This article is about the classical play by Aristophanes. For the incidental music to that play, see The Wasps (Vaughan Williams).
The Wasps
The Chorus in The Wasps comprises elderly jurors who briefly resemble wasps in their behaviour (Painting: 'The Jury' by John Morgan 1861, Bucks County Museum, England).
The Dramatis Personae in ancient comedy depends on interpretation of textual evidence.[1] This list is based on David Barrett's translation.[2]
Written by
Aristophanes
Chorus
Wasps (old men) Boys
Characters
Anticleon (Bdelycleon) a young Athenian
Procleon (Philocleon) his father
Sosias their household slave
Xanthias another household slave
First Dog
A reveller
A baking-woman
A citizen
Silent Roles
Midas household slave
Phryx household slave
Masyntias household slave
Second Dog (Labes)
Dardanis flute girl
Chaerephon the philosopher
Witnesses brought by the Citizen
Cooking utensils witnesses at trial of Second Dog
Puppies children to Second Dog
Revellers
Three sons of Carcinus
Setting
before house of Anticleon
The Wasps (Classical Greek: Σφῆκες, romanized: Sphēkes) is the fourth in chronological order of the eleven surviving plays by Aristophanes. It was produced at the Lenaia festival in 422 BC, during Athens' short-lived respite from the Peloponnesian War.
As in his other early plays, Aristophanes satirizes the Athenian general and demagogue Cleon. He also ridicules the law courts, one of the institutions that provided Cleon his power. The play has been thought to exemplify Old Comedy.[3]
^Aristophanes: Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds Alan Sommerstein, Penguin Classics 1973, p. 37
^Aristophanes: The Frogs and Other Plays D.Barrett (ed.), Penguin Classics 1964
^Amnon Kabatchnik, Blood on the Stage, 480 B.C. to 1600 A.D.: Milestone Plays of Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem, p. 55.
TheWasps (Classical Greek: Σφῆκες, romanized: Sphēkes) is the fourth in chronological order of the eleven surviving plays by Aristophanes. It was produced...
Unlike true parasites, thewasp larvae eventually kill their hosts. Solitary wasps parasitize almost every pest insect, making wasps valuable in horticulture...
in the membership resulted in the formation of two different clubs: Harlequin F.C. and Wasps. Wasps Football Club was itself formed in 1867 at the now...
of the few that can is the roadrunner. Many predatory animals avoid these wasps, and many different insects mimic them, including various other wasps and...
Fig wasps are wasps of the superfamily Chalcidoidea which spend their larval stage inside figs. Some are pollinators but others simply feed off the plant...
Wasps in the family Pompilidae are commonly called spider wasps, spider-hunting wasps, or pompilid wasps. The family is cosmopolitan, with some 5,000...
Gall wasps, also traditionally called gallflies, are hymenopterans of the family Cynipidae in thewasp superfamily Cynipoidea. Their common name comes...
Paper wasps are vespid wasps and typically refers to members of the vespid subfamily Polistinae, though it often colloquially includes members of the subfamilies...
Parasitoid wasps are a large group of hymenopteran superfamilies, with all but the wood wasps (Orussoidea) being in thewasp-waisted Apocrita. As parasitoids...
Potter wasps (or mason wasps), the Eumeninae, are a cosmopolitan wasp group presently treated as a subfamily of Vespidae, but sometimes recognized in the past...
Commonly known as cuckoo wasps or emerald wasps, the hymenopteran family Chrysididae is a very large cosmopolitan group (over 3000 described species)...
wasps about 1 inch (25 mm) in length. The name refers to the nests that are made by the female wasps, which consist of mud molded into place by the wasp's...
The common name digger wasp is a broad term which may refer to any member of the parasitoidal wasp families: Crabronidae, including Bembix sand wasps...
The fear of wasps (or wasp stings), technically known as spheksophobia, is a relatively common type of specific phobia. It is similar to fear of bees (which...
these two units were merged to form the Woman Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs). WASPs took non-combat flying jobs as civil service employees, including flight...
many solitary wasps. Each social wasp colony includes a queen and a number of female workers with varying degrees of sterility relative to the queen. In temperate...
the Senate Veteran's Affairs Committee to give theWASPs military status. The bill would allow WASP pilots to use veteran's services. In 1977, WASP records...
The Sphecidae are a cosmopolitan family of wasps of the suborder Apocrita that includes sand wasps, mud daubers, and other thread-waisted wasps. The name...
and male cells. By the end of May, colonies in Australia have 15,000 wasps emerging from small cells and 2500 wasps emerging from the large cells. By comparison...
Scientists recruit wasps for war on terror. USA Today. 26 December 2005. Accessed 6 October 2011. Appel, Adrianne. Drug-Sniffing Wasps May Sting Crooks...
"night wasps" or "night hornets", though they are not true hornets. Some other large wasps are sometimes referred to as hornets, most notably the bald-faced...
A sand wasp is a wasp of one of the following groups: Ammophila, a narrow-waisted genus of hunting wasps that often nests in sandy soil Bembicini, a tribe...
Hymenoptera is a large order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described...
pest insects. Yellowjackets may be confused with other wasps, such as hornets and paper wasps such as Polistes dominula. A typical yellowjacket worker...
Mason wasp is a common name that can refer to: potter wasps and mason wasps in the subfamily Eumeninae in the family Vespidae, or Mud daubers in the families Crabronidae...
attack wasps including D. media. It produces red-yellow fruiting bodies on long white or yellow stalks. It is not known if this fungus kills living wasps or...
Global Information