Aristophanes

Aristophanes (c.448–380 bc), Athenian comic dramatist whose satirical plays, the only surviving representatives of the Old Comedy, attacked individuals rather than types and are of great value for their caricatures of the leading personages of the time and their comments on current affairs. Because of the difficulties of his language and the obscurity of his contemporary references, Aristophanes did not receive much attention in England until the 19th cent., which produced translations by B. H. Kennedy (The Birds, 1804), Thomas Mitchell, and Frere. These were followed by versions by B. B. Rogers (1904 onwards), by G. Murray, Dudley Fitts, and others. The extant works of Aristophanes are The Acharnians; The Knights; The Clouds; The Peace; The Wasps; The Birds; The Frogs; Plutus; Lysistrata and Ecclesiazusae, both dealing with government by women; and Thesmophoriazusae, which presents the trial and conviction of Euripides at the female festival of the Thesmophoria.