The Knights (Ancient Greek: Hippes; Attic: ) was the fourth play written by

Aristophanes, the master of an ancient form of drama known as Old Comedy. The play is a satire
on the social and political life of classical Athens during the Peloponnesian War and in this
respect it is typical of all the dramatist's early plays. It is unique however in the relatively small
number of its characters and this was due to its scurrilous preoccupation with one man, the prowar populist Cleon. Cleon had prosecuted Aristophanes for slandering the polis with an earlier
play, The Babylonians (426 BC), for which the young dramatist had promised revenge in The
Acharnians (425 BC), and it was in The Knights (424 BC) that his revenge was exacted. The play
relies heavily on allegory and it has been condemned by one modern scholar as 'an
embarrassing failure'.[3] However, The Knights won first prize at the Lenaia festival when it was
produced in 424 BC.

The Knights is a satire on political and social life in 5th-century BC Athens, the characters are
drawn from real life and Cleon is clearly intended to be the villain. However it is also an allegory,
the characters are figures of fantasy and the villain in this context is Paphlagonian, a comic
monstrosity responsible for almost everything that's wrong with the world. The identity
Cleon=Paphlagonian is awkward and the ambiguities aren't easily resolved. This summary
features the real-world names Cleon, Nicias and Demosthenes (though these names are never
mentioned in the play). See Discussion for an overview of the ambiguous use of characterization
in The Knights.
Short summary: A sausage seller, Agoracritus, vies with Cleon for the confidence and approval of
Demos ('The People' in Greek), an elderly man who symbolizes the Athenian citizenry.
Agoracritus emerges triumphant from a series of contests and he restores Demos to his former
glory.
Detailed summary: Nicias and Demosthenes run from a house in Athens, complaining of a
beating that they have just received from their master, Demos, and cursing their fellow slave,
Cleon, as the cause of their troubles. They inform the audience that Cleon has wheedled his way
into Demos's confidence and they accuse him of misusing his privileged position for the purpose
of extortion and corruption. They advise us that even the mask-makers are afraid of Cleon and
not one of them could be persuaded to make a caricature of him for this play. They assure us
however that we are clever enough to recognize him even without a mask. Having no idea how to
solve their problems, they pilfer some wine from the house, the taste of which inspires them to an
even bolder theft - a set of oracles that Cleon has always refused to let anyone else see. On
reading these stolen oracles, they learn that Cleon is one of several peddlers destined to rule the
polis and that it is his fate to be replaced by a sausage seller. As chance would have it, a sausage
seller passes by at that very moment, carrying a portable kitchen. Demosthenes informs him of
his destiny. The sausage seller is not convinced at first but Demosthenes points out the myriads
of people in the theatre and he assures him that his skills with sausages are all that is needed to
govern them. Cleon's suspicions meanwhile have been aroused and he rushes from the house in
search of trouble. He immediately finds an empty wine bowl and he loudly accuses the others of
treason. Demosthenes calls upon the knights of Athens for assistance and a Chorus of them
charges into the theatre. They converge on Cleon in military formation under instructions from
their leader:
Hit him, hit him, hit the villain hateful to the cavalry,
Tax-collecting, all-devouring monster of a lurking thief!
Villain, villain! I repeat it, I repeat it constantly,
With good reason since this thief reiterates his villainy![4]
Cleon is given rough handling and the Chorus leader accuses him of manipulating the political
and legal system for personal gain. Cleon bellows to the audience for help and the Chorus urges
the sausage-seller to outshout him. There follows a shouting match between Cleon and the
sausage seller with vulgar boasts and vainglorious threats on both sides as each man strives to

