The conventional view of Aristophanes bristles with problems. Important testimony for
Alcibiades' paramount role in comedy is consistently disregarded and the tradition that masks
were made to look like the komodoumenoi so that before an actor spoke a word the audience
would recognize who was being attacked is hardly ever invoked. If these testimonia are taken
into account a fascinating picture emerges where the komodoumenoi are based on the Periclean
household: older characters on Pericles himself younger on Alcibiades. Aspasia Pericles'
mistress and Hipparete Alcibiades' wife lie behind many female characters and Alcibiades'
ambiguous sexuality also allows him to be shown on the stage as a woman notably as Lysistrata.
There is a substantial overlap between the anecdotal tradition relating to the historical
figures and the plotting of Aristophanes' plays. This extends to speech patterns where
Alcibiades' speech defect is lampooned. Aristophanes is consistently critical of Alcibiades'
mercurial politics and his works can also be seen to have served as an aide-mémoire for
Thucydides and Xenophon. If the argument presented here is correct then much current
scholarship on Aristophanes can be set aside.
