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Aristophanes (c. 448 BC-380 BC; Greek ΄Αριστοφανης) was a Greek comic dramatist.

The place and even the exact date of his birth are unknown, but he was probably educated in Athens. He was from the Athenian deme of Kudathenaium. He is famous for writing comedies such as The Birds for the two Athenian festivals: the Dionysia and the Lenea. He wrote forty plays, eleven of which still survive, and his plays are the only surviving examples of Old Attic Comedy. Many of his plays were political, and often satirized the well-known citizens of Athens and their conduct in the Peloponnesian War. He is known to have been prosecuted for Athenian law's equivalent of libel more than once. A famous comedy, The Frogs, was given the unprecedented honor of a second performance. According to a later biographer, he was also awarded a civic crown for "The Frogs".

He appears in Plato's Symposium, giving a humorous mythical account of the origin of Love. The Clouds, a disastrous production resulting in a humiliating and long-remembered (cf. the revised parabasis of "The Clouds" and the parabasis of next year's "The Wasps") last place finish at the City Dionysia, satirizes the new, sophistic learning en vogue among the aristocracy at the time; Socrates was the principal target and in the play he emerges as a typical Sophist, no matter how inaccurate the portrayal may be. Lysistrata was written during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta and presents a pacifist theme in a comical manner: the women of the two states show off their bodies and deprive their husbands of sex until they stop fighting. This play was later illustrated at length by Pablo Picasso.

Contents 1 Surviving plays 2 Dated non-surviving plays 3 Undated non-surviving plays 4 See also 5 External links

Surviving plays

• The Acharnians (425 BC)
• The Knights (424 BC)
• The Clouds (Original 423 BCUncompleted revised version survives 418-415 BC)
• The Wasps (422 BC)
• Peace (first version, 421 BC)
• The Birds (414 BC)
• Lysistrata (411 BC)
• Thesmophoriazousae ("The Festival Women", first version, ca.410 BC)
• The Frogs (405 BC)
• Ecclesiazousae ("The Assemblywomen", ca.392 BC)
• Plutus ("Wealth", second version, 388 BC)

Dated non-surviving plays

• Banqueters (427 BC)
• Babylonians (426 BC)
• Farmers (424 BC)
• Merchant Ships (423 BC)
• The Clouds (first version) (423 BC)
• Proagon (422 BC)
• Amphiaraos (414 BC)
• Plutus ("Wealth", first version, 408 BC)
• Gerytades (uncertain, probably 407 BC)
• Koskalos (387 BC)
• Aiolosikon (second version, 386 BC)

Undated non-surviving plays

• Aiolosikon (first version)
• Anagyros
• Broilers
• Daidalos
• Danaids
• Dionysos Shipwrecked
• Centaur
• Niobos
• Heroes
• Islands
• Lemnian Women
• Old Age
• Peace (second version)
• Phoenician Women
• Poetry
• Polyidos
• Seasons
• Storks
• Telemessians
• Triphales
• Thesmophoriazousae ("The Festival Women", second version)
• Women Encamping

See also

• Agathon
• Greek literature
• Asteroid 2934 Aristophanes, named after the dramatist

External links

• The texts of Aristophanes' plays (in translation)
• Works by Aristophanes at Project Gutenberg
• Contribution to the English Language

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