80

Διονύσου γοναί (Dionysou gonai)
(‘Birth of Dionysus’)

Discussion Kock 1884 11.139; Edmonds 1959 11.50—1; Winkler 1982. 138 with
n. 8; Kassel-Austin 1991 11.243 (cf. 1989 VII.556); Sanchis Llopis et al. 2007. 245
Title A Διονύσου γοναί was also written by Polyzelus and possibly Demetrius
I (for tragedies involving Dionysus, see Dodds 1960. xxviii-xxxiii); for a list of
other variations of this title-formula, see Kassel-Austin on Hermipp. Αθήνας
γοναί.
For the birth of Dionysus, see LIMC III. 1.417 with plates 664-707. Nesselrath
1995 localizes this subgenre of comedy to roughly 410 to 380-370 BC, with
Hermippus being an earlier exception, possibly tied to a politically motivated
restriction of comic license (an exception noted already by Meineke, 1.261).
Nesselrath apparently overlooks the date assigned to this play,36 which is
later than the limit he sets for the flourishing of the theme, although not late
enough to seriously affect his general argument. In addition, Nesselrath sees
the γοναί-plays, with the possible exception of Hermippus, as an attempt to
look beyond the typical themes of Old Comedy and use the portrayal of myth
in tragedy and older poetry as the raw material for comedy.37 In accord with
this view, this play, although a late example, along with others of the same
type, would mark an important transition in the shift to Middle Comedy; note,
however, that Nesselrath’s comments, particularly on dating, pertain only to
so-called γοναί θεών plays. Anaxandrides seems to have been concerned with
mythological parody or comic treatment of myth throughout his career, as
were other mid-fourth-century comic poets; see Introduction.
Content A story about the birth of Dionysus would presumably concern it-
self generally with the story of the immolation of Semele and the concealment
of Dionysus in Zeus’ thigh. Within this framework, there are any number

36 Nesselrath 1995. 26-7 wishes to place this play earlier in Anaxandrides’ career on
the assumption that public interest in mythological comedies soon waned; this
dating ignores both the extant didascalic information as well as the preponderance
of mythological comedies apparently throughout Anaxandrides’ career.
37 Nesselrath 1995. 2-3 views this use of tragedy and epic for source material as
imitating the similar procedure of satyr-play; in this regard it is perhaps significant
that Timesitheus’ (TGrF214) Ζηνός γοναί is probably satyric (cf. Sutton 1974. 118
[cf. also p. 113], but note that Meineke 1.280 had suggested that the title was mis-
takenly included in the list of Timesitheus’ plays [and instead belongs to a comic
poet?]).