Aristophanes

Aristophanes (c.448–c.380 BC), Greek dramatist, author of some 40 comedies, of which 11 are extant (the only Greek comedies to be preserved in their entirety): the Acharnians (425), Knights (424), Clouds (423), Wasps (422), Peace (421), Birds (414), Lysistrata (411), Women at the Festival (Thesmaphoriazousae) (410), Frogs (405), Women in Parliament (Ecclesiazousae) (392), and Plutus (388). Many of these take their titles from the disguises assumed in them by the chorus—wasps, clouds, frogs, etc. Aristophanes' direct influence on drama has been slight; the form and spirit of his comedy were so intensely local that they offered no models and little material to comic dramatists of other times and places. On the other hand, his purely literary influence has been great, particularly on Rabelais and Fielding. The earlier plays have very little plot. Instead a farcical situation, usually having direct reference to some political or social problem of the time, is briefly sketched, and is then exploited in a series of loosely connected scenes. In the Acharnians, for example, an Athenian citizen, weary of the war, makes a private treaty with the enemy and consequently enjoys the advantages of trading with them. The iambic scenes develop the ludicrous possibilities of the invention, and enable Aristophanes to hit out at people he dislikes—politicians, busybodies, philosophers. Characters are often burlesques of contemporary Athenians, and even the gods. These earlier plays are an astonishing mixture of fantasy, unsparing (and often violently unfair) satire, brilliant verbal wit, obscenity, literary and musical parody, exquisite lyrics, hard-hitting political propaganda, and uproarious farce. Aristophanes was essentially a popular dramatist, fond of slapstick and comic business. The Frogs marks the transition to a quieter form of comedy in which personal and political invective plays a smaller part and the plot is more elaborate. Some of Aristophanes' plays, notably the Frogs, the Birds, and Lysistrata, have been successfully produced in English translations.

For the ‘English Aristophanes’, see FOOTE.