
Kinsman uses Knuovexcma' ("holding a voting urn by the funnel") instead of kcouovaycmaa
("leading a group of singers"), a pun that reminds us that women's civic role was expressed
within the ritual sphere and men's in politics (Bierl 2001,153-54, who argues that through
his lament, the Kinsman joins mimetically the chorus' role as Nymphs).
the citizen wives' reversal of status from wives to virgins in the context of
the festival. Women's ritual language becomes an integral part of the
parody and enhances the connections between Andromeda and Per?
sephone, especially as the Kinsman's lament becomes conflated with that
of Andromeda.49
I limit my remarks to the increasing comic tone of the parody of
Andromeda since other aspects of this parody have been examined in
great detail.50 The main goal of the parody appears to be the distortion of
the scene of Perseus' failing in love with Andromeda, which brings
tragedy to an end and leads to comedy. The Scythian guard misinterprets
"Andromeda's" effect on "Perseus" as lust instead of love.51 The increas?
ing presence of obscenity at the end of this parody underscores the
transition from tragedy to comedy. The Archer first draws attention to
the Kinsman's phallus (1114) and then concentrates on his proktos and
on anal sex (nvyiÊiq, 1119-20, nvyxao ... e^67ciaxo 7cpcoKTiaov, 1123-24).
He fails to recognize Euripides' "lofty" address to "Andromeda" as a
theatrical performance; for him "Perseus"' eros for "Andromeda" sug?
gests that Euripides wants to have anal sex with an old man! As a result,
the Archer's interventions have an additional effect: they tip the perform?
ance of the festival of the Thesmophoria toward comedy. The Archer's
confusion between the maleness of the Kinsman and the female role that
he performs produces laughter by evoking humor routinely directed
against "pathics" (cf. the Kinsman's aggressive humor against Agathon,
200-201, 206). Pyge-jokes, however, are also relevant to hetairai and
their customers and evoke not only a sexual, but perhaps more specifically
a sympotic atmosphere.52 Viewed from this angle, it is perhaps the Scythian
Archer's interest in sex that suggests to Euripides the idea for the final
comic trick. This is no ordinary Hades: his concern is not for marriage,
49There is also an
interesting parallel between ritual and theatrical acting. The
Kinsman's dressing and undressing himself with the saffron robe to act the female parts is
reminiscent of a woman's preparation for ritual service (1043-46). On the krokotos and its
connection with Brauron and girls' rites, see also Bierl 2001,254.
50Rau 1967, 65-89; Zeitlin 1996b, 404-5; Gibert
1999-2000,75-91.
51On the Archer
scene, see Hall 1989, 38-54. But /ryge-displays and fairness of
buttocks, however, were also highly prized among hetairai (Alex. 103.10-12).
52At a later date there is even evidence of
competitive displays ofpyge between two
hetairai at a drinking party (Alciphr. 14. 4-6). See also Ath. 12.554c regarding Aphrodite
Kallipygos. I owe this point and the references to pyge-disp\ays to Laura McClure. For
earlier and contemporary references for pyge, see also Olson 1998 on 868-70. On the
pederastic overtones of this scene, see Bierl 2001, 264-66.
but for immediate gratification. Enter Euripides as Artemisia, accompa-

