Silent roles
90-491: The Knights ( Ancient Greek : Ἱππεῖς Hippeîs ; Attic : Ἱππῆς ) was the fourth play written by Aristophanes , who is considered the master of Old Comedy . The play is a satire on the social and political life of classical Athens during the Peloponnesian War , and in this respect it is typical of all the dramatist's early plays. It is unique, however, in the relatively small number of its characters, and this
180-508: A parabasis , during which the Chorus steps forward to address the audience on behalf of the author. The Chorus informs us that Aristophanes has been very methodical and cautious in the way he has approached his career as a comic poet, and we are invited to applaud him. The knights then deliver a speech in praise of the older generation, the men who made Athens great, and this is followed by a speech in praise of horses that performed heroically in
270-543: A pitch accent . In Modern Greek, all vowels and consonants are short. Many vowels and diphthongs once pronounced distinctly are pronounced as /i/ ( iotacism ). Some of the stops and glides in diphthongs have become fricatives , and the pitch accent has changed to a stress accent . Many of the changes took place in the Koine Greek period. The writing system of Modern Greek, however, does not reflect all pronunciation changes. The examples below represent Attic Greek in
360-493: A "well-hung" boy and with the Peacetreaties – two girls that Cleon had been keeping locked up in order to prolong the war. Demos invites Agoracritus to a banquet at the town hall and the entire cast exits in good cheer – all except Cleon, who is required to sell sausages at the city gate as punishment for his crimes. Some significant events leading up to the play: Cleon's political career was founded on his opposition to
450-458: A Chorus of them charges into the theatre. They converge on Cleon in military formation under instructions from their leader: Cleon is given rough handling, and the Chorus leader accuses him of manipulating the political and legal system for personal gain. Cleon bellows to the audience for help, and the Chorus urges the sausage-seller to outshout him. There follows a shouting match between Cleon and
540-491: A concrete mole (length approximately 930 metres, width 100 metres, mole surface 93,000 m2). A new pier finished in the late 1980s doubled the capacity of the port. The reinforced mole protects anchored vessels from strong northern winds. Within the port operates a customs office facility and a Hellenic Coast Guard post. Sea traffic is limited to trade in the export of local produce, mainly citrus fruits, grapes, marble, aggregates and some domestic imports. The port operates as
630-573: A contingency facility for general cargo ships, bulk carriers and ROROs , in case of strikes at Piraeus port. There was formerly a ferry link to Catania , Sicily and Genoa in Italy . The Corinth Canal, carrying ship traffic between the western Mediterranean Sea and the Aegean Sea , is about 4 km (2.5 mi) east of the city, cutting through the Isthmus of Corinth that connects
720-477: A lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period. They have the same general outline but differ in some of the detail. The only attested dialect from this period is Mycenaean Greek , but its relationship to the historical dialects and
810-419: A lesser degree. Pamphylian Greek , spoken in a small area on the southwestern coast of Anatolia and little preserved in inscriptions, may be either a fifth major dialect group, or it is Mycenaean Greek overlaid by Doric, with a non-Greek native influence. Regarding the speech of the ancient Macedonians diverse theories have been put forward, but the epigraphic activity and the archaeological discoveries in
900-446: A long absence and it still leaves the audience in the dark about how Nicias feels at the end. Imagery : It has been observed that imagery is the most important aspect of Aristophanes' comic poetry. In this play, the imagery provides a context in which the ambiguities mentioned above can be resolved. Paphlagonian is a monstrous giant (74–9), a snoring sorcerer (103), a mountain torrent (137), a hook-footed eagle (197), garlic pickle (199),
990-499: A man they despise. Then Agoracritus returns to the stage, calling for respectful silence and announcing a new development – he has rejuvenated Demos with a good boiling (just as if he were a piece of meat). The doors of Demos's house open to reveal impressive changes in Demos's appearance – he is now the very image of glorious "violet-crowned" Athens, as once commemorated in a song by Pindar . Agoracritus presents his transformed master with
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#17327718615391080-421: A mud-stirrer (306), a fisherman watching for shoals of fish (313), a butchered pig (375–81), a bee browsing blooms of corruption (403), a dog-headed ape (416), a storm by sea and land (430–40), a giant hurling crags (626–29), a storm surge at sea (691–93), a thieving nurse (716–18), a fishermen hunting eels (864–67), a boiling pot (919–22), a lion fighting gnats (1037–8), a dogfox (1067), a beggar (182–3) and finally