demonstrate that he is a more shameless and unscrupulous orator than the other. The knights
proclaim the sausage-seller the winner of the argument and Cleon then rushes off to the Boule to
denounce them all on a trumped-up charge of treason. The sausage seller sets off in pursuit and
the action pauses for a parabasis, during which the Chorus steps forward to address the
audience on behalf of the author.
The Chorus informs us that Aristophanes has been very methodical and cautious in the way he
has approached his career as a comic poet and we are invited to applaud him. The knights then
deliver a speech in praise of the older generation, the men who made Athens great, and this is
followed by a speech in praise of horses that performed heroically in a recent amphibious assault
on Corinth, whither they are imagined to have rowed in gallant style.
Returning to the stage, the sausage seller reports to the knights on his battle with Cleon for
control of the Council - he has outbid Cleon for the support of the councillors with offers of meals
at the state's expense. Indignant at his defeat, Cleon rushes onto the stage and challenges the
sausage-seller to submit their differences to Demos. The sausage seller accepts the challenge.
They call Demos outdoors and compete with each other in flattering him like rivals for the
affections of an eromenos. He agrees to hear them debating their differences and he takes up his
position on the Pnyx (here represented possibly as a bench).[5] The sausage-seller makes some
serious accusations in the first half of the debate: Cleon is indifferent to the war-time sufferings of
ordinary people, he has used the war as an opportunity for corruption and he prolongs the war
out of fear that he will be prosecuted when peace returns. Demos is won over by these
arguments and he spurns Cleon's wheedling appeals for sympathy. Thereafter the sausage
seller's accusations become increasingly absurd: Cleon is accused of waging a campaign against
buggery in order to stifle opposition (because all the best orators are buggers) and he is said to
have brought down the price of silphium so that jurors who bought it would suffocate each other
with their flatulence. Cleon loses the debate but he doesn't lose hope and there are two further
contests in which he competes with the sausage seller for Demos's favour - a) the reading of
oracles flattering to Demos; b) a race to see which of them can best serve pampered Demos's
every need. The sausage seller wins each contest by outdoing Cleon in shamelessness. Cleon
makes one last effort to retain his privileged position in the household - he possesses an oracle
that describes his successor and he questions the sausage seller to see if he matches the
description in all its vulgar details. The sausage seller does match the description. In tragic
dismay, Cleon at last accepts his fate and he surrenders his authority to the sausage-seller.
Demos asks the sausage seller for his name and we learn that it is Agoracritus, confirming his
lowly origin. The actors depart and the Chorus treats us to another parabasis.
The knights step forward and they advise us that it is honourable to mock dishonourable people.
They proceed to mock Ariphrades, an Athenian with a perverse appetite for female secretions.
Next they recount an imaginary conversation between some respectable ships that have refused
to carry the war to Carthage because the voyage was proposed by Hyperbolus, a man they
despise. Then Agoracritus returns to the stage, calling for respectful silence and announcing a
new development - he has rejuvenated Demos with a good boiling (just as if he were a piece of
meat). The doors of Demos's house open to reveal impressive changes in Demos's appearance he is now the very image of glorious 'violet-crowned' Athens, as once commemorated in a song
by Pindar. Agoracritus presents his transformed master with the Peacetreaties - beautiful girls that
Cleon had been keeping locked up in order to prolong the war. Demos invites Agoracritus to a
banquet at the town hall and the entire cast exits in good cheer - all except Cleon, who is required
to sell sausages at the city gate as punishment for his crimes.
Historical background[edit]
Some significant events leading up to the play:
432 BC: The Megarian decree began a trade embargo by Athens against the neighbouring polis
of Megara. The Peloponnesian War commenced soon after.
430 BC: The Plague of Athens resulted in the deaths of many thousands of Athenians, including

leading citizens such as Pericles.

