The impact of ritual on politics: Rhetorical models of Greek comedy

Abstract

The article analyses the representation of oracles in ancient Greek comedy, namely, the genre of Old Comedy, including both the surviving plays by Aristophanes and fragments of his lost plays. The performance and interpretation of oracles in comedies is discussed from the point of view of their religious signifcance for society. The author argues that central to the representation of oracles is the art of the soothsayer and his/her ability to interpret the oracular text so that it evokes consent and approval in the audience and proves to be useful in a situation of crisis. The art of a prophet requires certain rhetorical skills. There can be traced in comedies two competing rhetorical models of the interpretation of sacred oracles, one of which turns out to be more effective for political aims. The rhetorical model of relying on “facts” and “honest” reading of an oracle loses in competition with the other rhetorical model which can be called (if it may be appropriate to draw modern parallels as some kind of analogy) the politics of “post-truth”, in which interpretation, clarity and accessibility for the listeners are more important than authenticity.