When Athens Laughed at Itself

Transcript

The Athenians took their democracy seriously. But not so seriously that they could not laugh at it. In the comedies of Aristophanes, politicians are vain, citizens are easily flattered, and public life can become completely absurd. In one play, Athens is so badly governed that the man who seems best suited to lead it is a sausage seller. Why him? He can shout. He can flatter. He knows how to sell. Perfect. In another comedy, the women of Athens put on men’s clothes and false beards. They arrive at the Assembly before the men, take their seats and vote themselves into power. The joke worked because everyone knew where power lived. Here. In the Assembly. Aristophanes even turned a famous Athenian philosopher into a comic character. He put him in a basket, floating above the ground, studying the heavens while confusing everyone below. Imagine seeing that on stage while the real philosopher was still walking around Athens. Asking questions. Stopping people in the street. Making some of them wish they had gone another way. This was not simple praise of the city. Athenians put their politicians on stage. They made fun of themselves. They laughed at the way democracy actually looked when human beings tried to practise it. Tragedy did something different. It did not make them laugh. It placed people before choices where every answer could carry a cost. Law could collide with family. Power with justice. What seems right to one person could look very different to another.

The audience was not always given an easy answer. They had to live with the question. And then there was philosophy. Socrates kept asking questions that sounded simple. What is justice? What is courage? How do you know? The questions were simple. The answers were not. Something extraordinary was happening in this small city. On the Pnyx, citizens argued about what Athens should do. In the theatre, they watched different ways of seeing the same human problem. And in the streets, Socrates kept asking whether anyone really understood the words they used so confidently. Perhaps these worlds were not as separate as they seem. Once people become used to speaking, arguing and hearing other voices, the conversation does not stay in one place. It leaves the Pnyx. It enters the theatre. It follows you home. The Athenians invented a new way of governing themselves. And almost immediately, they began arguing about it, questioning it - and laughing at it.