Aristophanes

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Aristophanes

c. 445 b.c.e.–c. 385 b.c.e.

Comic playwright

Famous Comedian.

Unfortunately, there are very few details about the life of Aristophanes other then the fact that he was born around 445 b.c.e. He began writing for the comic stage as a very young man, and submitted his first play, Banqueters, to the competition at the City Dionysia in 427 b.c.e. when he was only eighteen years old. The titles of 54 of his comedies are known, but unfortunately only eleven of those plays exist today. In fact, Aristophanes is the only Greek comic playwright of the fifth century b.c.e. whose works have survived even in part from this time period. Yet through literary sources, it is clear that Aristophanes was not the only comedic playwright at the time; his most famous contemporaries were Eupolis and Cratinus. Yet Aristophanes' inventive use of language and his inimitable poetic style won the admiration not only of the Athenian public (except the outraged officials) but, later, of Plato. Aristophanes is one of the guests at Plato's fictional Symposium and gives a memorable speech about the origins of love.

Works.

Of the surviving plays of Aristophanes it is known that three won first prizes at the City Dionysia. Yet he won many other awards for his plays as well. His known plays include: Acharnians (first prize at the Lenaia, 425 b.c.e.); Clouds (last place at the City Dionysia, in 423 b.c.e., later revised); Birds (second prize at the City Dionysia, 414 b.c.e.); Lysistrata and The Festival Goers (the first at the Lenaia, the second at the City Dionysia, 411 b.c.e.); Frogs (first prize at the Lenaia, 405 b.c.e.); and Women in the Assembly (perhaps 392 b.c.e.). Aristophanes was often threatened with prosecution by the statesman Cleon, whom he mocked frequently in his comedies. Comedy in fifth century b.c.e. Athens was quite different from what comedy is to modern audiences. Comedies were topical satires that derided important political and intellectual movements and figures of the day. Famous targets included Cleon, a rich politician and successor of Pericles; Euripides, the famous tragedian; and Socrates, already infamous as a philosopher and teacher, who is identified with the Sophists (itinerant professors of philosophy and rhetoric) whom Aristophanes despised. Even the gods could appear on stage in ridiculous settings. Though he was an intellectual himself, Aristophanes was not averse to including extremely crude (and crowd-pleasing) humor in his plays, which abound in sexual and scatological references. Aristophanes employed outrageous costumes and scenery in some of his fantasies, such as Birds, in which actors dressed as animals, wore padded costumes with genitalia protruding from beneath short tunics, and grotesque masks in a fictional utopia called "Cloud Cuckoo Land." Many of the heroes of his plays are common people who want solutions to problems in their daily lives and who are mystified by the machinations of politicians and diplomats.

Shifted to Middle Comedy.

There was a shift in Aristophanes' comic sensibilities as the political climate changed due to the Peloponnesian Wars with Sparta (431–404 b.c.e.). His early plays followed a rigid dramatic structure involving a strong chorus crucial to the action that gradually loosened as the playwright defined his own style. After Athens lost the war to Sparta, however, his plays lost their topicality and became less specific to Athens, and the chorus—formerly of prime importance—became largely extraneous to the plot. These plays are now designated as "Middle Comedy," as opposed to the "Old Comedy" defined by his earlier style, and influenced fourth and third century b.c.e. Greek playwrights like Menander, and later the Romans Plautus and Terence.