1170-654: A period of Economic changes commenced as a large pipework complex, a textile factory and a meat packing facility diminished their operations. Corinth is a major road hub. The A7 toll motorway for Tripoli and Kalamata , (and Sparta via the A71 toll ), branches off the A8 / E94 toll motorway from Athens at Corinth. Corinth is the main entry point to the Peloponnesian peninsula, the southernmost area of continental Greece. KTEL Korinthias provides intercity bus service in
1260-560: A population of 55,941 according to the 2021 census, the second most populous municipality in the Peloponnese Region after Kalamata . The municipal unit of Corinth had 38,485 inhabitants, of which Corinth itself had 30,816 inhabitants, placing it in second place behind Kalamata among the cities of the Peloponnese Region. The municipal unit of Corinth (Δημοτική ενότητα Κορινθίων) includes apart from Corinth proper
1350-550: A prefix /e-/, called the augment . This was probably originally a separate word, meaning something like "then", added because tenses in PIE had primarily aspectual meaning. The augment is added to the indicative of the aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect, but not to any of the other forms of the aorist (no other forms of the imperfect and pluperfect exist). The two kinds of augment in Greek are syllabic and quantitative. The syllabic augment
1440-402: A pun that is made explicit in lines 214–16, where Demosthenes compares the task of government to the task of preparing and cooking meat. The connection Demos=fat is consistent with the notion that Agoracritus can refine his master at the end of the play by boiling him (a notion that originates in the myth of Pelias , whose children boil him like an old ram in an attempt to rejuvenate him). Many of
1530-472: A recent amphibious assault on Corinth , whither they are imagined to have rowed in gallant style. Returning to the stage, the sausage-seller reports to the knights on his battle with Cleon for control of the council: he has outbid Cleon for the support of the councillors with offers of meals at the state's expense. Indignant at his defeat, Cleon rushes onto the stage and challenges the sausage-seller to submit their differences to Demos. The sausage-seller accepts
1620-429: A sausage seller in the city gates (1397). These mixed metaphors present Paphlagonian as a versatile form of comic evil whose relevance transcends any particular place or time. Thus Cleon can be understood as one of Paphlagonian's many manifestations and the satire is subsumed in the larger allegory without contradiction. Gluttony is one of the dominant themes that emerge from the imagery. The play's focus on food and drink
1710-608: A separate historical stage, though its earliest form closely resembles Attic Greek , and its latest form approaches Medieval Greek . There were several regional dialects of Ancient Greek; Attic Greek developed into Koine. Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language , divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic , Aeolic , Arcadocypriot , and Doric , many of them with several subdivisions. Some dialects are found in standardized literary forms in literature , while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms. Homeric Greek
1800-402: A set of oracles that Cleon has always refused to let anyone else see. On reading these stolen oracles, they learn that Cleon is one of several peddlers destined to rule the polis and that it is his fate to be replaced by a sausage-seller. As chance would have it, a sausage-seller passes by at that very moment, carrying a portable kitchen. Demosthenes informs him of his destiny. The sausage seller
1890-630: A standard subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance . This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical periods of the language, which are the best-attested periods and considered most typical of Ancient Greek. From the Hellenistic period ( c. 300 BC ), Ancient Greek was followed by Koine Greek , which is regarded as
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#17327718615391980-510: A vowel or /n s r/ ; final stops were lost, as in γάλα "milk", compared with γάλακτος "of milk" (genitive). Ancient Greek of the classical period also differed in both the inventory and distribution of original PIE phonemes due to numerous sound changes, notably the following: The pronunciation of Ancient Greek was very different from that of Modern Greek . Ancient Greek had long and short vowels ; many diphthongs ; double and single consonants; voiced, voiceless, and aspirated stops ; and
2070-427: Is a highly topical form of comic drama and its meanings are often obscured by multiple references to contemporary news, gossip and literature. Centuries of scholarship have unriddled many of these references and they are explained in commentaries in various editions of the plays. The following lists are compiled from two such sources. Note: Paphlagonian is here referred to by his real name, Cleon . Political corruption:
2160-570: Is a literary form of Archaic Greek (derived primarily from Ionic and Aeolic) used in the epic poems , the Iliad and the Odyssey , and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic and other Classical-era dialects. The origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of
2250-587: Is a municipality in Corinthia in Greece . The successor to the ancient city of Corinth , it is a former municipality in Corinthia , Peloponnese , which is located in south-central Greece . Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part of the municipality of Corinth , of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. It is the capital of Corinthia. It was founded as Nea Korinthos ( Νέα Κόρινθος ), or New Corinth , in 1858 after an earthquake destroyed
2340-446: Is a play known for its satire relating to the uprising middle class. This theme shows itself throughout history on multiple occurrences. A notable play with this theme is Molière's play, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670). This Renaissance play has been compared to The Knights due to the satire involving the middle class. Another Renaissance play, The Alchemist, by Ben Johnson (1610), is thought to be influenced by The Knights. Old Comedy
2430-500: Is about 55 minutes. The train station is 5 minutes by car from the city centre and parking is available for free. The port of Corinth, located north of the city centre and close to the northwest entrance of the Corinth Canal , at 37 56.0’ N / 22 56.0’ E, serves the local needs of industry and agriculture. It is mainly a cargo exporting facility. It is an artificial harbour (depth approximately 9 m (30 ft), protected by
2520-418: Is added to stems beginning with consonants, and simply prefixes e (stems beginning with r , however, add er ). The quantitative augment is added to stems beginning with vowels, and involves lengthening the vowel: Some verbs augment irregularly; the most common variation is e → ei . The irregularity can be explained diachronically by the loss of s between vowels, or that of the letter w , which affected
2610-465: Is an ambiguous character. Within the satirical context, he is a sausage seller who must overcome self-doubts to challenge Cleon as a populist orator, yet he is a godlike, redemptive figure in the allegory. His appearance at the start of the play is not just a coincidence but a godsend ( kata theon , line 147), the shameless pranks that enable him to defeat Paphlagonian were suggested to him by the goddess Athena (903), he attributes his victory to Zeus, god of
2700-666: Is called 'East Greek'. Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian Greek had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, as exemplified in the poems of the Boeotian poet Pindar who wrote in Doric with a small Aeolic admixture. Thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to
2790-448: Is considered by some linguists to have been closely related to Greek . Among Indo-European branches with living descendants, Greek is often argued to have the closest genetic ties with Armenian (see also Graeco-Armenian ) and Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ). Ancient Greek differs from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and other Indo-European languages in certain ways. In phonotactics , ancient Greek words could end only in
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2880-407: Is evident in the choice of a sausage seller as the protagonist. It is evident also in puns on the names of two characters. The name Paphlagonian bears a resemblance with Paphlazo (I splutter, boil, fret) and this pun is made explicit in lines 919–22, where Paphlagonian is imagined as a boiling pot that needs to be taken off the fire. In Greek Demos bears a resemblance to the Greek word for fat ,
2970-431: Is not convinced at first, but Demosthenes points out the myriads of people in the theatre, and he assures him that his skills with sausages are all that is needed to govern them. Cleon's suspicions, meanwhile, have been aroused, and he rushes from the house in search of trouble. He immediately finds an empty wine bowl, and he loudly accuses the others of treason. Demosthenes calls upon the knights of Athens for assistance, and
3060-601: Is possible that he was neither venal nor corrupt. He had prosecuted Aristophanes for an earlier play, The Babylonians , but an attempt at political censorship during a time of war was not necessarily motivated by personal malice or ambition on Cleon's part. The play depicted the cities of the Athenian League as slaves grinding at a mill, and it had been performed at the City Dionysia in the presence of foreigners. The knights (citizens rich enough to own horses) were
3150-455: Is present and sends a message, as well as calling out who and what he dislikes. He writes The Knights in a way that exposes the failures of effort and shortcomings of the Athenian society and its rulers. The play's dual significance as a satire/allegory leads to an ambivalence in its characters that is not easily resolved. Agoracritus – miracle-worker and/or sausage-seller : The protagonist
