gg THE COMEDIES II
were undoubtedly in fashion, and the fact need not surprise
us They originated in that 'escapism' which is not peculiar to
Aristophanes, but characteristic of his age as a whole. They
mark, at the same time, a definite transition from pur'ely politi-
cal to social-economic thought This movement, which was
part of a general change, was given a turn in exactly the
opposite direction by Plato, when he restricted the communist
ideal to the 'guardians', and so directed it away from the
politics of the day and from the economic desires of the lower
classes towards absolute politics, that is to say, towards a union
of politics and ethics
In the Ekklesiazousai the communist programme forms the
theme of the second part of the play It is worked out in rela-
tion to money and love, and concerns itself equally with these
two subjects. It tries to describe a system by which the ordinary
citizens enjoy their life, while the State pays and the slaves do
the work Only the humorous and grotesque elements are
prominent, and this part of the play has no organic connection
with the first part, where the theme is government by women
This is after all only a natural outcome of the hitherto con-
spicuously bad government by men; something new must be
tried. For the comedian this was a fitting and fertile subject;
it can hardly be taken as a genuine argument m favour of the
emancipation of women. The actual serious background and
some of the worst faults in the State are revealed in the defence
of feminine government made by the women's leader Praxa-
gora, that is she Vho is active in the market'.1 Old grievances
are pressing again, stirred up by the developments since 403,
that is to say, since the restoration of democracy, and some of
them have even become worse: bad politicians, the draining of
the State's resources by the payments for the ecclesia and army,
an uncertain foreign policy, corrupt financial administration, a
chronic desire for change Of all this the women will be the
natural enemies, not least so because as mothers they have to
protect their sons
Not without strong words, though without the passion of
earlier years, the poet agam states the demand he has repeated
so often for the purge of the State. Yet we must not overlook
the fact that his points are put forward in the form of a theoreti-
cal programme rather than in terms of practical politics and