THE COMEDIES II

reproduces, though in exaggerated form, a factor of the social
conditions of the time Younger men were serving as soldiers
or employed where workmen had grown scarce because of the
war Amongst those who prized the three obols of the juror's
pay, the old men, no longer fit for work, were the most likely
to be available for the bench. They were a miserable, discon-
tented set, and their sentences were influenced in a high degree
by their many grudges and pressing poverty They were old
men, singing the songs of their youth, and so far as Aristo-
phanes' description holds good, there was no malice in them,
else they would not admit their mistakes so readily in face of
Bdelykleon's arguments But they succumb to the allurement
of listening to denunciations of rich people, and of enjoying
their own power in dealing with them. The crazy passion for
judging, which is ridiculed, though not unkindly, in the play,
was a dangerous political instrument in the hands of the rulers ;
as a feature of mass-psychology it was as easy to understand
as it was difficult to eradicate.
For this there is an obvious reason * the individual hehast does
not care much for justice, but he does care for his own advan-
tage. Bdelykleon's arguments, which convince the chorus and
his father and are intended to convince the audience as well,
never once raise the question of the miscarriage of justice, his
sole object is to prove that it is not the jurors who profit by
their judgments. With a pleasant audacity the poet once more
holds up a mirror to the people, and these obvious things were
what the audience could most easily understand and appreciate
Only a keen observer might detect behind this screen the
fighter for right, and perceive that the fight against demagogues
and cheating jurymen was at the same time a fight for the
independence of the law-courts and for just verdicts.
This play suggests that Aristophanes had formed a low,
indeed a pessimistic, estimate of the ordinary citizen But his
pessimism is confined here to the heliasts, and the verdict in
the end refers indirectly to the institution At any rate, when
the chorus, and finally even the stubborn Philokleon, are con-
verted by Bdelykleon's arguments, the other and more opti-
mistic side of the picture appears : better conditions are both
desired and possible. There Aristophanes' faith in his people
breaks through, faith not m their political greatness, but in
their natural, joyful humanity. The war is still raging, a new