Aristophanes

Fictional nineteenth century portrait of Aristophanes

Aristophanes (Ἀριστοφάνης, pronounced /ˌærɪˈstɒfəniːz/ in English, ca. 446 BC – ca. 386 BC), son of Philippos, was a Greek Old Comic dramatist, also known as the Father of Comedy and the Prince of Ancient Comedy.[1] Of his forty plays, eleven have survived complete, plus various fragments of some of the others.

Contents

Biography

The place and exact date of Aristophanes' birth are unknown, but he was clearly a relatively young man in 427 BC when his Banqueters took second place in the Theater of Dionysus. His family was from the deme of Kudathenaion (the same as that of the Athenian statesman Cleon, who rose to prominence after the death of Pericles). Aristophanes was born into a poor unknown family.. He's thought to have written forty to forty-four plays, eleven of which survive, which were performed at the City Dionysia and the Lenaia festivals. These plays are the only surviving complete examples of Old Attic Comedy, although extensive fragments of the work of his rough contemporaries Cratinus and Eupolis survive. Many of Aristophanes' plays have substantial political content, and often satirized well-known citizens of Athens and their conduct in the Peloponnesian War and after. Hints in the text, supported by marginal comments by ancient scholars, suggest that he was prosecuted several times by Cleon, whom he repeatedly insults in his plays, for defaming Athens in the presence of foreigners and the like; how much truth there is to this is impossible to say. The Frogs was given the unprecedented honor of a second performance. According to a later biographer, Aristophanes was also awarded a civic crown for the play.

Aristophanes was probably victorious at least once at the City Dionysia, with Babylonians in 427 (IG II2 2325. 58), and at least three times at the Lenaia, with Acharnians in 425, Knights in 424, and Frogs in 405. His sons Araros, Philippos, and Nicostratos were also comic poets: Araros is said to have been heavily involved in the production of Wealth II in 388 (test. 1. 54–6) and to have been responsible for the posthumous performances of Aeolosicon II and Cocalus (Cocalus test. iii), with which he seems to have taken the prize at the City Dionysia in 387 (IG II2 2318. 196), while Philippus was twice victorious at the Lenaia (IG II2 2325. 140) and apparently produced some of Eubulus’ comedies (Eub. test. 4). (Aristophanes’ third son is sometimes said to have been called not Nicostratos but Philetaerus, and a man by that name appears in the catalogue of Lenaia victors with two victories, the first probably in the late 370s, at IG II2 2325. 143 (just after Anaxandrides and just before Eubulus).)

Aristophanes appears as a character in Plato's Symposium, offering an elaborate and ribald a myth to explain the origins of Love. Plato wrote the dialogue a generation or so after the events it portrays. It may perhaps be understood as his effort to show that Socrates and Aristophanes were not in fact enemies. This, in turn, would support a very pointed satirical interpretation of Clouds (original production 423 BCE): viz., Aristophanes, on this view, really sought to reduce to absurdity the prejudices against his friend Socrates. The Symposium is a remarkable achievement but many doubt that it captures the no doubt complex relationships of Socrates and Aristophanes..

Of the other surviving plays, Clouds resulted in a humiliating third place or lower at the City Dionysia (cf. the parabasis of the revised (preserved) version of the play, and the parabasis of the following year's Wasps). The play satirizes the sophistic learning en vogue in Athens at the time. Socrates is the principal target and emerges as a typical Sophist; in Plato's Apology at 18d, the character Socrates suggests that it was the foundation of the charges that ultimately led to his conviction in the Athenian lawcourts and execution in 399. Perhaps the poet's other best-known play today is Lysistrata, written in the final decade of the Peloponnesian War, in which Athens and its allies fought against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League. The play argues not so much for pacifism as for the idea that the two leading states ought not be fighting one another at this point but combining to rule Greece. This is accomplished when the women of the two sides deprive their husbands of sex until they stop fighting. Lysistrata was later illustrated at length by Pablo Picasso and Aubrey Beardsley.

Works

Surviving plays

Datable non-surviving (lost) plays

The standard modern edition of the fragments is Kassel-Austin, Poetae Comici Graeci III.2; Kock-numbers are now outdated and should not be used.

Undated non-surviving (lost) plays

Attributed (doubtful, possibly by Archippos)

Aristophanes in fiction

See also

References

  1. ↑ Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1

Further reading

  • reviewed by W.J. Slater, Phoenix, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Autumn, 1976), pp. 291-293 doi:10.2307/1087300

External links

Aristophanes - Project Gutenberg eText 12788.png
Surviving plays by Aristophanes
The Acharnians | The Knights | The Clouds | The Wasps | Peace | The Birds | Lysistrata | Thesmophoriazusae | The Frogs | Ecclesiazusae | Plutus
Persondata
NAME Aristophanes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Athenian comic dramatist
DATE OF BIRTH circa 446 BC
PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE OF DEATH circa 388 BC
PLACE OF DEATH