427 BC: Aristophanes produced his first play The Banqueters at the City Dionysis. Cleon carried
a bill proposing fierce retribution against a rebellious Athenian ally Mytilene, including the
execution of all its adult males and the enslavement of all its women and children; the bill was
repealed the next day in spite of his opposition. There was a recurrence of the plague at about
this time.
426 BC: The Babylonians won first prize at the City Dionysia. Cleon subsequently prosecuted the
young playwright for slandering the polis in the presence of foreigners.
425 BC: The Acharnians was produced at the Lenaia. Cleon criticized Athenian generals for
procrastination and incompetence and he replaced Nicias in time to assist Demosthenes in the
victory at the Battle of Sphacteria. He later increased the tribute payments of allied states and
also increased juror's pay from two to three obols per day.
424 BC: Aristophanes won first prize at the Lenaia with The Knights
Cleon, knights and Aristophanes[edit]
Cleon's political career was founded on his opposition to the cautious war strategy of Pericles and
its highpoint came with the Athenian victory at Sphacteria, for which he was feted and honoured
by the majority of his fellow citizens. Included in the civic honours were free meals at the town hall
or prytaneion and front row seats at festivals such as the Lenaia and City Dionysia. Cleon's
entitlement to these honours is continually mocked by Aristophanes in The Knights and possibly
Cleon was sitting in the front row during the performance. Aristophanes makes numerous
accusations against Cleon, many of them comic and some in earnest. He mocks Cleon for his
questionable pedigree [6] but inscriptions indicate that the social origins of demagogues like
Cleon were not as obscure as Aristophanes and other comic poets tried to make out.[7] He
appears to have used the law courts for personal and political ends but it is possible that he was
neither venal nor corrupt.[8] He had prosecuted Aristophanes for an earlier play, The Babylonians,
but an attempt at political censorship during a time of war was not necessarily motivated by
personal malice or ambition on Cleon's part - the play depicted the cities of the Athenian League
as slaves grinding at a mill[9] and it had been performed at the City Dionysia in the presence of
foreigners. The knights (citizens rich enough to own horses) were the comic poet's natural allies
against a populist such as Cleon - according to a passage in The Acharnians,[10] they had
recently forced him to hand over a large sum of money, implying that he had obtained it corruptly.
[11] As an educated class, knights occupied many of the state offices that were subject to annual
audits and Cleon specialized in the prosecution of such officials, often using his rapport with
jurors to obtain the verdicts he wanted.[12] This abuse of the auditing system is one of the
complaints made by the Chorus when it enters the stage and it accuses Cleon of selecting
officials for prosecution like figs according to their wealth and psychological vulnerability (lines
257-65). The play also accuses Cleon of manipulating census lists to impose crippling financial
burdens on his choice of victims (lines 911-25).
Places and people mentioned in The Knights[edit]
Old Comedy is a highly topical form of comic drama and its meanings are often obscured by
multiple references to contemporary news, gossip and literature. Centuries of scholarship have
unriddled many of these references and they are explained in commentaries in various editions of
the plays. The following lists are compiled from two such sources.[13][14] Note: Paphlagonian is
here referred to by his real name, Cleon.
Places
Pylos: A bay in the Peloponnese, shut in by the island of Sphacteria, it is associated with Cleon's
famous victory and there are many references to it in the play: as a cake that Cleon pinched from
Demosthenes (lines 57, 355, 1167); as a place where Cleon like a colossus has got one foot (76);
as an oath by which Cleon swears (702); as the place where Cleon snatched victory from the
Athenian generals (742); as the origin of captured Spartan shields (846); as an epithet of the
goddess Athena (1172); and as an equivalent of the hare that Agoracritus stole from Cleon
(1201). Pylos is mentioned again in three later plays.[15]
Paphlagonia: A region in modern Turkey, it is imputed to be the birthplace of Cleon since he is
named after it. There is a pun on the word paphlazo (I bubble, splutter, fret) which is made explicit

in reference to Cleon in line 919.