nied by Elaphium and Teredon.
Comedy
Within the ritual framework of the festival, the tragic parodies with their
re-enactment of Persephone's captivity correspond to Nesteia. The ap?
pearance of obscenity in the parody of Andromeda signals the end of
Demeter's mourning and prepares the transition to Kalligeneia. The
presence of obscenity suggests the practice of ritual obscenity at the
Thesmophoria and marks a parallel progression from tragedy to comedy
as well as from Nesteia to Kalligeneia. Comedy thereby comes closer to
the celebration of ritual fertility by imitating women's ritual obscenity,
even though male rather than female characters use obscene language.53
The connection between ritual and comic obscenity suggests broadly the
arrival of Kalligeneia and that aspects of comic obscenity may have
originated within the ritual female context.
In the final scene, Euripides enters as an old hetaira and brings
onstage a dancing girl, Elaphium, whom he has instructed to dance pro-
vocatively (1172-74), and a piper by the name of Teredon, whom he keeps
prompting to perform (1175,1186). Euripides offers live entertainment to
the Scythian Archer as a means of distracting him so that he can liberate
the Kinsman. In this way, Aristophanes forces Euripides to resort to a
truly comic script; its ingredients are basic: the use of sex to outwit an
"outsider," an ethnic character against whom actors and audience unite by
placing him in the position of the "evil" blocking character.54 The myth of
Demeter and Persephone is now finally enacted though parodically by
two males female characters: Euripides, disguised as Artemisia/
playing
Demeter to hoodwink
manages the Scythian Archer/Hades and liberate
the Kinsman/Persephone from bondage. The final shift from tragedy to
53The
study of the differences between male and female obscenity in comedy is a
separate topic. On comic obscenity, see Henderson 1991b. McClure (1999, 228-35) point-
edly draws attention to the fact that women do not utter a single obscenity in the
Thesmophoria, because doing so on stage might have amounted to sacrilege (230-31). It is
true that obscenity within the ritual context was practiced by women only, whereas here
obscene language is used for the most part by male characters. The relationship between
women's ritual dramas and the origins of comedy may be alluded to in the play, but this is
a separate topic that requires extensive study.
54See Elizabeth
Scharffenberger's paper in this volume.
comedy is conveyed in terms of gender; everyone on stage except the

Scythian Archer is in female costume. The final scene therefore concludes
Persephone's story. The switch from male to female rescuer suggests a
more faithful and thereby successful adaptation ofthe Demeter-Persephone
story. Euripides/Artemisia acts the part of Demeter, and the Kinsman,
who is stripped of any other tragic fictional persona, re-enacts Persephone's
part and remains silent while the "plan" is put in motion.
Careful examination, however, suggests that the means (Elaphium's
dance on the Archer/Hades' lap and the offstage sex) employed to justify
the end (the release of the Kinsman/Persephone) are more Dionysian
than Demetrian. The play ends with release from bondage and the tem-
porary liberation of Persephone from her marriage to Hades.The ending
is both typical and atypical of comedy.55 There are no weddings (e.g.,
Birds, Peace) banquets (e.g., Lysistrata) or processions (e.g., Frogs), which
often crown the victorious conclusion of a male comic enterprise. The
mini-symposium is the last dramatic device (mechanen, 1132) that
Euripides devises, by merging tragedy?his own rescue plots?into com?
edy. When Elaphium comes onstage, Euripides announces that she is on
her way to entertain other customers and this first dance is just a "warm-
up" (1178-88). The Scythian Archer admires the dancer's breasts (1185)
and buttocks (1187); she proceeds to dance on his lap, and then they have
sex offstage and it is not for free (1193-99)! Persephone's role is not split
in two, as Bowie (1993) suggests. Elaphium is no Persephone, nor is she
victimized by marriage to the Archer/Hades. She conspires to save an?
other "woman" and soon flees the scene to fulfill other engagements. In
one respect, hetairai and female performers were better off than Athe?
nian wives: because they were more independent. Their exclusion from
Athenian society tells of a bondage of a different sort, but, in the world
of the play, they cannot be trapped by men or Hades.
The Dionysian celebration, therefore, blends in with the Demetrian
flavor of the scene and becomes assimilated within the mold of female
rescue dramas. The comic finale is plotted around the Kinsman's rescue,
and the comic east appears to be drawn from a more typically female
comedy, the hetaira-comedy,56 for the sake of emphasizing the female
55See Stehle in this volume, who