3240-542: Is said to have brought down the price of silphium so that jurors who bought it would suffocate each other with their flatulence. Cleon loses the debate, but he doesn't lose hope, and there are two further contests in which he competes with the sausage-seller for Demos's favour: (i) the reading of oracles flattering to Demos; (ii) a race to see which of them can best serve pampered Demos's every need. The sausage-seller wins each contest by outdoing Cleon in shamelessness. Cleon makes one last effort to retain his privileged position in
3330-609: Is surrounded by the coastal townlets of (clockwise) Lechaio , Isthmia , Kechries , and the inland townlets of Examilia and the archaeological site and village of ancient Corinth. Natural features around the city include the narrow coastal plain of Vocha , the Corinthian Gulf , the Isthmus of Corinth cut by its canal , the Saronic Gulf , the Oneia Mountains , and the monolithic rock of Acrocorinth , where
3420-709: The Bacchiad family, and between 657 and 550 BC, he and his son Periander ruled Corinth as the Tyrants. In about 550 BC, an oligarchical government seized power. This government allied with Sparta within the Peloponnesian League , and Corinth participated in the Persian Wars and Peloponnesian War as an ally of Sparta. After Sparta's victory in the Peloponnesian war, the two allies fell out with one another, and Corinth pursued an independent policy in
3510-711: The Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek ( c. 1400–1200 BC ), Dark Ages ( c. 1200–800 BC ), the Archaic or Epic period ( c. 800–500 BC ), and the Classical period ( c. 500–300 BC ). Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers . It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been
3600-708: The Greek region of Macedonia during the last decades has brought to light documents, among which the first texts written in Macedonian , such as the Pella curse tablet , as Hatzopoulos and other scholars note. Based on the conclusions drawn by several studies and findings such as Pella curse tablet , Emilio Crespo and other scholars suggest that ancient Macedonian was a Northwest Doric dialect , which shares isoglosses with its neighboring Thessalian dialects spoken in northeastern Thessaly . Some have also suggested an Aeolic Greek classification. The Lesbian dialect
3690-501: The present , future , and imperfect are imperfective in aspect; the aorist , present perfect , pluperfect and future perfect are perfective in aspect. Most tenses display all four moods and three voices, although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. Also, there is no imperfect subjunctive, optative or imperative. The infinitives and participles correspond to the finite combinations of tense, aspect, and voice. The indicative of past tenses adds (conceptually, at least)
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3780-1031: The 5th century BC. Ancient pronunciation cannot be reconstructed with certainty, but Greek from the period is well documented, and there is little disagreement among linguists as to the general nature of the sounds that the letters represent. /oː/ raised to [uː] , probably by the 4th century BC. Greek, like all of the older Indo-European languages , is highly inflected. It is highly archaic in its preservation of Proto-Indo-European forms. In ancient Greek, nouns (including proper nouns) have five cases ( nominative , genitive , dative , accusative , and vocative ), three genders ( masculine , feminine , and neuter ), and three numbers (singular, dual , and plural ). Verbs have four moods ( indicative , imperative , subjunctive , and optative ) and three voices (active, middle, and passive ), as well as three persons (first, second, and third) and various other forms. Verbs are conjugated through seven combinations of tenses and aspect (generally simply called "tenses"):
3870-495: The Archaic period of ancient Greek (see Homeric Greek for more details): Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκε, πολλὰς δ' ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι· Διὸς δ' ἐτελείετο βουλή· ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς. The beginning of Apology by Plato exemplifies Attic Greek from
3960-540: The Athenian citizenry. Agoracritus emerges triumphant from a series of contests, and he restores Demos to his former glory. Detailed summary : Nicias and Demosthenes run from a house in Athens, complaining of a beating that they have just received from their master Demos, and cursing their fellow slave Cleon as the cause of their troubles. They inform the audience that Cleon has wheedled his way into Demos's confidence, and they accuse him of misusing his privileged position for
