Read complete books and articles on: Aristophanes

Aristophanes - ărˌĭstŏfˈənēz, c.448 b.c.–c.388 b.c., Greek playwright, Athenian comic poet, greatest of the ancient writers of comedy. His plays, the only full extant samples of the Greek Old Comedy, mix political, social, and literary satire. The direct attack on persons, the severity of invective, and the burlesque extravagances made the plays fitting for the festival of Dionysus. Aristophanes was conservative in all things, hence he distrusted sophistry and Socrates alike, satirized Euripides' art as degenerate, and deplored the tendency to excessive imperialism that ruined Athens in the Syracusan expedition. The typical plan of an Aristophanic comedy is simple—the protagonist undertakes seriously some preposterous project, and the play is an elaboration of his success or failure. Despite the absurdity of the situation, Aristophanes' characters are real as types; their verisimilitude comes from their perfectly natural behavior in unnatural circumstances. Aristophanes' Greek is exceptionally beautiful, and many of his choruses are among the finest lyric pieces in Greek literature. His careful diction and his ability to characterize in a few words are remarkable, and he shows himself especially astute in his parodies of Euripides. Eleven of his plays survive: The Acharnians (425 b.c.), an attack on the Peloponnesian War; The Knights (424), a political satire on the demagoguery of the period; The Clouds (423), a satire on the sophists and on Socrates; The Wasps (422), a satire on the Athenian passion for litigation; The Peace (421), a defense of the Peace of Nicias; The Birds (414), an escape into an amazing imaginary kingdom; Lysistrata (411), in which the Athenian women boycott their husbands to end a war; The Thesmophoriazusae or The Women at Demeter's Festival (411), in which the women conspire to ruin Euripides because of his misogyny; The Frogs (405), a literary satire involving Aeschylus and Euripides; The Ecclesiazusae or The Women in Politics (c.392), in which the women take over the government; and Plutus (388), in which the blind god of wealth recovers his eyesight and distributes the gifts of fortune more equitably.

See his plays (ed. by M. Hadas, 1962, 1984); studies by G. Murray (1933, repr. 1964), C. Whitman (1964), K. J. Dover (1972), and V. Ehrenberg (new ed. 1974).

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14 of the Best Books and Articles on: Aristophanes

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Aristophanes: His Plays and His Influence » Read Now
by Louis E. Lord. 183 pgs.

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2.

Oxford Readings in Aristophanes » Read Now
by Erich Segal. 335 pgs.

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Aristophanes is the only author of Greek Attic comedy whose work survives in any form beyond fragments. His eleven surviving comedies reflect the spirit of Athens in the golden age and its unique freedom of speech. This anthology brings together all the most important contributions to the study of...
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Aristophanes is the only author of Greek Attic comedy whose work survives in any form beyond fragments. His eleven surviving comedies reflect the spirit of Athens in the golden age and its unique freedom of speech. This anthology brings together all the most important contributions to the study of Aristophanes; it addresses a range of subjects from the classic question of Aristophanes' relationship to contemporary politics to more modern issues such as performance context, the interaction between fifth century comedy and tragedy, and gender
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3.

Greek Drama and Dramatists ("Aristophanes: Life and Works" begins on p. 63) » Read Now
by Alan H. Sommerstein. 192 pgs.

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The history of European drama began at the festivals of Dionysus in ancient Athens, where tragedy, satyr-drama and comedy were performed. Understanding this background is vital for students of classical, literary and theatrical subjects, and Alan H. Sommerstein's accessible study is the ideal...
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The history of European drama began at the festivals of Dionysus in ancient Athens, where tragedy, satyr-drama and comedy were performed. Understanding this background is vital for students of classical, literary and theatrical subjects, and Alan H. Sommerstein's accessible study is the ideal introduction.The book begins by looking at the social and theatrical contexts and different characteristics of the three genres of ancient Greek drama. It then examines the five main dramatists whose works survive - Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes and Menander - discussing their styles, techniques and ideas, and giving short synopses of all their extant plays.
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4.

Aristophanes' Lysistrata: A New Version » Read Now
by Aristophanes, Gilbert Seldes. 146 pgs.

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5.

Clouds » Read Now
by Aristophanes, Peter Meineck. 125 pgs.

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6.

Aristophanes' Birds (literary criticism) » Read Now
by Nan Dunbar. 542 pgs.

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Birds is generally recognized as one of Aristophanes' masterpieces, for its imaginative plot (it is the source of the word "Cloudcuckooland"), and its charming and original lyrics. This abridgement of Nan Dunbar's widely acclaimed edition of Birds, published in 1995, preserves all the material...
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Birds is generally recognized as one of Aristophanes' masterpieces, for its imaginative plot (it is the source of the word "Cloudcuckooland"), and its charming and original lyrics. This abridgement of Nan Dunbar's widely acclaimed edition of Birds, published in 1995, preserves all the material designed to help the less advanced student of Greek or the non-specialist to translate, understand, and enjoy the play. It also retains the notes on staging, but the metrical, textual, and ornithological problems are dealt with more summarily, and purely illustrative parallels are omitted.
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7.

Aristophanes' Peace (literary criticism) » Read Now
by S. Douglas Olson. 330 pgs.

