Pragma and Process in Greek and Roman Comedy

J.K. Penniston: Pragma and Process in Comedy55 Pragma and Process in Greek and Roman Comedy Joyce K. Penniston As Athenian playwrights developed their craft during the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., they began to select terms to describe components of their plays. One term for stage activity, found in fifth century tragedy and comedy as well as in Aristotle's Poetics, is the common, flexible word p???µa. Its very elasticity has masked its usefulness for describing stage activity and, as I hope to show, the nature of comic action and process. It has also been overshadowed in ancient literary criticism by a more famous relative, p????.?, popularized by Aristotle's Poetics.1 The noun p???µa is related to the verb p??tt?, one of several Greek verbs for "doing" or "making." In Poetics, Aristotle classifies d??? as a Dorian word and p??tt? as an Athenian word for the general term p??,??, "do" (1448a3b). He makes this distinction to indicate that d??µa, a noun related to d???, is of Dorian origin. In Nichomachean Ethics and Magna Moralia, he further defines the concept of "doing" by stating that p??,?? emphasizes the t???? or the completed product whereas p??tt? emphasizes the process or continuation of an action (Magna Moralia 1.1197a; Ethica Nicomachea 6.1139b-40b). He cites the example of building a house: the process of building is not the end in itself, but the completed house is the t???? ofp??,??. But for p??tt?, the emphasis of "doing" is upon continuing action or action in progress as in playing the lyre, an action whose fulfillment is die process of playing and the pleasure derived therefrom rather than any completed product.2 The related noun p???µa has, throughout Greek literature, numerous meanings 1 For a discussion of the meaning of p????? in the Poetics and a summary of scholarship on the topic, see E. Belfiore, "Aristotle's Concept oípraxis in the Poetics," CJ 79 (1983-84) 1 10-24. The word, which is not found in the extant plays of Aristophanes, occurs only rarely in tragedy: 4 times in Aeschylus, 8 times in Sophocles, and 6 times in Euripides. 2 Aristotle makes this distinction between p???? and p??tt? as he discusses qualities by which the soul arrives at truth: p???? is related to t???t\, "skill" or "applied science" while p??tt? is related to f????s??, "prudence" or "practical wisdom." 56Syllecta Classica 7 (1996) which emphasize process or continuing action: p???µa can mean deed, act, matter, affair, scheme, intrigue, fact, happening, thing; in the plural p???µata may also refer to state affairs, legal matters, government, troubles, or problems.3 These meanings underscore continuing activity, positive or negative, of individuals, families or governments. Additionally, neutral meanings like "fact" or "happening" suggest the ongoing realities of Ufe and "the way things are." Words for "doing" as they occur in tragedy have received attention from G. Nagy in The Best ofthe Achaeans: Concepts ofthe Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry and C. Segal in Dionysiac Poetics and Euripides' Poetics. Nagy cites Herodotus' Sikyonian t?a?????? ?????? corresponding to Adrastos' p??ea—"things suffered" by or "things done" to Adrastos (5.67.5).4 After linking p???? with p?s??, the functional passive of p????, the general or unmarked verb for "doing," he suggests that p???? can also function as the passive ofd??µa, from d???. He notes that d??? can be used outside drama to indicate "doing something in respect to sacrifice" whereas within drama it is simply a general or unmarked term for "doing."5 In his discussion of the Bacchae, Segal discusses "the convertibility of agent into victim, active to passive in tragedy," and he emphasizes in particular the inverted relationship in the Bacchae between the active d??? and the passive p?s??, between doing/doer and suffering/sufferer.6 From the perspective of Aristophanes' comedies, p???? is closely linked with tragedy. The word is used six times, and five of its six usages involve burlesque oftragedy.7 Nagy would propose for tragedy the following diagram for verbs, active and passive, for "doing" and related nouns:8 p????p?s??p???? d...