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‘Imprison Cleon, Kill the Dead!’

A Missed Joke in the Parabasis of Aristophanes’ Clouds (591–594)
  • Orestis Karatzoglou

    Orestis Karatzoglou received his Ph.D. in Classical Philology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His dissertation, entitled Self and Body in Plato, examines the contribution of the body in the constitution of personal identity in Platonic philosophy. His current research focuses on the use of metaphors from the realm of the senses to describe semantic knowledge in Homer and the Presocratics. He has taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Published/Copyright: February 15, 2020
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Abstract

Cleon was killed in the battle of Amphipolis in 422 BCE, but he is referred to as alive in the first parabasis of the Clouds (591–594). This reference is customarily understood as simply a remnant of the first version of the play, which the author failed to integrate seamlessly into the surviving, revised version. Comparison with Pylaemenes, an Iliadic character of Paphlagonian origin, who is killed in Book 5 but reappears alive in Book 13, renders the reference to Cleon intelligible as an allusive joke.

About the author

Orestis Karatzoglou

Orestis Karatzoglou received his Ph.D. in Classical Philology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His dissertation, entitled Self and Body in Plato, examines the contribution of the body in the constitution of personal identity in Platonic philosophy. His current research focuses on the use of metaphors from the realm of the senses to describe semantic knowledge in Homer and the Presocratics. He has taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their useful suggestions and comments.

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Published Online: 2020-02-15
Published in Print: 2020-02-25

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