III. Early Comedy.
Cratinus, in that work at any rate which is truly characteristic of his genius, is entirely engrossed in public affairs, and in attacking the characters of public men. It is not, therefore, surprising to find that in his plays women are almost entirely ignored. The one notable exception is Aspasia, who is, it is true, alluded to more than once, and that in no very complimentary terms; but this is, of course, only what one would expect of an opponent of Pericles.[217] The poet’s views of married life are sufficiently illustrated by his Pytine. It is, however, to be observed that, in those of his plays which, from legislative causes, approximated more closely to the contemporary social comedy, the female element is more apparent, though even here it is never really prominent. Thus the Cleobulinae appears to have introduced a chorus of women propounding enigmas, while both the Nemesis and the Seriphii contained at least allusions to erotic mythological incidents.[218]
The other early poets of the political school are still more barren of references to women; indeed the fragments of Teleclides, Hermippus, and Eupolis,[219] put together, do not furnish a single noticeable instance.
It is otherwise, as already remarked, with the school of Crates. The fragments of Crates himself do not indeed furnish much of interest in this connection, except, perhaps, the rather risqué remarks in Fr. Incert. 3 and 4, but from Pherecrates there is more to be learnt. In the first place, three of his plays, the Corianno, Thalatta, and Petale, are named after Hetaerae, a common enough feature in later times, but rare at this early period; while the first two of these, at any rate, were evidently devoted to a study of the life of this class of person. Thus the Corianno describes (Fr. 1, 2, 3, 4) the drinking propensities of its heroine;[220] while the Thalatta gives one even further particulars, Fr. 7 describing the arrival at Thalatta’s house of her lover[221] (perhaps the Epilesmon, the “Absent-minded Man,” from whom the piece had its second title), and Fr. 2, 3, and 5 their supper together, while Fr. 4 shows clearly that a lover’s quarrel of some sort duly found its place in the piece.[222] Of the Petale no important fragment remains. Whether the Pannychis dealt with one of those incidents which are so common in New Comedy, it is impossible to say.