Editing Aristophanes (section)

====Parabasis====
The parabasis is an address to the audience by the chorus or chorus leader while the actors leave or have left the stage. In this role, the chorus is sometimes out of character, as the author's voice, and sometimes in character, although these capacities are often difficult to distinguish. Generally the parabasis occurs somewhere in the middle of a play and often there is a second parabasis towards the end. The elements of a parabasis have been defined and named by scholars but it is probable that Aristophanes' own understanding was less formal.<ref>''Aristophanes: Wasps'' Douglas MacDowell, Oxford University Press 1978, p. 261</ref> The selection of elements can vary from play to play and it varies considerably within plays between first and second parabasis. The early plays (''The Acharnians'' to ''The Birds'') are fairly uniform in their approach however and the following elements of a parabasis can be found within them.
* '''kommation''': This is a brief prelude, comprising short lines and often including a valediction to the departing actors, such as {{lang|grc|ἴτε χαίροντες}} (Go rejoicing!).
* '''parabasis proper''': This is usually a defense of the author's work and it includes criticism of the audience's attitude. It is declaimed in long lines of 'anapestic tetrameters'. Aristophanes himself refers to the parabasis proper only as 'anapests'.
* '''pnigos''': Sometimes known as 'a choker', it comprises a few short lines appended to the parabasis proper as a kind of rapid patter (it has been suggested that some of the effects achieved in a pnigos can be heard in "The Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song", in act 2 of Gilbert and Sullivan's ''Iolanthe'').<ref name="Aristophanes: Wasps Douglas MacDowell 1978, page 27">''Aristophanes: Wasps'' Douglas MacDowell (ed), Oxford University Press 1978, p. 27</ref>
* '''epirrhematic syzygies''': These are symmetrical scenes that mirror each other in meter and number of lines. They form part of the first parabasis and they often comprise the entire second parabasis. They are characterized by the following elements:
** ''strophe'' or ''ode'': These are lyrics in a variety of meters, sung by the Chorus in the first parabasis as an invocation to the gods and as a comic interlude in the second parabasis.
** ''epirrhema'': These are usually long lines of trochaic tetrameters. Broadly political in their significance, they were probably spoken by the leader of the Chorus in character.{{sfn|Dover|1970|p=126}}
** ''antistrophe'' or ''antode'': These are songs that mirror the strophe/ode in meter, length and function.
** ''antepirrhema''. This is another declaimed passage and it mirrors the epirrhema in meter, length and function.

''[[The Wasps]]'' is thought to offer the best example of a conventional approach<ref>''Aristophanes: Wasps'' Douglas M. MacDowell, Oxford University Press 1978, note 1283 p. 298</ref> and the elements of a parabasis can be identified and located in that play as follows.

::{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto; background-color: #ffffff"
! Elements in ''The Wasps''
! 1st parabasis
! 2nd parabasis
|-
| kommation
| lines 1009–1014<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%A3%CF%86%CE%AE%CE%BA%CE%B5%CF%82|title=Σφήκες – Βικιθήκη|website=el.wikisource.org}}</ref>
| ---
|-
| parabasis proper
| lines 1015–1050
| ---
|-
| pnigos
| lines 1051–1059
| ---
|-
| strophe
| lines 1060–1070
| lines 1265–1274<ref name="auto"/>
|-
| epirrhema
| lines 1071–1090
| lines 1275–1283
|-
| antistrophe
| lines 1091–1101
| missing
|-
| antepirrhema
| lines 1102–1121
| lines 1284–1291
|}

Textual corruption is probably the reason for the absence of the antistrophe in the second parabasis.<ref>''Aristophanes: Wasps'' Douglas MacDowell (ed), Oxford University Press 1978, pp. 298–299</ref>
However, there are several variations from the ideal even within the early plays. For example, the parabasis proper in ''The Clouds'' (lines 518–562) is composed in eupolidean meter rather than in anapests{{sfn|Dover|1970|p=119, note 518–562}} and the second parabasis includes a kommation but it lacks strophe, antistrophe and antepirrhema (''The Clouds'' lines 1113–1130). The second parabasis in ''The Acharnians'' lines 971–999<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%91%CF%87%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%BD%CE%B5%CE%AF%CF%82|title=Αχαρνείς – Βικιθήκη|website=el.wikisource.org}}</ref> can be considered a hybrid parabasis/song (i.e. the declaimed sections are merely continuations of the strophe and antistrophe)<ref>''Comedy'' E. Handley in 'The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I', P. Easterling, R. MacGregor Walker Knox, E. Kenney (eds), p. 360</ref> and, unlike the typical parabasis, it seems to comment on actions that occur on stage during the address. An understanding of Old Comedy conventions such as the parabasis is necessary for a proper understanding of Aristophanes' plays; on the other hand, a sensitive appreciation of the plays is necessary for a proper understanding of the conventions.