Oráculos burlados y Enigmas cómicos en Caballeros de Aristófanes

Abstract

This article focuses its attention on the representation of the divination institution in Aristophanes Knights. With the aim of complementing the usual interpretation of the aristophanic comedies as parodic, we analyze aspects that make reference to the social-political context and the emergence of the Sophistic movement. At first, we develop the declaration against the demagogic strategies of Cleon, among them it is the act of «reciting oracles», and the comparison with Themistocles, renowned because of his historical manipulation of oracles. With respect to the sophistic movement, the comic use of rhetoric by Aristophanes confronts with the mantic practices, whose tradition refers to the allegorits and the notion of riddles. In this way, we propose to establish connections not only with the Athenian politics in the fifth century BC., but also with the mantic practices themselves and the sophistic influence in the conception of language and the development of Aristophanes’ comic rhetoric.