![Sculpture of Aristophanes](/image/author/aristophanes.webp)
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Aristophanes
Aristophanes son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete. These provide the most valuable examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy and are used to define it, along with fragments from dozens of lost plays by Aristophanes and his contemporaries.
Also known as "The Father of Comedy" and "the Prince of Ancient Comedy", Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries; Plato singled out Aristophanes' play The Clouds as slander that contributed to the trial and subsequent condemning to death of Socrates, although other satirical playwrights had also caricatured the philosopher.
Aristophanes' second play, The Babylonians (now lost), was denounced by Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. It is possible that the case was argued in court, but details of the trial are not recorded and Aristophanes caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially The Knights, the first of many plays that he directed himself. "In my opinion," he says through that play's Chorus, "the author-director of comedies has the hardest job of all."
Books by Aristophanes
![Lysistrata Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/lysistrata.webp)
Lysistrata
Lysistrata is an ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC. It is a comic account of a woman's extraordinary mission to end the Peloponnesian War between Greek city states by denying all the men of the l...
![The Birds Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/the-birds.webp)
The Birds
In the whimsical world of "The Birds," ancient Athens meets a feathery utopia, and human ambition takes flight among the avian inhabitants. Step into a realm where talking birds hold court, and two Athenians embark on a fantastical journey to Cloudcu...
![Chorus of Women Cover image](/image/noimage.jpeg)
Chorus of Women
LibriVox volunteers bring you 16 recordings of Chorus of Women by Aristophanes. This was the Weekly Poetry project for October 21, 2012.Aristophanes was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. This poem is from the Thesmophoriazusae; meaning Women Cele...
![Frogs Cover image](/image/noimage.jpeg)
Frogs
Athens is in a sorry state of affairs. The great tragedian, Euripides, is dead, and Dionysus, the god of the theater, has to listen to third-rate poetry. So, he determines to pack his belongings onto his trusty slave, Xanthias, and journey to the und...
![Clouds Cover image](/image/noimage.jpeg)
Clouds
Strepsiades is an Athenian burdened with debt from a bad marriage and a spendthrift son. He resolves to go to the Thinking Shop, where he can purchase lessons from the famous Socrates in ways to manipulate language in order to outwit his creditors i...
![Acharnians (Billson Translation) Cover image](/image/noimage.jpeg)
Acharnians (Billson Translation)
Loaded with cryptic, nearly indecipherable inside jokes and double entendres, this early comedy of Aristophanes has a simple, anti-war premise that resounds down the centuries. On flimsy pretexts, greedy politicians have embroiled the nation of Athen...
![Ecclesiazusae Cover image](/image/noimage.jpeg)
Ecclesiazusae
Στην αρχαια Αθηνα οι γυναικες αποφασισαν να παρουν την εξουσια απο τους αντρες για να λυσουν τα προβληματα του κρατους και των πολιτων. Λεγεται οτι ο Αριστοφανης θελει να κανει μια κριτικη στο καθεστως της σοσιαλιστικης μητριαρχιας και του κοινωνισμ...
![Peace Cover image](/image/noimage.jpeg)
Peace
The 'Peace' was brought out four years after 'The Acharnians' (422 B.C.), when the War had already lasted ten years. The leading motive is the same as in the former play—the intense desire of the less excitable and more moderate-minded citizens for r...