In ancient Greek comedy parabases were special formulaic sections in the Aristophanes' comedies where the principal actors have left the stage and the chorus takes over to perform in a different but specialized role. Parabases formed an interlude between 'acts' in the main play during which addresses were made by the chorus in song or chant directly to the audience During a parabasis the sequence of the actions and events of the plot of the main play were suspended. Whilst the parabasis was in progress the chorus generally would continue using its own voice dressed and acting as the same character that it was assigned in the main part of the play but for a different purpose. In the different sections of the parabasis the chorus might act as a single whole unit or split into two separate half choruses each with its own leader.

To assist in the recital of the anapaests in a parabasis an aulos player would be employed [Birds 676-684].

Sometimes the leader of the whole chorus [or the leaders of each half chorus] would recite or chant in the voice and character of the playwright-poet himself in a personal address to the audience on topics not immediately or necessarily relevant to the fictional story of the main play but which were often politically topical and of immediate current interest to the audience. Indeed the very persons whom the playwright wished to mock and satirise during a parabasis personally may have been present in the audience. During a parabasis an appeal would be made to the audience for consideration by the spectators for the play and its merits. Parabases expand the personal opinions and predilections of the poet with his remarks on current topics or the urgent advice that the poet might wish to give the audience.

Parabases might be considered the best parts of Aristophanes' work.

It is in the long tradition of ancient Greek poetry that poets were seen to be moralists able to address concerns of importance to their fellow citizens, like as if they were preachers who had chosen the poetic form to promote wisdom, justice and courage amongst their fellow men. Indeed Athens had a long tradition of poets and dramatists being responsible for educating the Athenian populus, either in the duties of democracy or citizens' moral responsibilities. They might also offer admonition. The purpose of this was to promote homonoia, a 'community of mind' a moral strength in the city against its enemies both internal and external.

Parabases may have been inserted into their plays by the comic playwrights to create time for the principal characters of the main drama to change their masks and costumes, and/or to create a psychological division or break in the plot or fiction of the drama to prepare the audience for a different act in the play.

Parabases generally followed a highly structured formulaic pattern consisting of a set of different poetic sections each of which was based on variations in metre, voice, delivery and rhetorical purpose.

Standard Structure of a Parabasis

Kommation (κώμμάτιον): This was the first part of the parabasis in a Greek comedy. It was a brief prelude delivered by the whole chorus to the audience before the main parabasis proper itself began. It generally consisted of a few lines to get the audience to pay attention to what was about to take place by (a) giving a brief farewell to the actors who were departing the scene, and (b) a 'word of command' delivered by the chorus leader to his chorus to commence the parabasis. During this section the leader of the chorus facing the stage, where they bid godspeed to the actors leaving the stage, and then orders his chorus to about turn and advance towards the spectators facing them to begin the Parabasis.
The Kommation typically was a lyrical section within the Parabasis, usually characterised by a shift to a more rapid meter, such as iambic trimeter or tetrameter.

Anapaests. [ ˘ ˘ — ˘ ˘ — ...] In the first five extant plays by Aristophanes the 'anapaests' were a section of the parabasis where an address recited by the chorus leader in the character of the poet of the play to the audience in his own defence extolling his virtue and skill.

Pnigos. The anapaests often ended with a passage which was meant to be rattled off very quickly (theoretically delivered in a single breath - this was called a πνῖγος – pnigos).

Ode/Antode. Those sections of the parabasis which were invocations sung in a lyrical metre by the whole chorus to the gods inviting them to join in the festivities by paying a visit to Athens to participate in the Dionysiac rituals with them.

Epirrhema. in Ancient Greek Old Comedy, an address recited/sung in trochaic tetrameters usually about public affairs providing advice and counsel to the audience. It was spoken by the leader of one-half of the chorus in the character they represent in the main part of the comedy, and after that half of the chorus had sung its ode. During the Epirrhema each half-chorus in turn during their delivery might throw off their outer costumes, but never their masks to perform a vigorous dance. Pickard-Cambridge says that during this phase of the Parabasis the leader of one half of the chorus delivered the address whilst the leader of the other half led his troupe in performing the dance. All roles of each half-chorus are swapped over in the Antepirrhema thereby giving the parabasis a symmetric structure with two halves.

Epirrhematic Agon or Epirrhematic Syzygy.

One of the constituent elements of Old Comedy. The epirrhematic agon was in essence a debate between opposed characters in the drama or between allegorized characters introduced for that purpose. It comprised the following sections, each delivered in a different metre:

The strophe or ode: this was sung by a half chorus and served to arouse the difference and interest in the matter at issue.

The katakeleusmos (Gk. word of command ): the coryphaeus [leader of the Chorus] ordered the debater, who is destined to be the loser, to deliver his speech.

The epirrheme (Gk. epirrhema, speech or address ): the first debater presents his argument; there may be interruptions.

The pnigos (Gk. choking or choker): the first debater reaches the climax of his presentation in a final breathless appeal delivered in a single breathe.