Chaonia: A region in the northwestern Greece, it is where Cleon the colossus dangles his arse
(line 78) and it is also mentioned in The Acharnians.[16] One of his hands is in Aetolia (79).
Cycloborus: A mountain torrent in Attica, it is the image of Cleon's voice here (line 137) and also
in The Acharnians.[17]
Carthage or Carchedon: A Phoenician city, it marks a western limit of Athenian influence (line
174) and it is somewhere that the ships don't want to go (1303); an eastern limit is marked by
Caria (173).
Chalcidice: A region in the northern Aegean that was under Athenian control but where the cities
were increasingly rebellious. The wine bowl that the two slaves steal from the house is Chalcidian
in design and Cleon subsequently accuses them of stealing it to provoke a Chalcidian revolt (line
237). Ironically, Cleon later perished in a military campaign to quell the revolt there.
Chersonesos: The Gallipoli Peninsula, it is mentioned by the Chorus as the sort of place where
Cleon fishes for people he can put on trial in Athens (line 262)
Prytaneion: The ancient equivalent of a town hall, it is where Cleon obtains free meals (lines 281,
535, 766) and where Agoracritus is destined to obtain free sex (167).
Pergase: A deme of the Erechthides tribe, not far outside Athens, it was as far as Demosthenes
got when a pair of leather shoes that Cleon had sold him began to dissolve (line 321)
Miletus: One of the principal cities of Ionia, it is famous for its fish (line 361). Cleon is imagined
choking on a fried cuttlefish while contemplating a bribe from Miletus (932).
Potidaea: A rebellious city in Chalcidice, it was recaptured by the Athenians in 429 BC. Cleon
offers Agoracritus a bribe of one talent not to mention the bribe of ten talents he is said to have
taken from there (line 438).
Boeotia: A northern neighbour of the Athenians but an ally of Sparta, it was famous for its
cheeses. Cleon accuses Agoracritus of making cheese with the Boeotians (line 479). Boeotia is
mentioned extensively in The Acharnians and receives other mentions in two other plays.[18]
Argos: A Peloponnesian state, it had remained neutral throughout the war. Agoracritus claims that
Cleon used negotiations with Argos as an opportunity to negotiate a bribe from the Spartans (line
465) and he murders a quote from Euripides in which the ancient state is apostrophized (813).
Argos is mentioned in four other plays.[19]
Sunium and Geraestus: The sites of two temples of Poseidon (southern tips of Attica and
Euboea), they are mentioned in an invocation to the god as a defender of the polis (lines 560-1).
Sunium is mentioned again in The Clouds.[20]
Corinth: A Peloponnesian state, it had recently been attacked by marines under the command of
Nicias. The cavalry had played a decisive role in the expedition. The horses had even rowed the
ships and their attitude had been meritorious throughout the campaign (line 604). Corinth is
mentioned again in two later plays.[21]
Pnyx: The hill where Athenian citizens assembled to debate state issues, it is said by Agoracritus
to have a bad effect on Demos - ordinarily the cleverest chap in the world, he often gapes at the
speaker's platform like someone tying wild figs to a cultivar (line 749-55).
Cerameicon: The potter's quarter and town cemetery - Agoracritus offers to be dragged through it
by a meathook in his balls as an assurance of his love for Demos (line 772)
Marathon: Here as elsewhere,[22] it is a name that conjures up patriotic pride and respect for the
old ways (lines 781, 1334).
Salamis: Another name to conjure with, Demos acquired a sore bum there while rowing in the
Battle of Salamis (which means he must be very old), in gratitude for which Agoracritus
thoughtfully provides him with a cushion (line 785). The island is mentioned again in Lysistrata.
[23]
Arcadia: Ordinarily a wild backwoods in the very heart of enemy territory, it is where Demos will
sit in judgement for five obols a day, according to one of Cleon's oracles (line 798).
Peiraeus: The main Athenian port, it was plastered onto the Athenian pie by Themistocles (line
815), and it has become his epithet (885). It is mentioned again in Peace.[24]
Copros or Kopros: A deme of the tribe Hippothoontides, it also means feces. A man from there
told Demos about Cleon's plot to murder jurors en masse by inducing flatulence (line 899).
Cyllene: A Peloponnesian harbour, it is also a pun for kylle (beggar's hand). Apollo warns Demos
in an oracle to avoid it and it is suggested that the hand belongs to a religious fanatic and oracle

monger, Diopeithes (lines 1081-85).

Ecbatana: The seat of the Persian kings, it is foretold in an oracle to be another place where
Demos will someday sit in judgement (line 1089). Ecbatana is mentioned again in two other
plays.[25]
Theseion: A temple and a safe refuge for fugitives, it is where the ships of the Athenian fleet
consider fleeing to escape Hyperbolus (even though it is inland). A shrine of the Eumenides is
considered in the same light (line 1312).