emphasizes that the ending is uncharacteristic of
comedy. She specifically underscores the absence of sex. The Myrrhine-Cinesias scene of
Lysistrata features "sex" as a weapon against a blocking character (830-979). For return to
normative roles at the end of the play, see further Bowie 1993. Bierl 2001,270-73 empha?
sizes the return to marriage: the Kinsman's return to his wife underscores the theme of
marriage, which concludes most of the plots of Old Comedy.
56Henderson 2000a, 135-50.
character of its adaptation. The east and plot of the scene offers the best
enactment of the female rescue plot, and with that the play ends with
comedy's victory over tragedy. The theatrical experiment comes to an
end. The Kinsman's female costume and his performance of female roles
fail to feminize him: Euripides instructs the Kinsman to run away "like a
man" (1204), a reminder that he should abandon his role as "Persephone"
and his feminine theatrical persona and resume his real nature. Comedy,
however, under the auspices of the Thesmophoria, is feminized.
CAPTIVITY AND RESCUE: DIONYSUS AND DEMETER
The movement from the Dionysian pattern of captivity and self-

liberation (Telephus, Palamedes) to that of Demeter and Persephone
(Helen, Andromeda) also represents a move from tragedy toward com?
edy (Artemisia and Elaphium). As the play progresses, the female rescue
pattern is gradually revealed, and the space of the ritual performance of
the Thesmophoria is transformed into the theater of Demeter. This tran-
sition suggests a substitution of Demeter for Dionysus, the god of the
theater. Their similar traits?gods associated with agriculture and fertil?
ity?support their theatrical partnership. Zeitlin has argued that Women
at the Thesmophoria sustains "a dialogue between Demeter and Dionysos,
each representing a mode that defines the feminine and each furnishing
a mythic scenario that can be related to both genres, comedy and trag?
edy."57 Building on her thesis, I argue further that Demeter replaces
Dionysus as patron of comedy, based on similarities of their attributes.
Even though Dionysus and Demeter are not often joined in cult,58 both
are closely related with fertility and agriculture: the former with the
production of wine, the latter with grain agriculture. Moreoever, the
practice of ritual obscenity, which is an integral ingredient of Aristophanic
comedy, may be traced to both Dionysus and Demeter's festivals (Thesmo?
phoria, the Haloa, and the Stenia).59
57Zeitlin 1996b, 400.

58Burkert
(1985,436 n. 62) cites only one example of Demeter Phylaka and Dionysus
Kaprios. Demeter and Dionysus are seated next to each on the north side of the Parthenon
frieze. See Harrison 1996, 206 and Neils 2001,164,188.
59Iambe's
jesting (Hom. Hymn Dem. 200-205) explains the ritual jesting at the
festival of the Thesmophoria (Apollod. 1.5.1). On Baubo and ritual obscenity, see O'Higgins
2001,139-42. McClure (1999, 204-59) elaborates on distinctions between male and female
obscenity with reference to the cults of Dionysus and Demeter.
One might argue that Dionysus does not necessarily represent a