4050-400: The Athenian people experiencing social and economic inequality where the rich exploited and marginalized the poor and middle class. Power and Abuse: This theme shows the theme of power and abuse through the acts of characters rising up and going against the abusive power, and how the common people can fight back against corrupt authority. Patriotism and War: Since this play takes place during
4140-470: The Chorus of knights as if he were a general in command of cavalry. Moreover, he says he made a Spartan cake in Pylos that was later pilfered by Paphlagonian (lines 54–7) and this seems to be a reference to Cleon's success in taking the lion's share of the credit for the victory at Sphacteria. However, the identity slaves=generals is problematic. In the standard edition of the collected plays, the two slaves leave
4230-404: The Chorus treats us to another parabasis. The knights step forward and they advise us that it is honorable to mock dishonorable people. They proceed to mock Ariphrades , an Athenian with a perverse appetite for female secretions. Next they recount an imaginary conversation between some respectable ships that have refused to carry the war to Carthage because the voyage was proposed by Hyperbolus ,
4320-609: The Classical period of ancient Greek. (The second line is the IPA , the third is transliterated into the Latin alphabet using a modern version of the Erasmian scheme .) Ὅτι [hóti Hóti μὲν men mèn ὑμεῖς, hyːmêːs hūmeîs, Corinth Corinth ( / ˈ k ɒr ɪ n θ / KORR -inth ; Greek : Κόρινθος , romanized : Kórinthos , Modern Greek pronunciation: [ˈkorinθos] )
4410-493: The Greeks (1253), and he compares himself to a god at the end (1338). He demonstrates miraculous powers in his redemption of The People and yet it was done by boiling, a cure for meat practised by a common sausage seller. Cleon and/or Paphlagonian : The antagonist is another ambiguous character – he represents a real person, Cleon, and a comic monstrosity, Paphlagonian. He is never called 'Cleon' and he doesn't look like Cleon since
4500-640: The Paphlagonian as Cleon is awkward, and the ambiguities aren't easily resolved. This summary features the real-world names Cleon , Nicias and Demosthenes (though these names are never mentioned in the play). See Discussion for an overview of the ambiguous use of characterization in The Knights . Short summary : A sausage seller, Agoracritus, vies with Cleon for the confidence and approval of Demos ("The People" in Greek), an elderly man who symbolizes
4590-410: The Peloponnesian War, the play satirizes and criticizes the act of going to war, and how that affects the working class. Aristophanes makes fun of Athens' urge to display military might while ignoring the conditions and consideration of the common people. Satire: Satire in itself is a large theme throughout The Knights. Aristophanes' use of satire crafts the play in a way where criticism of Athenian life
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#17327718615394680-477: The Peloponnesian peninsula to the Greek mainland, thus effectively making the former an island. The builders dug the canal through the Isthmus at sea level; no locks are employed. It is 6.4 km (4.0 mi) in length and only 21.3 metres (70 ft) wide at its base, making it impassable for most modern ships. It now has little economic importance. The canal was mooted in classical times and an abortive effort
4770-466: The Roman province of Achaea . An important earthquake touched Corinth and its region in 856, causing around 45000 deaths. In 1858, the old city, now known as Ancient Corinth (Αρχαία Κόρινθος, Archaia Korinthos ), located three kilometres (two miles) southwest of the modern city, was totally destroyed by a magnitude 6.5 earthquake. New Corinth ( Nea Korinthos ) was then built to the north-east of it, on
4860-563: The antagonist is of foreign descent and he is said to be the grandson of a foreign mercenary employed by the tyrant, Hippias (line 449). However, an oracle refers to Paphlagonian as the watchdog of Athens ( Kuon or Dog, line 1023) and Kuon was in fact Cleon's nickname (later exploited in the trial scene in The Wasps ). The first half of the debate at the Pnyx (lines 756–835) features some serious accusations that are clearly aimed at Cleon. On
4950-550: The aorist. Following Homer 's practice, the augment is sometimes not made in poetry , especially epic poetry. The augment sometimes substitutes for reduplication; see below. Almost all forms of the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. (A few irregular forms of perfect do not reduplicate, whereas a handful of irregular aorists reduplicate.) The three types of reduplication are: Irregular duplication can be understood diachronically. For example, lambanō (root lab ) has
5040-419: The augment when it was word-initial. In verbs with a preposition as a prefix, the augment is placed not at the start of the word, but between the preposition and the original verb. For example, προσ(-)βάλλω (I attack) goes to προσ έ βαλoν in the aorist. However compound verbs consisting of a prefix that is not a preposition retain the augment at the start of the word: αὐτο(-)μολῶ goes to ηὐ τομόλησα in
