Paul Eberwine, Princeton University
This paper explores the dynamics of appetite in Aristophanes’ Wasps, arguing that the play frames Athenian democracy as a system driven by the political force of hunger. The play’s plot hinges on the connection between political participation and appetite: by serving on juries, the old men of Athens who make up the play’s chorus are compensated with money to buy food and drink. This connection transfers the ravenous appetites typically associated in comedy with food, wine, and sex (as analyzed, in particular, by Davidson and Wilkins) to Athenian juries, transforming the latter into outlets for the expression of jurors’ appetites –– a transference evidenced by the character Philocleon, who rejects participation in symposia in favor of serving on juries. Critics have extensively discussed the politics of the play, including its representation of of class conflict (Konstan, Olson) and intergenerational tension (Bowie, Crichton, Cowan, Telò) insofar as they reflect real tensions in fifth-century Athens. This paper shifts the terms of this debate by rereading these political divisions in terms of dietetics: the play’s elderly Athenian men, deprived of their former political power and economic well-being, are represented as figures of desperate craving, for food and for power. By staffing juries with these figures, the play frames Athenian democracy as a system which allows for a dangerous translation between appetites into political drives, making the regulation of craving into a field of political contestation on the comic stage.
I concentrate especially on the play’s conclusion –– a kind of therapy of desire which redirects Philocleon’s appetites towards their “proper” comic objects (food, drink, and sex –– on the metatheatrical significance of this shift, see especially Biles). By encouraging Philocleon to judge his own household slaves instead of Athenian citizens, and by emphasizing how poorly his pay as a jury member reflects the wealth Athens draws from its empire, Bdelycleon tries to ruin Philocleon's appetite for democratic politics. The play therefore uses slavery and imperialism, and the unilateral, undemocratic power they entail, in order to reinscribe an uneasy distinction between the appetitive and the political, one which leaves politics to those whose bellies are full. Taking cues from theoretical work in food studies (Wazana Tomkins), I use this conclusion to argue for a slippage between the craving for nourishment and the craving for power: the play represents classical Athens as a desperately hungry place, and the expression and regulation of its appetites –– turning them towards their proper objects –– as a central problem of democratic politics. In closing, I very briefly compare Wasps with several other plays which thematize dietetics, including Knights, Peace, and Frogs, to suggest, following Wilkins and Scott, the possibility of a more comprehensive study of the Aristophanic politics of appetite. Virtually every surviving Aristophanic play uses food –– its preparation, consumption, and digestion –– to comment on aspects of the organization of Athenian social life; this opens room to explore appetite as a field of political imagination.