male model for drama, given the god's connections with female cults as
well as his own ambiguous gender identity.60 But Dionysus' masculine
side is asserted through his close association with the phallos, which
symbolized the god's fertility and was a symbol of the "extraordinary"
(Burkert 1985,166)?phalloi were paraded in the procession of the City
Dionysia.61 Dionysus' masculine side is especially prominent in comedy:
the god was honored by the komos, whose members in the performance,
the comic actors and chorus, wear costumes with prominent phalluses
attached to them.62
In dramatic terms, the similarities between Demeter and Dionysus
are also shown through the performance of the captivity and liberation
myths. The salient aspect of the Dionysian pattern is self-liberation and
punishment, while the story of Persephone and Demeter, which is pre-
served in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, stresses cooperation between
women and reconciliation between the sexes (Foley 1994).The latter is
found in several Euripidean tragedies in which men (Menelaus/Perseus)
rescue women held captive in far-off
lands (Helen/Egypt, Andromeda/
Libya) by triumphing against a blocking character, a barbarian king
(Theoclymenus in Helen) or even an ogre (sea-monster in Andromeda).
These plays often end in marriage. In comedy, the same pattern surfaces
in Aristophanes' Peace, in which Peace is held captive in a cave by
Cerberus/Cleon (313-15) and is set free by Hermes (Olson 1998, xxxv-
xxxviii).63 As Helene Foley has shown for Helen and Alcestis, Euripides'
60The
bibliography on Dionysus and his cults is very extensive. On Dionysus'
ambiguity, see for example, Burkert 1985, 222-25. Most relevant to this discussion are
Henrichs 1982, 1984; Segal 1982; Jameson 1993, 44-64 and Bierl 1991, 1-25. Jameson, in
particular, concentrates precisely on the contradiction between the different facets of
Dionysus (effeminate conduct, ability to dissolve social and sexual controls imposed on
men and women, his own detachment from sexual pursuits). He in turn cautions against
attempting to construct a consistent whole and argues that the whole set of these attributes
is not manifest in every context.
61As attested in one
fragmentary inscription (IG I2 46.). See Pickard-Cambridge,
Gould, and Lewis 1988, 61-62 with n. 4.
62Ibid., 220-23.
63Women feature less often in the role of rescuer.
Iphigeneia in IT, which, like
Alcestis, belongs to the pattern of female captive/male rescuer, plays an integral role in
rescuing her brother from sacrifice, but both Orestes and Pylades are also responsible for
her escape from the land of the Taurians. Procne and Philomela's story is one of the few
examples in which women act as rescuers. But because Procne's help comes too late after
her sister's rape and mutilation by Tereus, this story tells more a tale of vengeance than one
of rescue.
female dramas are patterned upon Persephone's

rescue story (1992,133?
60). And the contemporary audience might well have identified Per?
sephone's captivity and rescue in this type of rescue drama. In Women at
the Thesmophoria the ritual setting evokes the female rescue pattern
even more readily and hence the connections between the ritual pattern
and the rescue dramas parodied. In fact, faithful adaptation of the ritual
pattern seems to be the key to a successful performance at Aristophanes'
Thesmophoria, namely, liberating the Kinsman. As they are depicted in
this play, Euripides' adaptations of the female rescue story in Helen and
Andromeda are presented as inappropriate for the Thesmophoria. Both
in the original and in the parodies, the playwright features a male
(Menelaus or Perseus) rather than a female rescuer. Thus, while a male
for a female rescuer "works" in the original plays and Helen and An?
dromeda in the parodies the male rescuer, namely, Euripides
are saved,
as Menelaus/Perseus, fails to bring about the liberation of the Kinsman
acting as Helen/Andromeda. Here, only when both the rescuer and the
captive are in female
costume does the rescue succeed. Consequently,
comedy rather
than tragedy interprets the female rescue myth of the
Thesmophoria more cogently by offering a faithful adaptation of the
Persephone-Demeter scenario.
TRAGEDY VERSUS COMEDY:

A DRAMATIC CONTEST AT THE THESMOPHORIA?
The idea that Women at the Thesmophoria concerns a competition be?

tween Euripides and Aristophanes and between tragedy and comedy is
not new.64 Jeffrey Henderson (1996) has argued recently that Aristophanes
puts Euripides on trial because his psychologically realistic portraits of
women have violated the rule that tragedy must distance its fictions from
contemporary reality. Imitation of contemporary reality is the domain of
comedy, and Aristophanes ultimately sets out to defeat Euripides' trans-
gression into the comic genre.
Thomas Hubbard and John Gibert have promoted aspects of the
same thesis, namely, that Aristophanes is vying with Euripides over the
shared territory of composing plays about women. Aristophanes presents
women as the central characters for the first time in Lysistrata and Women
64Bierl 1991,
especially 176;Hubbard 1991,182-99; Bowie 1993,217-25;Taaffe 1993,
98-99; Henderson 1996, 96-97; Zeitlin 1996b, 387-99; Gibert 1999-2000,75-91.
at the Thesmophoria, both of which were produced in 411.65 Because