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Aristophanes' Peace was performed at the City Dionysia in Athens in 421 B.C. as a decade-long war with Sparta seemed finally to be drawing to an end, and is one of only eleven extant plays by the greatest Old Comic poet. Olson's edition of the play, which replaces Platnauer's of 1969, is based on a...
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Aristophanes' Peace was performed at the City Dionysia in Athens in 421 B.C. as a decade-long war with Sparta seemed finally to be drawing to an end, and is one of only eleven extant plays by the greatest Old Comic poet. Olson's edition of the play, which replaces Platnauer's of 1969, is based on a complete new collation of the manuscripts, many of which have never been adequately reported before. The extensive commentary explores matters of all sorts, but it focuses in particular on the realities of daily life in classical Athens and also examines the practical problems of staging. The substantial introduction includes essays on Aristophanes' early career, the politics of the Greek world in the late 420s, and the poet's theology.
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8.

Aristophanes' Frogs (literary criticism) » Read Now
by Kenneth Dover. 259 pgs.

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This new abridged edition of Aristophanes' Frogs provides the students with the text of the play and includes a detailed commentary and full introduction. Sir Kenneth Dover has now abridged the acclaimed edition which he first produced in 1993 and added a vocabulary which eliminates the need for...
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This new abridged edition of Aristophanes' Frogs provides the students with the text of the play and includes a detailed commentary and full introduction. Sir Kenneth Dover has now abridged the acclaimed edition which he first produced in 1993 and added a vocabulary which eliminates the need for recourse to a lexicon. The result is an edition which fits much more closely the needs of students.
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9.

Rhetoric, Comedy and the Violence of Language in Aristophanes' Clouds » Read Now
by Daphne Elizabeth O'Regan. 216 pgs.

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This is an intelligent and unusually thought-provoking reading of Aristophanes' Clouds. O'Regan focuses on logos, or the power of argument, and its effects, and on the self-awareness of the second Clouds as a comedy of logos directed toward an audience made resistant by devotion to the body. Within...
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This is an intelligent and unusually thought-provoking reading of Aristophanes' Clouds. O'Regan focuses on logos, or the power of argument, and its effects, and on the self-awareness of the second Clouds as a comedy of logos directed toward an audience made resistant by devotion to the body. Within and without the play, logos meets defeat when confronted with human nature and desire. The argument conveys much insight into fifth-century thought and the play's workings, the more so because it balances rhetoric with comedy, and reminds the reader that this is a comic logos--explored in the comic mode, and connected with the intentions and vicissitudes of the first and second Clouds.
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10.

The Songs of Aristophanes » Read Now
by L. P. E. Parker. 588 pgs.

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Aristophanes' comedies were as much musical as dramatic performances. The scores from these performances are lost, and the only way of recovering a sense of what the Athenian audience experienced is to study the rhythms of Aristophanes' poetry. His lyric verse covers a wide range of styles--from...
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Aristophanes' comedies were as much musical as dramatic performances. The scores from these performances are lost, and the only way of recovering a sense of what the Athenian audience experienced is to study the rhythms of Aristophanes' poetry. His lyric verse covers a wide range of styles--from popular song to parody of tragedy. in this book, L.P.E. Parker provides a full text, with scansion, of the surviving plays' lyrics, and an introduction to the different rhythms used by Aristophanes, their origins, and literary associations. Parker emphasizes the role played by lyric meter in dramatic architecture and distinguishes the different levels of musical style. In this way, Parker illustrates meter's centrality in Aristophanes' dramatic art and satire.
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11.

Aristophanes: An Author for the Stage » Read Now
by Carlo Ferdinando Russo. 282 pgs.

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Carlo Ferdinando Russo's book has been a seminal work on Aristophanes since its publication in Italy in 1962. In his detailed analysis, Professor Russo considers the plays as libretti for actors and singers rather than as mere texts, and never loses sight of the stage. This is the classic book...
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Carlo Ferdinando Russo's book has been a seminal work on Aristophanes since its publication in Italy in 1962. In his detailed analysis, Professor Russo considers the plays as libretti for actors and singers rather than as mere texts, and never loses sight of the stage. This is the classic book about Aristophanes. Now finally available in English and much-updated, it is essential reading for any student of Athenian comedy.
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12.

Aristophanes and Athens: An Introduction to the Plays » Read Now
by Douglas M. MacDowell. 362 pgs.

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13.

Aristophanes and the Political Parties at Athens » Read Now
by Maurice Croiset, James Loeb. 194 pgs.

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14.

Venom in Verse: Aristophanes in Modern Greece » Read Now
by Gonda A. H. Van Steen. 284 pgs.

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Aristophanes has enjoyed a conspicuous revival in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Greece. Here, Gonda Van Steen provides the first critical analysis of the role of the classical Athenian playwright in modern Greek culture, explaining how the sociopolitical "venom" of Aristophanes' verses remains...
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Aristophanes has enjoyed a conspicuous revival in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Greece. Here, Gonda Van Steen provides the first critical analysis of the role of the classical Athenian playwright in modern Greek culture, explaining how the sociopolitical "venom" of Aristophanes' verses remains relevant and appealing to modern Greek audiences. Deriding or challenging well-known figures and conservative values, Aristophanes' comedies transgress authority and continue to speak to many social groups in Greece who have found in him a witty, pointed, and accessible champion from their "native" tradition.The book addresses the broader issues reflected in the poet's revival: political and linguistic nationalism, literary and cultural authenticity versus creativity, censorship, and social strife. Van Steen's discussion ranges from attitudes toward Aristophanes before and during Greece's War of Independence in the 1820s to those during the Cold War, from feminist debates to the significance of the popular music integrated into comic revival productions, from the havoc transvestite adaptations wreaked on gender roles to the political protest symbolized by Karolos Koun's directorial choices.Crossing boundaries of classical philology, critical theory, and performance studies, the book encourages us to reassess Aristophanes' comedies as both play-acts and modern methods of communication. Van Steen uses material never before accessible in English as she proves that Aristophanes remains Greece's immortal comic genius and political voice.
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