Lauch, Käse und Honig: Zum Erlebnis der Stadt in der altgriechischen Komödie

Cognitive approaches to smell and taste, as well as cognitive metaphors referring to our olfactory functions, represent promising fields of research and bring new results in reading and interpreting ancient texts. This paper examines mockery and the mocking of the city through various metaphors of smell in Old Greek comedy, as well as the polis and politics, which are often narrated and enacted in culinary metaphors, with smells and scents being associated with various cities. Finally, the pleasant smells, scents and tastes of the city, but also of the province, are discussed in contrast to the city depicted in comedy. Various passages from Aristophanes’ Peace, Lysistrata, Knights, Clouds, and Birds, as well as some fragments from the fourth-century BCE playwrights Alexis and Amphis, are discussed. The olfactory metaphor – which in general is one of the strongest perception-forming factors in comic staging – is essential for the perception of a city on stage: it reflects the environment and at the same time shapes the ideology of that environment.