Eiron
In the theatre of ancient Greece, the eirôn (Ancient Greek: εἴρων) was one of three stock characters in comedy.[1] The eirôn usually succeeds in bringing his braggart opponent (the alazôn) down by making himself seem like less than he actually was.[2]
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[edit] History
The eirôn developed in Greek Old Comedy and can be found in many of Aristophanes' plays.
The philosopher Aristotle names the eirôn in his Nicomachean Ethics, where he says: "in the form of understatement, self-depreciation, and its possessor the self-depreciator" (1108a12).[3] In this passage, Aristotle establishes the eirôn as one of the main characters of comedy, along with the alazôn.
[edit] Irony
The modern term irony is derived from the eirôn of the classical Greek theatre. Irony is the difference between the actual meaning of a something and the apparent meaning.[4] The eirôn would frequently triumph over the alazôn by making himself appear less than he actually ES.
[edit] Dramatic appearance
Aristophanes' comedy The Clouds provides an example of the eirôn in its character Strepsiades. He interacts with Socrates, an alazôn. Strepsiades defeats the wise and learned Socrates in a debate by appearing foolish and reducing the debate from a highbrow theocratic issue to a scatological matter:
SOCRATES: These are the only gods there are. The rest are but figments.
STREPSIADES: Holy name of Earth! Olympian Zeus is a figment?
SOCRATES: Zeus? What Zeus? Nonsense. There is no Zeus.
STREPSIADES: No Zeus?
Then who makes it rain? Answer me that.
SOCRATES: Why, the Clouds,
of course. What’s more, the proof is incontrovertible. For instance,
have you ever yet seen rain when you didn’t see a cloud?
But if your hypothesis were correct, Zeus could drizzle from an empty sky
while the clouds were on vacation.
STREPSIADES: By Apollo, you’re right. A pretty proof.
And to think I always used to believe the rain was just Zeus
pissing through a sieve.
As is clear, Socrates is not having the theological debate he had anticipated by the end of the conversation. Strepsiades reduces Socrates to an extremely lowbrow conversation by concealing his own intelligence.[5] Note that Strepsiades himself practiced "Socratic irony", which asks apparently naive questions to make the respondents reason the answers for themselves.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Carlson (1993, 23) and Janko (1987, 45, 170).
- ^ Frye (1957, 172).
- ^ 'ἡ δ' ἐπὶ τὸ ἔλαττον εἰρωνεία καὶ εἴρων (1108a12, emphasis added); Perseus Digital Library (2006). Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics.
- ^ Dictionary.com (2006). Irony
- ^ Classics Department, Queen's University (2006). Ancient Humor
[edit] Sources
- Abrams, M. H., ed. 1993. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 6th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College.
- Carlson, Marvin. 1993. Theories of the Theatre: A Historical and Critical Survey from the Greeks to the Present. Expanded ed. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0801481543.
- Frye, Northrop. 1957. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. London: Penguin, 1990. ISBN 0140124802.
- Janko, Richard, trans. 1987. Poetics with Tractatus Coislinianus, Reconstruction of Poetics II and the Fragments of the On Poets. By Aristotle. Cambridge: Hackett. ISBN 0872200337.
