Aristophanes

Aristophanes was a contemporary of Socrates and the last and greatest of the old Attic comedians, but unfortunately, only 11 of his plays survive. Of these, Lysistrata and Other Plays contains three: Lysistrata, The Acharnians, and The Clouds. Aristophanes was sceptical about the democratic system of government and was critical of the eagerness with which the people committed themselves to...

The plays in this volume all contain Aristophanes' trademark bawdy comedy and dazzling verbal agility. In The Birds, two frustrated Athenians join the birds to build the utopian city of 'Much Cuckoo in the Clouds'. The Knights is a venomous satire on Cleon, a prominent Athenian demagogue, while The Assembly Women deals with the battle of the sexes as the...

Revised edition The master of ancient Greek comic drama, Aristophanes combined slapstick, humour and cheerful vulgarity with acute political observations. In The Frogs, written during the Peloponnesian War, Dionysus descends to the Underworld to bring back a poet who can help Athens in its darkest hour, and stages a great debate to help him decide between the traditional wisdom of...

This unique and expertly annotated collection of the classic accounts of Socrates left by Plato, Aristophanes, and Xenophon features new translations of Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and the death scene from Phaedo by C. D. C. Reeve, Peter Meineck's translation of Clouds, and James Doyle's translation of Apology of Socrates.

Arnson Svarlien's translation offers fresh insight into three of Aristophanes's greatest comedies. The verse flows smoothly, and throughout it is stressed that these plays belong on a stage, with guidance on how that might be accomplished. At the same time, the detailed Introduction and interpretative notes on every page show that both Arnson Svarlien and Storey are deeply committed to...

Aristophanes (ca. 446–386 BCE), one of the world's greatest comic dramatists, has been admired since antiquity for his iridescent wit and beguiling fantasy, exuberant language, and brilliant satire of the social, intellectual, and political life of Athens at its height. In this third volume of a new Loeb Classical Library edition of Aristophanes, Jeffrey Henderson presents a freshly edited Greek...

Aristophanes of Athens (ca. 446–386 BCE), one of the world's greatest comic dramatists, has been admired since antiquity for his iridescent wit and beguiling fantasy, exuberant language, and brilliant satire of the social, intellectual, and political life of Athens at its height. He wrote at least forty plays, of which eleven have survived complete. In this new Loeb Classical Library...

Aristophanes, a native Athenian and the leading exponent of Greek comedy, was born circa 450 BCE. Today, forty-three of his plays are known by title, though only eleven survive. The most famous of these is the whimsical fantasy Lysistrata. A perennial classroom and stage favourite as well as the basis of Spike Lee's Chi-Raq, the play is as relevant today...

In addition to its many topical references to social life, religion, and politics in classical Athens, Lysistrata is one of our best sources for the life of women in antiquity. Unlike epic, tragedy, and oratory, Attic comedy draws its characters and plots from everyday life and provides a unique glimpse into the situation of everyday Athenians. Henderson's standard edition of...

Aristophanes, one of the world's greatest comic dramatists, has been admired since antiquity for his iridescent wit and beguiling fantasy, exuberant language, and brilliant satire of the social, intellectual, and political life of Athens at its height. This is the fourth and final volume in the new Loeb Classical Library edition of his plays. Frogs was produced in 405 BCE,...

The citizens of ancient Athens enjoyed a freedom of speech as broad as our own. This freedom, parrhesia, the right to say what one pleased, how and when one pleased, and to whom, had no more fervent champion than the brilliant fifth-century comic playwright Aristophanes. His plays, immensely popular with the Athenian public, were frequently crude, even obscene. He ridiculed...

Aristophanes of Athens (ca. 446–386 BCE), one of the world's greatest comic dramatists, has been admired since antiquity for his iridescent wit and beguiling fantasy, exuberant language, and brilliant satire of the social, intellectual, and political life of Athens at its height. He wrote at least forty plays, of which eleven have survived complete. In this new Loeb Classical Library...

A new anthology, bringing together four masterpieces of classical comedy in one volume. From the fifth to the second century BC, innovative comedy drama flourished in Greece and Rome. This collection brings together the greatest works of Classical comedy, with two early Greek plays—Aristophanes' bold, imaginative Birds, and Menander's The Girl from Samos, which explores popular contemporary themes of mistaken...