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Aristophanes
Aristophanes | |
|---|---|
 Bust of Aristophanes (1st century AD) | |
| Born | c. 446 BC Athens, Greece |
| Died | c. 386 BC (aged c. 60) |
| Occupation | Playwright (comedy) |
| Years active | 427 BC – 386 BC |
| Known for | Playwright and director of Old Comedy |
| Notable work |
|
| Notes | |
Although many artists' renderings of Aristophanes portray him with flowing curly hair, several jests in his plays indicate that he may have been prematurely bald.[1] | |
Aristophanes (/ˌærɪˈstɒfəniːz/;[2] Ancient Greek: Ἀριστοφάνης, pronounced [aristopʰánɛːs]; c. 446 – c. 386 BC) was an Ancient Greek comic playwright from Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy.[3] He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. These provide the most valuable examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy and are used to define it, along with fragments from dozens of lost plays by Aristophanes and his contemporaries.[4]
Also known as "The Father of Comedy"[5] and "the Prince of Ancient Comedy",[6] Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author.[7] His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries; Plato[8] singled out Aristophanes' play The Clouds as slander that contributed to the trial and subsequent condemning to death of Socrates, although other satirical playwrights[9] had also caricatured the philosopher.
Aristophanes' second play, The Babylonians (now lost), was denounced by Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. It is possible that the case was argued in court, but details of the trial are not recorded and Aristophanes caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially The Knights, the first of many plays that he directed himself. "In my opinion," he says through that play's Chorus, "the author-director of comedies has the hardest job of all."[10]
- ^ Barrett 1964, p. 9
- ^ Jones, Daniel; Roach, Peter (2006). James Hartman; Jane Setter (eds.). Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (17th ed.). Cambridge UP..
- ^ Roman, Luke; Roman, Monica (2010). Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman Mythology. Infobase Publishing. p. 81. ISBN 978-1438126395.
- ^ K. J. Dover, ed. (1970). Aristophanes: Clouds. Oxford University Press. Intro. p. x.
- ^ Edith Hall; Amanda Wrigley (2007). Aristophanes in Performance 421 BC – AD 2007: Peace, Birds and Frogs. Oxford: Legenda. p. 1.
- ^ Ebenezer Cobham Brewer. "Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1". manybooks.net.
- ^ Barrett 2003, p. 26
- ^ Apology, Greek text, edited by J. Burnet, section 19c
- ^ Sommerstein, Alan, ed. (1973). Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds. Penguin Books. p. 16.
- ^ Ancient Greek: "κωμῳδοδιδασκαλίαν εἶναι χαλεπώτατον ἔργον ἁπάντων." F. W. Hall; W. M. Geldart (eds.). Aristophanis Comoediae, Tomus 1. Oxford Classical Texts. "Knights" line 516
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