5130-492: The cautious war strategy of Pericles , and its highpoint came with the Athenian victory at Sphacteria, for which he was feted and honored by the majority of his fellow citizens. Included in the civic honors were free meals at the town hall or prytaneion and front row seats at festivals such as the Lenaia and City Dionysia. Cleon's entitlement to these honors is continually mocked by Aristophanes in The Knights, and possibly Cleon
5220-438: The center of Greek scholarship, this division of people and language is quite similar to the results of modern archaeological-linguistic investigation. One standard formulation for the dialects is: West vs. non-West Greek is the strongest-marked and earliest division, with non-West in subsets of Ionic-Attic (or Attic-Ionic) and Aeolic vs. Arcadocypriot, or Aeolic and Arcado-Cypriot vs. Ionic-Attic. Often non-West
5310-490: The challenge. They call Demos outdoors and compete with each other in flattering him like rivals for the affections of an eromenos . He agrees to hear them debating their differences, and he takes up his position on the Pnyx (here represented possibly as a bench). The sausage-seller makes some serious accusations in the first half of the debate: (i) Cleon is indifferent to the war-time sufferings of ordinary people, (ii) he has used
5400-695: The coast of the Gulf of Corinth. In 1928, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake devastated the new city, which was then rebuilt on the same site. In 1933, there was a great fire, and the new city was rebuilt again. During the German occupation in World War II , the Germans operated a Dulag transit camp for British, Australian, New Zealander and Serbian prisoners of war and a forced labour camp in the town. Located about 78 kilometres (48 mi) west of Athens , Corinth
5490-488: The comic poet's natural allies against a populist such as Cleon. According to a passage in The Acharnians , they had recently forced him to hand over a large sum of money, implying that he had obtained it corruptly. As an educated class, knights occupied many of the state offices that were subject to annual audits, and Cleon specialized in the prosecution of such officials, often using his rapport with jurors to obtain
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#17327718615395580-615: The dialect of Sparta ), and Northern Peloponnesus Doric (including Corinthian ). All the groups were represented by colonies beyond Greece proper as well, and these colonies generally developed local characteristics, often under the influence of settlers or neighbors speaking different Greek dialects. After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BC, a new international dialect known as Koine or Common Greek developed, largely based on Attic Greek , but with influence from other dialects. This dialect slowly replaced most of
5670-494: The existing settlement of Corinth, which had developed in and around the site of the ancient city. Corinth derives its name from Ancient Corinth , a city-state of antiquity. The site was occupied from before 3000 BC. Historical references begin with the early 8th century BC, when ancient Corinth began to develop as a commercial center. Between the 8th and 7th centuries, the Bacchiad family ruled Corinth. Cypselus overthrew
5760-410: The final vision of a reformed Athens all the brighter by contrast. The Knights is one of the earliest of Aristophanes' surviving plays and generally it obeys the conventions of Old Comedy . There are some significant variations in this play: Minor variations include: Ancient Greek language Ancient Greek ( Ἑλληνῐκή , Hellēnikḗ ; [hellɛːnikɛ́ː] ) includes the forms of
5850-512: The grossest images in the play feature references to cannibalism: Paphlagonian swallows his victims like figs (258–63), Agoracritus is urged to eat Paphlagonian's crest and wattles (496–7), protagonist and antagonist threaten to devour each other (693, 698–701) and Demos devours his own officials (1131–40). Such images present the audience with a nightmarish vision of the world – it is a world where horses and ships talk and act more like human beings than human beings do. The darkness of this vision makes
5940-561: The historical Dorians . The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, who regarded themselves as descendants of the population displaced by or contending with the Dorians. The Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people – Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians (including Athenians), each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Allowing for their oversight of Arcadian, an obscure mountain dialect, and Cypriot, far from
6030-476: The historical circumstances of the times imply that the overall groups already existed in some form. Scholars assume that major Ancient Greek period dialect groups developed not later than 1120 BC, at the time of the Dorian invasions —and that their first appearances as precise alphabetic writing began in the 8th century BC. The invasion would not be "Dorian" unless the invaders had some cultural relationship to
