Il colore della paura e un tassiarco dal bianco volto (Aristofane, Pace 1172-1178)

In the second parabasis of Aristophanes’ Peace (1172-1178), based on the opposition between idealized countryside and war (§ 1), Aristophanes makes an enigmatic joke referring to an anonymous taxiarch, a coward who “dyes his face with a dye from Cyzicus” (§ 2). After a complete analysis of the other scholars’ proposals (§ 3), the paper aims to demonstrate that Aristophanes’ joke refers to an epic-iambic and then comic literary tradition regarding a figure that could be called miles effeminatus, a caricature of the manly Homeric hero (§ 4). In doing so, Aristophanes portrays the taxiarch as a womanly soldier who runs away at the first occasion: the “dye from Cyzicus” refers to his pale face, which is a comic degradation of the bright white face, a typical feature of ideal feminine beauty. Of course, the shining whiteness of a man’s face was also regarded by the Greeks as a sign of his homosexuality (§ 5).