Hyperbolos

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Hyperbolos ( Greek  Ὑπέρβολος ; † 411 BC ) was an Athenian lamp dealer and politician of the 5th century BC. Around 422 BC. Chr. Wanted to become a leading demagogue and for this earned above all the ridicule of comedy . Around 417 BC He was banished from Athens as the last victim of the Attic court of fragments .

Greek oil lamps

Ascent

Hyperbolus, son of Antiphanes from the Demos Perithoides, had made a fortune as a lamp manufacturer or distributor in Athens, which he used after the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War to start a career as a politician. 425/24 BC At first he was a strategist without being particularly distinguished. After Cleon's death in the Battle of Amphipolis , Hyperbolos advanced in 422 BC. To the leader of the radical democrats, who rejected a reconciliation with Sparta and therefore 421 BC. Opposed the peace of Nicias .

From Kleon, a former tanner or leather dealer, Hyperbolos took over in particular the role of whipping in the uncultivated masses in the popular assembly . The concerns of the educated citizens about this rise were then expressed in the political commentary of the Attic comedy, especially in the plays of the poets Aristophanes and Eupolis . As the leader of the warring party, however, Hyperbolus was soon eclipsed by the brilliant Alcibiades . Around 420 BC He was a councilor . At this point his political career had probably already passed its zenith, as Aristophanes mocked his fellow poets for still stomping on the "poor wretch" instead of looking for more rewarding sacrifices for their ridicule.

Ostracism

Ostracism -Scherbe with the name of Hyperbolos

Hyperbolus, however, continued to intrigue against the leading statesmen Nicias and Alcibiades. Probably 417 BC BC (or 415 BC) he applied for an ostracism (broken glass) to get rid of at least one of his two opponents. However, the two otherwise hostile party leaders formed an alliance of convenience and, through their agreement, ensured that most of the votes fell on Hyperbolus, who was thus banned from Athens for ten years. The comedian Plato dedicated a few lines of a comedy to the surprising outcome that have been passed down by Plutarch :

“The punishment that hit him was well deserved,
but inadequate for the wretched wretch.
The shard was not designed for such cords. "

- Platon comicus

Exile and death

The historian Thucydides reports that Hyperbolus went into exile in Samos , where he lived in 411 BC. Was murdered by oligarchic putschists . Thucydides calls him "a lowly fellow who was banished by the jury not out of fear of his power and prestige, but because of his wickedness and as a disgrace to the city."

reception

During his brief career as a leader in the popular assembly, Hyperbolus apparently revealed an above-average number of human weaknesses that soon made him the preferred target of Attic comedy. Aristophanes showed himself to be particularly stubborn, who gave him him between 425 and 405 BC. Mentioned in at least seven pieces. He is usually portrayed as ugly, illiterate, depraved, sneaky, and mean. In the comedy Peace , it is said that in desperation the people ran after him only because they wanted their lamps to illuminate.

Aristophanes was not alone with his ridicule, however, and in the comedy Marikas ( Μαρικ ) ς ) of his competitor Eupolis, Hyperbolus is caricatured as a "slave of barbaric origin who picked up his education in barber shops". The playwright Hermippos wrote about Hyperbolus and his presumably alcoholic mother his breadwives , and the comedian Plato even dedicated a whole piece to both of them called Hyperbolus .

swell

literature

  • WR Connor: The new politicians of fifth-century Athens . 1971.
  • Herbert Heftner : The ostracism of Hyperbolos: Plutarch, pseudo-Andokides and the ostraka. In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie , Volume 143, 2000, PDF .
  • Franz Kiechle: Hyperbolos. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 2, Stuttgart 1967, column 1274.
  • Hans Neumann: The politics of Athens after the Nicias Peace and the dating of the ostracism of Hyperbolos . 1936.
  • Peter J. Rhodes: The Ostracism of Hyperbolos . In: Robin Osborne / S. Hornblower (eds.): Ritual, Finance, Politics: Athenian Democratic Accounts presented to David Lewis . Oxford, 1994, pp. 85-99.
  • Peter J. Rhodes: Hyperbolos. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 5, Metzler, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-476-01475-4 , Sp. 802.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franz Kiechle: Hyperbolos. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 2, Stuttgart 1967, column 1274.
  2. ↑ Aristophanes, The Clouds 540–555.
  3. ↑ Cf. Herbert Heftner: Der Ostrakismos des Hyperbolos: Plutarch, pseudo-Andokides and the Ostraka. In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie , Volume 143, 2000, PDF .
  4. ↑ Plutarch , Alcibiades 13 and Nicias 11.
  5. ↑ Thucydides , VIII 73.3.
  6. ↑ Aristophanes , Die Acharner 846; The Knights 739, 1304, 1363; The clouds 551, 557, 623, 876, 1065; The Wasps 1007; Peace 681, 921, 1319; The Thesmophoriazusen 840; The frogs 570.
  7. ↑ Aristophanes, Der Frieden 690f.
  8. ↑ Walther Kraus: Eupolis. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 2, Stuttgart 1967, column 438 f.
personal data
SURNAME Hyperbolos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ὑπέρβολος (Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Athenian statesman and demagogue
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH Athens
DATE OF DEATH 411 BC Chr.
Place of death Samos