The whole is then repeated for the second debater, in a complete symmetric opposite, the parts being called the antistrophe or antode, the antikatakeleusmos, the antepirrhema, and the antipnigos. Thus a syzygy (Gk. syzygy or a yoking together) is thereby formed.

The chorus then passes judgment on the dispute in the sphragis (Gk. seal "stamp").

The epirrhematic agon may not appear in its entirety; in The Acharnians, Peace and Thesmophoriazusae there is none, properly speaking. Scholars are in considerable disagreement about the ritual origins of the epirrhematic agon and about its part in the development of comedy.

The Location of the Parabases in some of the plays by Aristophanes

[Line numbers are the same as those found in Loeb editions]

Clouds

Parabasis I, 510-626

Kommation, 510-7
Anapaests 518-62

Ode 563-74
Epirrhema (20 Lines of Trochaic Tetrameter) 575-94
Antode 595-606
Antepirrhema (20 Lines of Trochaic Tetrameter) 607-26

Parabasis II 1114-30

Kommation 1114
Epirrhema (16 lines of Trochaic Tetrameter) 1115-30

Wasps

Parabasis I 1009-1121
Kommation 1009-14

Anapaests tetrameters 1015-50
pnigos 1051-9

Ode 1060-70
Eppirrhema (20 troch. tetr.) 1071-90

Antode 1091-1101
Anterpirrhema (20 troch. tetr.) 1102-21

Parabasis II 1265-91 [quite differently structured]

Birds

Parabasis I 676-800
Kommation 676-84

Anapaests tetrameter 685-722
pnigos 723-36

Ode 727-52
Epirrhema (16 troch. tetr.) 753-68

Antode 769-84
Antepirrhema (16 troch.tetr.) 785-800

Parabasis II 1058-1117

Ode 1058-70
Epirrhema (16 troch. tetr.) 1071-87

Antode 1088-1100
Antepirrhema (16 troch.tetr.) 1101-1117

References

Parabasis - Wikipedia

Parabasis - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

Sir Arthur Wallace Pickard-Cambridge (1927). Dithyramb, tragedy and comedy. Clarendon Press.
https://archive.org/details/Dithyramb

Dionysos, étude sur l'organisation matérielle du théâtre athénien: Octave Navarre - Internet Archive

CHAPITRE XII L'INTERPRÉTATION
pp 193 - 198 §71. Structure de la comédie. La parabase.

Gregory Michael Sifakis; Grēgorēs M. Sēphakēs (1971). Parabasis and Animal Choruses: A Contribution to the History of Attic Comedy. G. M. Sifakis. ISBN 978-0-485-11126-2.
Parabasis and animal choruses (1971 edition) - Open Library

John E. Thorburn (2005). The Facts on File Companion to Classical Drama. Parabasis: Infobase Publishing. pp. 405–. ISBN 978-0-8160-7498-3.

K. J. Dover; Vice-Chancellor K J Dover (March 1972). Aristophanic Comedy. University of California Press. pp. 49–. ISBN 978-0-520-02211-9.

Ian Worthington (11 January 2010). A Companion to Greek Rhetoric. 7. Speech Mechanics: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 500–. ISBN 978-1-4443-3414-2.

Francis MacDonald Cornford The Origin of Attic Comedy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-18207-2.
https://archive.org/details/cu31924022693117/page/n8

The Position of the Parabasis in the Plays of Aristophanes
Author(s): Philip Whaley Harsh
Source: Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 65(1934), pp. 178-197
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/283027

tc-2019-0013

The Parabasis in Aristophanes: Prolegomena, Acharnians
Author(s): A. M. Bowie
Source: The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 1 (1982), pp. 27-40
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/638735

On the Parabasis of the Thesmophoriazusae of Aristophanes
Author(s): Harold W. Miller
Source: Classical Philology, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Jul., 1947), pp. 180-181
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/265989

Comic Acts
Author(s): Richard Hamilton
Source: The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 2 (1991), pp. 346-355
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/638904

Aristophanic Protest
Author(s): Robert J. Murray
Source: Hermes, 115. Bd., H. 2 (2nd Qtr., 1987), pp. 146-154
Published by: Franz Steiner Verlag
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4476557

Aristophanes and His Rivals
Author(s): Malcolm Heath
Source: Greece & Rome, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Oct., 1990), pp. 143-158
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/643043

"Laughing at Aristophanes? An Evaluation of his Parabases" by Alexandra Berardelli

On The Evolution of Comedy

Thomas K. Hubbard (1991). The Mask of Comedy: Aristophanes and the Intertextual Parabasis. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-2564-6.
The mask of comedy - Open Library

Gregory Michael Sifakis; Gregorio Michael Sephakes (1971). Parabasis and Animal Choruses: A Contribution to the History of Attic Comedy. G. M. Sifakis. pp. 14–. ISBN 978-0-485-11126-2.

Beyond Aristophanes : transition and diversity in Greek comedy - Internet Archive

Ancient Greek Theatre

Thursday, 20 June 2019

Parabasis

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