91
Αίγες (Aiges)
(“Goats” or “Nanny-Goats”)
Introduction

Discussion Bergk 1838. 332-9; Meineke 1839 1.115-16; Stievenant 1849.
124-5; Kock 1880 1.258; Zielinski 1885. 31-3, 65-6; Kaibel 1907 p. 1234.44-50;
Schiassi 1944. 51-7; Schmid 1946.117-18; Chiavarino 1995. 17-18; Dover 2000.
xvii; Wilkins 2000. 348; Storey 2003. 69-71, 74; Rothwell 2007. 103,106,130-2;
Olson 2007. 98 (B30); Storey 2011. 54-5; Zimmermann 2011. 749
Title The play must be called after its chorus, as their discussion of their
diet in fr. 13 (from the parabasis) confirms (and cf. fr. *22).64 αϊξ is normal-
ly feminine, but can also be masculine. If we could be certain that fr. *24
belonged to Aiges, it might be taken to show that the chorus was made up
specifically of nanny-goats. But the assignment is merely a guess by Runkel;
even if the word is from Aiges, there is no reason to believe that it refers
specifically to the chorus; and Eupolis might easily have mentioned nan-
ny-goats leaping about in another play in any case. For animal choruses, cf.
Magnes’ Batrachoi (“Frogs”), Ornithes (“Birds”) and Psenes (“Fig-flies”); Crates’
Theria (“Wild Animals” or perhaps simply “Animals”; cf. fr. 143 n.); Callias’
Batrachoi (“Frogs”); Aristophanes’ Birds, Frogs (only a subsidiary chorus) and
Pelargoi (“Storks”); Archippus’ Ichthyol (“Fish”); Diodes’ Melittai (“Bees”);
Plato Comicus’ Myrmekes (“Ants”); Cantharus’ Aedones (“Nightingales”) and
Myrmekes (“Ants”); and see in general Sifakis 1971. 76-7; Rothwell 2007.
Content As Dover notes, we know almost nothing about the action in Aiges
except that it included a scene in which someone tried to teach a rustic char-
acter to perform “the Athena step”. Frr. 2, 4, 11 and 12 might be assigned to
the rustic and fr. 8 to the teacher, who is generally taken to be the Prodamos
mentioned in fr. 17; frr. 6, 10 and 14 might suggest a symposium scene or the
like; and Storey (expanding on suggestions by Bergk, Meineke and Kock)
developed an elaborate hypothesis according to which the play foreshadowed
some of the themes of Aristophanes’ Clouds and perhaps even contributed to
its failure. But this is all speculation based on a standard comic trope and no
other substantial evidence, and Dover’s deliberately provocative questions
regarding the content of the comedy are worth quoting at length: “A chorus

64 Schiassi 1944. 54, on no substantial grounds, imagines a divided chorus of slow,
stupid, urbanized sheep, on the one hand, and clever, agile, simple rustic goats, on
the other.