Euripides' female rescue dramas, Helen and Andromeda, were produced
in 412, both critics suggest that they influenced Aristophanes' treatment
of his new subject matter, especially in terms of characterization.66
I suggest further that the dramatic imitation of Persephone's story
in the parodies and in the comic finale alike provides an effective theat?
rical solution for communicating concretely to the audience the rivalry
between the two genres over the shared territory of dramas about
women.67 The similarities between tragedy and comedy in their treat?
ment of women easily be evidenced,
cannot because Aristophanes' com?
edies about differ markedly from Euripides'
women rescue dramas. In
comedy, women are represented as being "on top" and making decisions
on behalf of the city instead of men because the depiction of them often
aims at critiquing aspects of the contemporary social and political system
(Lysistrata, Women at the Assembly). On the other hand, the typical
rescue plot of Euripides revolves around the return of a female heroine,
whose wanderings or captivity in an exotic locale ends with the arrival of
a male rescuer (Iphigeneia in Tauris, Helen).
In Women at the Thesmophoria Euripides' depiction as a misogy-
65On the
dating, see Sommerstein (1994,1-3). Lysistrata was probably performed at
the Lenaea (see Henderson 1987, xv-xxv) and Women at the Thesmophoria at the City
Dionysia. It was uncommon for two comedies by the same author to be produced at the
same festival.
66Hubbard
(1991,182-99) concentrates on an intertextual reading of Lysistrata and
Women at the Thesmophoria. In his analysis of Women at the Thesmophoria, he aptly notes
that "the new, softer, more romantic portrayals in Helen and Andromeda of 412 probably
influenced Aristophanes in turning his attention to women's themes in 411; however,
Aristophanes felt that he could be more successful than Euripides in using female dramatic
figures to influence dominant social, political and literary values" (186). Gibert (1999-2000,
75-91) interprets the parody of Andromeda in light of its similarities with Lysistrata and
argues that Aristophanes' play is indebted to Euripides, especially for his treatment of eros
as well as for the positive delineation of female characters. Both scholars acknowledge
their debt to Henderson's discussion of Aristophanes as innovator in his women plays. See
further, Henderson 1987,1996. Whether Aristophanes actually aimed at critiquing Euripides'
characterization of women or choice of subject matter and orientation in his female
dramas, or whether this "rivalry" concerns a perceived competition over the use of lan?
guage, illusion and other aspects of tragic and comic representation, remains a matter of
lively scholarly debate.
67
Agathon's comments on issues of mimesis regarding gynaikeia dramata (151)
address the representation of female characters by male actors. However, the emphasis on
"female dramas" may be programmatic in light of Euripides' and Aristophanes' recent
productions.
nist68 becomes assimilated into the play's implicit strategy that comedy is
closer to women's experience than tragedy. The trial of Euripides offers
a pretext for evaluating his dramatic skill in portraying women, judged
against the skill of comedy. The women put Euripides on trial because his
portraits of "bad" heroines such as Phaedra and Melanippe impugn
women's reputation (544-48) and because Euripides' slander disrupts
the normal rhythms of life in the oikos and succeeds in awakening
husbands' suspicions regarding their own wives' misbehavior (395-432).
By contrast, comedy represents women as bonding with each other and
suggests that cooperation and reconciliation offers the prevailing para?
digm of women's conduct in the oikos and polis. Comedy "wins" over
tragedy because its script is based on a faithful adaptation of the power?
ful story of Demeter's bond with her daughter Persephone. Just as
Demeter's ability to negotiate a deal in a man's world with Zeus that
benefits herself and her daughter underscores her power, so does the
depiction of her story in comedy, because here, too, women are granted
the opportunity to negotiate with men.
Within this framework, I suggest that the rivalry between Aristoph?
anes and Euripides is staged as a dramatic contest between the two
major dramatic genres.69 The model for the contest is the program of the
City Dionysia with which spectators were familiar during the Pelopon-
nesian war: tragedy in the morning, comedy in the afternoon (if one
takes ?(p' fipixc; in Ar. Birds 789 to refer to comic performers).70 Tragic and
comic contests were jointly held during the war, yet separately judged.
Because tragedy and comedy were produced in the same day, however,
Aristophanes suggested to the audience that they competed against each
other. The grouping together of parodies from four Euripidean plays
68First attested in Ar.

