Matthew C Farmer
Biographic Data
| ID | 5627171 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Matthew C Farmer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Matthew C |
| FAMILY NAME | Farmer |
| SIGNATURE | FARMER M C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Haverford College |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2831-7558 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 21 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
A Companion to Aristophanes
Companion to Aristophanes
Once More a Weasel
At the premiere of Euripides’ Orestes in 408 BCE , the actor Hegelochos, playing the part of Orestes, made a small but destructive error in his performance: while attempting to deliver the line ‘after the storm I see once more a calm’, he said instead, ‘after the storm I see once more a weasel’. The comic poets Strattis, Sannyrion, and Aristophanes each present versions of this error in their plays; this paper contextualizes their treatment of He…
Transnational LGBT Activism and UK-Based NGOs
Choral Disrobing in Aristophanes
Five times in the extant comedies of Aristophanes, the members of the chorus remove part or all of their costumes. In this chapter, I seek to provide a new, unifying explanation for the practice of choral stripping: I argue that Aristophanes inherits a pre-comic tradition of choral disrobing, but that he uses moments of choral costume change for specific dramatic purposes within each of his plays. The theatrical audience’s knowledge of the comic …
Theopompus’ Homer
The remains of the comic poet Theopompus suggest an author preoccupied with Homer: three of twenty titles reference the Odyssey (Odysseus, Penelope, Sirens), a fragment without title shows Odysseus talking about Homer, and even in the otherwise politically oriented The Mede we find hexameters and Homeric formulae. This article examines Theopompus’ approach to paraepic comedy, arguing that his fragments show sophisticated parody, early literary cr…
Give Me a Bit of Paratragedy
This chapter analyzes fragments from Old and Middle comedy that show tragic parody. In these fragments, characters within comedy begin speaking in tragic style, frequently delivering actual tragic quotations. The central argument of the chapter is that even in fragmentary comedy, tragic parody should be read as a sophisticated form of allusion. Many of the fragments that show tragic parody come from mythological comedies, suggesting that the surv…
Electra and the Coal Pan
This chapter assembles and analyzes a set of fragments from Greek comedy of the fifth and fourth centuries that include overt references to tragedy. These include particularly fragments that show tragic fandom, tragic poets as characters, conversations about tragedy, and references to the dramatic festivals. The chapter argues that such fragments suggest a consistent set of tropes and dramaturgical devices shared by the poets of Old and Middle Co…
Playing the Philosopher
This article assembles all the references to Plato the philosopher and his works in the comic fragments of the fourth century. It demonstrates that the comic poets engage with Plato in a variety of ways: some assimilate him to earlier portraits of sophists and philosophers; others make superficial references to Platonic doctrines; several depict Plato as a character, or allude directly to Plato's dialogues. These last form the central focus of th…
Tragedy on the Comic Stage
Aristophanes' engagement with tragedy is one of the most striking features of his comedies. 'Tragedy on the Comic Stage' contextualizes this engagement with tragedy within Greek comedy as a genre by examining paratragedy in the fragments of Aristophanes' contemporaries and successors in the fifth and fourth centuries
Rivers and Rivalry in Petronius, Horace, Callimachus, and Aristophanes
The poem delivered by Agamemnon in the opening fragment of Petronius’ Satyrica contains an allusion to Horace’s Satires that connects the novel with a nexus of passages where authors deploy river imagery in statements of literary polemic. Agamemnon’s poem is united with the poet Eumolpus’ stylistic manifesto by a recurrence of river imagery; once more, allusions to Horace in Eumolpus’ speech open on to histories of rivalry and poetics. These pass…
Tragedy on the Comic Stage
Aristophanes' engagement with tragedy is one of the most striking features of his comedies. 'Tragedy on the Comic Stage' contextualizes this engagement with tragedy within Greek comedy as a genre by examining paratragedy in the fragments of Aristophanes' contemporaries and successors in the fifth and fourth centuries
Theopompus’ Homer
The remains of the comic poet Theopompus suggest an author preoccupied with Homer: three of twenty titles reference the Odyssey (Odysseus, Penelope, Sirens), a fragment without title shows Odysseus talking about Homer, and even in the otherwise politically oriented The Mede we find hexameters and Homeric formulae. This article examines Theopompus’ approach to paraepic comedy, arguing that his fragments show sophisticated parody, early literary cr…
