Narrative in Aristophanes' 'Wealth' (Greece)

Narrative discourse plays a fundamental role in the exposition of the story in Aristophanic drama. Narrators regularly appear on stage to report to the audience or to other characters events that have taken place offstage both outside and within the time-span of the performance. At times, narrators focalize the events they report through their own limited knowledge, thereby influencing the presentation not merely of the story but also of the themes of the play. Their subjective viewpoints are left for their narratees to negotiate. To inquire into how this sort of discourse might affect the reading of a particular comedy, this dissertation focuses on the narratives of Wealth. An analysis of this sort has not yet been attempted with an Aristophanic comedy. Besides opening up some fresh interpretative angles on Wealth---a play that is still undervalued in the scholarship---this approach helps dispel the preconception that the play marks a transition towards the more domestic themes of later comedy. The narrative passages in the play trace the progressive inclusion and participation of a group of gods and men in transmitting and figuring out the story information as well as in accomplishing the comic plan of the play on a social, religious, and mythical level. Their narratives help set the just distribution of riches that is at the core of Wealth squarely within a collectivity. Likewise, these narratives introduce a ritualistic framework that depicts the distribution of Wealth as an act of reciprocity between a god and his suppliant, in part by adopting the purpose and format of a miracle story in praise of a divinity. The cult and healing stories of Asklepios, present in the first messenger speech of the play, play a significant role in this process. On the basis of this ritual precedent, Wealth is established and granted his own public cult within the community.