Aristophanes (c. 448-385 B.C.)

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LINKS

Aristophanes' World
http://www.stark.kent.edu/~jmoneysmith/gbi/ourweb/evans.htm Clinton Evans, a student at the University of Idaho, wrote this helpful background on the Peloponnesian War.

The Internet Classics Archive: Aristophanes
http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browse-Aristophanes.html This site features e-text versions of ten of Aristophanes' works and opportunities for online comments and discussion with other students.

Great Books Index: Aristophanes
http://books.mirror.org/gb.aristophanes.html This site offers e-texts of many of Aristophanes’ works, as well as links to other online resources on the writer.

Perseus Project: Aristophanes
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0004&layout=&loc=aristophanes Visit the Perseus Project Online's entry for the classical playwright to peruse a comprehensive biography and to access related links.

Perseus Digital Library: Aristophanes
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0004&layout=&loc=aristophanes

Hosted by Tufts University, the Perseus Digital Library is a resource for a wide range of subjects in the humanities. Here you will find biographical information about Aristophanes, an overview of Lysistrata, critical commentary, and additional primary and secondary sources.

Lysistrata: A Study Guide
http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/netshots/lysistra.htm

Hosted by the Classics Technology Center, this site provides questions to help deepen your reading of Aristophanes’ classic play, as well as links to a glossary of classical terms.

Aristophanes Homepage
http://cityhonors.buffalo.k12.ny.us/city/rsrcs/eng/auth/ari.html

This site provides access to a variety of resources on Aristophanes and Lysistrata, including study guides, critical essays, and links to additional resources. The site is hosted by the Buffalo public school system and the State University of New York.

BIOGRAPHY

Aristophanes (c.448-c. 385 B.C.) is the best known of the Greek comic playwrights. His plays are democratic in that they appealed to sophisticated and unsophisticated theatergoers alike. He was a practitioner of what we now call Old Comedy, an irreverent form that ridiculed and insulted prominent people and important institutions. By Aristophanes' time, Old Comedy had become fiercely satirical, especially concerning political matters.

Of his more than thirty known plays, only eleven survive. They come from three main periods in his life, beginning, according to legend, when he was a young man, in 427 B.C. The Acharnians (425 B.C.), from his first period, focuses on the theme of peace. Aristophanes saw war as a corporate venture; peacemaking was easier for an individual than for a group or nation. The Acharnians was followed by The Peace in 421 B.C., just before Sparta and Athens signed a treaty.

His second period was also dominated by the problems of war. Athens's ill-fated expedition to Sicily in violation of the Treaty of Nicias lies thematically beneath the surface of The Birds (414 B.C.), in which citizens build Cloud-Cuckoo-Land to come between the world of humans and the world of the gods. Lysistrata (411 B.C.) is also from this period; its frank antiwar theme is related to the Sicilian wars and to the ultimately devastating Peloponnesian Wars.

Aristophanes' third and final period, from 393 B.C. to his death, includes The Ecclesiazusae (c. 392 B.C.) (translated as "the women in government"), in which women dress as men, find their way into parliament, and pass a new constitution. It is a highly topical play that points to the current situation in Athens and the people's general discontent and anxiety. The last part of The Plutus, written five years later, is an allegory about the god of wealth, who is eventually encouraged to make the just wealthy and the unjust poor.

Even in his last period Aristophanes was an innovative force in theater. His last surviving play virtually does away with the chorus as an important character in the action. His later plays resemble modern comedies partly because the chorus does not intrude in the action. His genius helped shape later developments in comedy.

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