Comic Authority in Aristophanes’ Knights

This article investigates the relationship between comic speech and political authority in democratic Athens through a reading of Aristophanes’ Knights. The article surveys three different interpretations of how Aristophanes constructs the authority of his comic persona in the play: (1) he contrasts comic speech with rhetorical speech to illustrate the superiority of the former (comic superiority); (2) he reflexively reveals to the audience the potential deceptiveness of comic speech (comic reflexiveness); and (3) he mocks his own claims to authority through the construction of a comically boastful persona (comic anti-authority). It is argued that the final two readings best capture the spirit of Aristophanic comedy, pointing to an affinity between the comic authority constructed by Aristophanes and the democratic conception of authority in operation in classical Athens.