Lys. 283, 368-69 (Henderson 2000b, 307 n. 27).
69
Aristophanes' rivalry towards Euripides is attested by Cratinus (schol. Pl. Ap. 19c,
PCGIII2, test. 3). See further, Rau 1967; Rau 1975,339-56. For the rich and ongoing debate
on genre as well as relevant bibliography, see most recently, Depew and Obbink 2000.
70First
suggested by A. Korte, RE "Komodie," 1229, based on the arguments to Ar.
Clouds,Peace, Birds (City Dionysia) and Acharnians,Knights, Wasps,Frogs (Lenaia); Pickard-
Cambridge 1988, 66,83 with nn. 1 and 2 and followed by Mastromarco (1975,469-73), who
argues that the restriction in the number of comedies performed was operative only in 426-
421 and 415-402 b.c); Slater 1988, 44 with n. 7. Against this view are Luppe 1972, 53-75;
Luppe 1982,147-59; 2000,19-20; and Dunbar 1995, 786-89. There is no extant hypothesis
for Women at the Thesmophoria. See also Sommerstein 1996 on Ar. Frogs. 376, who points
out that the reference "after lunch" indicates that: "Aristophanes knew that his play would
be performed in the afternoon."
may suggest a tragic tetralogy (Telephus,Palamedes, Helen, Andromeda).

The Kinsman stages Euripidean "rescue" scenes to escape from captivity.
As soon as his performance of Palamedes fails, the Kinsman is inspired
by Euripides' recent experiments with female rescue dramas?both Helen
and Andromeda had been performed in the previous year, following the
failure of Palamedes trilogy in 415.71 The parodies
and the Trojan of
tragedy followed by comedy
suggest a contest between two genres (even
though tragedy is represented via parody) and the two playwrights (even
if "Euripides" scripts and performs the final comedy).72 Dramatic virtu-
osity is judged according to free dramatic adaptations and variations on
a set theme, fit for the occasion of the Thesmophoria: captivity and
rescue. plot of Persephone's
The ritual story in this play becomes the
standard for evaluating dramatic success in "female dramas." Women at
the Thesmophoria constitutes a unique example because the perform?
ances of the parodies and of the comic finale are embedded within the
framework of the festival of the Thesmophoria. The re-enactment, there?
fore, of the story of Demeter and Persephone in tragedy and comedy
alike functions broadly as the equivalent of the ritual drama.
By presenting the rivalry between comedy and tragedy as a dra?
matic competition, Aristophanes engineers the inevitable victory of com?
edy in this internal competition, which is contrived in every respect by
the poet himself!
Becausethe performance of tragedy and comedy within the festi?
val re-enacts the story of Demeter and Persephone, the parodies and the
comic finale serve symbolically as the religious rituals that women per?
formed in the festival. Nonetheless, tragedy and comedy retain their
character as competitive rituals within the setting of the festival. As a
result, the Kinsman's performances of parodies of Euripides' plays within
the festival mobilize a different chain of symbolic associations in the
mind of the audience.73 The performance of the parodies within the
festival reproduces a setting equivalent to the one spectators associated
with the annual dramatic competitions at the festivals of Dionysus.
71Bowie
(1993,224-25) briefly suggests that the four parodies constitute a tetralogy.
He does not consider further that this set-up suggests an actual contest between the two
genres. Many have argued that comedy wins: Bowie 1993; Taafe 1993; Zeitlin 1996b; Bierl
2001,159.
72Metatheatrical
interpretations of this play include Bonanno 1990, 241-76 and
Slater 2002,150-80, who weaves metatheater into a political interpretation of the play with
special reference to the events of 411 b.c.
73On the
Aristophanic comic audience, see Slater 1999, 351-68.
Aristophanes reproduces the audience's experience by staging its double:

that is, the parodies constitute plays within a play, but they are also
framed by the festival of the Thesmophoria itself. As a result, the theat?
rical spectacle calls attention to the experience of the audience who were
watching the performance of the comedy at the theater of Dionysus at
the City Dionysia. The metatheatricalimitation of the Dionysian festival
and the dramatic competition engages the audience's knowledge and
consciousness of the theatricality of the spectacle in two specific ways.
First, it draws attention to the substitution of City Dionysia for the
Thesmophoria and, second, to the rivalry between Aristophanes and
Euripides as a theatrical contest that gradually becomes focused on
dramas about women. Figure 1 clarifies the theatrical experience of the
audience.
CONCLUSION
This attempt to relate and meaning of Aristophanes'

the action play to
what can be recovered about
the Athenian Thesmophoria joins the de?
bate surrounding the play on a number of significant issues: the repre?
sentation of women in drama, the competition between tragedy and
comedy, and the intricate relationship between ritual and theatrical rep?
resentation within the play's larger commentary on the nature of mime-
sis.74 Studying the theatrical connections between ritual and drama offers
insights into a variety of levels of Women at the Thesmophoria. The play's
metatheatrical attention to the convention of male actors' impersonation
of female roles sets in relief, certainly for modern audiences, the incon-
gruity between the male actor's female costume and men's attempt to
reproduce women's experience in ancient drama. For women in Athe?
nian drama are "really" men in disguise: men author and play women's
parts. More importantly, men in female costumes can only imitate what
they don't have by nature?to echo Agathon.75 Aristophanes, like the
Kinsman, intrudes on the festival and breaks the code of secrecy and
silence. Ignorant of women's secrets, he offers instead the male view of
women's ritual secrets and speech.
74On
Agathon's theory of mimesis, see Muecke 1982, 41-55; Stohn 1993, 196-205.
On mimesis in general, see Sorbom 1996.
75On men's failure to
perform women's ritual roles, see Stehle's incisive discussion
in this volume.
Audience's reality
City Dionysia
Theater of Dionysus
festival program in 411?: tragic tetralogy (morning) + one comedy (afternoon)
Aristophanes' Women at the Thesmophoria
Thesmophoria festival
Theater of Demeter
Theatrical program : tetralogy + one comedy

parodies of scenes from Euripides, Telephus, Palamedes, Helen,
Andromeda and a scene from a comedy written and directed
by Aristophanes/"Euripides" featuring a rescue
scene in a "hetaira" comedy.
Theatrical/onstage reality
Figure 1. The Theatrical Context of the Thesmophoria
And yet, the parallelisms between the ritual myth, the events of the
festival, and the complex dramatic structure of the play are striking. The
women's dissatisfaction with Euripides causes "infertility"; when paro?
dies of Euripides' plays are produced on the comic stage during Nesteia,
they fail. Success and dramatic fertility as the equivalent of Kalligeneia
return when Euripides and the women are reconciled. Euripides will
continue to write plays. Their reconciliation parallels the return of fertil?
ity on earth after Demeter's reconciliation with Zeus.
Once Euripides capitulates, the final scene is successful but this
final success is credited to comedy. Aristophanes stages Demeter and
Persephone's story, a model of a powerful relationship between a strong
and independent mother and her daughter within the patriarchal para?
digm of Athenian society. The adaptation of the ritual myth in comedy
yields a positive representation of women's role in Athenian society that
counterbalances the appropriation of their functions in drama. For the
play affirms not only women's roles

within the oikos and the polis but
elevates women to the status of purveyors of dramatic fertility. That
comedy affirms women's status in accordance with official ideology is
not a novel idea. But in this play, the entire action revolves around the
imitation of a ritual myth that celebrated women's unique contributions
to the community. Unlike the women in Lysistrata and Women at the
Assembly, who abandon their status as political agents and return to
their homes at the end of the play, in Women at the Thesmophoria it is
men who must abandon their female roles and return to "normality": the
Kinsman flees from the theater to his oikos. This serves as a reminder
that here, too, the inversion of male for female roles is temporary and
does not threaten the status quo, but rather reinforces it. Initially
Aristophanes' plan to join ranks with the women against Euripides, their
mutual antagonist, appears solely opportunistic. But the performance
itself, under the pretext of exposing women's ritual secrets and defeating
Euripides, ironically discloses comedy's true affinity with women's ritu?
als; for both affirm, celebrate, and promote the continuity of human life.76
Case Western Reserve University

