Cleisthenes (Athenian)

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For other figures with the same name as well as for the genus of flounders, see Cleisthenes (disambiguation).

Cleisthenes (Greek: Κλεισθένης) was a prominent Athenian during the Peloponnesian War (431 BC). The comedeian Aristophanes uses him frequently as the butt of jokes and as a character in his plays, as he was apparently well-known in Athens for being effeminate and/or homosexual. He is notably mentioned in The Frogs, The Clouds, Lysistrata, and Thesmophoriazusae.

See, in particular, The Clouds, 354, and Thesmophoriazusae, 574.