The ‘Winged’ Song of Cinesias

Contents and Devices of Aristophanes'Dithyrambic Parody (Av. 1372-409)

Abstract

The paper examines the episode of Aristophanes’ Birds about the dithyrambic poet Cinesias (Av. 1372-409), the  second of the visitors who ascend to the newly founded  polis of Nubicuculia in order to obtain the benefits of the  winged condition. The scene is re-analyzed in detail involving the three levels of dramatic representation,  namely the text (stylistic and semantic analysis), the  melody (metric-rhythmic analysis), the scenic and visual  elements (analysis of the performance references), so as to consider all the communicative devices used to realise the parodic mechanism. The aim is to recover, if not the variety  and layering of the comic languages, at least part of their symbolic meanings. Through this global approach, the paper seeks to reconstruct the substance of the   polemical and derisive message about Cinesias’ ‘new’  poetic and musical style, identified through the overlaps and consistencies between all the levels considered in the  analysis.