But not only are individuals ridiculed in
Acharnians and our scene in
Birds for their penchant for being office-seekers. They are also ridiculed by the claim that they are foreigners. Later in
Acharnians Euathlos, a
synegoros sometime before 425, is ridiculed as
t∞i Skuy«n §rhm€ai (704) which derides him for being of foreign descent, in this case Thracian. Both of these passages recall
Birds, once in the verb §xeirotÒnh!an
[57] and again with t∞i Skuy«n •rhm€ai.
[58] Though certainly not intentional echoes, these references show that Aristophanes ridicules generals, lawyers, and other notorious public figures by accusing them of foreign birth. Euathlos is also ridiculed elsewhere (Aristophanes'
Olkades, fr. 424
PCG) and derided no less severely than Sakas (Akestor) or Exekestides in
Birds. Laispodias, a true citizen, is mocked in a similar fashion, by a similar association with foreigners. Aristophanes uses the ridicule of foreign descent for young upstarts, no doubt sophistically trained.
Acharnians 517-8 uses parakekomm°na of sycophants denouncing Megarian goods.
Wasps 1042 mentions citizens complaining about sycophants to the
polemarkhos who regularly handled cases involving non-Athenians.
[59] There is also
Birds 11, 762-5 and 1527 where Exekestides is marked as a foreigner. But was he really? Nothing from antiquity tells us he was.
[60] A fragment from Phrynichos'
Monotropos (fr. 21
PCG), produced in the same year as
Birds, lists Exekestides with Lykeas (unknown), Teleas, and Peisandros. Teleas was probably a decree-maker as we can gather from
Birds 168 and Peisandros,
Birds 1556-8, was a prominent politician. Was Exekestides also a public figure like these others, as seems probable?
Frogs 420-22 doubts the parentage of Archedemos, a prosecutor of some kind,
[61] and later at 679-83 Kleophon, a dhmagvgÒ! in 405 who is treated much like Kleon in
Knights, is associated with Thrace, and again at 730 "first-generation politicians," Í!tãtoi! éfigm°noi!in, are described as purr€ai!, or red-headed Thracian slaves. From all this we can see that public figures, whether sycophants or generals, could be derided by accusing them of being foreigners. This does not necessarily mean they
were foreigners; the main point is the ridicule Aristophanes levels at them in the comparison. This is the case for the association of the Triballian god with Laispodias.