e-mail: axt31@po.cwru.edu
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76
My warmest thanks go to Mary-Kay Gamel for her invaluable and incisive cri-
tique of the arguments presented in this article. I also want to thank Anton Bierl, Barbara
Gold, Jeffrey Henderson, Nanno Marinatos, Mare Mastrangelo, Jenifer Neils, Vassiliki
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Something to Do with Demeter: Ritual and Performance in Aristophanes' Women at the

Like his character the Kinsman, Aristophanes invades Athenian

abduction and imprisonment by Hades and her rescue by her mother

1Zeitlin offers a masterful

unfold, they move from the Dionysian pattern of self-liberation and

The Thesmophoria, one of the major festivals in honor of Demeter and

Table 1. The Thesmophoria

Festival calendar Program Ritual myth

Anodos (Ascent) Election of Demeter's

Nesteia (Fasting) Fasting, sitting on Demeter's

The Thesmophoria may have commemorated the mourning of

on that day ascended to the Thesmophorion8 and made preparations for

passages (megara).13 During the festival, women known as "bailers"

13Burkert 1985, 242-43.

evidence for a distinctly female voice. For example, Winkler (1990,188?

Women and the Festival

JSee Bowie 1993, 205-12,

ning of the assembly against state enemies, by listing as an enemy of the

Ritual and Theater

Ancient audiences could discern correspondences between mythical and

21Wiles 2000, 29. For

play. The performance of tragedy corresponds to the re-enactment of

THE DRAMATIC PROGRAM

When the women that the Kinsman is an intruder, they strip

Table 2. Aristophanes' Women at the Thesmophoria

condemned to death, he does not die.27 Instead, he pursues four strate?

Telephus and Palamedes

29On the use of dramatic

Table 3. Dramatic Program and Ritual Myth

oxocv caxbpovq xofvov Tcoifiq,Koctaiv eui,

Well, let me know when you're writing about satyrs;

Furthermore, Mica's answer regarding the age of the baby girl/wineskin,

of Oiax's trick is designed to alert Euripides that he needs rescue, not

Helen and Andromeda

41On connections between female

The parodies reduce the plots of their originals to the essentials by

co xpovux; eAflwv orj<;da^iapxoq eaxapaq,

Critylla, who is guarding the Kinsman

avfjp eoiKev o\) rcpoScoaeiv, 6Xka um

It seems the man won't give up on me:

The Kinsman draws attention to his role as actor by referring to the

opaq, o\) xopoiaiv o\)8'

Behold, not now in dances

These lines evoke what has been

47See Stehle in this volume on the

but for immediate gratification. Enter Euripides as Artemisia, accompa-

comedy is conveyed in terms of gender; everyone on stage except the

55See Stehle in this volume, who

CAPTIVITY AND RESCUE: DIONYSUS AND DEMETER

The movement from the Dionysian pattern of captivity and self-

57Zeitlin 1996b, 400.

One might argue that Dionysus does not necessarily represent a

female dramas are patterned upon Persephone's

TRAGEDY VERSUS COMEDY:

The idea that Women at the Thesmophoria concerns a competition be?

at the Thesmophoria, both of which were produced in 411.65 Because

68First attested in Ar.

may suggest a tragic tetralogy (Telephus,Palamedes, Helen, Andromeda).

Aristophanes reproduces the audience's experience by staging its double:

This attempt to relate and meaning of Aristophanes'

festival program in 411?: tragic tetralogy (morning) + one comedy (afternoon)

Aristophanes' Women at the Thesmophoria