6120-453: The household: he possesses an oracle that describes his successor, and he questions the sausage-seller to see if he matches the description in all its vulgar details. The sausage-seller does match the description. In tragic dismay, Cleon at last accepts his fate, and he surrenders his authority to the sausage-seller. Demos asks the sausage-seller for his name, and we learn that it is Agoracritus , confirming his lowly origin. The actors depart and
6210-401: The maskmakers refused to caricature him. The character, however, is called 'Cleon' in the manuscripts' indications of speakers and in their list of dramatis personae ; however, he is simply not ever identified as such in the text itself. Cleon's father, Cleaenetus, is mentioned by name (line 574) but there is no mention of his relationship with Paphlagonian. The name 'Paphlagonian' implies that
6300-739: The medieval acropolis was built. According to the nearby weather station of Velo, operated by the Hellenic National Meteorological Service , Corinth has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification : Csa ), with hot, dry summers and cool, rainy winters. The hottest month is July with an average temperature of 28.7 °C (83.7 °F) while the coldest month is January with an average temperature of 9.1 °C (48.4 °F). Corinth receives about 463 mm of rainfall per year and has an average annual temperature of 18.1 °C (64.6 °F). The Municipality of Corinth (Δήμος Κορινθίων) had
6390-546: The merger of Pankorinthian Football Club ( Παγκορινθιακός ) and Corinth Football Club ( Κόρινθος ). During the 2006–2007 season, the team played in the Greek Fourth Division's Regional Group 7. The team went undefeated that season and it earned the top spot. This granted the team a promotion to the Gamma Ethnikí (Third Division) for the 2007–2008 season. For the 2008–2009 season, Korinthos F.C. competed in
6480-508: The older dialects, although the Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language , which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek . By about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosed into Medieval Greek . Phrygian is an extinct Indo-European language of West and Central Anatolia , which
6570-417: The other hand, the second half of the debate (lines 836–940) features absurd accusations that are aimed at an entirely comic villain. Nicias and Demosthenes and/or two slaves : The two slaves are listed as Demosthenes and Nicias in ancient manuscripts. The lists were probably based on the conjecture of ancient critics and yet there is little doubt that they reflect Aristophanes' intentions. Demosthenes summons
6660-568: The peninsula and to Athens via the Isthmos station southeast of the city center. Local bus service is also available. The metre gauge railway from Athens and Pireaeus reached Corinth in 1884. This station closed to regular public transport in 2007. In 2005, two years prior, the city was connected to the Athens Suburban Railway , following the completion of the new Corinth railway station . The journey time from Athens to Corinth
6750-487: The perfect stem eilēpha (not * lelēpha ) because it was originally slambanō , with perfect seslēpha , becoming eilēpha through compensatory lengthening. Reduplication is also visible in the present tense stems of certain verbs. These stems add a syllable consisting of the root's initial consonant followed by i . A nasal stop appears after the reduplication in some verbs. The earliest extant examples of ancient Greek writing ( c. 1450 BC ) are in
6840-418: The play makes fun of political corruption through the use of satire. The character Cleon is used to show what Athenians would experience in relation to corrupt political tactics such as bribery, demagoguery, abuse of power, and unjust treatment of the people. Social inequality: The Knights uses displays of social inequality through its character's roles and dialogue. This theme was most likely implemented due to
6930-418: The purpose of extortion and corruption. They advise us that even the mask-makers are afraid of Cleon and that not one of them could be persuaded to make a caricature of him for this play. They assure us, however, that we are clever enough to recognize him even without a mask. Having no idea how to solve their problems, they pilfer some wine from the house, the taste of which inspires them to an even bolder theft –
7020-461: The sausage-seller with vulgar boasts and vainglorious threats on both sides as each man strives to demonstrate that he is a more shameless and unscrupulous orator than the other. The knights proclaim the sausage-seller the winner of the argument, and Cleon then rushes off to the Boule to denounce them all on a trumped-up charge of treason. The sausage-seller sets off in pursuit, and the action pauses for
