Classical Athenian comic playwright (c. 446 – c. 386 BC)
For other uses, see Aristophanes (disambiguation).
For the Guadelopean comics artist, see Aristophane.
Aristophanes
Bust of Aristophanes (1st century AD)
Born
c. 446 BC
Athens, Greece
Died
c. 386 BC (aged c. 60)
Occupation
Playwright (comedy)
Years active
427 BC – 386 BC
Known for
Playwright and director of Old Comedy
Notable work
The Clouds (423 BC)
The Wasps (422 BC)
The Birds (414 BC)
Lysistrata (411 BC)
The Women at the Thesmophoria Festival (411 BC)
The Frogs (405 BC)
Notes
Although many artists' renderings of Aristophanes portray him with flowing curly hair, several jests in his plays indicate that he may have been prematurely bald.[1]
Aristophanes (/ˌærɪˈstɒfəniːz/;[2] Ancient Greek: Ἀριστοφάνης, pronounced[aristopʰánɛːs]; c. 446 – c. 386 BC) was an Ancient Greek comic playwright from Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy.[3] He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. 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.[4]
Also known as "The Father of Comedy"[5] and "the Prince of Ancient Comedy",[6] Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author.[7] His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries; Plato[8] singled out Aristophanes' play The Clouds as slander that contributed to the trial and subsequent condemning to death of Socrates, although other satirical playwrights[9] 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."[10]
^Barrett 1964, p. 9
^Jones, Daniel; Roach, Peter (2006). James Hartman; Jane Setter (eds.). Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (17th ed.). Cambridge UP..
^Roman, Luke; Roman, Monica (2010). Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman Mythology. Infobase Publishing. p. 81. ISBN 978-1438126395.
^K. J. Dover, ed. (1970). Aristophanes: Clouds. Oxford University Press. Intro. p. x.
^Edith Hall and Amanda Wrigley (2007). Aristophanes in Performance 421 BC – AD 2007: Peace, Birds and Frogs. Oxford: Legenda. p. 1.
^Ebenezer Cobham Brewer. "Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1". manybooks.net.
^Barrett 2003, p. 26
^Apology, Greek text, edited by J. Burnet, section 19c
^Sommerstein, Alan, ed. (1973). Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds. Penguin Books. p. 16.
^Ancient Greek: "κωμῳδοδιδασκαλίαν εἶναι χαλεπώτατον ἔργον ἁπάντων." F. W. Hall; W. M. Geldart (eds.). Aristophanis Comoediae, Tomus 1. Oxford Classical Texts. "Knights" line 516
Aristophanes (/ˌærɪˈstɒfəniːz/; Ancient Greek: Ἀριστοφάνης, pronounced [aristopʰánɛːs]; c. 446 – c. 386 BC) was an Ancient Greek comic playwright from...
in all Aristophanes' early plays and his attempts to prosecute Aristophanes for slander in 426 had merely added fuel to the fire. Aristophanes however...
Firmin Aristophane Boulon (published as Aristophane, the French name of Aristophanes) was a Guadeloupe-born cartoonist. A graduate of the French schools...
Λυσιστράτη, Lysistrátē, lit. 'army disbander') is an ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BCE. It is a comic account...
Aristophanes' Frogs. New York: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-815071-7. Sheppard, J. T.; Verrall, A. W. (1910). "Politics in the Frogs of Aristophanes"....
Aristophanes of Byzantium (Greek: Ἀριστοφάνης ὁ Βυζάντιος Aristophánēs ho Buzántios; c. 257 – c. 185/180 BC) was a Hellenistic Greek scholar, critic and...
between choruses. In fact eight of Aristophanes' eleven surviving plays are named after the Chorus. In Aristophanes' time, the Chorus in tragedy was relatively...
in Aristophanes: The Wasps D. MacDowell, Oxford University Press 1971, p. 7 Aristophanes' Traditionalisme W.Kassies (1963), cited in Aristophanes: The...
Crambus aristophanes is a moth in the family Crambidae. It was described by Stanisław Błeszyński in 1961. It is found in Kenya. "GlobIZ search". Global...
Acharnians, Aristophanes reveals his resolve not to yield to attempts at political intimidation. Along with the other surviving plays of Aristophanes, The Acharnians...
negative way, predominantly by Thucydides and the comedic playwright Aristophanes, who both represent him as an unscrupulous, warmongering demagogue. Cleon...
of inserting the root of a radish into the anus. It is mentioned by Aristophanes as a punishment for adultery in Classical Athens in the fifth and fourth...
survey in 1960, and later named after ancient Greek dramatist Aristophanes. Aristophanes was discovered on 25 September 1960, by Dutch astronomers Ingrid...
Random House. 1938. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Aristophanes, Aristophanes Comoediae edited by F.W. Hall and W.M. Geldart, vol. 1. F.W. Hall...
of Aristophanes, Xenophon, Aristotle, and others. In Classical Greece, a small spit or skewer was known as ὀβελίσκος (obeliskos), and Aristophanes mentions...
parents in Spain, Portugal and Latin America used the Coco. A scholiast to Aristophanes claimed that Lamia's name derived from her having a large throat or gullet...
follows Aristophanes’ conflict structure of the republic in trouble, a solution suggested and that solution ultimately failing. Aristophanes’ plays mostly...
than most. Aristophanes scripted him as a character in at least three plays: The Acharnians, Thesmophoriazusae and The Frogs. But Aristophanes also borrowed...
survives today largely in the form of the eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes; Middle Comedy is largely lost, i.e. preserved only in relatively short...
425 BCE, Aristophanes, a comic play and satirical author of the Ancient Greek Theater, wrote 40 comedies, 11 of which survive. Aristophanes developed...
Greek: Ἱππεῖς Hippeîs; Attic: Ἱππῆς) was the fourth play written by Aristophanes, who is considered the master of an ancient form of drama known as Old...
The title of her doctoral thesis was The Oversubtle Maxim Chasers: Aristophanes, Euripides, and their Reciprocal Pursuit of Poetic Identity. Her doctoral...
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