Willi Andreas. The Languages of Aristophanes: Aspects of Linguistic Variation in Classical Attic Greek

Oxford University Press, 2006. — xiii, 361 pages. — (Oxford Classical Monographs). — ISBN: 0-19-926264-0.In the ancient Life of Aristophanes we are told that the tyrant Dionysius of Syracuse once asked the philosopher Plato for information about the organization of public life in Athens. Plato, instead of writing a theoretical treatise, replied by sending an edition of the Aristophanic comedies to Sicily; in these plays, he told Dionysius, the tyrant would find the answer to all his questions:When Dionysius the tyrant wanted to learn how the Athenian state was functioning, Plato allegedly sent him the work of Aristophanes and suggested that he should study the plays and learn it that way. What Dionysius was supposed to do was to read between the lines. He would of course have been naive, for instance, if he had inferred from Dicaeopolis’ behaviour in Acharnians that every adult Athenian was allowed to make a private treaty with an enemy state. But he would have been correct if he concluded from the plot of Ecclesiazusae that women were not normally allowed to take part in the public decision-making process. Dionysius simply had ‘to determine where reality ends and caricature or fantasy begins’.Religious Registers
Technical Languages
‘Scientific Discourse’
Sophistic Innovations
Female Speech
Foreigner Talk