The city and the judges: emotions and political domination in Aristophanes’ Wasps
Abstract
This article is framed in a project that aims to study the origins of a stereotyping process of fifth-century demagogoi, whom usually are linked to emotional rhetoric (cf. Mann, 2003). When analyzing the demagogoi and their rhetoric, eros is particularly important (Ludwig, 2002; Wohl, 2002; Scholtz, 2004; Franco San Román, 2017). Nevertheless, only a few have considered the pathe in Wasps and they have focused on dicastic anger as a fully democratic emotion (for example, Allen, 2003; Buis, 2020). My interest is to think of the emotions that emerge, especially those linked to Kyon, Cleon’s mask.
Since the politician is considered the chorus’ protector (κηδεμὼν), but he is as well who orders them to punish criminals (V. 240-242), the aim is to see which emotions are connected to the leader, which he seeks to provoke, and which are actually prompted in his audience. In the end, I intend to look into the type of emotional community Cleon builds, according to Aristophanes, and which result in the control of the city’s judges.
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