Rivers and Rivalry in Petronius, Horace, Callimachus, and Aristophanes
The poem delivered by Agamemnon in the opening fragment of Petronius’ Satyrica contains an allusion to Horace’s Satires that connects the novel with a nexus of passages where authors deploy river imagery in statements of literary polemic. Agamemnon’s poem is united with the poet Eumolpus’ stylistic manifesto by a recurrence of river imagery; once more, allusions to Horace in Eumolpus’ speech open on to histories of rivalry and poetics. These pass…
Playing the Philosopher
This article assembles all the references to Plato the philosopher and his works in the comic fragments of the fourth century. It demonstrates that the comic poets engage with Plato in a variety of ways: some assimilate him to earlier portraits of sophists and philosophers; others make superficial references to Platonic doctrines; several depict Plato as a character, or allude directly to Plato's dialogues. These last form the central focus of th…
Rivers and Rivalry in Petronius, Horace, Callimachus, and Aristophanes
The poem delivered by Agamemnon in the opening fragment of Petronius’ Satyrica contains an allusion to Horace’s Satires that connects the novel with a nexus of passages where authors deploy river imagery in statements of literary polemic. Agamemnon’s poem is united with the poet Eumolpus’ stylistic manifesto by a recurrence of river imagery; once more, allusions to Horace in Eumolpus’ speech open on to histories of rivalry and poetics. These pass…
Tragedy on the Comic Stage
Aristophanes' engagement with tragedy is one of the most striking features of his comedies. 'Tragedy on the Comic Stage' contextualizes this engagement with tragedy within Greek comedy as a genre by examining paratragedy in the fragments of Aristophanes' contemporaries and successors in the fifth and fourth centuries
Give Me a Bit of Paratragedy
This chapter analyzes fragments from Old and Middle comedy that show tragic parody. In these fragments, characters within comedy begin speaking in tragic style, frequently delivering actual tragic quotations. The central argument of the chapter is that even in fragmentary comedy, tragic parody should be read as a sophisticated form of allusion. Many of the fragments that show tragic parody come from mythological comedies, suggesting that the surv…
Electra and the Coal Pan
This chapter assembles and analyzes a set of fragments from Greek comedy of the fifth and fourth centuries that include overt references to tragedy. These include particularly fragments that show tragic fandom, tragic poets as characters, conversations about tragedy, and references to the dramatic festivals. The chapter argues that such fragments suggest a consistent set of tropes and dramaturgical devices shared by the poets of Old and Middle Co…
Playing the Philosopher
This article assembles all the references to Plato the philosopher and his works in the comic fragments of the fourth century. It demonstrates that the comic poets engage with Plato in a variety of ways: some assimilate him to earlier portraits of sophists and philosophers; others make superficial references to Platonic doctrines; several depict Plato as a character, or allude directly to Plato's dialogues. These last form the central focus of th…
Transnational LGBT Activism and UK-Based NGOs
Choral Disrobing in Aristophanes
Five times in the extant comedies of Aristophanes, the members of the chorus remove part or all of their costumes. In this chapter, I seek to provide a new, unifying explanation for the practice of choral stripping: I argue that Aristophanes inherits a pre-comic tradition of choral disrobing, but that he uses moments of choral costume change for specific dramatic purposes within each of his plays. The theatrical audience’s knowledge of the comic …
Theopompus’ Homer
The remains of the comic poet Theopompus suggest an author preoccupied with Homer: three of twenty titles reference the Odyssey (Odysseus, Penelope, Sirens), a fragment without title shows Odysseus talking about Homer, and even in the otherwise politically oriented The Mede we find hexameters and Homeric formulae. This article examines Theopompus’ approach to paraepic comedy, arguing that his fragments show sophisticated parody, early literary cr…
Once More a Weasel
At the premiere of Euripides’ Orestes in 408 BCE , the actor Hegelochos, playing the part of Orestes, made a small but destructive error in his performance: while attempting to deliver the line ‘after the storm I see once more a calm’, he said instead, ‘after the storm I see once more a weasel’. The comic poets Strattis, Sannyrion, and Aristophanes each present versions of this error in their plays; this paper contextualizes their treatment of He…
A Companion to Aristophanes
Companion to Aristophanes
Art (8 works) · Classical Antiquity Studies (7 works) · Literature (6 works) · Comics (5 works) · Comedy (4 works) · History (4 works) · History (4 works) · Historical and Literary Studies (3 works) · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies (3 works) · Law (3 works)