The Plays of Aristophanes

The Plays of Aristophanes (425 BC-388 BC) is a collection of comedies by Athenian playwright Aristophanes. Noted for his exploration of fantasy, sexuality, and contemporary politics, Aristophanes was a leading figure in Old Attic Comedy whose award-winning plays continue to delight and inspire nearly 2,500 years after they were first performed. This collection includes some of his best-known work, showcasing his talent as an unmatched humorist and shrewd social commentator whose words drew ire from Athenian general Cleon, Socrates, and Plato. In The Clouds, an indebted Athenian aristocrat enters a philosophical school despite his advanced age in order to sharpen his argumentative skills. There, he learns the recent teachings of Socrates and gets a chance to meet the legendary figure himself. Despite his earnest desire for enlightenment, Strepsiades proves shockingly inept and is forced to beg his young son for help. The Birds follows a pair of middle-aged men on a walk through the wilderness, where they encounter a former king who has been transformed into a bird. When a group of enraged birds holds them captive, suspecting the men of ill-intent, the two devise a plan to inspire the birds to challenge the Olympians and assert their power in the universal order. In Lystistrata, the title heroine leads a courageous campaign to put an end to the brutal Peloponnesian War. Her bold plan involves encouraging women throughout the warring city states of Greece to withhold sex from men until the violence is stopped. The Plays of Aristophanes is an invaluable collection of comedies from a leading playwright of Ancient Greece, a man whose work has survived for centuries while inspiring countless writers, readers, and audiences around the world. This edition of Aristophanes’ The Plays of Aristophanes is a classic of Ancient Greek literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Author Biography

Aristophanes (450 BC-288 BC) was an Ancient Greek playwright. Born in Athens, Aristophanes was a leading playwright and master of comic drama whose contribution to Old Attic Comedy made him both a leading artist of his time and a target of political rebuke. Of the forty plays he wrote, only eleven survive today, including The Clouds (423 BC), The Birds (414 BC), Lysistrata (411 BC) and The Frogs (405 BC). Noted for his unique use of fantastic and absurd plots, musical elements, and pointed political commentary, Aristophanes changed the course of Western literature and left behind a body of work that would influence such figures as Menander, Goethe, and Percy Bysshe Shelley.