7110-411: The stage early and they don't return. This is consistent with their role as minor characters and yet Nicias and Demosthenes were not minor figures in Athenian political life. One editor has Demosthenes deliver a short valedictory speech congratulating Agoracritus at the end of the play (lines 1254–56) – a speech that is otherwise assigned to the leader of the Chorus. However this is a token appearance after
7200-517: The syllabic script Linear B . Beginning in the 8th century BC, however, the Greek alphabet became standard, albeit with some variation among dialects. Early texts are written in boustrophedon style, but left-to-right became standard during the classic period. Modern editions of ancient Greek texts are usually written with accents and breathing marks , interword spacing , modern punctuation , and sometimes mixed case , but these were all introduced later. The beginning of Homer 's Iliad exemplifies
7290-559: The town of Archaia Korinthos , the town of Examilia , and the smaller settlements of Xylokeriza and Solomos . The municipal unit has an area of 102.187 km . Corinth is a major industrial hub at a national level. The Corinth Refinery is one of the largest oil refining industrial complexes in Europe . Ceramic tiles, copper cables, gums, gypsum, leather, marble, meat products, medical equipment, mineral water and beverages, petroleum products, and salt are produced nearby. As of 2005 ,
7380-533: The various wars of the early 4th century BC. After the Macedonian conquest of Greece, the Acrocorinth was the seat of a Macedonian garrison until 243 BC, when the city joined the Achaean League . Nearly a century later, in 146 BC, Corinth was captured and was completely destroyed by the Roman army. As a newly rebuilt Roman colony in 44 BC, Corinth flourished and became the administrative capital of
7470-436: The verdicts he wanted. This abuse of the auditing system is one of the complaints made by the Chorus when it enters the stage and it accuses Cleon of selecting officials for prosecution like figs according to their wealth and psychological vulnerability (lines 257–65). The play also accuses Cleon of manipulating census lists to impose crippling financial burdens on his choice of victims (lines 911–25). The Knights by Aristophanes
7560-429: The war as an opportunity for corruption, and (iii) he prolongs the war out of fear that he will be prosecuted when peace returns. Demos is won over by these arguments, and he spurns Cleon's wheedling appeals for sympathy. Thereafter the sausage-seller's accusations become increasingly absurd: Cleon is accused of waging a campaign against buggery in order to stifle opposition (because all the best orators are buggers), and he
7650-480: Was Aeolic. For example, fragments of the works of the poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos are in Aeolian. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, or to an island. Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric (including Cretan Doric ), Southern Peloponnesus Doric (including Laconian ,
7740-458: Was due to its vitriolic preoccupation with one man, the pro-war populist Cleon . Cleon had prosecuted Aristophanes for slandering the polis with an earlier play, The Babylonians (426 BC), for which the young dramatist had promised revenge in The Acharnians (425 BC), and it was in The Knights (424 BC) that his revenge was exacted. The Knights won first prize at the Lenaia festival when it
7830-458: Was hampered by geological and financial problems that bankrupted the original builders. It was completed in 1893, but due to the canal's narrowness, navigational problems and periodic closures to repair landslips from its steep walls, it failed to attract the level of traffic anticipated by its operators. It is now used mainly for tourist traffic. The city's association football team is Korinthos F.C. ( Π.Α.E. Κόρινθος ), established in 1999 after
7920-486: Was made to build it in the 1st century AD. Julius Caesar and Caligula both considered digging the canal but died before starting the construction. The emperor Nero was the first to attempt to construct the canal. The Roman workforce responsible for the initial digging consisted of 6,000 Jewish prisoners of war . Modern construction started in 1882, after Greece gained independence from the Ottoman Empire , but
8010-416: Was produced in 424 BC. The Knights is a satire on political and social life in 5th-century BC Athens. The characters are drawn from real life, and Cleon is clearly intended to be the villain. However, it is also an allegory. The characters are figures of fantasy, and the villain in this context is Paphlagonian, a comic monstrosity responsible for almost everything that's wrong with the world. The identity of
8100-426: Was sitting in the front row during the performance. Aristophanes makes numerous accusations against Cleon, many of them comic and some in earnest. He mocks Cleon for his questionable pedigree, but inscriptions indicate that the social origins of demagogues like Cleon were not as obscure as Aristophanes and other comic poets tried to make out. He appears to have used the law courts for personal and political ends, but it
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