Aristofane il populista? Retorica anti-establishment e tensione di classe nelle Vespe

This article addresses the debated question of Aristophanes’ political agenda by providing a reading of the Wasps through the lens of populism and one of its core components – anti-establishment rhetoric. It argues that the concept of populism, understood as a «thin-centred ideology» grounded in the opposition between the pure people and the corrupted elite, makes it possible to move beyond the traditional alternative interpretations of Aristophanes as either conservative or pro-democratic. My analysis shows that both Philocleon and Bdelycleon deploy anti-establishment rhetoric, though in different ways: popular in the former case, paternalistic and elitist in the latter. The play thus emerges as pervaded by a deliberately ambiguous populism, which unmasks the hypocrisy of politicians, exposes the class tensions that characterise Athenian democracy, and at the same time does not spare criticism of the demos itself.